The Freedom Convoy as Hot or Cool Media / Zach Tyrrell

A prominent idea in Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 book Understanding Media is looking at media as either hot or cold. Hot media demands a viewer's attention whereas cold media requires conscious participation by the medium’s consumer. Examples of hot media include; photographs, print, and radio. On the contrary cold media includes the; telephone, seminars and television. To reiterate, the differentiating factor between the two is audience involvement. 

The freedom convoy took the nation by storm in early 2022. As most of you probably know, the freedom convoy was a nationwide protest against the vaccine mandate instituted by Trudeau’s government. The convoy made its way to Ottawa as hundreds protested outside of the Parliament building for a number of weeks. So, is the freedom convoy hot or cold media?


I personally feel that it is difficult to categorize the convoy as one or the other which therefore makes it a combination of both. As we know hot media demand’s a viewer's attention and the freedom convoy did just that. National media outlets were constantly providing updates and insights on the status of the freedom convoy via radio. The national broadcasting of the event does not need conscious participation but certainly needs the attention of the public. A lot of the convoy was organized and promoted through social media. The public was very involved in spreading the word. That level of organized participation makes for a cool medium. 


Overall, I believe McLuhan would agree that the portrayal of the convoy as a whole had both hot and cool elements to it. 


Question: What are some examples from your own life that are a combination of hot and cold media?

Comments

  1. Ashley Di PernaDecember 16, 2022 at 10:11 AM

    Hi Zach,

    Great post. I definitely agree that it can be difficult to categorize media as either only hot or only cold. It's better to think of hot and cold as a spectrum, with all media falling somewhere in between. An example from my own life of media that is a combination of hot and cold would be when I watch Youtubers who make book reviews. Books are considered hot media, but a youtube video would probably fit better under cool media, since it engages more than one sense. So when reading an exert of a book that is contained within a video, it blurs the lines between hot and cold media.

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