Assigned Reading Reflection

  Today I read part of “McLuhan for Beginners” by W.T. Gordon. This reading was about Marshall McLuhan’s warnings to the public about the power of Television.  He called it “the timid giant”.

  The reading then went on to talk to about the power of the media. For example, he says that the medium is the message (Gordan, 1997). He redefines the message of a medium as, “any change in scale, pace, or pattern that a medium causes in societies or cultures” (1997).

 

  McLuhan also believes that there are many media gains and losses. For example, when the radio was invited it extended speech but at the same time it could only be heard, therefore people were only able to listen and not talk (1997). He says that radio is not speech because we can only listen even though it creates an illusion of speech. Writing also creates the illusion of containing speech (1997).

  McLuhan was not a big fan of television. He did not even want his grandchildren to watch it (1997). He thought it was bringing down society and wanted people to take a step back and be aware of what is going on around them. He was a technological determinist. He knew the world was changing and that technology was advancing. He also believed that the technology was shaping society, and that people are not aware of what is really happening around them.