Response to "The Medium is the Message"

I found this article, "The Medium is the Message," very interesting as it opens up its topic through the digital age and use of technology and light to promote messages. The basic concept of the use of the digital age overwhelming us and becoming one of the new mediums also ties into what I'm learning in Anthropology about how cell phones have changed how we communicate and who we keep in contact with. When reading the opening of McLuhan's essay, the images of Vegas and neon lights came to mind with the constant advertisement via neon signs and lights. I never thought about the medium really being the message and instead focused on the idea of the medium not even having a message. Reading this essay really opened my eyes to seeing how these ads and everything has a message even if it isn't necessarily the content, but the medium it is presented in. I especially liked the line where McLuhan pointed out how we are used to asking what a painting is about but never what a dress is about. This line really made me think and realize how the content isn't always the message because as he points out a speech and an essay, for example, can both have the same content, but because they are different mediums, they have different messages. The way something is presented is important and gives a different meaning to the same content. One of the ways I think of it is reading a book and then seeing the book presented as a play, where there is some slight interpretation involved that can give off a different feel. Even with the slam poetry, the same poems could be read on paper but the impact would be different from hearing the writer speak it. The content would be the same, but there would be a different message. When searching through vimeo, I came across this video which takes text from the writings of Amédée Ozenfant and puts it in a different medium, video, with a repetitive soundtrack and visual that creates a different feel to the words than reading the text on a plain sheet of paper.

AXIOM from Sally Grizzell Larson on Vimeo.

Response to The Medium is the Message.

            I found the Medium is the Message is a very interesting article. The title means that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. In the article, he announces the existence of a global village. According to Marshal McLuhan, the man who coined the term “global village” and the phrase “the medium is the message”, we will reflect on what he had to say about the various ways human beings extend themselves, and how these extensions affect our relationships with one another. McLuhan believed that mankind has always been fascinated and obsessed with the extension.

            I found a video on Youtube that filmed a baby boy’s birth to nine years. The video is only two minutes long, but it pictures the baby’s growth in nine years. It explains what McLuhan describes in his article about the concept of “Medium is the Message.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuyUv0vliXY

Response to Medium is the Message

Medium the Message by McLuhan delves into the importance of the way an idea is portrayed, as opposed to the idea itself. It also discusses how the way an idea is communicated (the medium) is the message itself (page 3). By keeping this in mind, we could ask how the messages displayed have evolved over time as the evolution of mediums has paralleled the development of technology.

In the attached video, the idea Amazon Prime air is demonstrated via video. The video as the medium demonstrates the importance of rapid response, quickness, and immediacy. These ideas are paralleled in Amazon’s creation that is being advertised. Medium is the message is demonstrated because If the product was discussed in an article- a blog, a newspaper, it would have a very different message. The video demonstrates a hands on approach to transportation because the video is a hands on approach to transportation of ideas. Amazon is planning to deliver items within thirty minutes, and they are telling the world about it by using the quickest, most interactive, and most engaging medium they know- the video. McLuhan notes that General Sarnoff discussed that technology is not good or bad- it’s how we use it that determines the value. Amazon uses the medium of video to maximize the opportunity it has to share its ideas with the world by utilizing both visual and auditory output. The video is positively used and that’s what makes McLuhan and Amazon’s ideas in sync- they both value the medium that is used to communicate a message and go as far to make the medium the message. Amazon says immediacy is their next big thing by using a video to demonstrate immediacy is truly at the top of their priorities. They don’t just announce their idea- they prove it.

Response to "The Medium is the Message"

Thinking about the importance film and video carry as a medium can bring a greater breadth and depth of understanding than just thinking about the more apparent content they contain. When thinking about the medium as the message, video is particularly interesting as it visually captures other mediums. Especially with performance art, for example, when filming a person dancing, their body is one medium and the video is another. How is one medium enhanced when expressed through another?

The ways in which videos can be screened also demonstrate the importance and use of medium as videos can be projected on and played in many forms. Videos can be seen in public and private spaces, on screens, walls, buildings, computer, phones, ipads, etc. The medium in which a video is screened is an intentional choice that brings out subtle, underlying meanings. The medium used to play film and video also speaks to the current state of the rising use and accessibility of technology in our society.

