Excerpts from Understanding Media, The Extensions of Man, by Marshall McLuhan (1964)

In the introduction of his 1964 book, Understanding Media, The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan wrote that “…the Western world is imploding (1)” due to an extension of consciousness caused by electric technology. I interpret this to mean that people are inundated with so much information - that they feel an obligation to act on this information, and as a result they feel overwhelmed. Again, it is interesting that this was written prior to the Internet.

He called this new era, “the Age of Anxiety (5).” (We must now be in the Age of the Mental Breakdown). Electric technologies and their characteristic speed pressure people not only to become aware of a vast amount of information, but also to get involved. As a result of the extended consciousness, people long for “wholeness, empathy, and depth of awareness (6).”

In the first chapter, “The Medium is the Message,” he explains that both the medium and the content are the message. He gives the example of electric light, which is typically viewed as lacking a message, unless if it spells out a brand name. However, it’s important to think of the things that electric light makes possible – baseball at night, for example. Baseball at night could be one example of the content of light, which is made possible by the medium. And “the message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs (8).”

In the second chapter, “Media Hot and Cold,” (such a clever title when you think medium, hot, and cold) McLuhan discusses hot and cold media. He offers a few examples of hot media: the radio, movies, and photographs; and cold media: the phone, TV, and speech. Hot media are full of information and require low participation, whereas cool media require high participation (23-4). I don’t entirely agree with his classifications. I think that listening to the radio requires more participation than watching TV Since there is no “picture” with the radio, the audience must visualize what they are hearing in their head. Also, most radio stations depend on audience participation, whether via quizzes, contests, advice segments, etc.

Works Cited

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media, The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill, 1964.