Mc Luhan Medium Message

8/7/2019 Mc Luhan Medium Message

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Marsha[[McLuhanTheMediumIs the MessageIn a culture like ours, long accustomedto splitting anddividing all things asa means of control, it is sometimes a bitof a shockto be remindedthat, in oper atronaland practicalfact,the medjum is the message.Thls is merely to say thatthe personaland socialconsequencesof any me&um-thatis,of an y extensionof ourselves-result fr om the nervscalethat is introduced rnto our affairs by each extension ofourselves,or by any new technology.Thus,with automation,fo r example,the new patt erns of human associationtend toeliminatejobs, it is true. That is the negative result. Positively,automation createsrolesfor people,which is to sa1'depth ofinvolvementin their work and human associationthat ourprecedingmechanicaltechnologyhad destroyed.Manypeoplewould be disposedto say that it was not the machine,but what one did with the machine. that was its meaning ormessage.In terms of the ways in whi ch the machinealteredour relationsto one anotherand to our selves.it matterednotin the least whetier it turned out cornflakes or Ca.iillacs.The restructuring of human work and associationwasshapedby the technique of fragmentation that is the essenceof machinetechnology.The essenceof automationtechnology is the opposite. It is integral and decentralist indepth, just as the machrnewas fragmentary. centralist, andsuperficial in its patterning of human relationships.

The instanceof the electr ic light may prove iliuminating inthis connection.The electric light is pure information. It is amedium r,vilhout a message,as it were, unlessit is used tospeil out some verbal ad or name.This fact, characteristrcofa-11me&a, means that the "content"of any me&um is alwaysanother me&um. The content of wrl ting is speech,just asthe written word is the content of print, and print is thecontent of the telegraph.If it is asked,"What is the contentof speech?,"it is necessaryto say,"l t is an actualprocessofthought, which is in itself nonverbal."An abstract paintingrepresents&rect manifestation of creativethought processesas they mrght appearin computer designs.What we areconsideringhere,however,are the psychicand social

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consequencesof the designsor patternsas theyamplifii oraccelerateexistingprocesses.For the "message"of anymediumor technologyis the changeof scaleor paceorpattern that it introduces into human affairs.The railway &dnot introducemovement or transportation or wheelor roadinto human society,but it acceleratedand enlargedthe scaleof prer,roushuman functions, creating totally new kinds ofcitiesand new kinds of work and leisure.This happenedwhether the rail,vay functioned in a tropical or a northernenrironment,and is quite independentof the freight orcontent of the railway medium.The airplane,on the otherhand,by acceleratingthe rate of transportation, tends todissolvethe railway form of city,politics, and association,quite independentlyof what the airplaneis usedfor.

Let us return to the electricIlght.Whether the hght isbeingusedfor brain surgeryor night baseballis a matter ofindifference.It cou.ldbe arguedthat these actirritiesare insomeway the "content"of the electriclight, sincethey couldnot exist without the electriclight. This fact merelyunderlinesthe point that "themedium rs the messagebecauseit is the me&um that shapesand controlsthe scaleand form of human associationand action.The conte nt orusesof suchmediaareas &verseas they areineffectualinshapingthe form of human association.lndeed,it is only toogpical that the "content"of any medium bLindsus to thecharacterof the medium. It is only today that industrieshavebecomeawareof the various kinds of businessin which theyareengaged.When IBM discoveredthat it was not in thebusinessof making office equipment or businessmachines,but that it wasin the businessof processinginformatron,tlen it began to navigatewith clear rrision.The GeneralElectricCompanymakesa considerableportion of its profitsfrom electric light buJbsand lighting systems.It has not yetdiscoveredthat, quite as much asA.T&T, it is in the busrnessof moving information.

