“In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology." (Marshall McLuhan, 1964, p.7).
Medium is the message is introduced by McLuhan where he highlighted on medium as a channel to state the content as a substitute of the message itself. The analysis of media content is insignificant since McLuhan believes that it is the medium which has the ability to change the meaning of a message which makes it more powerful than the message. This is merely to say that different type of medium conveys messages differently depending on the character of the medium being used.
Frequently, misperception occurs as most people think that the message will allow them to communicate effectively. However, people didn’t realized that the right choice of the medium to deliver the message is rather essential than the content of the message. This is due to the effect of changing the medium would also affect the communication environment. According to Mark Federman (2004), McLuhan highlighted that people are usually distracted by the content of a medium. Also, McLuhan stated that normally the “content” of any medium blinds people to the character of the medium and it is the character of the medium that is its potency or effect - its message. Thus, it shows that medium has the power to influence the communication process being carried out in a society.
On the other hand, McLuhan also coined the term “global village” when he found that media has made the world smaller. For example, nowadays, people prefer to have a conversation via Face Time instead of face-to-face conversation like the way they did before. From this, it shows that the use of advanced medium such as smart phone could shape the way the society communicate.
Apart from that, McLuhan also made a distinction between “hot” and “cold” media. A hot medium refers to the one that has low participation of audience but gives high information load such as radio. While the one that requires low information load but high participation of audience, for example television, is called a cold medium. However, hot and cold media is not seem to be useful today as compared to McLuhan's time. Today's fast-paced technology where internet and mobile devices are being used widely has made this differentiation may not even be applicable anymore.
According to Federman (2004) the medium is the message tells us that noticing change in our societal or cultural ground conditions indicates the presence of a new message, that is, the effects of a new medium. Federman (2004) stated that we can set out to characterize and identify the new medium before it becomes obvious to everyone- a process that often takes years or even decades thus he suggests that people have the opportunity to influence the development and evolution of the new innovation before the effects become pervasive.
To sum up, media can influence the society. McLuhan considered medium is the message due to medium can change the meaning of the content. McLuhan also came up with the classification of media called “hot” and “cold” medium. Medium can shape the society in which it plays a role not only by the content conveyed over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.
REFERENCES
Griffin, E. (1997). A First Look at Communiaction Theory. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Federman, M. (2004). What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? Retrieved on 12/3/2012 from http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/MeaningTheMediumistheMessage.pdf.
McLuhan, Marshall. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill.
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