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






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

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  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 ...
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Blog Post #2 - Mechanized Communication

  This week we were instructed to share any course material that we found interesting. One quote that stood out to me from the course was “The development of ‘mechanized’ communications media such as mass-circulation newspapers had shifted the balance decisively in favour of space and power, over time, continuity and knowledge.” (Innis, 1951). When we talked about this quote in class we discussed new media creating an obsession with ‘present mindedness’ which disregards our concerns for the past or future. This remark made me remember a conversation I had in my course Social Media and Social Life where we discussed social media as being a platform where everyone is obsessed with showing what they are doing at the moment whether that be posting stories, sending Snapchats, posting on your timeline or even now using the new social media app BeReal. In this class, we also discussed how social media allows users to know what’s going on at that moment. Twitter was the main example discus...
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Blog #3 - Bias of Communication

  According to Innis, space-biased media are more modern media that relay information to a mass audience and conquer far distances. Space-biased media is however more short-lived than time-biased media. Time-biased media can include media like stone tablets, manuscripts, or clay which are made to withstand time as they are more permanent or long-lasting. The media artifact that is more space-biased is the virtual tour of Vimy Ridge on the Government of Canada’s website. This virtual tour defies distance and enables those worldwide to see the memorial without having to be there physically. The photos and short clips of the monument are all more modern media that relay information to a mass audience as defined by Innis. At the same time, however, one could argue that these virtual tours have an aspect of time-biased media because it involves the monument itself which is time-biased. The combination of using space and time-biased media to create this virtual experience is what helps v...
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