The electriclight escapesattention as a communicationme&um just becauseit has no "content."And this makesitan invaluableinstance of how people fail to study media atall. For it is not till the electriclight is used to spellout somebrand namethat it is noticedasa medium.Then it is not thelight but the 'content"(or what is really another medlum)that is noticed. The messageof the electriclight is iike themessageof elect ric power in indust ry, totally radical,pervasive,and decentralized.Forelectric light and power are


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separatefrom their uses,yet thev eliminate time and spacefactorsin human associationexactly asdo radio.telegraph,telephone.an dTV creatinginvoh'ementin depth.

A fairly completehandbook for studying the extensionsofman could bemade up from seiectionsfrom Shakespeare.Somemight quibbleabout whether or not he wasreferringto TV in these familiar lines from Romeoand Juliet:

But softru'hathght throughy.onderrt indoit'breaks?It speals.an dve t,ausnorhing.In Othello,which, as much as King Lear,is concernedr.t'ith

the torment of nponle rr:nsfnrm.. l hr i l lrrsinn. fhere atethese Lnes that bespeak Shakespearesintuit ion of thetransforming powers of nern; medja:

Is there not charmsBy which the propertl' of vouth and maidhoodMay be abusd? Have you not read Roderigo,f ) f snme c, , rh th ino?

In ShekesnearesTroiIu-sand Cressida.r^'hich is almostcompleteiy der.oted to both a psvchic and socral study ofcommunication, Shakespearestates his a\darenessthat truesocial and political navigation depend upon anticipatrng theconsequencesof innovation:

The nrnviderceth:t . rn a uatchl i r lsrate"' _ t ' " ' - ' - ' ' - ' " -* ' " 'Krows almosteven gla in ot Dl:r ' - r .gold.F;nd.bo rton in the un.omp"eh"nsne deeptK""" . .1, ." ,n ' i rh th."ohr , .1 : lmo,r l iL- thc oods"" ' " ,' ' " "6 ' , - ' ' b--_Doe. rl.nrro\' . rrr 'e ' i n their dumb.,adle,

The increasinga!^arenessof the actionof media.quiteindependentlyof tleir ''content"or programming,wasin&catedin theannoyedand anonl 'moussLanza.

In modernthought,(if not in fact)Nr^,L: -- r- -L^ . l^^^-i.\otlrlngrslnardoes:t a. 1Sothat is reckonedmsdomr,vhrchDescribesthescratchbut not theit.h.The samekind of total, configurational a\,'arenessthat

revealswhy the medium is socrallythe messagehas occurredin the most recentand radical medical theories.In his Stressof Life,HansSelyetells of the &smay of a researchcolleagueon hearinsof Selvestheorv:' -- "'b

\A/henhe saw me thus launched on ve t anotheronrrntrr ,cdr. lpclintrnnof nhaL] had observedinanimals treatedrryiththis or that impure, toxicmaterial,he looked at me n'ith desperatell'sad e,vesandsaid ;n o l,r rous de-


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fragmentedparts in a series,Yet,as Dar,rdHume showedinthe eighteenthcentury,there is no principleof causalityin ameresequence.That one thing followsanotheraccountsfornolhing. Nothing follows from following, exceptchange.Sothe greatest of aii reversalsoccurredwith electricity,thatendedsequenceby making things instant.With instantspeedthe causesof tlings beganto emergeto awarenessagain,as they had not done with things in sequenceand inconcatenationaccordingly.insteadof askingwhich camefirst, the chickenor the egg,it suddeniyseemedthat achjckenwasan eggsideafor getting moreeggs.

Just beforean airplanebreaksthe soundbarrier,soundwavesbecomevisible on the wings of the p1ane.The suddenvisibilityof soundjust assound endsis an apt instanceofthat great pattern of being that revealsnew and oppositeformsjust as the earlierforms reachtheir peakperformance.Mechanization was never so vividly fragmentedor sequentialasin the birth of the movies,the moment that translatedusbeyondmechanism into the world of growth and organrcinterrela[ion.The movie.bv sheerspeedingup themechanical,carriedus from the world of sequenceandconnectionsinto the world of creatrveconfiguration andstructure. The messageof the movie medium is that oftransition from lineal connections to configurations. It is thetransition that producedthe now quite correctobservation:''lf it works,its obsolete."When electricspeedfurther takesoverfrom mechanicalmovie sequences,then the linesofforce in structuresand in mediabecomeloud and clear.Wereturn to the inclusive form of the icon.

