The article, The
Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan was very interesting, yet pretty
confusing at times. His ideas throughout
the article were very unique and he made me really think about the importance
of the medium. His electric light example
proved to be very helpful in explaining his position on how important the
medium is. After reading through the
article, I tend to agree to an extent to what McLuhan is saying. When talking about the electric light, he
states, "whether the light is being used for brain surgery or night
baseball is a matter of indifference. It
could be argued that these activities are in some way the "content"
of the electric light, since they could not exist without the electric
light. This fact merely underlines the
point that "the medium is the message" because it is the medium that
shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action"
(McLuhan-203). This made me really think
about how I assess or look at certain situations. I have always believed the medium to be
important when communicating, but have never stressed the importance of the
medium like McLuhan does. What he is
saying makes sense to me, as without the electric light, things like brain
surgery or night baseball wouldn't exist.
Therefore, creating a social change.
Another part of the article that stood out to me was when he
talked about how before the electric speed and total field, the medium being
the message was overlooked and how people become obsessed with the content. To me, again, he is right to an extent that
the medium is often overlooked as we become focused on the content. This article helped me understand that the
medium can be as influential as the message because without it, that message
would be completely different. It was an
article that I had to reread in order to get a better understanding about his
message, but in the end, it was well worth it.
Hey Scbaseball,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on the importance of McLuhan's lightbulb example. Without it, I would have been completely lost in this article. It definitely made his ideas much more accessible by showing how the lightbulb (a medium with no message), can be so vastly important to our society. I like how you say that things we do because of lights inherently become the content of the message. I think this is a very cool idea and helped me furthur understand some of McLuhans ideas. I often fail to recognize the power of the medium, but it is clear to me how much the message itself would be altered if the medium was also changed. I have definitely gained newfound respect for the medium after reading this article.
Hi SCbaseball,
ReplyDeleteWe are aligned as regards the lightbulb. Seems to be perhaps low hanging fruit, at least for me. To be honest, this was perhaps the best example he gave. While I appreciated The Blogging Prof's example's of cubism, I'm still not quite seeing how cubism as a medium becomes a message. I may be over thinking it, not sure.
Either way, I like how you approached this and detailing how the light bulb,in the example of surgery, created social change. More people are alive because of it, right? Not something to be sniffed at, yet we take light bulbs for granted, well - at least I tend to.
Hi SCbaseball,
ReplyDeleteI found McLuhan's writing a bit confusing too. And I do agree that he holds a unique perspective on the medium of expression, rather than the content it carries. This is really different from how most of us think when it comes to how we communicate in the world around us. I think you explained McLuhan's example of the light very well, and I thought that his comparison to light as a medium was his best argument in the article. That the medium of communication "shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action" is certainly relevant today, since we have so many ways of communicating things quickly over the web, through TV, phone, texting, etc. In the context of his light example, I see how the content (playing night baseball and performing surgery) would be impossible without the light that reveals it. I feel like I didn't quite understand his arguments using other examples such as the "grammar of the gunpowder" and his examples with printed type, so it's probably better if I take a second read at McLuhan's article too. :)