Marshall McLuhan - Media is the Message

Despite several readings I still find my self struggling to fully grasp Marshall McLuhan's Media is the Message. I have read it twice online and once from the actual book.

Reading McLuhan's words I am reminded of René Magritte and his works on The Treachery of Images.

"The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph." (McLuhan, 8). McLuhan is talking about messages and the actual meanings of signs. In The Treachery of Images Magritte has made a statement on representation and signs.

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe" when translated into English mean "This is not a pipe", what Magritte has done is make the observer rethink their concept of representation and signs in media, the image could be described as a pipe but it would not be a literal representation but a representation of the visuals, you might see a pipe but unlike an actual pipe you can not hold it, stuff it or smoke it.

I find this idea of representation very similar to what McLuhan was getting at when talking about the electric light as a medium, "Whether the light is being used for brain surgery or night baseball is a matter of indifference. It could be argued that these activities are in some way the "content" of the electric light, since they could not exist without the electric light." (McLuhan, 8). That being the case we need to step back and look at how we convey information, our minds simplify messages in a way that allows them to be more direct and received in milliseconds, with McLuhan's examples the light is needed in order for certain acts to take place, yet in the case of the baseball game the lights would likely not be acknowledged by the viewing audience as part of the message they are receiving. 

"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 bread name that it is noticed as a medium. Then it is not the light but the "content" that is noticed." (McLuhan, 9)

McLuhan refers to Shakespeare and how people have debated whether or not he had made predictions about the future of media in his works. I think the select quotes McLuhan used are coincidental, I do not think Shakespeare was predicting the direction media would take in the future when he wrote those plays but even McLuhan himself admits that this is just "quibble" that people have debated over.

I was amused by McLuhan's criticisms of the statements made by David Sarnoff on how no product is good or bad but is only valued by its use. "There is simply nothing in the Sarnoff statement that will bear scrutiny, for it ignores the nature of the medium, of any and all media, in the true Narcissus style of one hypnotized by the amputation and extension of his own being in a new technical form" (McLuhan, 11)

"It has never occurred to General Sarnoff that any technology could do anything but add itself on to what we already are."(McLuhan, 11)

Sarnoff's statements are if anything basic and don't really say anything about media, it is true that importance is found in context but this line of thinking doesn't advance the study of media, it just points out the obvious.

I find the comparison's between French, American and British history interesting because I never considered that we are unique in the sense that we are a nation who has not had a Revolution similar to what other nations have had in the past 250 years. I cannot comment much further on this point McLuhan makes as I have not stayed in other countries for a prolonged period of time like he has.

"In England, however, such was the power of the ancient oral traditions of common law, backed by the medieval institution of Parliament, that no uniformity or continuity of the new visual print culture could take complete hold. The result was that the most important event in English history has never taken place; namely, the English Revolution on the lines of the French Revolution." (McLuhan, 14)

McLuhan's view on mediums has made me reassess what I think of when I consider what media is. His example of electric lights being a medium makes sense, artificial light is the medium which allows us to do at night what could only previously be done in the day. I had a hard time getting to grips with McLuhan's idea's and I might read further into his works to see if it opens my eyes and clears up my confusion.

Reference:

McLuhan, M. (2001 [1964]) Understanding Media (London: Routledge). Chapter 1.