User:Matthiggins10/Medium theory

McLuhan's message[edit]

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Marshall McLuhan is best known for his phrase "the medium is the message," by which he meant that each medium is a unique type of environment whose widespread use reshapes people and culture.

McLuhan believed that people should observe not only the media itself but "the ways in which each new medium disrupts tradition and reshapes social life." He believed that the social impact of the media was that they became an extension of the human senses, and alter the social world.

In his 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy, McLuhan argued that when new media technologies were introduced into society, the balance of human senses were reworked, highlighting some at the expense of others. For example, print media intensified the visual and separated it from other senses; in a particular sound. He even argued that print media helped create a sensory environment that produced Western capitalist societies—an environment that was bureaucratic and organized around mass production, an ideology of individualism, and a commitment to the nation-state as the fundamental social unit. McLuhan states that once the new medium is emerged, it harnesses the old medium's content as its own, making the old medium lose its significance to society.

Micro and macro medium theory[edit]

Medium theory operates on at least two levels: the micro (individual situation) and the macro (cultural).

On the micro level, the core issue is the ways in which the medium that is selected a specific purpose influences a particular situation or interaction. Evidence of micro medium theory can be seen in the development of wearable fitness technology with the specific purpose aimed at increasing physical activity in the user.

In contrast, on the macro level, the primary focus is on how the addition of a new medium to a society’s existing grid of media may alter social interactions, patterns of thinking, social roles, social institutions, and social structure in general. The invention of social media has sparked a worldwide revolution on people's interactions, status, and way of life. The social media algorithm, developed to maintain the user's attention, has influenced an increased polarization of stances on political and social issues in the United States.

McLuhan's message[edit]

Marshall McLuhan is best known for his phrase "the medium is the message," by which he meant that each medium is a unique type of environment whose widespread use reshapes people and culture.

McLuhan believed that people should observe not only the media itself but "the ways in which each new medium disrupts tradition and reshapes social life." He believed that the social impact of the media was that they became an extension of the human senses, and alter the social world.

In his 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy, McLuhan argued that when new media technologies were introduced into society, the balance of human senses were reworked, highlighting some at the expense of others. For example, print media intensified the visual and separated it from other senses; in a particular sound. He even argued that print media helped create a sensory environment that produced Western capitalist societies—an environment that was bureaucratic and organized around mass production, an ideology of individualism, and a commitment to the nation-state as the fundamental social unit.

Technological determinism[edit]

Medium theory has always been criticized for its technological determinism. Raymond Williams, one of the most ardent critics of this concept, believed that technological determinism 'emerges' from technical study and experiments, and then changes the sector or society in which it emerged from. This means that people adapt towards the new technologies that arise because it is the new modern way of doing it. The deterministic approach says that technology in itself has the power to change societies and the power to condition humans even though humans are the ones that are using said technology. Although Marshall McLuhan strongly believes that the introduction to any new media will change the way humankind lives, Williams argues that the new technology in itself has no real significance to social value unless it has been adapted to existing social and economic conditions.