But Wait: Are You Hot, Or Is Your Media?

Is Your Media Hot Or Not? With Marshall Mcluhan!

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What makes one medium different from another? There are obvious differences: books are made of paper (or… they used to be). Films are made of celluloid (or… they used to be). But do those differences account for the full breadth of how we experience each differently? Today, and in future episodes like this one, we're gonna talk about, and pick apart, one theory in particular - to see if, or how much, it helps us make sense of the world around us. And today’s theory is…. Marshall Mcluhan’s “Hot and Cold Media!” Mcluhan believed that there were two types of media: Hot Media, and Cold Media. But wait! Is it really that simple? Let us know what you think about how we interpret media in the comments below.

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[arthurhill]

I would argue that Idea Channel serves the roles of a popular media analyst to some degree.

[SleepyftPanda]

"Whatever it is Zizek does."

Damn Mike, shots fired! (eats popcorn while anticipating the oncoming flamewar)

[Hoshikage]

My biggest issue with this theory is that often it's precisely BECAUSE things are so packed with information that they require so much participation from the audience. That participation can be in the form of making effort in remembering plotlines, and feeling motivated to engage in discussions among fans.

[andreasstergard]

When I grow up I wanna be a "haircut-haver"

[PhilosophyTube]

Mike you're the rockstar media theorist of today!
This made me think about whether theatre is hot or cold, and how Brecht fits into that? Brechtian works alienate their audience so is that making them engage with it more, is that like forcing the audience to be as cool as possible? It also made me think about different approaches to acting: a Stanislavski focus, which is what gets taught at a lot of British drama schools, focuses more on the internal state of the actor and creating "true" reactions, same with Method acting; that'd be trying to make the actor hot I suppose, making their (re)acting as high definition as possible? Whereas a Meisner-based technique focuses more on the other actor you're playing across from and prompting them to engage, so that's like trying to make them cool down? I dunno, I'm just thinking aloud tbh

[meta-entelechy]

Something to consider is that McLuhan pointed out that the content of a medium is itself another medium. So if an action movie is more "hot" than a slow paced art house film, an action sequence is itself a medium, as is speech or whatever else. So the content of different mediums may be comparatively hot or cold but the content distracts most people from the effect of the medium itself.

[maxheadrom]

McLuhan would be happy with this video - all he wanted is to people to think about how the channel of communication (medium) impacts the message being communicated (impacts and selects). Here's a nice quote by McLuhan about advertisement and politics:

“The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.”

[paulkonyefa]

Well sure, we all respond differently to different media,

I really agree with the point, "we bring our experience to the media"

[Leesplez]

I love this "but wait" concept, keep doing it!!!

[maxpower]

I feel like this would be a good segue into Roland Barthes's 'death of the author, birth of the reader' idea, and how anything can be a 'text'.

[zachfox]

I think a big part about the description of hot and cold is how much a something( in this case media)gives or receives. Cold media makes people have to be more hot. They have to give more to the work, think more be more active while hot media is more giving and can make us feel more helped, we have to do less work to get the message of hot media, but this also means that the message can be less profound.

[Pompo]

BUT WAIT! I love this! great idea for a series. It will be interesting to delve into the theories that help us critizise culture and media and relate our interests to an "intelectual approach".

[dotter]

To frame my suggestion, I will explain communication modes. There are three.
- Simplex mode media allow information to flow in one direction only, from sender to receiver. They either do not allow information to flow in the other direction at all or require a drastic change in equipment to allow information to flow in the other direction or else information flowing in the other direction to use a different medium. Examples are TV, Radio, Movies, Novels, Newspapers, etc.
- Half-Duplex media allow information to flow in both directions, but only one direction at a time. Examples are walkie-talkies or ham radio, telegraphy and letters by snail-mail.
- Full-Duplex media allow information to flow in both directions at the same time. Examples are telephones and in-person conversations.
(Communication over the Internet varies according to the app being used. Email is half-duplex, Skype is full-duplex, Youtube is a matter of opinion... you get the idea.)
I'd like to suggest that McLuhen's "hot media" tend to be simplex mode media, while his "cold media" tend to be at least half-duplex. What do you think?