To a highly Literateand mechanizedculture the moyieappearedas a world of triumphant illusions and dreams thatmoneycouldbuy. It was at this moment of the movie thatcubismoccurred,and it has beendescribedby E. H.Gombrich (Art and lllusion)as "the most ra&cal attempt tostamp out ambiguity and to enforceone reading of thepicture-that of a man-madeconstruction,a coloredcanvas.For cubism substitutesall facetsof an object slmultaneouslyfor the "point of rriew"or facetof perspectiveillusion. Insteadof the specializedillusion of the third &mension on canvas,cubismsetsup an interplay of planes and contradiction ordramaticconflict ofpatterns, lights, textures that "driveshome the messageby involvement.This is held by many robe an exercisein painting, not in illusion.

In other words,cubism,by giving the inside and outside,the top, bottom, back, and front and the rest, in two

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&mensions,dropsthe illusionof perspectivein favorofinstant sensoryal,varenessof the whole.Cubism,by seizingon instant total awareness,suddenlyannouncedthatthemediumis the message.lsit not errLdentthat the moment thatsequenceyieldsto the simultaneous,one is in the world ofthe structure and of configuration? Is that not what hashappenedin physicsas in painting,poerry,and incommunication? Specializedsegmentsof attention haveshifted to tota-lfield, and we can now say,"The medium is themessagequite naturally. Before the electricspeedand totalfield, it was not obyious that the me&um is the message.Themessage,it seemed,was*re 'tontent," aspeopleusedto askwhat a paintin gwas about.Yet they neverthought to askwhat a melodywas about,nor what a houseor a dresswasabout.In suchmatters,peopleretainedsomesenseof thewhole pattern, of form and function asa unity. But in theelectricagethis integral idea of structure and confrgurationhasbecomeso prevalent that educational theory has takenup the matter. Insteadof working wrth specialized''problems'inanthmetic,the structuralapproachnowfollows the linea of force in the field of number and has smallchildrenme&tating about number theory and "sets."

Cardina.lNer^,.mansaid of Napoleon,"He understoodthegrammarof gunpowder."Napoleonhad paidsomeattentionto other me&a as well, especiallythe semaphoretelegraphthat gavehim a great advantageover his enemies.He rsonrecordfor sayingthat "Threehostrlenewspapersare more tobe fearedthan a thousandbayonets."

Alexrs deTocquevillewas the first to master the grammarof print and tr,'oography.He was thus able to readoff themessageof comrngchangein Franceand America as if hewerereadingaloud from a text that had been handed to him.In fact,the nineteenth century in Franceand in Amenca wasjust suchan openbook to de Tocquer.illebecausehe hadlearnedthe grammar of print. Sohe, a1so,knew when tl-ratgrammar did not apply. He was askedwhy he did not write abook on England,since he knew and admired England.Hereplied:

Onewouidhaveto haveanunusualdegreeofphilosophicalfolJyto believeoneselfablero iudgeEnglandin slt months.A yearalwaysseemedto metooshorta time in whichto appreciatethe UnitedStatesproperly.and:t ismucheasierroatquireclearandprecisenotionsaboutthe AmerlcanUnionthanaboutGreatBritain.In Americaall lawsderivein a sensefrom


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13. Twoby Mcluhanthe samel ineof thought.The wholeof societ l .so lospeak,is founded upon a single fact; everr,'thingspringsfrom a simpleprinciple.One could compareAmericato aforestpiercedby a multitude of straight roadsal lconverging on the same point. One has only to find therenterand eveDthing is retealedat a glance But inFnole. r l thp nei h< r r rn r r i


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preparedto encounterradio and TV in our literatemilieuthan the native of Ghana is able to cope with the literacythat takes him out of his collectivetribal world and beacheshim in individual isolation. We are as numb in our nervelectric world as the native lnvolved in our literate andmechanica-lculture.

