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"The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by the Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan and the name of the first chapter [1] in his Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964. [2] [3] McLuhan proposes that a communication medium itself, not the messages it carries, should be the primary focus of study. [4]
The main example is the passage from mechanization (processes fragmented into sequences, lineal connections) to electric speed (faster up to simultaneity, creative configuration, structure, total field). [14] Howard Rheingold comments upon McLuhan's "the medium is the message" in relation to the convergence of technology, specifically the computer.
Medium theory is a mode of analysis that examines the ways in which particular communication media and modalities impact the specific content (messages) they are meant to convey. It Medium theory refers to a set of approaches that can be used to convey the difference in meanings of messages depending on the channel through which they are ...
The message which the medium conveys can only be understood if the medium and the environment in which the medium is used—and which, simultaneously, it effectively creates—are analysed together. He believed that an examination of the figure-ground relationship can offer a critical commentary on culture and society.
"The medium is the message" [2] is the most famous insight from McLuhan, and is one of the concepts that separates the North American theory from the European theory. Instead of emphasizing the information content, McLuhan highlighted the importance of medium characteristics which can influence and even decide the content.
Maps, for example, save you tedious explanations on how to get to your destination. A means of communication is therefore a means to an end to make communication between people easier, more understandable and, above all, clearer. In everyday language, the term means of communication is often equated with the medium.
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A blank tetrad diagram. Marshall McLuhan's tetrad of media effects [1] uses a tetrad - a four-part construct - to examine the effects on society of any technology/medium (that is, a means of explaining the social processes underlying the adoption of a technology/medium) by dividing its effects into four categories and displaying them simultaneously.