ksmart’s blog

Response to Reading: Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan

It seems any particular media can only be assessed when scrutinized within the whole scope of the culture from which it is emerging. Take his example of Russia (p.27) and how even types of dances become “acceptable” as the politics and culture change. Further, I found his reference Margaret Mead’s ideas also worth exploring.

It’s intersting to consider hot and cold media; although, I am still curious as to why speech is cold. There seems to be constant interplay between hot and cold media. The example of Calvin Coolidge (p.29) and his aloofness and the newspapers’ subsequent response to his lack of image was a prime example of this constant battle to balance both hot and cold. I feel we always do this, even in the smallest of gestures.

Curious to consider McLuhan’s comment in reference to today’s age: Anybody will concede that society whose economy is dependent upon one or two major staples like cotton, or grain, or lumber, or fish, or cattle is going to have some obvious social patterns of organizaion as a result. (p. 21) Haven’t we acheived some sort of organization with our contstant stream of media?

I want to come back to this later, as I feel I have more to say, but really, one personal response to this text was just to look up everything/everyone McLuhan referenced: this helped give a better picture to the work as a whole.