Media Ecology

"Medium is the message"

McLuhan believed that the medium is the message. It was introduced by him to emphasize that the medium will be able to affect the message, in a way that the medium is used as way to imply the content as a substitute of the message on its own. It is the mediu

m that has the ability to change the meaning of the message; how we think of ourselves, others and the rest of the world. However, as pointed out by Paul Levinson (2001), McLuhan did not entirely ignore the importance of the content (message) because the content gets people's attentions more than the medium does. We may be unconscious of that fact but that is how it works. We tend to be oblivious in how important a medium is.

Needless to say, the content of a message could be affected depending on what kind of medium is used. Even if the message has the same content, different medium used will cause a large difference in terms of effectiveness. As a book lover myself, I will then use a 'book' as an example.

I am a huge fan of Harry Potter and I have been reading the book series before the movies were released. Reading is an example of a public and private activity. Reading from a book allows my imaginations to run free and I could imagine just about anything I could think of while flipping through every one of the pages. When each of the movies were out in the cinema, I was quiet disappointed that some of the scenes from the books were cut and skipped as it did not reach my expectation that I have read from the book. However, movies in the cinema allows us to be visual and auditory. This shows that even though the stories from the book were made into movies, the way that the message is delivered through different mediums give a different impact towards different individuals.

McLuhan (1964) once came up with the term "global village" where media tie up the world "into one political, economical, cultural and social system". He argued that the media has the ability to organize societies socially. Electronic media give us the privilege to keep in touch with everyone wherever they are in just a click away.

I will use the 'Internet' as an example:

Everyone talks about the internet. Everyone uses the internet. While typing this, I am also using the internet. The internet is a worldwide collection of computer networks that work with each other to exchange data using a common software standard. It is through telephone wires and satellite links that Internet users are able to share information in a variety of forms. It allows users to connect easily, exchange electronic mail, post information for others to see it and update them frequently, access multimedia information as well as access diverse perspectives from all over the world.

My analysis would focus on a social networking site that can be found in the internet. An example that I will take is Facebook.

I have been a Facebook user since 2008. Not only does it connects us to our friends and family from all over the world, but it has become a tool to spread news in less than 10 seconds. It has become a tool for its users to read both local and national news. Newspaper used to be a daily need from the society but nowadays, what can be found in newspaper can be found in the Internet, in this case, Facebook where current news in terms of economic, social, political and even sports can be found. 2 examples are The Sun and The Brunei Times.

My example on the Harry Potter book series has clearly shown that different mediums will affect its users in different levels. A book may be much more effective to me compared to the cinema even though the message or content delivered is the same thing. I believe that different forms of medium can shape the way we think. The medium delivers the message.

In addition, to understand McLuhan's theory of Media Ecology, one must see that changes in technology could alter the "symbolic environment". My example on Facebook pages where news are displayed and updated everyday shows that technology has successfully shape our perceptions, experiences, behaviors and attitudes. The media has made the world smaller (like a village) where everyone and anything is just a touch screen away.

References:

Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look At Communication Theory (8th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media. New York: Mentor

McLuhan, M. (2001). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. London: Routledge

Levinson, P. (2001). Digital McLuhan: A guide to the information millennium. London: Routledge

West, R., & Turner, H. L. (2000). Introducing Communication Theory (4th Ed). New York: McGraw-Hill