Concept List: "The Medium is the Message" by Marshall McLuhan

Explain: We shape tools that shape us (cellphone)

Anyone who came of age or was born after a certain invention will be in some way "created" by it, or whatever social networking platform succeeds it.

Examples of the Age of do it yourself (4)

Blogging has made everyone a publisher, computer programs like ProTools allow regular citizens to produce professional-quality music and film, and message boards and social media mean consumers don't just passively accept advertisements that tell them what they want.

How did book as a medium changed our experiences

Books were originally handwritten. Then the printing press was created and things started to change. The books start being more mass produced and were able to reach more people. It changed our collective experience. We have hundreds of years of knowledge being held by very few people, but with the introduction of the printing press, it becomes more available and people start learning how to read

What is a characteristic of all media

Content of any medium is always another medium

What are some examples of cool medium

Cool medium: more participation/lower engagement

How does a cool medium cause users to participate more

Cool mediums need more participation. Participation is key

What does hot and cold media describe

Describes the function of the media itself and how we react to it (What kinds of reactions are we getting from certain mediums?)

How is the content of any medium always another medium

Every medium produces within itself another form of communication. One medium uses another. Every time a medium gets created, it absorbs the medium from before

"Technological situation of consciousness" (AI)

Everyone's connected somehow

No connection all now ("Now This")

Everything happens at once. There's no continuity, there's no connection, there's no follow through. It's just all now. Information is not tied together, it doesn't all make sense it's all just put together McLuhan saw this in the 60s-- connects to "Now This"

What's an example of a cold medium

Ex. TV -- appeals to people who are less literate and educated

What did McLuhan mean by "Understand medium not just message"

He was saying that when we pay too much attention to technology we ignore the power of form and the shaping of our experiences. So if you don't understand the medium, you don't understand the message

What's interesting about how McLuhan saw "No connection all now" and "An electronic world retribalize men"

He's on these ideas in the 1960s when it become prominent later with social media and news

Characteristic of a hot medium

Hot medium: means that you're NOT doing it with a big audience. It's something you're doing often alone and excludes other people. How engaged you are-- High engagement

Explain: Rear view mirror-solutions for past

Humans essentially live in the past, devising solutions for yesterday's problems. We basically look to the past to find solutions.

What's are some examples of "Rear view mirror-solutions for past" (2)

If you think you've identified cool? That means it's not cool anymore. If you're still wrapping your head around social media? By the time you do, it won't be about Facebook and Twitter anymore.

Explain how language extends thoughts

In McLuhan's theory, language too is a medium or technology because it's an extension of our inner thoughts, ideas, and feelings—that is, an extension of inner consciousness. Although it's an extension that doesn't require any physical object outside of ourselves

How is Electric light pure information

It is a medium without a message, unless it is used to spell out some verbal ad or name. Light is a pure medium. It provides light, it's what it does. The light is pure information within its medium.Look at the power of the electric light and what it's done for us with its influence, we aren't worried about the content of the light, just the medium itself

What does McLuhan's "Annie Hall" movie appearance show

It shows how much McLuhan was part of the culture at the time

Electric light again as a very powerful medium

It's a really nice thing to strip away content and just think of it as its medium

How does a cool medium cause users to tribalize

It's media that will tribalize us as it separates those who are uneducated and educated (literacy)/It separates us

Describe the electric environment's effect of the Absence of secrecy

It's the end of an era of elites only having the knowledge and power but now media can give the normal public knowledge we have access to it and there's no more secrecy. With the end of secrecy, goes the end of monopolies and knowledge.

What extends our thoughts

Language

Explain the context behind "Machine produce cornflakes or Cadillacs" in McLuhan's The Medium is the Message chapter

McLuhan is basically saying that the machine is the medium-- he doesn't care what its producing, he only cares about the medium and the effects of it on its users

How has the world become a global village (tribe-based identities)

McLuhan was specifically referring to electronic media shaping collective, "tribe"-based identities. In terms of today, you can look at the way Twitter and Facebook users organize themselves into groups of followers or how consumers receive messages from their daily deal tribe on their phones. In this way, you know one another, you know their business, and you can easily find one another

Describe this: Form of media, not content

McLuhan was writing about the effects of the mass media on our lives, but he wasn't talking about the content (the information itself). He was talking about the form (the technologies that provide you with content).

The medium is the message

McLuhan's idea that new forms of media transform our experience of ourselves and our society, and this influence is ultimately more important than the content of specific messages

Describe again McLuhan's idea of the medium is the message

McLuhan's point was that the impact of the medium itself is more significant than the content it carries; that each medium conveys a message to its users.

What are some other examples of media being extensions of ourselves, particularly extending our eyes (3)

Movies, glasses, photography

Who was one of the most important people who used the printing press early on

One of the most important people who used the printing press early on was Martin Luther--protestants were protesting against the catholic church-- he wrote a thesis and published in a book and mass produces it-- he becomes the best selling author of his time bc there may have only been like 20 authors at his time

What decides what media you use

One's level of education decides what media you use

Mediums have extended our what

Our experience beyond boundaries

What happened to people in power with the introduction of widely available books

People in power become less important

How is the Media viewed as extensions of ourselves

Technology has enhanced us -- people create technology to extend part of ourselves, meaning that media, or technologies, are extensions of some physical, social, psychological, or intellectual function of humans

What's an example of how content of any medium is always another medium (3)

The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph

How does the electronic media extend ourselves

The electronic media, in general, extends our central nervous system.

