New Mediums, Connections, Predictions.

Marshall McLuhan’s “Understanding Media, The Extension of Man” was about countless historic details, anecdotes, and praises to “The medium” which the article defined as the “message.”
Since I am relatively new to the whole word of new media, its context, tools, goals, and the direction it is going, I will admit that I was more than confused by the information presented in the pages. I do understand that McLuhan gathered a collection of different cultures by applying different values of globalization, which were written by writers, theorist and people from different backgrounds.
McLuhan is very analytical to each medium form and how they change societies and the world with the informational content transmitted through each. The only thing that I was somewhat confused about was his definition on “Hot and Cold mediums.” I didn’t know if that was by popularity or usage. I kind of got the feeling it was more about usage?
I believe that McLuhan differs from the other authors because he believes that the message is exemplified by the usage of the medium and what is transmitted. “Understanding Media, The Extension of Man,” came across that no matter how much work we put into the mediums all the work is still the same, as McLuhan used “mechanization” to describe in many anecdotes. If there was one thing that I did understand, it was the simple characteristics of what new media was, which is the manifestation of all other mediums, that is why we cannot define it sometimes because we don’t really know where to start, but where it ends, if it ever does, shapes the form of human association.
‘As We May Think’ by Vannevar Bush gives insight to his argument about scientist making efforts to collections of accessible knowledge.
His perspective is that scientist should turn to the pursuit of more knowledge and attempt tasks worthy of their best production. The article talks about the benefits of that science has produced such as ‘giving control of the material environment to man,’ vast knowledge of his genetic process so that he has freedom from disease and an increased span of life’ and ‘science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals.’
The article then leads into conventional record keeping to store data by using film, photography, printing, wax disks and magnetic wires and that these items are in the process of modification and extension.
Bush believes man must elevate his work and finding if he wishes to better understand and analyze the complex society in which he created, so that he can come to a logical conclusion.
Bush credits science on being so beneficial since it has helped man “build a well-shaped house, and is teaching him to live healthy therein.” Because of its date, the central theme of this article is safe to say that it is a prediction of many tools of technology that were on the path or soon to be invented.
Raymond William’s approach to television was interesting, especially his concept of “flow” which is the primary or gaining principle of television. It is a compilation of program segments, commercials and other materials that make up the existence.
I was intrigued by Williams’ attempts to discuss the effect of television on social behavior and the effects of the relationship between technology and psychology.
He analyzes uses of technology being a cause and the usage of its control effects or its modification. He presents a synopsis of different causes and effects and whether we should relate our experience of its uses, therefore social and cultural arguments are presented.
He hit three points in his chapter, 1) cause and effects in technology, 2) the social history of television as a technology, 3) and its uses. The general statement is television has altered the world. This article illustrates the significance of its effects in the societal standards and morals, which we created the accidental dilemmas.
Our values make things (mediums) powerful or weak, not the technology. “Its significance lies in its uses, which are held to be symptomatic of some order of society or some qualities of human nature which are otherwise determined.”
To me, the debate seems to be how to categorize the medium that changes lives, but it is so abstract when processing it through a scientific standpoint. That is why each view is sterile and it is left with a theoretical assumption or consequential interpretation. Therefore, a cooperative intellectual effort is required. I think breaking it down through this scientific process would agree to Williams' way of furthering it from technological deterism.
In conclusion, the author’s are fascinating because they basically predicted the future and where digitalization was going. After warfare, scientists challenged themselves, it is one thing to produce new inventions but prediction is phenomenal.
They articles connect because the ideas are influential by change, therefore technology, science and mass communication have created the extension which scientists aimed for, it’s called the media.
Just to add something extra, with the magic bullet theory (or hypodermic needle theory) declining in the early 1970s, a new theory sought to be developed so that there could be an emergence of a new perspective on media’s effect on society. One of the most popular theories to arise was the cultivation theory.
Theorist George Gerbner developed the cultivation theory around 1976. Gerbner’s theory contends that the mass medium of television has become the present day storyteller. The theory started with the cultivation hypothesis, which attempted to understand how heavy exposure to cultural imagery could shape a viewer’s concept of reality. Even though Williams' article was written in 1972 and Gerbner’s theory was erected in 1976, it was in works of publication in the early 1960’s. It was in his publication of Toward a General Theory of Communication, under Professor James D. Finn, that Gerbner’s cultivation theory began. Gerbner initiated extensive research on the “Cultural Indicators Project” in the early 1960s. Stemming from the work and information on the “Cultural Indicators Research Project,” Gerbner was able to facilitate the cultural analysis research strategy to back his theory on television’s cultivation on societal minds. I listed this because Williams' information sounded inaccurate about there not being any works of this medium when there was.