Virtual Worlds class in this week, Acuppa Tae gave a speech to our students about Marshall McLuhan and his 'The Medium is the Message' theory. Acuppa began his presentation by talking about who Marshall McLuhan was. Marshall McLuhan was a cultural and media theorist working in the second half of the 20th century, when Western countries were going through great change. He used the media to examine the society during this period.
Acuppa talked about the content of his presentation in this session. The presentation included:
- The Medium is the Message
- The Global Village
- We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us
Acuppa stated that he wanted to advance in the form of conversation in this presentation. For this reason, he asked the students various questions during the presentation and asked them to answer them. First, he asked media tools to give examples. Students gave examples of TV, radio and magazines.
After these answers, Acuppa asked the students in what ways the media could convey the 'message'. Students gave answers;
- Newspaper
- Printed media
- Internet
- movie
- Picture and photo
Acuppa gave an example. Not the e-mails sent to the students; He said that the submission dates for assignments written in the e-mail content are important. Here, he emphasized that the content of the message is important, not the means by which it was sent.
Acuppa then gave an example from history and explained the possibilities of transportation before the invention of the automobile. He said that it takes days or even months for people to get from one place to another during this period. However, he stated that with the development of transportation vehicles, it takes a very short time to get from one place to another during the day. He said this is an example of changes in society. In fact, he stated that those who use these tools have important effects on the change of Western societies, but they are not aware of this. ' McLuhan's suggestion that the medium is the message is really saying that we need to look beyond the content to identify the real impact of any technology.' he said.
Later, Acuppa talked about Marshall McLuhan's concept of 'Global Village'. He stated that in the past, people gathered around a fire to communicate and talked. He stated that the 'global village' concept emerged as a result of the same broadcasts for everyone after the invention of television.
He talked about the change process that society went through with the change of communication tools.
Finally, Acuppa drew attention to Marshall McLuhan's warning. We need to be aware of the effects of the tools we use on society. Thus, we can mitigate the undesirable consequences of these effects. Here, Acuppa asked students how the tools we use now could affect the future of society. Students, on the other hand, stated that especially the developing technology has made us more dependent on this tool. In addition, students stated that physical communication may decrease further in the future.
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