Week 3 : Confused Coffee Beans - "Understanding Media" by McLuhan

In “Medium is a Message”, McLuhan follows Peter Weibel’s suggestion on the close relationship between media and social structure. He argues that it is the structure of the medium itself, rather than than content (which is just another medium), that modifies human action and associations. McLuhan focuses on mechanization and its linear and and sequential structure. Those structures homogenize civilizations and allow for a central power. Examples such as the French and American revolution, with the advent of typography, are given. Electrical technologies, on the other hand, are qualified as configurational. Comparing it to Cubism, McLuhan mentions how electrical media brings the structure of media into awareness. Like cubism, it drops the illusion of perspective and allows for a simultaneous view of the whole man-made construction. The art talks for itself. The medium is the message. Additionally, McLuhan explains how the arrival of electric technologies into western “typographic cultures” (ones that base reason on literacy) confuse and numb the westerner due to their habituation to the linear and sequential. Thus, just like Alexis de Tocquerville, one should understand the message of media and stand aside from it in order to see its impact on human perception (not human opinion) and social patterns. The electric light, a medium with no content, is thus an invaluable example for that study.

Hot medium against cool medium is becoming more relevant with the incoming waves of technology demanding way more interaction from the user. Therefore, as McLuhan brings in the second text, hot mediums could take a step forward by being more inspiring and entertaining while keeping their information and productivity. For instance, Buzzfeed, a social platform acting like a journal, is posting quite productive articles ,that we could consider hot medium, with the use of cool mediums and techniques. This method of merging both hot and cool mediums together helps to keep the interest of the viewers and/or younger people. Slowly growing on the internet or even Facebook, pages like Vice are a good example of the intended impact. This Facebook page is dedicated to small informational videos about stuff we don't necessarily know but are still important to be aware or informed of. Maybe schools should rely on the way these medium present their information to give students a new feel of how cool learning can be ?

Dana Ryashy, Sol Paul, Xavier Champoux, Rose-Marie Dion