Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Marshall McLuhan
I do agree with Marshall McLuhan that the medium is the message, the format or logic of a medium is as important as its content and, in fact, determines what content will be broadcast through that channel. It involves just about most of your senses when watching television, (all except feel to the touch). Like the textbook said, reading periodicals, the information is in an orderly fashion whereas with television its all in one instant effect, and you have to process it to the best of your abilities. Just how he says, television is a mosaic logic. However while watching this medium people may have selective processing and only process things they wish or how they wish, not always easy in an orderly fashion like other methods. I do believe over time with the mass amount of people watching television they expect everything to be instant and that is one of the contributing factors to everyone wanting instant everything. Everything now days is about instant gratification, even the media takes approach to that. Quick commercials, text messaging, etc.
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I completely agree that the media is becoming instant as well, because for them it is a competition to broadcast something before other channels do. It is almost insane how we have stories broadcasted live from about anywhere in the world instantly. Hurricanes happen, and we get to see it all live, and it is unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteI recall when I was a kid looking forward to the daily newspaper being delivered, as that is how we mainly kept up with the news back then. Sure, we had three television stations to choose from too, but for the most part, we were content to let events unfold and then simply read about them the next day. CNN, with it's 24-hour programming, was the first catalyst of change. Many pundits thought this format would fail, but they hung around long enough to eventually find an audience as well as turn a profit. And then came the Internet. Now every event is played and replayed to no end. I certainly agree with your premise that our society has come to expect instant gratification as we have been programmed to do so.
ReplyDeleteI agree that television is a great form of communication. It offers instant gratification and satisfies our eyes and ears. The challenge is when trying to get substantive information across, it is lacking. I have seen many of the political talk shows use commercial breaks to their advantage. The will either filibuster a subject or throw out some outrageous comment like “He hates puppies!” to co-opt all of the available time. The better way to have substantial debates in the media is either in the newspapers or magazines. Each side gets to clearly lay out their case. You also have the ability to go back and reread specific points that have sparked your interest.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree with you that people want everything instant, but that's not how our world works... Will see where we will end up.
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