Marshal McLuhan

McLuhan states, “it is only too typical that the ‘content’ of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium.”  This statement is only half-convincing. Although we are constantly being bombarded and introduced to a new and vast array of different mediums, such as eye-catching interactive advertisements, 3D movies, social networking tools, smart phones, and so on, it is easy to get distracted and wrapped up on the content, apps, and information these mediums offer. Yet, because we are also becoming more and more comfortable with emerging forms of mediums, I also believe there are those of us who are more aware of the actual messages being communicated. McLuhan’s enhances his argument that the “Medium is the message” by providing examples of mediums that we normally would not consider to be mediums, such as electric light. Electric light is not  immediately seen as a medium because it doesn’t appear to have any “content.”  McLuhan’s statement that it is not the content but is, “ the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action,” is the most persuasive element to his argument. A contemporary example of this concept is the online blogosphere. As Andrew Sullivan explained in his article, “Why I Blog”, the internal characteristic of blogs has transformed means of communication and interaction for writers and bloggers everywhere. What matters is not the subject or content of what is being blogged, but the fact that the blog medium has created a new form of “human association and action.” Blogs created a new sense of intimacy, immediacy, and connection between writers, journalists, and the everyday blogger, a kind of “open-source market.” As a new type of media outlet, blogs have reshaped and combined a variety of mediums to form a whole new one. Sullivan mentioned the significance of  hyperlinks used in blogs, something that McLuhan would possibly argue is a medium itself, since "the content of any medium is always another medium."