The Medium

According to Wikipedia, the phrase “the medium is the message,” created by Marshall McLuhan means that the nature of a medium (the channel through which a message is transmitted) is more important than the meaning or content of the message. This can be proven in the article “The Medium is the Message,” when it is stated that “this fact merely underlines the point that “the medium is the message” because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action.” This is true because the message represents both content and character and the content usually blocks us from seeing the character of the medium. For example, in the movie “Get Out” produced by Jordan Peele, one can look at the movie from the surface and see it as a horror film about white people using  black people for their physical traits combined with the brains of white people because of the content of the movie and how it is portrayed. However, there is an important character message that is blocked/overshadowed if you only pay attention or connect with the content which expresses an ignorance/dangerous mindset to racism/slavery and how it has become a routine for white people to go about their lives taking advantage of black people as a result of a deeply rooted fear of black people becoming empowered even though it is a known fact that whites are way more privileged than blacks. As stated in the article, “the message, it seemed, was the “content,” as people used to ask what a painting was about. Yet they never thought to ask what a melody was about, nor what a house or a dress was about. ” People tend to ask about why something is the way that it is such as why the movie took place in a specific environment or why an author chose to incorporate a specific theme/idea, but never what is this trying to teach me or what is the bigger picture at the end of this. The nature of the medium does control human action because depending on where someone views that content can affect their outlook or the opinion they develop. “The electric light escapes attention as a communication medium just because it has no “content.” And this makes it an invaluable instance of how people fail to study media at all. For it is not till the electric light is used to spell out some brand name that it is noticed as a medium.” This was an interesting point because it goes to show that people only focus on content, so if there is a lack of it, they would rather scrap whatever it is that is not producing content rather than breaking down the overall theme or lesson. Content is entertaining for people especially coming from a wide named brand channel or publication.

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