Theorizing the Medium

When beginning this course, I couldn't help but think - where do we start from? New media is changing everyday and it seems like everything is blending together to form this new world network, that again is updated before you can learn yesterday's applications.

This week's readings were an excellent introduction to the course of new media, a more abstract look, you could say. Marshall McLuhan analysis, "Medium is the Message", as well as Raymond Williams' analysis on "The Technology and the Society" were abstract eye-openers into the world of new media and its' effect on society and communication as a whole.

McLuhan argued that 'the medium is the message', highlighting that the medium of communication itself can be the actual processes, regardless of the classic assumption that it lacks content. However, McLuhan points out that the medium itself possesses the process of thought that results in the communication. Example: A speech: The content = the words, the actual speech is the medium of communication. Speech is "an actual process of thought, which is in itself nonverbal" (McLuhan, 18).

A point well made when you step back from the itty gritty details of social media and technology and look at it from afar. This class intends to focus on the transformation of communication using new media, but can we focus on just the content? Impossible. To be able to fully analyze and understand this subject, we should begin by taking a step back and looking at new media from all sides: the various mediums, the thought processes behind them, the content they produce, etc etc.

Williams focuses his study on the way that technology has changed modern society, emphasizing the role of television. He raises vital issues that I hope we address in this course, such as: If the technology is a cause, can we at best modify or seek to control its effects? Or if the technology, as used, is an effect, to what other kinds of cause, and other kinds of action should we refer and relate our experience of its uses?