“The medium is the message” – McLuhan proposes that a medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself.
Herbert Marshall McLuhan CC was a Canadian philosopher. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/sex-education-patricia-allison-ola
target a young female – Teen vogue aims to target young females, Sex education is a show that does just that, as the issues raised are common for teenagers. The issue that Ola has with Otis that she doesn’t have the courage to tell him he did a bad job this is an issue that some young girls can relate to, as this is the age where teenagers start to ‘experiment’ and try new things with their partners.
explicit feminist stance – This Sex Education article is solely based around Ola and her journey of self discovery
radical voice in the context of mainstream US media – The article is reactionary to everyday life especially to a teenager , this is because it addresses real life issues such as sexuality and struggle with acceptance of yourself
significant in its marrying of the political with fashion – this article is talking about political issues but around the topic of fashion. The article talks about the issues that are happening in the world to do with climate change and an approach that the fashion world is taking to tackle climate change. “In a world where resources are diminishing and landfills are overflowing with discarded garments, it’s our duty to look for renewable resources, in addition to biodegradable and compostable materials,”
explicit feminist stance – the article makes it clear that it is a woman who has created this brand of bio-degradable denim, which relates to their feminist stance because they are talking about the fact that she created the idea, and is launching the brand. This can be seen as empowering for the woman.
relatively radical voice in the context of mainstream US media. – in the article, the producer writes about how the rest of the fashion industry needs to be more open to the idea of creating sustainable fashion. to share our innovation and beliefs with the wider fashion industry.”
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/ulta-love-your-skin-sale-2020
Young audience traditionally seen interested in more superficial issues
Although I feel my generation is more politically and socially aware than past teenage generations, I find that as new technology is in your face a lot, this makes us humans want to indulge and please other humans in these superficial topics using the technology by being the most in your face. With this, advertisers try to promote their products and sell them as “THIS WILL HELP YOU PLEASE OTHERS AND LOOK GOOD” e.g. this article is promoting the brand ULTA, a well known make up and skincare shop that sells multiple popular brands within its shops.
The codes and conventions of a website
When you first open up this page it shows you multiple skin care products that are spread out. this is important as it relates to the article and gives the article context on which brands are involved in Ulta’s Love Your Skin Sale.
How does the story construct a particular representation of the world
From a political view, this article seems to show that the world can be quite materialistic and obsessed with looks.
TASK 1: What do you know? Find out as much as you can about this product and share this with the class. Start with a discussion and then develop your initial ideas with some EVIDENCE, post up your findings to use as revision notes.
| Technology and News Production | ||
| Production | Distribution | Consumption |
| – Camera | – The Internet | – Phones |
| – Audio Recorder | – Social Media | – TVs |
| – Computer | – Broadcasts (Satellite or Terrestrial) | – Computer |
| – Adobe Creative Cloud | – Adverts in between TV shows. | – Tablets |
| – Word Processor | – Emails | – Headphones |
| – Drawing Tablet | – Website | – Website |
| – Website Builder | – YouTube | – USB Type-C Charger |
Marshall McLuhan proposed in 1964 that the “Medium was the Message”. This means that what we look at media with (the medium / the technology) is more important that the actual media; or anything else (i.e. over companies, organisations, governments, individuals, representation, texts etc. He wrote a book about it called “The Media is the Massage”; though it was meant to be called The Media is the Message the publisher got it wrong but he liked the name so much that he kept the mistake
Story – Old – a narrative in a book – New – watching a narrative through a film or TV show
Conversation – Old – talking to someone face-to-face – New – messaging someone on your phone via text/email/apps messaging system
Active – Old – someone that does a lot of sport – New – someone that spends a lot of time on social media
The Network Effect (by Theodore Vail) describes how the value of a good or service increases as more people start to use that good or service. I.E. a smartphone is not as valuable if no one else has one as you can not text your friends.
The ‘feedback loop theory’ (by Norbert Wiener) is how we base predict what will happen in the future by analysing the past. With new media we can track the audience’s behaviour as now we can look at what time they looked at it, how many people looked at it, what they like and look at first. From this we can change what we produce to get the best possible product.
The Dunbar number (by Robin Dunbar) is the number of people we talk to. Maximum is 150 people but realistically we talk to around 10. However, on social media we often have over 500 ‘online’ friends.
These all link together as we have the possibility of connecting to millions. However, we really connect to about 10 people. Though businesses do connect with thousands. Businesses like this because companies can sell the population’s data to companies to the audience that sell this product so the companies can target them. Though Zuboff says that companies used to do this but now they can place ads about stuff you are interested in to get you to buy these products.
Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals?
I believe that both big businesses and individuals benefit from a digitally networked society as individuals get a more personal web browsing experience, as they get adverts based on their interests or previous activity. However, big businesses also benefit as they can sell out data and make large profits from it, and they can show us adverts that we are more likely to buy which means they get more customers and a larger potential customers.
| Benefits | Negatives |
| Freedom | Data is sold |
| Possibility to earn money | You can be tracked |
| Possibility to become famous | You lose your privacy |
| Easier to market products | Online bullying is more common |
The technology itself is more significant when having an impact on people – the technology not the content. Mcluhan frequently punned on the word “Message” changing it to “Mass age” and “Mess age”.
New Media VS Old Media –
Endless – New media is endless as, for example, someone could read the eminem article posted on the teenvogue website, they could then visit links in that article, other websites about the issue, images and more. However, with old media, Such as a hard copy – a magazine – it eventually comes to an end.
Personalise – New media can be personalised as, for example, an article from the teenvogue website could be shared on other social networking platforms, images could be used to create other media forms or the information could be used to create a new article. However, old media cannot be personalised as an audio recording, for example, wouldn’t have been able to be manipulated.
Share – New media can be shared world wide via the internet, however old media must be lent/ sent to others.
endless
share
stream
for old media
for new media, for example, music, you can stream music by listening to it.
endless: for example once you have finished a book its finished you wont be able to read more on that book where as with new media if you read something their can be endless research and post about it.
Share: for example a book old media once finished might be given away where as new media once something is posted multiple people can re post it to others sooner or later that same post may become viral. teen vouge originally was a magazine where as now it has a website/ facebook page