HOT & COOL MEDIA: DOES IT FIT IN TODAY'S SOCIETY

Marshall McLuhan was a foremost media theorist with theories ranging from revolutionary to controversial. In this essay I shall talk of one of McLuhan’s most famous and controversial theories, the concept of Hot & Cool Media and how this concept relates into today’s society with the introduction of convergence & new media as well as looking at criticisms and changes.

Herbert Marshall McLuhan was a media scholar & communication Theorist who rose to popularity in the 1960’s & 1970’s with famous media theories such as ‘the medium is the message’, ‘global village’ & ‘Hot & Cool Media’. He was born in Alberta, Canada on July 21, 1911. His works include Understanding Media, The Gutenberg Galaxy & The Mechanical Bride. These works have been used by many other communication academics in their work as a reference point. To Read McLuhan’s Understanding Media go to http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/McLuhan-Understanding_Media-I-1-7.html
Even though McLuhan’s work is recognised as revolutionary within the media & communications field, he still received many criticisms. Most critics thought “His idea’s, were not logical enough” (McLuhan, Zingrone, 1997, pg2). Others didn’t like devaluing the significance of the message for the context it was in instead (McLuhan, Zingrone, 1997). After McLuhan’s death in1980, his reputation & legacy have endured & retained a prominent spectre in communication & media theory. For more information on McLuhan’s work go to http://www.mcluhan.utoronto.ca/
The theory of Hot & Cool Media was introduced by McLuhan in Understanding New Media in a 1964. It focused on media’s effect on the body. The principle as written by McLuhan is that a “hot medium extends one single sense in ‘high definition’. High definition is the state of being well filled with data” (McLuhan 1964, pg162 per E. McLuhan, Zingrone, 1997). Therefore, a cool medium is low definition because “little is given and so much has to be filled in” (McLuhan 1964, pg162 per E. McLuhan, Zingrone, 1997). McLuhan defines hot mediums as radio, photography & cinema while cool mediums are the telephone, cartoons & television. Extra information at http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/mcluhan/hotcool.htm
This theory has been explained in many different ways using metaphors, such as in Donald F. Theall’s book The Virtual Marshall McLuhan where Theall relates the use of hot & cool to Film & TV by using how “light was projected to create the images.” (Theall, 2001, pg 74). Theall speaks of film projecting light directly on a screen, while a TV uses a tube which then projects light onto a screen. (Theall, 2001).
Another metaphor is that TV promotes a “convulsive participation” while the cinema has a hypnotic effect (Marchessault, 2005, pg 188).
The most definitive way of explaining this theory is by using 3 dimensions to define hot & cool mediums. First, he McLuhan used ‘definition’ which I touched on earlier with hot being of high definition which is full of information while cool is low definition where little information is given. The second dimension is using the senses, where McLuhan claimed that a hot medium emphasised one sense and it dominated the others. Cool mediums however allowed for a “interplay of different senses” (Gozzi Jr., 2005, pg220 per Strate, Wachtel). The third & final dimension is participation, which sees hot, while full of information, thus requiring low participation & excluding the audience. For example, print is a hot medium written by the author, it cannot be changed by the reader (Kleinman, 2005, pg180 per Strate, Wachtel), is full of information & only extends the sense of sight. Cool however “invited participation as the information is sparse. (Gozzi Jr., 2005, pg221 per Strate, Wachtel). For example, a TV is low definition because the information given is not nearly as dense as the cinema, the sense of both sight & hearing are needed & the audience’s participation is also needed.
Basically, the dimensions used to define & categorize the mediums are based on the effects on “both physical activity & emotional activity” (Gozzi Jr., 2005, pg219 per Strate, Wachtel). Hot Things are active & emotional, cool things are still & reasonable. (Gozzi Jr., 2005, pg219 per Strate, Wachtel). Critics have found the hot & cool concept to be crude in it’s categorising (Marchessault, 2005) & they point out flaws such as why is radio of a higher definition than TV? Or that convergence with medium’s has lead to many senses to be used or that McLuhan hasn’t defined participation carefully enough. (Gozzi Jr, 2005 per Strate, Wachtel).
One scholar though, Ray Gozzi Jr., proposes some realignments to McLuhan’s theory. His proposal is that a third term be added, body temperature. Gozzi sees hot media inviting a emotional participation, cool media having a intellectual participation & his new term, body temperature being physical in participation (Gozzi Jr, 2005 per Strate, Wachtel)
Gozzi claims electronic medium’s such as the TV & PC be hot, Print medium’s be cool & into body temperature got the telephone and photographs which involves physicality such as speech & movement. (Gozzi Jr, 2005 per Strate, Wachtel). For other metaphors for hot & cool media go to http://www.collectionscanada.ca/innis-mcluhan/002033-2050-e.html
The Hot & Cool theory has been controversial since it’s creation, many critics panning it while others not understanding the concept. Many have since tried to modify the principles & fit it into today’s world of convergence. Due to the new media of today where the computer is a dominant feature of society & medium’s are cross-pollinating (Hirst, Harrison, 2006), where do they fit into the realm of hot & cool media.
The mobile phone has become more than a telephone, it’s now a TV, a camera, a way of reading text & a radio. The mobile phone contains so many mediums that we must wonder where does it fit. If you were to mathematically equate where it fits you would conclude that a mobile phone is cool, with it outweighing hot 3-2, but it is not that simple. The actual telephone is used much more than a radio on a mobile phone. Or, the text is used much more than the TV. So to what measure do we weigh their involvement? It could be said that the mobile phone in its most basic form is a telephone which is therefore cool, and that should decide it. So A answer to convergence may be that the medium in question should be decided on it’s most basic form.
Personal Computers now feature as a dominant media form in today’s society. So where does the PC fit into the sphere of hot & cool media. This is hard to say as the technology is constantly & updating. Originally, the PC would have been hot due to it’s print heavy content, but now the internet & other features have added more convergence therefore, bringing confusion into the spectrum. Some theorists believe the PC takes upon a intermediate status (Gozzi Jr, 2005 per Strate, Wachtel). Unfortunately, Marshall McLuhan is not here to inform us of the PC & mobile phones place in the concept.

