Blog Post 5 - Freedom Convoy: Cool Medium?

“Communication mediates social relations by materializing them across time
or space (Berland, pg.99)”. One of our readings discussed technological nationalism by saying communication technology favoured “centres of power and promotes the suppression of marginal experiences (Charland, pg. 321)”. I am not sure about the truth of the suppression or marginal experience part of the convoy, but I wonder if this was the shared thought that led to the convey going to Ottawa.

The distinction between hot and cold medium by McLuhan is seen in the level to which information is fillable by the audience and thus produces high levels of participation. I think that this reveals why it might be so fillable because people persons get to add their own interpretations and understanding in hopes of filling the in the gaps. This is related to concepts such as participatory culture by Henry Jenkins, where people essentially create their own community (digital or not) to form meaning. The article Close to home: The Canadian far right, COVID-19 and social media, by Merlyna Lim and Brandon Rigato discusses this saying, “Far-right networks grew during the last two years as they digitally tapped into grievances about the pandemic. The convoy was a far-right-led and co-ordinated event that exploited COVID-19-related gripes and existing discontents on various socio-political issues, shared among Canadians who harboured growing distrust in the Liberal government (Lim & Rigato, 2022)”.

 The freedom convoy is an example of both hot and cool media. It is mostly cool media because of how it engaged multiple senses. Consider that there were many signs at the protest that thus offered the visual with little information. It also provided speech, engaging orality as people held microphone having their discussions. I think the circumstances of Covid being something people were not familiar with made some uncomfortable, thus unfortunately made people fill informational blanks themselves.

The only way it might not be cool media is because of how it formed. One of the characteristics of cool media is that it is organic, this means it formed outside of design. The convoy and its organization were mainly formed over the internet. It employed a kind of space bias, allowing it to reach much more people. It may be seen a hot in how it became a routine for conveyors to meet each week. It also excluded and detribalized people and extended the visual space (the occupation). The information of the convoy is definitely not high definition because there was still a lot of information that was inferred from bias. All in all, I feel as though McLuhan would regard the convoy as cool media overall because the aspects of hot media are discredited by the lack of truth and reliability in the information, because there is too much to be filled in.

 

References

Berland, J. (n.d.). Spatial Narratives in the Canadian Imaginary. Laurier - single sign on - stale request. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca/d2l/le/content/453567/viewContent/3167703/View

Charland, M. (2009). Technological Nationalism. Laurier - single sign on - stale request. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca/d2l/le/content/453567/viewContent/3167706/View

Lim, M., & Rigato, B. (2022, July 20). Close to home: The Canadian far right, covid-19 and Social Media. The Conversation. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/close-to-home-the-canadian-far-right-covid-19-and-social-media-178714


Discussion question:

1.     Do feel that the convoy presented some elements of a hot medium?

2.     In what ways could the Freedom convoy have been defined as a hot medium?

a.      What would they have had to do instead?

 

 

 

Comments

  1. Megan YamamotoDecember 13, 2022 at 10:39 AM

    Hi Daneale, I really enjoyed reading your blog post on the Freedom convoy and McLuhan's hot and cool media. To answer your first question I do feel that the convoy also presented elements of hot media. The convoy was broadcasted on many news channels across the nation and as McLuhan points out television is a hot medium due to its decreased need for participation from the audience. In this sense I would argue that television broadcasts enabled an aspect of hot media as viewers at home watching the news weren't actively engaged in the convoy.

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  2. JustinCoutoDecember 13, 2022 at 1:56 PM

    Hey, great post. To answer your question, I think that the Freedom Convoy could have became more defined as a hot medium if there was a better public perception of the message they were trying to spread. There were a lot of people who labelled the Freedom Convoy as a bunch of conspiracy theorists who are sharing disinformation. Even in the article by Merlyna Lim she talks about how the far right are the super spreaders for disinformation. We defined hot media as filled with data from high quality sources and presents completed information. So in order for it to be considered hot media, I believe the freedom convoy organizers would first have to address this.

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  3. SebastianDecember 16, 2022 at 2:34 PM

    Great post! I believe that the Freedom Convoy did present certain elements of hot media, since it was broadcasted on television news networks and radio channels. I feel that the convoy often gets overlooked as a hot medium since the general public was not in support of it, and it did not require much participation from the public in order to be discussed on television or radio.

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