I agree with Marshall McLuhan that the medium is the message. I think we determine how we receive a message based on what medium we're receiving it through. We expect different messages from different mediums and McLuhan goes into detail about what makes a TV message different then a radio message.
"According to McLuhan's theory, each medium has its own internal logic, and each affects how we experience the world" (307). McLuhan describes TV as a "cool medium" which means that because there are so many senses involved, we have to fill in the details on our own. He says that TV follows a mosaic logic because there is not always a clear and precise message layed out for us. TV does not follow a linear logic like radio messages. TV is a lot more complex and the producers assume that we will put the information together correctly and receive the message they intended for us.
I agree with Robert P. Snow that we are all very TV literate and we expect that newspapers, books, magazines etc. should keep us intrigued just like TV programs do. Our text says that we all "think in the language of TV" and I couldn't agree more.
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Hi CGH--
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post about McLuhan's idea of medium being the message. I like that TV is layed out for us and that there is a clear picture of how the story is going. Personalities of the characters are put in place just by seeing their reactions to occurances that happen on TV. For example, I just finished reading the Twilight Saga and could not wait to watch the Twilight movie because I was and am so interested in Edward Cullen (the vampire). It amazed as how different he was on TV because when reading the book, it portrayed him as a completely different person. In my opinion, words and contexts of texts are interpreted differently and the TV explains it to us in a more clearer picture.
I agree TV has in a way dumbed us down in other forms of media. I agree that the medium has alot to do with the effectiveness of the message but not that it is. As another person commented often the tv and book verisons are so different because a book gives you room for creativity when a tv puts everything there for you to soak in.
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