Media: Perception and Influences Essay

Media used during a day influence the person’s vision of the world while forming his environments. The media experienced during the audit day include chats, websites, the game, applications, television, radio, and such social media as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. According to Marshall McLuhan, media can be divided into ‘hot’ and ‘cool’, depending on the audience’s participation and dominant sense. This vision is discussed as the base for the media ecology theory. From this perspective, it is important to analyze the media experienced during the audit day with references to McLuhan’s vision and the media ecology’s approach.

McLuhan’s distinction between ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ media is based on the idea that ‘hot’ media mainly use the visual channel, and these media are discussed as low regarding the audience’s participation. In contrast, ‘cool’ media require the active participation of the audience to produce images and ideas, and the channel is mainly acoustic. However, McLuhan also points at the factor of domination of senses. As a result, radio is also ‘hot’ as well as a film or lecture. Still, television is ‘cool’. It is rather difficult to analyze the new experienced media according to McLuhan’s distinction because the role of a participant changed significantly.

Therefore, ‘hot’ media used during the audit day include listening to “Laugh USA”, the radio comedy, and watching ‘The NBA Top 5’ with the help of YouTube because these activities involved little participation and the dominant channel was visual. Any media involving the person’s active participation can be discussed as ‘cool’ media. That is why, the use of WeChat for messaging and E-mail are ‘cool’ as well as watching CBC News, visiting the UNB Website, examining the Yahoo Sports NBA scores and news, using Twitter, and messaging with the help of Facebook. Playing “Clash of Clans” with the help of iPad can be discussed as the ‘coolest’ activity from this point because of the person’s active participation. In this case, it is rather difficult to analyze the use of the Google Earth app. It is possible to discuss it as a ‘cool’ medium because it requires the person’s participation to set pins on the map instead of being discussed as a ‘hot’ medium because of the use of pictures.

While analyzing the audit with the focus on the media ecology and the bias of media related to different senses, it is important to refer to McLuhan’s vision of visual and acoustic channels. Media have different forms and channels affecting different senses. According to the media ecology theory, these biases influence people’s visions while referring to the dominant sense. From this point, visual senses are used more actively during the audit day because it is necessary to read messages, write messages and posts, read news and information on websites, read Facebook and Twitter news, play “Clash of Clans”, and use the Google Earth app. However, most of these activities are not ‘hot’ because they are based on the idea of interaction. Nevertheless, the impact on the acoustic senses is also significant because of the focus on listening to the radio comedy and CBC News.

While comparing the impact on the person’s perception, it is possible to state that the impact on the acoustic channel can be even more influential because of the role of created images and ideas while the person is listening to the text. However, the volume of the visual information during the day received with the help of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ media is very significant, and the man’s perception and vision as well as the environment can be affected more obviously.