Week 2: Response to “The Medium is the Message” by Marshall McLuhan

In Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Message”, McLuhan introduces the concept of the medium as being a platform that has meaning and information that is subconsciously translated to the public. The message and the medium work in a symbiotic relationship, influencing each other, and the eventual interpretation that is picked up by the audience. McLuhan introduces multiple examples such as the lightbulb to illustrate what he really means. The lightbulb is used continuously throughout the passage to explain how the medium can affect the audience even without content. Rarely do people think about light as a medium, however, without light, there will be many functions that will cease to exist, such as brain surgery. McLuhan also describes mediums to be “made strong and intense because its given another medium as content” such as television, which portrays operas, plays or music videos. This is interesting because McLuhan reminds us not to focus only on the content that is being fed to the audience, but also the medium that is being used, as it may reveal more about the message than we initially realise.

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