Concept of McLuhan's Definition of Hot Media - Assignment Example

?Topic: Argue for or against a concept of McLuhan’s definition of hot media using Beer/Gane and Harraway. Introduction The of this essay is amedia concept, presented by McLuhan by defining what includes hot media and what does not include hot media. Media, according to McLuhan is either hot or cold. This media concept has been a topic of intense argument by scholars pertaining to the authenticity of dividing media on the basis of senses of eye and ear. This essay starts first by introducing ‘concept’ so that discussion on the concept of ‘hot media’ could be understood. McLuhan’s various comparative arguments over the importance of the medium rather than the content of the medium, quoting examples from various facets of life are analysed to prove that hot media has the power to change the past traditions and bring a revolutionary change in society. The article finally reaches on the conclusion that views of McLuhan on the concept of hot and cool mediums are still relevant and are respected widely in the present time of high definition digital technologies. Introduction of Concept Before considering and arguing in favour or against the concept of McLuhan’s definition of hot media, it is more relevant to know what a concept means. “Concepts are centres of vibrations, each in itself and everyone in relation to all others,” (Deleuze and Guattari, 1994:23). Concepts have got transformed in the wake of vast coverage of distinctly different theoretical writings on the digital age. It has proved one fact that concepts are elastic instruments that emerge from the solutions of the current problems. It is more applicable in the current context of huge changes occurring in social and cultural settings (Flew, 2007). Conceptual work can primarily be divided into three categories, as based on its usage. The first is related to such concepts that are universal in appeal although it is not a stable definition, as concepts go on changing; it is the tendency to mutate over time and between various cultural contexts, taking meanings far distanced from those earlier conveyed. As Bruno Latour (2000)) talks of 'recalcitrant objects' concepts can also be recalcitrant: such concepts can be considered but it is an arduous task to review and analyse them. Concepts attract arguments both in favour and against them, turning them to various meanings, which makes it all the more difficult to bind them in a single clear-cut definition (Flew, 2007). Gane (2003)) and Haraway (1997)) have quoted Georg Lukacs and the Frankfurt School in the context of commoditisation of knowledge, which is irrespective of whether it is scientific or creative innovation. Another form, named intellectual property has further plastered this process. The purpose of such concepts, according to Donna Haraway (2004: 335)) is to be used as 'thinking technologies' to state and measure some of the major social and cultural changes of the times. Arguments in Favour of the Definition of Hot Media The concept of ‘hot media’ presented by McLuhan, related to the concept of information, is very complicated. Theorists also hesitate to describe its meaning. Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, who have written on the concept of information, have defined information as an empirical measure rather than a physical trait. This approach has impacted media theorists like Marshall McLuhan and at the same time has also been criticised by feminist writers, such as Donna Haraway and Katherine N. Hayles, who find fault in taking out information from the medium or physical body in which it is flashing. This criticism reinforces a physical theory of information, which is tested by thinking of information as a part of a vast, structural network of informatics. Dona Harraway has also followed this route to observe a link between the physical and the semiotic via the research of entities that have both the physical characters and presence of new governance on intellectual property such as the Flavr Savr tomato (Flew, 2007). McLuhan initiates discussion by considering the emergence of Waltz when Jazz was the trend in the World History of the Dance, as stated by Curt Sachs, naming it as hot human expression, away from the medieval and choral dance types. McLuhan rightly differentiates between the hot and cold expressions of radio and telephone on the line of jazz and waltz. McLuhan differentiates between the hot and cold medium on the principle of conveying one single feeling in “high definition,” (McLuhan, 1964) which is the condition of containing sufficient data. That’s why he considers a photograph as high definition and a cartoon as low definition because a lot of visible information is missing in it while a photograph is a complete presentation in itself. In hot media, there is no interface unlike the cold media of listening and speaking where a lot remains to be interpreted. Great things happened due to hot media such as hotting up of the medium of writing through print media, which helped in bringing nationalism. In comparison to stone writing, paper is a hot medium that unites spaces horizontally in politics and entertainment. Extending his list of hot mediums, McLuhan has rightly included a lecture and book in the list of hot mediums in comparison to seminar and dialogue. He has stated what he has observed such as when McLuhan states it on the basis of principle that hot form excludes while the cool medium is inclusive in nature. That’s why it is relatively less participatory than cool media (McLuhan, 1964). So that readers don’t get puzzled over McLuhan’s term ‘high definition’, he alternates it with ‘intensity’ that adds a special touch to the lives or in entertainment. It happened when ballerinas started dancing on their toes a century back, which added a new spirituality to the art of ballet. This change excluded men from this dance form, which once again substantiates the saying of McLuhan that high definition or intensity is less participatory or exclusive in nature. Considering the increasingly fragmented role of women after the industrial revolution, McLuhan finds home functions divided into laundry, bakery and medical provisions in the vicinity. Such an intense experience cannot be a learning experience until it is intense or hot. As it cools down, one can comprehend its uses. McLuhan substantiates it with the Freudian example of ‘censor,’ which is a condition to get an insight over what has been censored. Censor helps in cooling down the intensity of the effect of any change on our nervous system so that we do not get shocks continuously. This cooling effect on the lives of people functions like ‘psychic rigor mortis’ (McLuhan, 1964). Innovations in technology follow the same concept of high definition; first new technologies seem to be interfering because of being ‘hot’. McLuhan expands this concept by quoting Robert Theobald in The Rich and the Poor wherein the Australian natives were provided with steel axes by the missionaries, it happened to end the culture of stone axe instantly. When the steel axes were given to women and children also, axe being a symbol of manhood, it was seen by men as if an attack on their manhood as sometimes they had to borrow the axes from their women folk. It happened because a hot medium of mechanical type was first introduced