Hot and Cool Media (under construction)

From Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan, and "Teaching McLuhan: Understanding Understanding Media" by David Bobbitt, Wesleyan College, http://enculturation.net/teaching-mcluhan, Published: December 30, 2011, plus author's comments.

Hot and cool media

Three concepts that are captured in "hot" vs. "cool":

1. Hot and cool refer to the The overall effect of the medium (as contrasted with mere content).  Hot media tend to squelch conversation, and foster specialization.  For example attending a lecture on the presence of sulfur bacteria in groundwater would be low in audience participation and be highly specialized.  Cool media are more participatory and foster global thinking. A living room discussion about how to improve family relationships would exemplify this.

The new electric structuring and configuring of life more and more encounters the old lineal and fragmentary procedures and tools of analysis from the mechanical age. More and more we turn from the content of messages to study total effect. . . . Concern with effect rather than meaning is a basic change of our electric time, for effect involves the total situation, and not a singe level of information movement. (26) [all emphases in original]

2.  Cultures themselves can be hot or cool.
3.  Whether a medium is hot or cool can also depend on how it is used in a particular society, and that can change over time.


Hot Medium
1. Extends single sense in high definition - there is less that has to be filled in by the mind.  A photograph leaves nothing to fill in.
2. Low in audience participation - there is less that has to be filled in by the audience.  The audience is more passive.  A large church service - you engage but you are scripted.
engenders specialization/fragmentation
detribalizes
excludes
uniform, mechanical (structured ???)
extends space ???
horizontally repetitive ???

Cool Medium
1. Low definition (less data).  We have to fill in missing information. A cartoon gives the bare minimum- a lot of detail must (or can) be filled in by the brain.
2. High in audience participation.  A small group discussion.
engenders holistic patterns
tribalizes
includes
organic (unstructured, free-form ???)
collapses space ????
creates vertical associations ???