“The medium is the message.” — Marshall McLuhan 

A reading that we had this week is Medium Theory: An Alternative to the Dominant Paradigm of Media Effects by Joshua Meyrowitz. One of the key topics that this reading discusses is that idea proposed by Marshall McLuhan; that the medium is more influential than the actual messages being employed by the medium itself. I found this to be quite an interesting concept as I always thought that regardless of the medium, the message that the medium is trying to convey would always be more evident.

McLuhan also argued that TV and other electronic media have a huge influence on culture. Though this may not be bad influence, it is affecting ‘the significance of literacy-inspired modes of thought and social organisation.’ And this is the argument that made me understand his concept of the medium being the message. This notion is something that can be applied today, especially with phones, or rather smartphones becoming a necessity considering the things that you can do with smartphones.