Medium is the Massage
18 Nov 2020The medium is the message, is mistitled as medium is the massage, and the name stuck as Marshall thought it was apt. The underlying message of the writing is simple, the medium is more important than the message, or the content which it carries. The telephone is much bigger than just the call you make to your friend. Print is much more than just the printed word. Mass printing gave us the ability to disseminate information, which revolutionised the world. The telephone made the world a whole lot smaller, by making it easier to communicate with each other. Marshall writes that a medium is never neutral, and it does something to people. The telephone gave us the social convention of greeting each other with a ‘hello’ for example.
The content is massaged by the medium. It’s interesting to see how content has evolved over time and been adapted to various mediums. For example, content which works well on the TV doesn’t translate well to the internet. People on Youtube prefer to watch home-made content, without any of the high production visual look of the content shown on the television. The medium defines the content it carries. For a while, Youtube limited free uploads to 10 min long videos, and as a result, many old videos are only that long. 10 mins is also the required length of video in order for them to be monetised, which reflects the content on the platform. This limit has been reduced to 8 mins, and so a change in the style of the content can already be seen. For a hammer, everything is a nail.
A medium covers a broad range of things. It includes media such as radio, TV, social media, and even railways, or plastic bags. Each of these mediums enables something much larger, which has a significant impact on our lives. The railways for example, enabled the colonisation of India, and the economic pillaging of the subcontinent. However it also changed the way we have built cities and conduct trade. A plastic bag enabled the rise of convenient shopping, which created jobs, and revived economies.
Looking back in time, mediums such as hand drawn animation, or analogue film-making which were traditionally used for mass media production, are now objects of nostalgia, and can often be found enshrined in museums and galleries the world over. Years after their obsolescence, they have created an entirely new industry of traditional craft, with their own unique aesthetic and visual style. The stories told through these mediums are far removed from what they were originally intended for.
It’s important to understand Marshall’s intent behind this writing. He wrote the Medium of the Massage as an investigation, exploring his hypothesis, and not simply delivering his observations. The ‘Nut’ professor from Canada writes this piece, switching between an academic and a conversational style of writing, presenting his ideas. The Medium of the Massage outlines the impact of mediums on human society and culture. The mediums we use wire us differently, and it’s perhaps why succeeding generations are so adept at using newer technologies as they are exposed to it early on in their life.