Week 4/23-4/29: Comm & the Mass Media: Part 2

Marshall McLuhan believes the channel (i.e. television, radio, newspaper, and internet) is often times more important than the message communicated to the audience. In some cases this is true, but for others I do not. I have recently been hooked on different podcasts which are essentially either a video or a radio station (depends on how you would like to hear the message), and they are fascinating. I have been simply listening to the information through the radio channel. In my experience, I retain and am less distracted when I use this channel method. I am driving my car and am not viewing if the speaker is drinking his soda, or itching his/her nose thus I am less distracted, and I retain more information. When Marshall McLuhan discusses television as a cool medium, I do not agree with this theory. We are NOT forced to fill in any information since the information is given to us and we lazily watch our shows and movies. We are not forced to analyze detail and hidden meaning, and this is a wonderful marketing tool for the marketing teams selling products. A person may come across as a cool person and may be more successful but it cannot be fully attributed to the channel they have chosen to communicate on.