I'd like to talk about Marshall Macluhan's defining of different mediums as hot and cold.
Is his insistence that TV is a cool medium based on an outdated version of what TV was?
If we take his general definition of hot media as that which requires little audience participation and a cool medium as one that requires high audience participation I think TV should be considered right there with film as a generally hot medium.
I think his assertion may be based on the somewhat educational nature of early TV prior to the dominance of either sensationalist news or network television.
Obviously cool examples can exist in hot mediums as many art house films require much more audience participation than a marvel movie, but I think in general TV would have to be considered a hot medium in its current form.
Now for a bigger question, is the internet hot or cold?
That's his worst idea. I refuse to explain it to you because that shit should be laid to rest.
Mason Bell
So what's his best idea because I thought his explanation of how otherization is a function of the minority group's literacy in with world and customs of the dominant group was pretty interesting.
Nathaniel Taylor
>the most important thinker since Newton, Darwin, Freud, Einstein and Pavlov
Tyler Murphy
I agree with that this idea is terrible. It has aged terribly in comparison to most everything else in that seemingly prophetic book. Whatever ideas McLuhan had in mind in regards to hot and cool media were based on different information systems then those we have today. I like to think that the hot/cool media classification would be obvious to a person living when the book was published, but who knows?
Juan Wood
His best idea, that can actually be extended beyond his historical moment is that the form of older media become the content of newer media. I.e. Newspapers are constellations of book pages. Screenplays became the content of film and radio-dramas. Video clips became part of the content of the internet, etc.
Alexander Williams
for as dudeweedlol ayyfuturelmao as mcluhan can be, there's some crazy interesting ideas in his stuff
Ryder Hall
It will be fun in vr to walk aroud multiple 3d webspaces, collaged together like jello
Adrian Bennett
I can't disagree but I would be embarrassed to have something like that printed on the cover of my book.
William Gutierrez
desu I would be embarrassed to have a book printed
Owen Parker
I mean, that is interesting but seems to limited in scope to be considered by me his "best" idea. Maybe his most demonstrably true but I still think the hot/cold dichotomy is more interesting even if it is on some level outdated.
It says something quantifiable about how information is consumed by different peoples and I find specifically the notion of something that is hot as being something that requires high cultural literacy to be appreciated as interesting.
I'm just working through his ideas though. He's a lot more engaging than I thought he would be.
Jeremiah Mitchell
the internet is obviously a cool medium. and yes, TV is now a hot medium unless youre watcihng shit like the shopping network. TV at the time of the publication was much more stale
Luis Johnson
I think the internet is overall a cold medium just because of social sites like Facebook or this site requiring user input and attention but sites like YouTube are obviously hot, as are porn sites and anything related to instant gratification.
Isaac Long
Like what you faggot? Stop making asinine content-devoid posts
Cameron Scott
yeah, this. McLuhan is plauged by universalizing, synchronic concepts like the one OP is interested in for some reason. He's at his best when he tries to address change over time, which is exceedingly rare for him.
Brody Perez
Like yours? You're the cancer killing this website. Fuck you Veeky Forums. I'll try discussing here again next year.
Jonathan Hall
You like McLuhan because he was a jazz fan? Hot bop vs cool jazz.
Samuel Cruz
he belongs to trashbin of popsci along with french 'philosophy' of xx cent
seriously, i have never read him and wouldn't even back then as soon as he came out with hot and cold bullshit
Xavier Butler
>his best idea >his
such astute observator
Camden Martin
Has anyone in this thread actually read this book? He also defines the hot and cold dichotomy based off of the amount of senses engaged, how the medium progresses, if it is exclusive or inclusive, and its role in the social sphere. The internet is undoubtedly "cool" when you go through every classification
Owen Turner
Why would you even need to classify a medium as "hot" or "cold"? what is the purpose?
Also, any medium can be hot or cold. it varies a lot
Anthony Gomez
Uh huh. We'll see you next year buddy. Meanwhile maybe you can figure out how to synthesize some of the "books you read" into useful posts.
