Medium and Message

The primary object of McLuhan's thesis, 'The medium is the message', was to distinguish the cultural effects of television, emergent at the time, from those of radio. In part due to the subsequent proliferation of multimedia forms, this application has become somewhat dated, but the phrase retains wider relevance, e. g. to issues in Aesthetics. The basis of its primary distinction, between a 'hot', i. e. emotionally engaging, medium, e. g. radio, and a 'cool', i. e. emotionally detached, one, e. g. TV, is something that Philosophy traditionally glosses over. Whereas the latter usually treats of 'the Senses' in general, one main difference between radio and TV is that the former is primarily auditory, and the latter, visual. So, this distinction between 'hot' and 'cool' Senses, between i. e. Hearing and Sight, accomplishes what Schopenhauer needed a metaphysical theory for--to explain the distinction between unmediated, expressive Music, and mediated, representational Art. Furthermore, 'the medium is the message' implies that the content of an Artwork is essentially no more than a modification of its medium, that e. g. any emotional tone in a piece of music is primarily an expression of intra-sonic capacities, not of some feeling imported to the piece from without. No doubt sad composers compose saddening works, but so do happy ones. Furthermore, McLuhan's formula helps explain how amplified music, with its unprecedented sonic palette, can be expressive in ways that 'acoustic' music cannot, and, vice versa.