Ever been to the beach? (Mass Media)

A fish doesn’t know water until beached – Marshall McLuhan

Our society doesn’t know the mass media until disconnected. Ever been to a completely remote part of earth without any technology? Some may describe this experience as ‘being at peace with nature’. But how many of us could live that way forever?

Marshall McLuhan had quite a few opinions on what the term “mass media” actually meant, and he describes it quite simply as the technological world around us. His infamous saying “the medium is the message” plays a key role in explaining the affect the media has on everyone today.

According to McLuhan, the water is all of the technological mediums around us, and the beach is only realized when we are pulled out of the giant sea of media that society is engulfed in.

The question is, are we drowning or swimming?

It all depends on the moral viewpoints you have of the media. Neil Postman believes that the constant flow of media needs to be monitored and viewed cautiously (Postman, 7). If the mass media is what is ‘housing’ our culture, should we just accept it rather than change it?

This brings up the debate of whether or not the media needs to be ‘controlled’. The internet in particular plays a big role in this debate. Because of its power, the internet has the ability to shape the way different cultures behave and interact with each other. Whether it is from a political standpoint or just merely on a social level, the internet is changing the way we live.

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. He called this the “rear-view mirror” theory. 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 ("The Playboy Interview", 20).

How do things like television, radio, and the internet change the way our race is being shaped? According to McLuhan, it is up to the ‘artists’, the ones looking forward instead of backward, that will lead the way in developing better ways to ‘swim’ in the mass media engulfing us all.

Works Cited:
Postman, Neil. "The Humanism of Media Ecology." Media Ecology Association. 17 June 2000. Fordham University, Web. 5 Oct 2009. .

"The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan." Playboy March 1969.: n. pag. Web. 10 Oct 2009.