Electricspeedminglesthe culturesof prehistorywith thedregs of industrial marketeers,the nonliterate withsemfiterate and the postliterate.Mental breakdown ofvarytngdegreesis the very common resuJtof uprooting andinundation with new information and endlessnew patternsof information. Wlrrdham Lewis made this a theme of hisgroup of novelscalledTheHumanAge.The first of these,TheChildermass,is concernedpreciselywith acceleratedmediachangeas a kind of massacreof the innocents. In our ownworld as we becomemore awareof the effectsof technologyon psychicformation and manifestation, we are losing allconfidencein our right to assignguilt. Ancient prehistoricsocietiesregardviolent crime as patletic. The killer isregardedaswe do a cancerrrictim. "How terrible it must be tofeeiLikethat." they say.J.NI .Syngetook up this ideaveryeffectively ilrhis Playboyof theWesternWorld.

If the criminal appearsas a nonconformlst who is unableto meet the demand of te chnologythat we behaveinuniform and continuouspatterns,literateman is quiteinclinedto seeothers who cannot conform as somewhatpathetic.Especiallythe child, the cripple, the woman, andthe coloredpersonappearin a world of r risualandtypographictechnologvasvictims of injustice.On the otherhand,rn a culturethat assignsrolesinsteadofjobs topeople-the dwarl the skew the child createtheir ownspaces.They are not expectedto fit into someuniform andrepeatableniche that is not their size anyway.Consider thephrase"lt'sa mans world."As a quantitative observatronendlesslyrepeatedf.romwithin a homogenizedculture,thisnhr;se refersto th e men in sucha cu]turewho haveto behomogenizedDagwoodsin order to belongat all.It is in ourI.Q testing that we haveproducedthe greatestflood ofmisbegottenstandards.Unaware of our typographic cultura-lbias.our testersassumethat uniform and continuoushabitsare a sign of intelligence,thus eliminating the ear man andthe tactile man.

C. P Snow,reviewing a book of A. L, Rowse(Theltlew YorkTimesBookReview,December24,1961")onAppeasementandthe road to Munich, describesthe top ievelof British brains

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an Cexperiencein the I930s. 'Their l .Q' weremuchhigherthan usualamongpoliticalbosses.Why werethey suchadjsaster?"The view of Rowse,Snow approves:"They wouldnot listen to warningsbecausethey &d not wish to hear.Beinganti-Redmadeit impossiblefor them to readthemessageof Hitler. But their failure was as nothing comparedto our presentone.The Americanstakein literacyas atechnology or uniformity appLiedto every levelof education,government, industry, and socialLifeis totally threatened bythe electrictechnology.The threat of Stahnor Hitler wasexternal.The electric technology is within the gates,and wearenumb,deaf blind, and mute about its encounterwith theGutenbergtechnology,on and through which the Americanway of life was formed. It is,however,no tlme to suggeststrategieswhen the threat has not evenbeenacknowledgedto exist.I am in the position of Louis Pasteurtellingdoctorsthat their greatestenemywasquite invisible,and quiteunrecognizedby them. Our con ventionalresponseto allmedia,namelvthat it is how they areusedthat counts,is thenumb stanceof the technologicalidiot. For the "content''of ame&um is like the juicy pieceof mea t carriedbv the burglarto distract the watchdog of the mind. The effect of themediumis madestron! and intenseiu5rbecauseit isgivenanothermedium as"content."The content of a movie is anovelor a play or an opera.The effectof the movie form rsnot relatedto its programcontent.The "content"of writingor print is speech.but the readeris almostentirelyunawareei theroFprint or of speech.

