The medium is the message

A phrase by Canadian professor Marshall McLuhan in 1964. The phrase can seem a bit abstract but it is really simple to explain. A medium is a transmission tool for communication like a television, radio, or magazine. McLuhan suggests that the medium cannot be separate from the message, and the medium strongly influences how a message is received.

Imagine a television commercial where the message was the promotion of the show Ugly Betty. Then the audio from that TV commercial was played on the radio. A still frame taken from the original TV commercial was also placed in a magazine with some information from the TV commercial written on the photograph. Each message is  the same on the surface, but with each different mode of transmission, or medium, the message changes and has a different effect. The television commercial offers pictures and sounds and give you a sample of what the show is like, while at the same time offering useful information such as what time the show is on and what channel. The radio offers the same information but only through audio, so the visual cues are not there, and there is less immediacy because you cannot switch channels and watch reruns of the show on another station. The print ad changes the message yet again by being just another glossy page in a magazine filled with other advertisements, but perhaps it would stand out by putting striking Betty Suarez among airbrushed models.

For a better understanding of this phrase, see Shannon and Weaver's model of communication.


photo: Alex Castella