Concept of McLuhan's definition of Hot media Assignment

Concept of McLuhan's definition of Hot media - Assignment Example McLuhan’s various comparative arguments over the importance of the medium rather than the content of the medium, quoting examples from various facets of life are analysed to prove that hot media has the power to change the past traditions and bring a revolutionary change in society. The article finally reaches on the conclusion that views of McLuhan on the concept of hot and cool mediums are still relevant and are respected widely in the present time of high definition digital technologies. Introduction of Concept Before considering and arguing in favour or against the concept of McLuhan’s definition of hot media, it is more relevant to know what a concept means. â€Å"Concepts are centres of vibrations, each in itself and everyone in relation to all others,† (Deleuze and Guattari, 1994:23). Concepts have got transformed in the wake of vast coverage of distinctly different theoretical writings on the digital age. It has proved one fact that concepts are elastic i nstruments that emerge from the solutions of the current problems. It is more applicable in the current context of huge changes occurring in social and cultural settings (Flew, 2007). Conceptual work can primarily be divided into three categories, as based on its usage. The first is related to such concepts that are universal in appeal although it is not a stable definition, as concepts go on changing; it is the tendency to mutate over time and between various cultural contexts, taking meanings far distanced from those earlier conveyed. As Bruno Latour (2000)) talks of 'recalcitrant objects' concepts can also be recalcitrant: such concepts can be considered but it is an arduous task to review and analyse them. Concepts attract arguments both in favour and against them, turning them to various meanings, which makes it all the more difficult to bind them in a single clear-cut definition (Flew, 2007). Gane (2003)) and Haraway (1997)) have quoted Georg Lukacs and the Frankfurt School in the context of commoditisation of knowledge, which is irrespective of whether it is scientific or creative innovation. Another form, named intellectual property has further plastered this process. The purpose of such concepts, according to Donna Haraway (2004: 335)) is to be used as 'thinking technologies' to state and measure some of the major social and cultural changes of the times. Arguments in Favour of the Definition of Hot Media The concept of ‘hot media’ presented by McLuhan, related to the concept of information, is very complicated. Theorists also hesitate to describe its meaning. Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, who have written on the concept of information, have defined information as an empirical measure rather than a physical trait. This approach has impacted media theorists like Marshall McLuhan and at the same time has also been criticised by feminist writers, such as Donna Haraway and Katherine N. Hayles, who find fault in taking out information from the medium or physical body in which it is flashing. This criticism reinforces a physical theory of information, which is tested by thinking of information as a part of a vast, structural network of informatics. Dona Harraway has also followed this route to observe a link between the physical and the semiotic via the research of entities that have both the physical characters and presence of new governance on intellectual property such as the Flavr Savr tomato (Flew, 2007). McLuhan initiates discussion by