Saturday, September 26, 2009
Marshall McLuhan Excerpts from Understanding Media, The Extensions of Man, Part I.
Orginally published in 1964; many subsequent printings
Understanding Media: The Extension of Man is a book written by Marshal Mcluhan. Mcluhan is well known for his phrase "The medium is the message". The part one of the book discusses this phrase and categorises medium into hot and cold medium..
According to Mcluhan a medium plays an important role to understand the message or the content. The medium through which an individual encounters the content would have an effect on the individual's understanding of the content. To demonstrate this statement of Mcluhan, we can take a simple example of a book and a movie inspired by the book. Even though the contents of both movie and the book are similar, movie portrays the content in a different way through vision, where an individual normally do not need to put much effort on filling in the detail [hot or high definition media: discussed below]. With book however, a reader has to use his imagination to extract the value or message of the book, requiring high level participation from the reader [Cold or low definition media: discussed below].
Mcluhan categorizes medium into two categories, hot and cold medium. In the book, he defines hot medium as a highly defined medium where there is little information to be filled in by the audience or participant. Radio, according to author, is a hot medium. It requires minimal participation from the audience. Cold medium by contrast are low defined and requires active participation from the audience. Speech for instance is a cold medium because so little is given and so much has to be filled in by the audience.
I do agree with Mcluhan that a medium plays an important role in socio cultural environment and affects an individuals understanding of the content. However, I found the categorisation of medium into hot and cold a bit confusing because Mcluhan considers Television to be the ultimate "Cool" medium. I personally consider television viewing a passive activity and do not think that a high level participation is required from the audience. I am sure there must be a reasonable explanation towards his view of television as a cold medium, but I have to admit that I still find it difficult to accept and understand it.
Understanding Media: The Extension of Man is a book written by Marshal Mcluhan. Mcluhan is well known for his phrase "The medium is the message". The part one of the book discusses this phrase and categorises medium into hot and cold medium..
According to Mcluhan a medium plays an important role to understand the message or the content. The medium through which an individual encounters the content would have an effect on the individual's understanding of the content. To demonstrate this statement of Mcluhan, we can take a simple example of a book and a movie inspired by the book. Even though the contents of both movie and the book are similar, movie portrays the content in a different way through vision, where an individual normally do not need to put much effort on filling in the detail [hot or high definition media: discussed below]. With book however, a reader has to use his imagination to extract the value or message of the book, requiring high level participation from the reader [Cold or low definition media: discussed below].
Mcluhan categorizes medium into two categories, hot and cold medium. In the book, he defines hot medium as a highly defined medium where there is little information to be filled in by the audience or participant. Radio, according to author, is a hot medium. It requires minimal participation from the audience. Cold medium by contrast are low defined and requires active participation from the audience. Speech for instance is a cold medium because so little is given and so much has to be filled in by the audience.
I do agree with Mcluhan that a medium plays an important role in socio cultural environment and affects an individuals understanding of the content. However, I found the categorisation of medium into hot and cold a bit confusing because Mcluhan considers Television to be the ultimate "Cool" medium. I personally consider television viewing a passive activity and do not think that a high level participation is required from the audience. I am sure there must be a reasonable explanation towards his view of television as a cold medium, but I have to admit that I still find it difficult to accept and understand it.
// posted by Sumit @ 1:49 PM 
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