Marshall Mcluhan is a Canadian born in 1911, he is one of the key founders of Communications as well as a satirist, joker, master of paradox and technological determinist theorist (Kappelman 2002). His time of leadership as theorist was at the peak in the 1960’s and 1970’s. From his twelve books and more than six- hundreds of articles (John 1989), the most famous works are the Understanding Media and The Medium is the Message in 1964 which stated his thoughts and idea’s on the media also looking into the future and what it meant to the world. For instance, the “hot and cold media” and “global village” mentioned by Mcluhan (1964).
One of the most famous claim made by Mcluhan is “the medium is the message”. The claim contains a lot of creativity, however it is also true and paradox. From the understanding in Theall’s (2001) arguments, the claim that McLuhan made was referring to all types of media, such as film, telephone, television, the press and more. To further examine this claim, what he meant is the form of communication was what was important since the properties of the medium can change the way we perceive things and how we understand it. The information itself is not what is important, but how it is given to us makes a difference. For instance, if a television is switched on in a family house with a little number or a large number of audiences, the whole house can turn into silent. Therefore television is believed to have a significant effect on family life and the use of oral communication just because a button was pressed to turn the television on and it allows family members to access to events all around the world immediately. In another word, the television has expanded the family to a broader world.
Mcluhan (1964) categorised the medium (media) into “hot” and “cold” media. He stated that the “hot” media was information which did not require audience to take participation to think about what was going on such as radio, film, lecture and photograph because the information was explained with sequential, linear and logical in a way which the audience immediately understood. For instance, film in cinema plays in a dark environment, audience sits in their seat which is considered to be immobilised and they are automatically concentrate to the content. In contrast, the “cold” media is seen as an “incompleteness of the stimulus” (Mcluhan 1964) which required more active participation on the audience’s side. He stated that television, seminar and cartoons were the examples of the “cold” media because audience have to fill in the gaps of the information that is being given to them. For instance, the television in a family house may just turn on for no purpose such as background noise and illumination. Audiences for the “cold” media are considered to be mobilised.
To further illustrate McLuhan’s idea, “the medium is the message”, he pointed to the light bulb as a clear demonstration of this concept. Supported by McLuhan (1964) and Wikipedia (2007), the meaning that he represented in the concept was to show medium affects the society in which it plays a role not by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself. A light bulb does not contain any content in the way that newspaper or television provided, McLuhan was trying to claim that a light bulb is a medium which has a social effect because it allows human create spaces in darkness. Therefore, no matter what is the content shows on newspaper and television, the medium always contribute some effect on the society.
Two of his books, The Medium is the Message and Understating the Media contain similar ideas and supporting each other. (Bronson 1968) McLuhan claimed that “The Medium is the Message” because he wanted to raise out that all media in the world works over us eventually, like a message would be worked over the human body. Bronson (1968) also stated that the book, Understanding the Media contained information on the media effects of society and culture which is defined by McLuhan on his thoughts on media and expanded his ideas.
McLuhan (1963) created the idea of “extensions” while he tried to expand his idea in Understanding the Media. McLuhan regarded media as technological extensions of the human body. He stated that extensions occur when an individual or a society can extend their range by making or using something to do so. Using something else other than their body to make something easier for them. To clarify his claim, he gave examples such as a telescope being an extension of the eye because it extends the person’s vision and an automobile, such as a bicycle or car, is an extension of the feet because it enables the person to travel further and at a higher speed. Therefore, making the journey easier for human.
However, McLuhan (1964) believed that human beings do take advantage of these technological extensions and become lazy and disruptive of our world. For instance, using a car too frequently as an extension of the feet which can be lead to some of the pollution of today. Beside, technology can be extended and also over extended. For instance, the over extension of mobile phone culture can engender a need for solitude. Varey (1999) stated that McLuhan once said humankind was becoming “nomadic” in a way it never had been before, as gatherers of information. As “there is a steady progression towards commercial exchange as the movement of information itself” (McLuhan 1964), this comment preceded surfing the internet by thirty years. The mature technological development in today’s world proved that his theory in Understanding the Media that one day we would have an interconnected world. And now, the networks made from telephone, radio, television and internet sounded a lot like McLuhan’s idea of the interconnected world.
