Hot and Cool media
WHAT IS HOT AND COOL MEDIA
Hot media is
that which engages one sense completely. It demands little interaction from the
user .Its a one way flow of communication where the receiver receives a message from medium and bound to
absorb it.This way the information flows and it all depends upon receiver to
which extent he will be influenced by
the message while ,cool media is the
media that involves several senses with
the interaction on the part of audience.
Cool media fosters involvement of audience their particular reaction towards
the message they received.
McLuhan said in Understanding
Media, the Extension of Man, hot media do not leave so much to
be filled in or completed by the audience and need low participation, while
cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience. For
example, radio is a kind of hot media because people don’t need to participate
in radio and they just need auditory sense. Telephone is a kind of cool media
because people need to speak and respond when using the telephone and that can
be considered high participation. This is basically a
distinction made by McLuhan between media such as print, photographs, radio,
and movies (hot media) and media such as speech, cartoons, the
telephone, and television (cool media). Hot media are ‘high definition’
because they are rich in sensory data. Cool media are ‘low definition’ because
they provide less sensory data and consequently demand more participation or
‘completion’ by the audience (a useful mnemonic is to imagine that hot media
are too hot to touch).
Note that McLuhan was not referring
to the issue of the relative cognitive effort involved in the use of different
media. Arguably, in McLuhan's terms, television has grown hotter since the
1960s as its technical picture quality has improved, so these terms are
relative.
Critics of McLuhan's concept have argued that
it reifies the medium, underestimating differences within the same medium; the
degree of audience engagement does not depend primarily on the medium itself
(although its affordances may play a part), but on its content and the ways in
which the medium is used on specific occasions within specific contexts.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HOT MEDIA
1:abundant information
2:more information
3:high resolution
4:low participation
5:spoon feeding in nature
CHARACTERISTICS OF COOL MEDIA
1:Limited rare information
2:stimulates several senses
3:high participation
HOT MEDIA VS COOL MEDIA
Hot
media usually, but not always, provides complete involvement without
considerable stimulus. For example, print occupies visual space, uses visual
senses, but can immerse its reader. Hot media favor analytical precision,
quantitative analysis and sequential ordering, as they are usually sequential,
linear and logical. They emphasize one sense (for example, of sight or sound)
over the others. For this reason, hot media also include radio, as well as
film, the lecture and photography.
Cool media, on the other hand, are usually, but not always, those that provide
little involvement with substantial stimulus. They require more active
participation on the part of the user, including the perception of abstract
patterning and simultaneous comprehension of all parts. Therefore, according to
McLuhan cool media includes television, as well as seminars and cartoons.
McLuhan describes the term "cool media" as emerging from jazz and
popular music and, in this context, is used to mean "detached."
Mcluhan
believes that hot media encourage people to be passive. Somehow he was right in
saying as hot media doesn’t include the audience reaction for instance if there
is picture posted in a newspaper and it offends a reader that particular news
paper editor cant get his reaction whether he torn that paper into pieces or
how much he was offended by it but if the same picture is posted on any cool medium
like facebook or any social media then
definitely he can post his reaction through comment or anything.
PERSONAL
OPINION
Thanks for sharing this article.
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