The medium theory was put forward by Marshall McLuhan from his book《Understanding Media》in 1964. Herbert Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory.
In the first chapter of his book 《Understanding Media》， he came up with first media theory: medium is the message. It means a medium plays a crucial role in affecting society by its characteristics instead of by its delivered content.
He also divides media into two types: Hot media and Cold media, which depend on the level of definition and degree of involvement. He thought cold media is low definition, which gives receivers poor sensory data and allows them to have a high degree of involvement, such as cartoons, telephones and television, whereas hot media, such as print, photographs and radio, are those that require low participation from users due to high definition with rich sensory data. ( Wiley,2006) In today’s blog, I will emphasise and interpret another medium theory: media is the extension of man.
According to McLuhan said, media is an extension of people’s organs, sense organs and central nervous system. For example, the wheel is an extension of our feet, replacing us to walk further. Words are extensions of our eyes, telephones are extensions of people’s ears because newspapers can allow humans to see farther and telephones can also allow us to hear farther. In the digital age, the computer or the internet are extensions of our central nervous system like humans’ brains. (McLuhan,1964) In my experience, I work in journalism pathway, always use Weibo this social platform to see the latest news such as Middle East War, even the incidents occur in a place where is far away from me, but I can still see farther because local people or correspondents will report the news immediately. By the same token, each user can comment on the news by generating and publishing new content on the platform about their feelings and opinions, which is also an extension of the central nervous system. In such a mode, I easily affected or vacillated by plenty of users’ thoughts, which is a two-way influence.
However, any invention or technology is a kind of extension or self-amputation. When we use or receive any form of extension of technology, we are bound to accept it, then such the extension is integrated into our system, so we cannot avoid experiencing a shutdown of perception. For example, users rely too much on electronic media to acquire information without deeply thinking due to information presented directly. In that situation, people would like to play on phones to find answers or frequently chat instead of talking face-to-face, which amputates sensor organs and communication ability. ( Rašan, 2021) To some extent, media is a new technology, it could make people’s self-amputation.
Reference list
Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks. (2006). United Kingdom: Wiley.
McLuhan, M., 1964. Understanding media: The extensions of man. MIT press.
Rašan, I., 2021. Today’s media culture and imposed life values. Hum: časopis Filozofskog fakulteta