[Adelphos]

This made me think of how much more nuanced media has become compared to the age McLuhan analyzed. To survive, radio shows must constantly interact with their listeners and encourage them to participate via phone conversations or attending live events. TV shows today can sometimes surpass movies in their quality and depth.

If you haven't done so already, I would love to see a video about the impact of media on human behavior and thought -- this was a huge part of the journalism ethics class I took in college and there was a great deal of debate around how much media affects both society and the individual.

[fernandodavidrocacanales]

When I watched this video i understood how important is speak english, because if you look for videos in spanish about Mcluhan, just find out poor information, but in English you've a lot of options. BUT WAIT!! Saludos !

[owgirl]

You're killing it with the Austin shirt, Mike! Everyone comes to Austin, but they don't actually know how cold it really is. How cold Austin is compared to most cities lies within the whole Austin Experience. Although Austin is known for all its hot media, the music scene (ACL), the film scene (SXSW), the comedy scene (Moontower), those events take Austin as the medium to deliver the message to you. Getting around in the city is a lot of work, since there's a billion things to do in the city you have to immerse yourself to experience it all, and by the time you dive into the experience, it becomes addicting and makes yourself want to immerse yourself in it even further. I think this is the draw that Austin has to people, to make people work for the things they experience, but it has the award of experiencing what Austin has to offer far more satisfying. It helps bring people a very balanced feeling of hot and cold.

[Im_Just_A_Dreamer]

I feel the need to bring up the fact that nowadays, all different sorts of media have fanbases -- groups of people made specifically for the members to interact with eachother as well as their chosen media. I always find that I have an innate desire to interact with things, even media that is non-interactive at its core (like music, for instance, by singing along to my favorite songs). Perhaps this is the reason why concerts exist, to transform a non-interactive medium into something that is completely interactive and that an entire fanbase can enjoy without limits or borders.

[DigitalLibrarian]

When you pointed out that a speaker unexpectedly interchanging the words "cool" and "cold" was "Not cool!", I thought that was a beautiful pun.

[zachmk]

So, I'm a Film Studies student at my university and me and my Film friends are always getting into arguments with Media Studies students because we have a very different perception of the passive/active reading of film and other mediums. Let me explain: for us, each spectator perceives and watches a DIFFERENT film. People like Barthes, Rodowick, Hamish Naficy and any number of other theorists help us to arrive at this conclusion. For me, this makes the most sense. It takes into account much more than simply the differences between medium, and instead considers the differences in content, context, mode of production, exhibition, individual feeling and so on and so forth. It has downsides, it refuses to let any film ever really be a form of mindless escapism. If we are all informing our viewing experience then suddenly we are, on a basic level, critically evaluating Goddard just as much as we are Keeping with the Kardashians. But where I, and my friends disagree with Media students is in their insistence that a medium or incident piece of content had a REPRODUCIBLE effect on the audience. That is to say, if I watch a film on Monday it's hot and coldness, it's effect, will be the same as if you watch it on Wednesday three weeks later. The truth is that so much changes in that time, that the two films whilst certainly have technical, core similarities are experientially entirely different. Even if we watched the same film at the same time the minutiae of the moments you blink, or reach down to get popcorn, or leave to go to the bathroom, or watch the film on your phone completely alter it's meaning, content, form and everything about it. For me, the problem with Hot/Cold theory is that it suggests a consistency which does not exist in film or any other medium. As Mike said participation changes everything, and what I would add is that it actually changes the medium and the content ITSELF.

ZK

[proxxyBean]

Mike, we don't need a Rock Star Media Theorist, when you're our Indie Media Theorist.