The+Medium+is+the+Message

The medium is the message

McLuhan, M. (1967). The medium is the message. // NEA Journal, 56 //(7), 24-27.

McLuhan asserted that society is shaped more by the media itself than by the content that the media conveyed. Medium here refers to any new technology or extension of ourselves, for example automation and writing are considered medium. According to McLuhan, the ‘content’ of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print and the print is the content of the telegraph. And the ‘message’ of any medium is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.

McLuhan claimed that man is unable to see the impact of the medium as he is distracted by the content that the medium contain or convey. He used words like ‘somnambulism’ and ‘technological idiot’ to describe those who see the use of the media as more important than the media itself.

He used electricity to illustrate his point. Electricity is a medium without a message. It has no content and yet it has transformed human society in eliminating time and space.

A message of electricity is the movie which in itself is yet another medium. It is the medium, movie, that has changed the way man work, lived, interact and think. The movie, by speeding up mechanization, has enabled man to move from the world of sequence and connections into the world of creative configuration and structure. It gave rise to cubism. The essence of cubism is that instead of viewing subjects from a single, fixed angle, it can be viewed from a multiplicity of facets, so that several different aspects/faces of the subject can be seen simultaneously.

McLuhan asserted that media are extensions of our human senses and would therefore affect our awareness and experience. The media expand our ability to perceive the world and according to McLuhan, has connected man all over the world even to those who lived in the remotest part of the world as has made man homogeneous.

media type="youtube" key="RtycdRBAbXk?fs=1" height="385" width="480"

media type="youtube" key="PqnErw0S-Ek?fs=1" height="385" width="480"

media type="youtube" key="ZF8jej3j5vA?fs=1" height="385" width="480"

media type="youtube" key="T_vCbzUBAQ0?fs=1" height="385" width="480"