to the people (McLuhan, 1964). Thus, any new medium whether it is related to writing or wheel or money, when introduced to the people, would create divisions in society. The same intensity was seen when radio got introduced in Europe and later television was introduced in America. Now, it is happening the same with the electricity, which being a specialist technology, is ‘detribalising’ society (McLuhan, 1964). Reflecting on the past, McLuhan mentions the names of Newton and poet Blake who encouraged the people to get rid of their past “from single vision and Newton’s sleep,” (McLuhan, 1964) who seems to get hypnotised by the mechanical prowess of new technology. To prove his point, McLuhan quotes Yeats who targets the eighteenth century man to come out of the hypnotism after getting the spinning machine, which is an extension of man as woman is also seen as a technological extension of man in sexual context (McLuhan, 1964). The change happens from the hot media to the cool media; it has been going on this way since ancient times as is evident from the analysis of mechanical age. Content in a message helps in researching the overall impact of the message. Quoting Kenneth Boulding in The Image, McLuhan stresses on the outcome of change as it includes the situation completely, not a single set of information. Comprehending the effect of electric technology, McLuhan rightly claims anxiety to be the first stimulation or reaction, which later changes into routine reaction. Through the comparison between the developed and technologically backward nations, McLuhan finds the under-developed nations in a better situation to comprehend electric technology because they are yet not habitual to the uses of electricity; they still are maintaining contact with their traditional oral culture while on the other hand the industrialised nations have separated themselves from their oral traditions. So, this concept of hot and cold media is all-pervasive in various situations worldwide. The under-developed nations are thematically cool while the developed nations are hot. Observing the processes in reverse, we can say that mechanical time was hot in relation to television time. On the same lines, Waltz was a hot dance form in relation to the cool twist form of dance. Jazz was hot at the time of new media of movie but became cool afterwards with the effect of radio and movie getting assimilated (McLuhan, 1964). McLuhan cites innumerable examples from different aspects of life on hot and cold media and how change happens from hot towards cold media. He states the example of Calvin Coolidge on whom the people from Washington press used to comment to fill the gaps in his personality. It was because of his cartoon-like cool look, which provoked people to participate in giving a complete touch to his image. Calvin was regarded the real cool person by the press that it started filing the blanks of his personality traits, which is the basis of the cool concept that it works on the participatory concept in opposition to the hot media, which is excluding by nature. Contrastingly, F.D.R. was another hot figure of the 1920s who remained ahead of press on the competitive hot medium of radio. Quoting endless chain of examples, another character in the list is Jack Paar who used to run a cool show on the cool medium, television, presenting a strange example of fight between the hot and cold mediums through the “scandal of the rigged TV quiz shows” (McLuhan, 1964). “Media Hot and Cold” by McLuhan, thus, prepares the readers for the technological changes. In stead of taking a rear-view mirror of the surrounding, he puts them on the threshold of “looking ahead” rather than remaining connected to the past gone by (Zechowski, 2012). In McLuhan’s Media Hot and Cold, literacy instils a more abstract, linear view offered through the eye, against the ear, as the leading sensory organ. Although his work was highly criticised for its complexity of the content and opposing ideas but his work helped the American people in taking a smoother ride from the changes in technology; it also metamorphosed McLuhan from scholarly man into pop culture major (Zechowski, 2012). In the current context of digital age, McLuhan’s concept has merit for understanding the tele-visual experience and part played by the medium in relation to current life, encouraging popular cultural study. In this given structure, one considers the effect of such technologies as internet and high definition television. So besides message, medium also has value (Zechowski, 2012). McLuhan himself has argued the concept of hot and cool medium through the analysis of Kennedy—Nixon debates on the television and radio. Those who listened to Nixon on the radio thought Nixon winning the debate as the hot medium suited his persona but those who saw them debating on the television thought Kennedy to be winning the debate by showing off his cool and straight-forward approach on the cool medium of television (Zechowski, 2012). The McLuhanism presents in full volume the concept of current popular culture reflected in the "global village". The importance of his concept has become a point of leverage taken by the telecommunications sector to point out the capability of innovative technologies to electronically connect the world. McLuhan's foresight of an educated society, in which global awareness was designed by technology instead of discussion, has been materialised by the Internet to some extent. McLuhan perceived television as a starter in the process of revising knowledge via its ability to surpass time and space, enabling the person in New York, for example, to "experience" a foreign culture over the globe (Zechowski, 2012). No one other than McLuhan has given considerable insight on the great ways media "work us over". His ideas have been all the more deceiving as chameleonic. It can be taken for granted that he was both fully aware and intentional on his part, as he can be heard indifferently "The Medium," "You don't like those ideas? I got others" (Rosenberg, 1995). It was Marshall McLuhan who thought over the serious impact of electronic technology upon society. His views on hot and cool medium are respected in various educational, famous and corporate arenas irrespective of the fact whether they are liked or not. In relation to popular culture theories, McLuhan’s views will be discussed and revered for their application in the concurrent high definition digital technologies. His views have created an everlasting impression on mass communication scholars who are doing research on the relationship between media and society. Therefore, the concept of hot and cold media will remain always a hot topic to discuss (Zechowski, 2012). References: Flew, Terry. (2007). New Media: An Introduction. Oxford University Press. McLuhan, Marshall. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw Hill, NY. Rosenberg, Scott. (1995). Taking the Internet's Temperature: What Would Marshall McLuhan Have Said: Hot or Cold? Available from: http://www.wordyard.com/dmz/digicult/mcluhan-5-3-95.html [Accessed 5 January 2012]. Zechowski, Sharon. (2012). McLuhan Marshall. The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Available from: http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=mcluhanmars [Accessed 5 January 2012]. 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