Week 10 : Tetrad of Media

Using McLuhan's "Tetrad of Media", choose a medium or media application or tool (e.g. newspaper, books, radio, tv, film, internet, computer games, handphone, instant messaging, blogging, online advertising, youtube, facebook etc.) and explain its media effects.



Critical Reflection : McLuhan's Theory

1) The media tool or application that I choose is the mobile phone. In my opinion mobile phone is a powerful media tool that was invented in the century. It was the upgraded version of a normal phone. The mobile phone enhances the usage not only by communicating to people, but you can also perform multiple things with the handphone such as MMS, GPRS, and Bluetooth. To me this is a plus point for a media tool. This tool is so powerful, it obsolesces the normal telephone that we use in our daily life. This is because the mobile phone is portable and small, where else the normal telephone is not portable and bulkish.

2) I also think that most of the usage of this telephone retrieves one of the most important usage of a normal telephone, which is to communicate. But the mobile phone is so powerful than the normal phone, it can send messages and do video call to anyone around the world in the blink of an eye. I think this is very reliable to a lot people around the world. However, if we are obsessed with this media tool, it can effect our lives throughout the process. If we are obsessed with this tool, people will spend a huge amount of money to get a better and cooler phone, which is very wasteful in my opinion.

Personal Reflection on the Class

In this week, we learnt the explanation of the topic "The Extensions of Man"in class. Our lecturer gave a grasp about the McLuhan's Theory which I find very amusing. Besides that, we also learnt the rendition of the Hot and Cold media together with the Tetrad of Media as well. This topic is kinda fun and complicated as well. I think I read about the Hot and Cold Media topic before in the internet.