Blog #5- Freedom Convoy Victoria

  Marshall McLuhan is known for many of his concepts. His concept of hot and cool media arguably may stand out the most in terms of popularity. That being said, before answering the discussion question, it is important to understand what McLuhan means by hot and cool media. For me, this concept is a bit tricky to understand as I believe there is a sort of spectrum rather than two distinct categories of hot and cool media. From my understanding, McLuhan refers to an audience's ability to process information through social environments. In other words, it is based on sensory levels. For example, high-functioning senses would be considered hot media, and lower sensory ratios would be cool media. 

That being said, I argue that the freedom convoys social media is what McLuhan refers to as both hot and cool media. As mentioned before, I believe there is a sort of spectrum or context that influence which form something is classified. As a result, I would argue the social media used during the freedom convoy is cool media. The reason for this is that it requires a high level of participation. Social media allows for many things to be done at once, such as videos, images, live streams, texts etc. Therefore, it is evident that multiple senses are required to obtain information. Yet, social media was not the only information source the convoy was covered by. News outlets through radio broadcasting and television were also a factor. With this, I argue it is hot media, as McLuhan talks about the radio and television being forms of hot media because they require less sensory participation. 

Discussion: Do you think social media and television are distinct forms of media? Can you argue any similarities or differences between them?










Comments

  1. Zach TyrrellDecember 16, 2022 at 8:03 AM

    Great post Victoria! I think your interpretation of hot and cool media as a spectrum is really interesting. I do think you are correct as there are a lot of contributing factors to one's sensory levels. Before I answer your question I will ask you a question of my own; If cool media was a 1 and hot media was a 10 where would the freedom convoy land on that spectrum? I think they are distinct simply because of the users involvement within the given medium. Social media requires user activity whereas television does not.

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  2. Noah BookerDecember 16, 2022 at 2:55 PM

    Hey Victoria I really like your post! In response to your questions, I feel like there are variables that make television and social media very distinguishable from one another. With social media, people become fully consumed and lose focus on what it is they are receiving. When watching social media I can go through a plethora of videos and not be able to recount any of them, however with television I feel I am able to recall the information more efficiently. With this being said I am in total agreement with you that the coverage of the freedom convoy is representative of both hot and cool media.

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