“In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium – that is, of any extension of ourselves – result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.” (McLuhan 7)
In the reading, Chapter One: The Medium is the Message, and Chapter twenty-nine: Movies: The Reel World, M. MuLuhan reveals his thoughts on how the role of media effects our lives. McuLuhan begins by distinguishing this idea that uses “light” as a representation of media. The light bulb clearly demonstrates this concept in that the medium affects the society in which it plays a role not by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself. The light bulb is described as having no content, yet this “light” can expose itself in several different mediums. This idea of light as the metaphor can be looked at in different levels. First, as MuLuhan describes; second, through a deeper meaning. Light can also be translated into knowledge. Knowledge definitely relates back to what the chapter is saying.
The term “message” from MuLuhan denotes the effect each medium has on the human sensorium by taking note of the “effects” of numerous forms of mediums presented. This idea that the “message” being unimportant to its viewers it a bit frightening and the level of control the head of the media industries could affect our very thoughts and actions. This makes me think more on how the media can change our views and have different effects on people. Media seems to be a play on us all.
By playing on words and utilizing the term “massage,” McLuhan suggests that modern audiences have found current media to be soothing, enjoyable, and relaxing; however, the pleasure we find in new media is deceiving, as the changes between society and technology are incongruent and are perpetuating an Age of Anxiety.
All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. (p. 21)
That is another way of getting a view of the film medium as a monster as for consumer goods. In America this major aspect of film is merely subliminal.
The 2001 movie Josie and the Pussycats described a long lasting plot whereby the U.S. government was controlling trends by inserting subliminal messages in popular music. Furthermore, towards the end of the film, a government agent shuts down the operation, saying that subliminal advertising works better in films. The words “Josie and the Pussycats is the best movie ever” are then spoken rapidly in voice-over and displayed quickly on screen, with the words “Join the Army” in smaller letters below it.
In the 2005 science fiction movie Serenity, the Alliance uses subliminal messages broadly disseminated in commercials and other video to cause River Tam to go berserk. It only works on River because she was subjected to Alliance training and conditioning.
Perhaps it is true that as we perceive the media, we are absorbing the message presented, but it is all depends on what level of knowledge we are at on the topic. The more knowledgeable about a subject presented we are, the stronger the “light” needs to be to get past our minds and break the barrier of deception and trickery. “Only the hand that erases can write the true thing,” McLuhan quotes Meister Eckhardt as saying. McLuhan erases preconceptions of media being relatively insignificant, and demonstrates how the media affect the way each of us sees the world in which we live.
McLuhan, M. (1994). “Chapter One: The Medium is the Message, and Chapter Twenty-Nine: Movies: The Reel World.’ In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, Mass.: New York.
Alesha Quam 