funold Toynbeeis innocent of anv understandingofmediaas theyhaveshapedhistorybut he is frr1Jof examplesthat the student of media canuse.At one moment he canseriouslysuggestthat adult education,such as the WorkersEducationalAssociationin Brttain.is a usefi.rlcounterforcetothe popular press.Toynbeeconsidersthat altiough al-lof theorientalsocletieshavein our time acceptedthe industrialtechnologyand its poLiticalconsequences:"On the culturalplane,however,there is no uniform correspon&ng tendency."(Somervell,I. 267) This is 1&ethe voiceof the literateman,floundering in a milieu of ads,who boasts,"Personally,I payno attention to ads."The spiritual and cultural reservationsthat the oriental peoplesmay havetoward our technologywill avail them not at all. The effects of technology do notoccurat the 1evelof opinlons or concepts,but a lter senseratios or patterns of perceptionstea&ly and urithout anyresistance.The serlousartist is the onlv oerson able to


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encountertechnologywrth impunitl', just becausehe ts anexpertawareof the changesin senseperception.

The operationof the money me&um in seventeenth-century Japanhad effects not unLikethe operation oftypography in the \A/estThe penetration of the moneyeconomy.r,rvoteC. B.Sansom(in Japan.CresselPresr.London,1931)"causeda slow but irresistiblerevolution,culminating in the breakdon n of feudal government and theresumptionof intercourseu-ith foreigncountriesafter morethan two hundredvearsof seclusion."Monev hasreorganizedthe senselife ofpeoplesjust becauseit is anextensionof our senselives.This changedoesnot dependupon approval or disapprovalof those iir.ing in the sociefir

funold Toynbeemade one approach to the transformingpower of mediain his conceptof 'etherialization,'rvhichheholds to be the principle of progressivesirnplification andefficiency in any organization or technology.T1.picalh',he isignoring the effectof the challengeof these forms upon therecnonceof orir.ense. He imapinesthat ir is the resnonseof' ' ' '_b " ' " "" ' " Iour opinions that is relerrantto the effect of me&a andtechrolno'in cnrietr ': noinrnf r ieu th,atis nlainluthe" v" ' ' " ' - ' "r ' - ' " . 'result of the t ypographicspell.For the man in a literateandhomogenizedsocletyceasesto be sensitiveto the diverseanddiscontinuous life of forms. He acquiresthe i-llusionof thethird &mension and the "privatepornt of uen' ' aspart of hisNarcissusfi-ration, and is quite shut off fuom Blakesa1^.arenessor that of the Psalmist.that we becomerthatr,r'ebehold.

Todayn'hen \{'e h'ant to get our bearingsin our or,r'nculture, and have needto stand asidefrom the biasandpressureexertedbl anv technicalform ofhuman expressionwe have only to r,rsit a societyr,r,herethat particular form hasnot been felt, or a historical period in rn",hichit rnrasunknorn'n.Professorl\rilbur Schramm made such a tactical mot'e instudf ing Televisionin the Livesof Our Children.He found areaswhereTV had not penetratedat all and ran sometests,Srncehe had madeno study of the peculiarnature of the T\rimage,his tests l^rereof "content"preferences,r.ier,r.ingtime,and vocabularrrcounts. ln a rt'ord, his approach to theproblemwa sa Literaryone.albeitunconsciouslvsoConsequentlvhe had nothing to report. Hadhis methodsbeenemnlorredin 1500 e n.to discoverthe effectsof thenrinted book in the lir,esof childrenor adults,he couldhaver ' - " . ' -r^-, . .1

^, ' , n6,L:.. ^f t l-,o, [3pq.g< in humar- arC,o.ialur rr rL ( ,.J .'-L1.sr.roluCt r .r ' - r ] r i rCIr , 'm t \?o.C'dnh'. f , , l t : r : ied

theNEWMEDIAKiAPER

individualism and nationalism in the sixteenth centur\rProgramand "content"analysisoffer no cluesto the magicofthese me&a or to the ir subliminal charge.

