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3 pages/β‰ˆ825 words
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Style:
MLA
Subject:
Literature & Language
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
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Topic:

An Evaluation of The Medium is the Message

Essay Instructions:

Readings:
Edmund Husserl, 1.2 The positivistic reduction of the idea of science . . . in The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, trans. David Carr. Northwestern, 1970.
Martin Heidegger, “The Question Concerning Technology” in The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. trans. William Lovitt. Harper, 1977.
Joseph Weizenbaum, “Introduction” and “On Tools” in Computer Power and Human Reason. W.H. Freeman, 1976.
Marshall McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message” in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. MIT, 1997.
Film:
Werner Herzog, Lo and Behold, Reveries of a Connected World. USA, 2016.

Grading Rubric:

Your assignments will be graded on the following criteria:

(30 pts.) Understanding of the readings: The assignment responds to the prompt and shows that the author has synthesized the readings. When sources are required, they are used effectively and ethically.

(30 pts.) Engagement with the material: The assignment shows critical engagement and indepth analysis and responds fluently to the weekly texts. The author provides specific examples to support their argument. Also, the response uses terminology appropriate to field.

(20 pts.) Organization and elegance of expression: The response has an overall point to make and sentences stay on topic. Paragraphs stay on topic. In other words, the response is focused. Also, it shows creativity of expression. Sentence structure varies within paragraphs to achieve various effects. The prose contributes to the persuasive appeals of the post. The writing seems natural and thoughts appear to flow into each other.

(20 pts.) Following the conventions of edited written English: The response uses proper vocabulary, sentence structure, and additional conventions of edited written English (such as verb forms and tenses, correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling). There are few to zero grammatical errors that get in the way of the author’s purpose or the reader’s understanding. Additionally, all sources are properly cited.

Essay Sample Content Preview:
Students’ Name
Professor’s Name
Course Number
Date
Weekly Responses
The Medium is the Message
McLuhan explains the title "The Medium is the Message" by stating that the consequences of any medium, social or political, result from the new scale introduced into human affairs by any new technology (pg. 1). He gives an example of automation and its consequences. Positively, automation has created roles for people by improving their depth of involvement in their work and human association. On the negative side, automation has introduced new patterns of human association that tend to get rid of jobs (pg. 1). McLuhan further posits that the content of any medium is always another medium. He explains this argument by using examples such as speech is the content of writing, and print is the written word (pg.1). To stress his claim that the message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pattern it introduces into our affairs, McLuhan uses the example of the railway. He writes that the railway did not introduce movement or transport, but rather, it speeded up and increased the scale of previous human functions (pg.1).
McLuhan uses the electric light as an instrumental example of how people fail to study media. He argues that people tend to overlook the electric light as a communication medium just because it lacks “content” until it is used to spell out some brand name, thereby drawing more focus on the "content" rather than the light itself (pg.2). He compares the message of the electric light to the message of electric power in an industry which is radical, pervasive, and decentralized (pg.2). “Electric light and power are separate from their uses yet they eliminate time and space factors in human association exactly as radio, telegraph, telephone, and TV, creating involvement in depth” (pg.2).
I find McLuhan's writing very interesting, and in a way, it shifts my attention to the various media used today in communication rather than concentrating only on their content. The medium is usually ignored when the content is nonexistent and even useless without the medium in reality. The medium has to exist first for the content to be relayed. I also find it fascinating that McLuhan had such strong views about the media during that time. To a large extent, I agree with him. However, I believe that the content of the medium also matters a great deal. The content should also carry the message because it is the content that is consumed.
The Question Concerning Technology
On questioning technology, Heidegger begins his writing by imploring us to have a free relationship to it, and a free relationship in this regard is one that opens our human existence to the essence of technology. Technology, he claims, is not equivalent to the essence of technology. The essence of technology is not ...
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