![]() ![]() The medium does not only transport, it makes the environment. Being in a car reveals a very different landscape, one of vast fields or even a radiant horizon. When we walk, we notice the flowers and might follow winding sand or stone paths. ![]() The car ensures that we perceive the landscape in a completely different way than if we were to travel by bicycle or on foot. The car is perhaps an unusual but interesting example of a medium, as McLuhan imagines it, because we all have experienced that this medium does not ‘just’ convey a message. McLuhan also states that, on the basis of this definition, a car is a medium, seeing as it does convey a message from A to B (the message is the person) and above all, functions as an extension of our human capabilities the car allows us to move much faster than our legs could ever take us. But it is somewhat more complicated than that. ![]() The radio ‘amplifies’ the voice and brings it into every living room, while the television has the added benefit of the moving image. His main claim was that not every medium was a means to communication, but that, as the subtitle of his book suggests, they were above all extensions of the human capacity to communicate. His rise in popularity could be attributed to the fact that he was (the first) to voice well thought-out ideas about what a ‘medium’ actually was. ![]()
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