I would have to agree with Marshall McLuhan about he medium being the message because of my own personal experience with all different kinds of media. Reading about the oil spill with "linear logic" would give me a much different impression than when I would watch Rachel Maddow on MSNBC which employs "mosaic logic". Mediums are as important as the message because "[the medium] often determines which messages will be transmitted and which will be ignored" (p. 307). What will be broadcasted depends on the type of media. The text talks about the users of Internet as a medium gets to search for his or her own interests, while ignoring interests that are different from theirs. Television as a medium broadcasts tries to broadcast to the masses, so essentially their message will be different than the Internet. The television experience will create a different message than the Internet because the user of the medium receives different messages from each media.
I like McLuhan's idea about television being a "cool medium" because I have to fill in detail while watching television. There are times when television is not sequenced or rational giving it the "mosaic logic", unlike print media. Because television focuses on personalities of people, performers or public figures must have a certain "coolness" in order for them to be successful on TV. People who are too rash or abrupt would would have a much harder time being successful on television. Television as a cool medium requires personalities of casts and other television figures to have a certain type of personality.
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Really good example with the oil spill. This is so true. Reading about the spill would be completely different then just seeing the image of the thousands of barrels spilling into the ocean.It is a very clear example how linear and mosaic are very different. Thus, how the medium is the message.
ReplyDeleteI was kind of lost about the concept about "cool" and "hot" but I read another post and it cleared it up. Your post focused on the cool medium of television. I was wondering if you had any comment about the "cool" vs the "hot?" Just curious because I do not think that Trenholm was as clear as she normally is, or maybe it was the example she used.
That is true-the media shows us what they want us to see. With the oil spill and other news in that matter. The whole message isn't revealed and if we want the whole story, we need to do our own digging around. I liked your statement,
ReplyDelete"Television as a medium broadcasts tries to broadcast to the masses, so essentially their message will be different than the Internet. " True and yes people do google or search for him or her's own interests. Sounds like you analyze TV pretty well and that it is different then print media-both medium's or different kinds of medium's, grab our attention differently.