Beside, McLuhan (1964) stated electronic media resembled the extensions of our central nervous system in the electronic world. He mentioned that there will be a global shift from print to electronic media and those electronic media will transformed the world into an interconnected global village. “Today, after more then a century of electronic technology, we have extended our central nervous itself, in a global embrace” (McLuhan 1964). Because of the electronic world, McLuhan stated that the whole world was just as big as a village since humans are able to contact each other anytime and anywhere as well as viewing any information in the world. We are able to interact with people on the other side of the world as if they were just next beside you. This comes to the point that the medium appears to be the message because the electronic mediums are extensions of our body and nervous system. Therefore, it controls how humans think and feel no matter where we are located.
Moreover, Mcluhan (1964) stated that “the book is no longer king”. Because of the electronic media, books would not be of the same use as they always have been. Again, today’s world proved McLuhan’s prediction is true since the books do not lead in sources of information. For instance, Monash University Library Website contains numerous of academic resources in electronic format which allows students to access at anywhere and anytime. Conducting a research over the internet is a quicker and much more accessible way of finding out information, which is the reason why there are millions of people surfing on the internet everyday.
As Balkin (1990) mentioned that creative people are not necessary high in IQ but they are quite intelligent, it is believed that Marshall Mcluhan is a creative person. It is because “Mcluhan had a knack of viewing things differently” (Varey 1999), he sees things in another point of view. Again, referred to Balkin (1990), he outlined several requirements to be a creative person and McLuhan fulfilled all his concepts. A person who has the act of creation has to be a “habit breaker”, “often skeptical”, “innovative”, “unpredictable”, “being off centre”, “verbally articulate”, “playful with humorous” and “confident”. McLuhan was a Christian while he was also a conservative Catholic and he was very funny (Murphy 2007). Mcluhan did not followed the traditional flow of thinking, his claim “the medium is the message”, “hot and cold media” and “global village” showed his thinking is always one step forward from everyone. All his claims proven that he is a foreseeable person.
In conclusion, this essay examined how paradox related to creation and the reason why McLuhan is a creative person. The nature of the act of creation is paradox, ambiguity, imagination and make the impossible possible. It has also briefly explored how did McLuhan’s claims and predictions reflected on his act of creation. Marshall McLuhan is no doubt to be a creative person with a foreseeable thinking mind. His claims are the symbol of the act of creation. More over, McLuhan’s creative mind leads him to be successful in other area such as English Literature and Literary Critic, again they are all represented his act of creation. Therefore, Marshall McLuhan will still be the most famous Communications founder of all time.
Reference List
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John, R, R., (1989), Remembering Mcluhan, Reviews in American History, vol. 18, no. 3
Kappelman, K., (2002), Marshall Mcluhan: The Medium is the Message, Probe Ministries, , accessed on 07/09/2007
Koestler, A., (1964), The Act of Creation, New York, pp. 27- 50
Mcluhan, M., (1963), Understanding the Media: The extensions of man, MIT Press, Lodon
Mcluhan, M., (1967), The Medium is the Massage, Ginko Press
Murphy, P., (2007), One Introduction: What is Creativity, COM 2055/ 3055 Communication and Creativity Lecture, Monash University Berwick
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Theall, D, F., (2001), The Virtual Marshall Mcluhan, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001, chapters 5, 6 and 11
Varey, R, J., (1999), Marketing, Media, and Mcluhan: Reading the Prophet at the Century’s End, Journal of Marketing, vol. 63, no. 3
Wikipedia, (2007), Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, , accessed on 05/09/07
WordNet (2007), “Word Search: Creation”, Princeton University, , accessed on 08/09/2007