LeonardDoob,in his report Communicationin Af ica,tdTsof one African who took great pains to hsten eachevening tothe BBCnews,eventhough he couldunderstandnothrngofit . Just to be in the presenceof thosesoundsat 7 Rtt',t.eachday rn,asimportant for him. His attitude to speechr,r,aslikeours to melody-the resonantintonation rtas meaningenough.In the seventeenthcentury our ancestorsstill sharedthis native'sattitude to the forms of media, asis plain in thefollowing sentiment of the Frenchman Bernard Lamexplessedin TheArt of Speaking,London] 690):

'Tlsan effectof the Wisdomof God,rvhocreatedMan tobehaoor.thaLrrhateieri : .r:efi .rlto hisronversatio n(wavoflife) is asreeableto him . . becauseal lyictua,l-- *b_'_*--that conducesto nourishment is reLishable,t'hereasother thrngs that c annot be assimulatedand be turned'_^ '- ' - '- '_-b"into our substanceare insipid.A Discoursecannot benleasanrlo the Hearerthar is not easiero rbe Soeak.,r ' ' * "*- . . . . " . . - ' - . , . " r .* . .nor can it be easilvnronouncedunlessrt be heardu'ithdelight

Herc is an enrr i l ihr iurn theorr of human die t and"a*- " '* "- 'expressionsuchas evennow lve are only striving to workout againfor media after centuriesof fragmentationandspecialism.

PnnePirr


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v 7962,64Thetotalr'varsof our timehavebeentheresu-ltof aseriesof intellectua.lmistakes.. . .

If the formative power in the media are the me&athemselves,that raisesa host of large matters that can onlybe mentloned here,although they deservevolumes.Namely,that technological media are staplesor natura-lresources,exacdyas are coal and cotton and oil. Anybody will concedethat society whose economy is dependent upon one or twomajor stapleslike cotton, or grain, or lumber, or fish, or cattleis going to have some obrrioussocialpatterns of organizationasa resu]t. Stresson a few major staplescreatesextremeinstability in the economybut great endurancein the popuJa-tion. The pathosandhumor of the AmericanSouthareembeddedin suchan economyof limited staples.For asocietyconfigured by relianceon a few commo&ties acceptsthem as a socialbond quite as much as the metropolis doesthe press.Cotton and oil, like ra&o and TV become"fixedcharges"on the entire psychiclife of the community. And thispervasivefact createsthe unique cultural flavor of anysociety.It pays through the noseand a.llits other sensesforeachstaple that shapesits life.

That our human senses,of which all me&a are extensions.are a-lsofixed chargeson our personal energies,and that theyalsoconfigure the awarenessand experienceof eachone of

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us, may be perceived in another connection mentioned byth e psychologist C. C. Jung:

Every Roman was surrounded by slaves.The slaveandhis psychologyrflooded ancient Italy, and every Romanbecameinwardly,and of courseunwitLingly.a slave.Becauseliving constantly in the atmosphere of slaves,hebecameinfectedthrough fh e unconsciouswith rheirpsychology.No one can shield himself from such aninfl uence(Contributionsto Analytical Psychology,London,7928).

The GaLaxyReconfigu red-NotesL. Jerusalem,III,74.2. Ib id. , 11,36.3. ThisNewtoniantheme'i sdevelopedby myselfapropos"Tennysonand PicturesquePoetry"in John KiLtham,ed., Citicol Essayson thePoetryof Tennyson,pp . 67-85.4. John Ruskin,ModernPainters,vol . I I I , p. 96 .5.See H. M. lv lc luhan,"Joyce,Mal larm6and the Press,"SewaneeReview,winter, 1954, pp.38-55.6. Cited by RaymondWiLLiams,Cultureand Society,1780-1850, p.38 .7. In SeLectedfssays,p. 145.8. "TheSocjaLan d Intet tectuaIBackground"in TheModernAg e (ThePet icanGuideto Engl ishLi terature),p. 47 .

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