Welcome to the CS 304 Canadian Communication Thought Blog for Fall 2022!






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #4: Applying McLuhan's Hot and Cool Theory to Podcasting

Image
  Hi everyone!  For this blog post, I am interested in outlining Marshall Mcluhan’s Hot and Cool media theory. In particular, this post will use his theory to dissect the similarities and differences between how radio and podcasting are typically consumed in contemporary culture. Ultimately, the goal of this post is to illustrate how modern-day podcasting’s technological affordances allow for a more cool communicative method in comparison to traditional radio broadcasting.   McLuhan's Hot and Cool media theory categorizes different media forms based on how the receiver experiences its content. Specifically, for McLuhan, different media forms demand varying degrees of audience participation which impacts how one extracts meaning. Hot media is largely defined by its “high definition” as it focuses on one singular sense (ex: auditory, visual, etc). This intensification of a single sense facilitates the demand of a viewer’s attention as it does not leave much context to ...
Read more

Blog Post #5

Image
Hi everyone!  Before I answer this week’s blog prompt, I want to establish a few key points of McLuhan’s medium theory in order to predict how he would interpret social media as a communicative medium. As we have discussed in our class, McLuhan’s approach to interpreting different media forms focuses on how they construct a social environment that can vary the meaning and sense of the information that is being communicated. Particularly, McLuhan explains that a medium can be seen as an extension of our human senses. This causes different media to favour certain senses which influences how we interpret meaning within the barriers of that sense. For example, since radio privileges the sense of hearing, this then causes receivers of its message to perceive its message within the limitations of hearing. Thus, this idea of media as an extension of human senses has certain implications regarding how different media can shape our social environments and cultural communicative practices....
Read more

Blog #5 - McLuhan and the Freedom Convoy

Image
Marshall McLuhan's medium theory, as outlined in his book Understanding Media, distinguishes between hot and cool media. Hot media are those that provide a high degree of sensory information, such as radio, which provides a rich auditory experience. Cool media, on the other hand, provide less sensory information and require more active participation from the audience, such as television. In the case of the freedom convoy and its use of social media, it's possible that McLuhan would view it as a combination of hot and cool media. The use of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to organize the convoy and share information about it would likely be seen as a cool medium, as it requires active participation from users to engage with and share the information. This was referenced in the article by CBC where they called social media the “central nervous system” of the convoy as individuals across the nation used social media platforms to spread information, organize pro...
Read more