The Medium is the Message

McLuhan, M. (1964) The Medium is the Message. Understanding Media: The extension of Man.

New York: Signet

Marshall McLuhan, the father of communication and media studies and leading prophet of the information age. He discusses the medium of writing, audio and the electric media and their effects on individuals, cognition and society in one of his symbolic article- “ The medium is the message”. 

He describes medium is any extension of ourselves, which medium extends our thoughts from our mind to others, just like clothing is an extension of the skin, the wheel, an extension of the foot, the book; extension of the eye. He believes that modern media and technology are extensions of human senses, which extends our perception and sensibilities to the society, as the way they change in interpersonal dynamic and communication with the innovation of technology media.  

Speaking of the difference between the medium and the message, McLuhan identifies the light bulb as a clear demonstration of the idea of the medium is the message. He explains a light does not have any content, but it enables people to create space during the nighttime. He states “the content of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind”, just like the light bulb creates environment for people just by its mere presence.

Hence, McLuhan argues that people largely miss structural changes and the essence of the medium, while they tend to focus on more obvious content with valuable information. In other words, McLuhan thinks content plays a dominant subordinate role where people are often get distracted by the content of the medium, which leads to making people less aware of the cultural changes and social issues when new technology becomes a new medium in our lives.

At the end, McLuhan emphasizes the nature of the medium itself has more significant influence and importance than the content of the medium. He describes the technique of invention in technological media has changed how people view the world and how these views are changed by the adoption of new technology.

This article is extremely important for CCT110 students because it emphasizes the influences and importance of the medium in this new media technology environment. It’s important for us to understand the correlation between the medium and message in order to communicate information more effectively and efficiency in this communication, digital and interactive environment.

Blog 4 Politics and the English language

Orwell, G. (1950) Shooting an elephant and other essays. London: Secker & Warburg.

Orwell, G. (1950) Shooting an elephant and other essays. London: Secker & Warburg.

According to George Orwell, “our civilization is decadent and our language…must inevitably share in the general collapse.” Orwell discourses a significant relationship between the use of language and political manipulation.

He posits the cause- and-effect of the disorientation of the language has been reinforced in an intensified form indefinitely, and reversely; the slovenliness of our language leads to foolish thoughts, just as language and thought are co-constituted with each other.

He believes a declining usage of language has political and economic causes that mislead on expression and communication.

He criticizes most of the political professional writings consist of vagueness, unnecessary and foreign translated words, such as Professor Harold Laski, Professor Lancelot Hogben, an essay on psychology in Politics, the Communist pamphlet, and a Letter in Tribune’s work. He argues those the political writings are written in euphemism, where consists staleness of imagery and “mixture of vagueness and sheer incomplete”.

Orwell thinks political writing becomes difficult to understand when politicians create confusions when they lack of precision on expression and express euphemistically their own thoughts to public. Political writers fail to express clear message to their intended audiences because of dying metaphors, operational or verbal false libs, pretentious diction, and meaningless words. At the end, Orwell lists six steps that can help writers prevent meaningless and vague writing, and engage writes to get rid of bad habits on writing.  Orwell believes that language should not be used for deception or concealment on political writing, and proper usage of language is a necessary step toward to revive political regeneration.

This article shows a strong objective view about how Orwell thinks about Modern English, and also emphasizes how bad writing skill influences our understanding on political articles. It enables to make CCT110 students to realize that plain writing in modern English is important, as it can increase precision and accuracy in communication, digital and interactive media environment.