Week 2: Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan believes that the medium is the message. This means that the medium in which content is delivered is more important than the content delivered. People are defined by the ways in which they put a medium to use. McLuhan uses the example of a machine in a factory. The machine puts factory line workers out of a job, but new jobs are created involving the maintenance and improvement of the machine. In this example, it makes no difference whether the machine is in a box factory or a boiler factory. It could be argued that without the machine, we would have no boxes or boilers.


McLuhan believes that people consider the content more important. He uses the example of a lightbulb. Most people do not recognise light as a medium, unless it is a neon billboard advertising a Broadway show, for example. The way in which a message is delivered might have an effect on the targeted consumer.

McLuhan disagrees with the view that an object is inherently good or bad, and it is the use that it is put to that is more important. He seems to argue against such an idea by saying that if a bad person were shot, then guns are good. The implication from McLuhan is that this is preposterous. I would disagree with this, as although it is true that it is naive to expect that everything will always be used for good, the fact remains that they can be. Take television, for example. For every Jersey Shore, there's a The Sopranos.

Source

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