What was the global village at first about and what was it later about

The global village was at first about peace but later about separation and different tribes you don't wanna go to

Describe our past and present beliefs about the media and tribalization

The idea of media back then was that it was starting to develop the world and gather people. People thought it would bring peace and joy. The more media develops, the more it tribalizes -- all this media that gives us such great reach around the world, the result of that is that its driven people into small tribes that disagree with each other and have different views of the world/ you'd think that all this access to information would bring people together. But the more information you get, the scarier and dividing it gets

How does "An electronic world retribalize men"

The internet is connecting people and allowing people to connect and tribalize. It allowed people to go back into tribes-- one tribe against another

How is the internet an example of how the medium is the message

The internet isn't important because of its endless supply of content, but because it has created a world where we expect content to be endlessly, immediately there.

Cold Media

The media presented is more participatory- recipient needs to fill in the missing gaps (telephone conversations, sequential media, Youtube, conference calls, seminars are cold)

How is the medium not neutral

The medium is going to have an effect on people, positive or negative.

How does the phone extend ourselves

The phone extends our voice because it lets us talk to those far away

What were the most important mediums (2)

The printing press and the books were the most important medium

How is the railway an example of "Message-change of scale to human affairs"

The railway did not introduce movement or transportation or wheel or road into human society, but it accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous human functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of work and leisure.

How does the TV extend ourselves

The television extends our eyes and ears because it lets us see and hear things we otherwise might not see or hear on a daily basis

How does the wheel extend ourselves

The wheel extends our feet because it lets us go far places

How do these electric mediums bind people without participation

There's little sense of shared experience-- watching TV for example alone wasn't very participatory or social (Alone together)

What are hot and cold media and cultures

They are dynamic concepts that are designed to get at the experience and effects of how we use media

The basic meaning of "We shape tools that shape us"

We adjust to life with these inventions

What's another way to look at an absence of secrecy

We also share everything online, so it's very easy to find information on everyone We give up our secrecy with the internet -- we've agreed to this while online We have no secrets anymore bc of the internet

How is it currently the Age of do it yourself

We have the tools to become professionals within certain realms-- ex. Making a movie or music we can now do it on our computers

What separates you into a hot or cold media

What you're watching or listening to or reading

How has the cell phone shaped present generations

With the cellphone we can talk to anyone we want regardless of distance and we can text them and use apps downloaded on our phones. We're much more connected than past generations were.

How do mediums redefine time and space

You could mass produce and spread knowledge more than in the past, therefore you could experience ideas and places outside of where you physically are. Space was your village at the time-- all these mediums redefined space and created a new idea of it. It redefined time as well Media changed so that we could begin to have expectations of NOW-- instant gratification. The telegraph was the first instance of this. We want things now and we don't want to be bound by space

Explain: Message-change of scale to human affairs

Your affairs are now the affairs of the world. The media has open up all of our affairs on a large scale

It was not until the electric light was used to spell out some brand name that it was noticed as what

a medium

hot versus cool media are not definitions, but attempts to do what

capture the experience or effect of a medium

Media interacts with one another, so the introduction of a new medium can do what

change the way older media are used

Electric light and power are separate from their uses, yet they both do what

eliminate time and space factors in human association exactly as do radio, telegraph, telephone, and TV, creating involvement in depth

IBM thought their business was machines and they almost went out of business bc their real business was what

information

Why does the electric light escape our attention as a communication medium

just because it has no "content."

Bc of books, people started to want to become what

more literate

A medium's impact on a society is not linear and static, but what 2 things and why

multidimensional and dynamic as that medium interacts with other media and as the society changes how it uses the medium

Whether a medium is hot or cool can also depend on how it is used in a particular what

society, and that can change over time

The "message" of any medium or technology is the what

the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs (Aka the way it affects human life and how it fastens it or slows it down, if it makes life easier or harder)

How does the computer extend ourselves

the computer extends our brain because it exposes us to information we don't always have

whether a medium is hot or cool can depend on what (2)

the society into which it is introduced and the stage of technological or social development of that society

a medium's "hotness" or "coolness" is not just a function of the nature of the medium itself but also the nature of what

the society into which the medium is introduced.

Hot Media

those media that require our active engagement and attention in order to be used

Railroads went out of business bc they thought their business was railroads but it was really

transportation

What's an example of how the media is viewed as an extension of ourselves (4)

1. People invented cars bc they wanted to get places faster, 2.The phone extends the voice (created something to enhance our voice) 3. Electronic media extends man as well through the nervous system (your conscious is being extended-- the human mind) 4. The television extends our eyes and ears because it lets us see and hear things we otherwise might not see or hear on a daily basis

What are some examples of hot medium (2)

1. Reading a book 2. Watching a film-- appeals to people who are more educated