The Medium is the Message. But is it really?
“The medium is the message.” If you’ve ever watched those, ‘Part of our Heritage’ moments on TV, then you might know what I’m talking about.
Basically, in my first year of university, I took a communications seminar and really enjoyed it. One of the quotes we learned, a very famous one, originated from a dude called Marshall McLuhan. The quote: “The medium is the message” is basically saying that the message is the impact of whatever is coming through the medium.
So, in a sense, when you’re watching a news report on TV, the impact the report has on us is the message and the TV itself is the medium. However, watching the same news report online for example, would have a different impact, therefore the medium is the message.
I found it funny how many people had never heard this quote before. A few summers ago, I was downtown with a good friend of mine at Parliament for a light show. She claimed it was going to be pretty cool. I believed her and much to my surprise, we were both bored to death and left early.
However, during the show, the famous quote came up when talking about our history as Canadians. Long story short, the girl broke into laughter and I was inclined to tell her that the quote was very- famous. She had never heard it before and thought it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.
“The medium is the message? Haha. What the hell?” I remember her saying as we walked back to our meeting spot. Well, now that I know more about this quote, I am just going to go out on a limb and say…
NO.
No, because the quote, although correct in some regard, is missing out on one very important piece of the puzzle the audience. If the medium is TV, the content is CSI, the message is about forensics, then what about the audience? Is the audience suddenly not important? Sadly, I do not have the time to write about an entire thesis paper right here and now, so I’ll make this short and sweet.
The audience, in this day and age, are what makes and breaks a message and types of media. The audience decides if a show is good or not by watching it. The audience decides what to watch the show on by deciding what medium would be suitable for watching it on.
The audience is the message, because the people who make the content, have to cater to what the audience wants not themselves. If people want a heavy conservative news report, they’ll turn to Fox News. The audience makes or breaks Fox News depending on how they deliver their content.
In this age, prosumers are very common. The audience consumes media and also produces it. Take JC Sunshine’s Fireside Chat for example the show is designed to deal with hot-trend issues and topics normally things that its audience are interested in learning and hearing about. However, the people who work on the show are in fact consumers of media. Take the sci-fi episode many Star Trek and Star Wars references were used and even loads of clips from the movies and shows. They were then produced and edited to fit their show and the message. The medium, however, is the same streaming.
Streaming. This is why the audience plays such a key role. The audience decides if the stream quality is good or not. The audience complains when there are tech issues and the audience reacts to the show in the chat box. The audience is in fact part of the message in this case, and really control the medium that is, if you’re counting the chat box as part of the show.
So really, in the end, the quote does make sense, but the audience is God to both the medium and the message. The audience decides what is good and what isn’t and what is used to receive the message.
The medium embodies the message, but the medium is an extension of the human body: ears, hands, eyes, feet, etc. So really, it is the audience who controls the medium and the message. The audience is the judge and jury, and for shows such as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles the executioner.
RIP Terminator: SCC
Of course, if you’ve watched the video at the beginning, then he’ll say that the content is the audience, but is it really? If the content is part of the audience, and if the medium shows the content / is the message — then is it all not interconnected? Is it all just one giant clusterfuck? Is it not just one giant orgy of words?
Maybe it is. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s more than that. If blue and yellow make green, then shouldn’t the the medium and the message create the audience and vice versa? We, as people, are always sharing information with one another. Then in fact, if we are, then is this not the same? Is everything not just one big universal melting pot? I’d say it is.
Food for thought.
-
http://www.forgetthebox.net Remembering the Box
-
VASSILIS MAGOULAS
