McLuhan You Genius Son of a Gun

Since this is a media course, I am going to use a media resource to decipher the definition of 'Mass Media'.  According to Oxford Dictionary, “Mass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state”. Okay so  I used the dictionary through an online source, but I still technically used the dictionary. That is as simple as a definition can get. Good thing I was able to understand every word out of that definition. Well that mean mass media refers to all communications that are provided for a large amount of people. This is by any medium; television, radio, internet, and newspapers being the most common. Media can be projected through words, pictures, sounds and just about any other way that is deemed communicative. Simple and straight to the point.

    Marshall McLuhan has coined a lot of theories to this term of mass media, all of them being relatable. His theory on the medium is the massage has played a large role in the understanding of mass media. “It is the participatory nature of the TV experience itself that is important, rather than the content of the particular TV image that is being invisibly and indelibly inscribed on our skins.” [1]In a nut shell he is saying that medium itself that is 'massaging' our senses and thus affecting us as a whole.
However many of us are unaware of the role mass media plays in their lives until they are disconnected from it. For example if someone was to in a completely remote part of the world without technology, they are simply at peace with the universe. But knowing Western society, this person would not last long. Even putting myself in this situation, I know that about 2 days into this experience, I would go officially insane. Oddly similar to the plot of Stephen King's The Shining. Except their is no mind controlling hotels, but you get the point.
    This revolves around McLuhan theory of  Narcissus Narcosis. “A man remains as unaware of the psychic and social effects of his new technology as a fish of the water it swims in...we create invisible environments.”[2] That we are simply insignificant fishes swimming around in this giant sea of media. Only once beached are we able to realize that we have been swimming in water. But is this metaphoric water doing us any good.
    Well that all depends on what your viewpoints on media. Studying the way ‘the world lives’ is difficult, though. However, according to Marshall McLuhan, it needs to be done. He believed that many were too wrapped up in studying the history of our race, instead of looking at what is happening now, in the present. This was known as the “rear-view mirror” theory.[3] Of course, you cannot drive a car without looking directly ahead of you. McLuhan suggested that you cannot drive humanity forward whilst looking at the past.
    This is all coming from a man who died half a century ago. The fact that what he said is relatable during this century says a lot. That there appears to be a pattern, which is something that we could ultimately change. However, it is up to the 'artist' to drive us there. Too bad I do not have my license yet.

Work Cited

[1] “The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan.” Heim.ifi.uio.no. Playboy, Mar. 1969. Web. 07 Oct. 2009. http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/links/mcluhan/pb.html.
[2] McLuhan, Marshall. Playboy Interview
[3] McLuhan, Marshall. Playboy Interview