CCT300_Lab3

The notion that the "medium is the message" coined by Marchall McLuhan has been criticized for being well ahead of its time, making people feel puzzled. It is really nowadays that we get a little light bulb flashing on top of our heads as to what it means -"EUREKA"! Of course, the "medium is the message", especially now that we live in an Internet era that changes society in a rather unforeseen way, of course it is the medium that is more dominant in that process rather than than the content represented by it.

If we further analyze the notion of "the medium is the message" we can swing back and forth from thinking it is a simple commons sense, "cheap philosophy" catchy phrase to the notions that it is the single one most important thought for modern media analysis. Different media require different type of attention from users, different immersion levels, and create different habits in users. McLuhan has divided media into "hot" and "cold" based on the type of interaction established in the process of exchanging messages in a communication model. Comics, in this context can be placed in the "cold" media due to the fact that they are a more abstract, not entirely immersive medium and thus they need superior levels of attention in users in order for the message to get across. Comics is a genre that uses pictures and words into a medium of its own trough use of many simplification methods, semiotics and abstraction to deliver a message that is unique for comics-back to the medium is the message thought. Also, the abstraction in imaging creates a generic sense, makes it a medium in which users can self identify themselves better than any form of cartoons, movies and books. As a result to that comics readers need to fully immerse themselves in the plot and the virtual space in order to give life to the story.

That being said, I deem comics to be a genre of their own value. According to McLuhan, every medium is a somehow advanced version of other media that generally preceded them, thus comics is seen to be "an extension of photographic media".I am more in favor of Scot Mclouds`s idea that Comics is not the "bastard child of words and images" more so it is a genre of its own. However, I fully agree with the notion that media is an extensions of ourselves and that is finally a point where Scot Mcloud (Understanding Comics) and McLuhan reach consensus.