Here is McLuhan's documentary film, "The Burning Would"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P510tPTQyWg

Response to The Medium is The Message

The title at is very interesting. The medium is the message. As McLuhan has pointed out, not every medium is the message. So which medium is what message? Start from electric light to IBM information business to Shakespeare. The author did a great job pointing out that the content is the most important to notice. I totally agree with the author's statement in the artical that "There is simply nothing in the Sarnoff statement that will bear scrutiny, for it ignores the nature of the medium, of any and all media, in the true Narcissus style of one hypnotized by the amputation and extension of his own being in a new technical form." The nature of the medium is rather important. When the same message is transporting in the internet or in the newspaper, it would create totally different consequences. That is because people has different bias or has certain stereotypes according to certain media such as newspaper is the most authority, emails always transport spams and so on, which is true, partly. According to my understanding McLuhan is trying to show is the importance of the medium that carries the information. Especially the medium like TVs, movies, newspapers that are intimate to us, is a everyday practice of feeling as a part of a nation. I know I when I am reading the newspaper in the morning, there are hundred and thousands of people who are doing the same thing at the same time. I found a movie clip in Youtube that shows McLuhan's lecture of medium. It is very intresting so I put it here.

"The Medium is the Message"

McLuhan makes the point that the medium in which content is expressed is the "message". He explains that the way content is displayed conveys a even larger message than the content itself. I really liked his example of the light bulb. The light bulb has no content, it is just a light bulb. However, it can make areas dark or light and this conveys a message in media. The way in which the medium is used conveys a larger message. This article made sense to me because people often look at just the content of a piece of media without understanding the message. The most important aspect of watching media is how it is expressed rather than its content. The medium can also communicate societal changes and perceptions of media. For instance, facebook and twitter have become main resources for news when just about 20 years ago newspapers have us news. A great example of how the medium is the message is when the news covers a story about some event. McLuhan would say that the way in which the event is expressed is the message. How does society cover the message? Have our attitudes changed towards certain events in history? The medium influences society.

This video is great because it really explains how the Medium is the message. It goes through the history of simply writing words.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeVJwb1OnYc

Response to "The Medium is the Message"

McCluhan say the extension of ourselves is the medium, which delievers the messages from us. Machines and technology are created by human, which are just parts of expressions. He provides the example of the electric light. The electric light itself is a technology and provides contents with different functions. The content it fulfills delievers the message, but light itself also represents bigger images of the lights industry. He suggests "the medium is the message" is shown in two ways: first, it is the content, which called Cubism; second, it is the structral approach that we should look at the medium in a more cohesive way.

The structural approach appeals to the content of the medium are strongly influenced by the ongoing culture at the time. The early medium in the French Revolution was typography with strict regulation on format and rules. Later, the literacy came into popularity, which the printing style starts to change. Nowadays, we are influenced the media around us. With all the inventions of technologies, we should be able to gain control and be able to full use them instead of being controlled by it. The most valuable part of the "content" is the knowledge and meaning that we put into the medium, and it carries though. It is not about the performance of machines.

With created dangers of the media, McCluhan reiterates the content is the most valuable with the fulfillment of human experience, culture and knowledge. We are the one, who should manage and operate the technology and machines. The lack of privacy indivates the falsification and failure of properly using the machine. We should enrich the technology, and the technology should not be taking a active role, but passive.

http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,710921182001_2037224,00.html

The Medium is the Message

McLuhan defines a medium as "any extension of ourselves," which means by his definition a medium can range from a something like a hammer or bicycle to a radio or television or language. His claim that "the medium is the message" seems somewhat paradoxical, but what he means is that the characteristics of the medium itself effect changes that have nothing to do with the content. So the medium through which the content is received affects our perception of the content, and that is the "message" McLuhan refers to. For example, in today's society video has become the more widely used medium through which we obtain information. Instead of reading a book, most people will search for a tutorial on Youtube when they need instruction on how to do something. Newspapers are becoming less and less common--now the news is on TV and you can watch news clips on the Internet as well. The medium of video is the message in this situation because it says something about how our society has changed, and the content of the videos has nothing to do with the change. Also, our perception through the two mediums (print and video) is different for each because the experience of reading news is very different from the experience of watching/hearing news.

This video gives information about the increased use of new media/technology and their effects on our society. It's interesting how different mediums have helped connect the world and increased efficiency for businesses, etc., but it's also scary how much time we spend using electronics and how dependable we are upon them.