The medium is the message - Admission/Application Essay Example

The medium is the message The concept “medium is the message”, developed by McLuhan and Fiore, is representative of the fundamental role that the medium plays in determining how the message is delivered. Historically, communication was only through face to face conversations, which then changed into written messages coded in various primitive languages, followed by written forms of messages and later print and digital means of spreading the message. The transition from one form of communicating the message to the other is what has been transforming, yet the message per se remains the same.

It therefore follows that the medium is the message, because it is the medium that determines how the message will be delivered by determining the effectiveness of the message delivery. Technology and the communications media has transformed and altered people’s lives, through changing the accessibility of information by the society1. The replacement of the message with medium as the core of the communication process might seek to be contradictory, considering that message is the actual information that is delivered to individuals and to the society, through the application of different means.

Therefore, the writing and reading contradicted the essence of tribal unity and failed to capture its imagination, which was preferably achieved through oral communication2. In this respect, the medium contradicted the need of the society, thus delivering a whole different and contradicting message from what the society desired. However, the electronic and the television media came, which then restored the global village system, where communication then took an active role once again3. Thus, in one way, the medium (print and reading) hampered societal communication while the electronic and television media then brought back the societal communication to an active role.

Thus, the argument that the medium is the message then becomes questionable, since the medium should support, as opposed to contradicting the message. Nevertheless, McLuhan argues that contradiction is the medium that causes an individual to ponder on two or more issues4. The gist of the matter is that medium is an important aspect in the spreading of the message, because it plays a major role in determining the effect that the message will have on the receiver/audience. When the right medium is applied to convey the right message, then the message will be effective and its outcome in the society will be achieved.

On the other hand, when the right message is transmitted through the wrong medium, the effect of the message will not be felt by the intended receiver/society in the right manner. This being the case, it can be possible to replace the medium and with the message, such that the medium becomes the message because the medium is the ultimate determinant of the clarity in the presentation of information. The presentation of information is key to its understanding, thus it is the reason photographs are mixed with texts in order to deliver the message effectively5.

Aiding the message presentation with different media makes it possible for the message delivered to be understood. Bibliography1. McLuhan Marshall and Fiore Quintin, The Medium is the Message (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967), 320-323.