Another issue of controversy that relates to convergence is the evolution of media and it’s effects on the mediums. The TV is a prime example for it has constantly evolved & created a “change of temperature” (Levinson, 2005, pg272 per Strate, Wachtel). TV has become hotter since it’s inception with the introduction of larger screens, VCR’s/DVD’s & services that allow recording & Choice. Although, while the TV is ‘hotting up’, it’s still cool due to the fact that these augmentations don’t change the 3 dimensions (participation, senses, definition). But, something could be said for the emergence of HD-TV & surround sound which allows the TV to display plenty of information, much like a cinema would.
While the TV is hotting up, the radio is cooling down, due to the popularity of talkback radio programs & it’s use of the ‘cool’ telephone. The Internet has introduced hyperlinks which have cooled down print. Both of these forms now require participation & offer less information than previous therefore being of a lower definition.

Marshall McLuhan’s theory of Hot & Cool Media is still, in the present day a topic of controversy, even more so with convergence and new technologies adding more confusion. But, what has developed from this controversy is a new understanding of how media effects us as a physical entity & how McLuhan’s theories don’t stay stagnate but develop over time.
For more information on McLuhan’s life got to http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/

LIST OF REFERENCES
Harrison, J & Hirst, M (2006), Communication & New Media: from broadcast to narrowcast, Oxford University Press, Melbourne
Marchessault, Janine (2005), Marshall McLuhan: cosmic media, Sage Thousand Oaks, London
Theall, Donald F (2001), The Virtual Marshall McLuhan, McGill-Queen’s Unniversity Press, Montreal
McLuhan, Eric & Zingrone, Frank (ed) (1997), Essential McLuhan, Routledge, London
Gozzi Jr., Raymond (2005) ‘Why Print Is “Cool” And Orality Is Body Temperature in Strate, Lance & Wachtel, Edward (ed) The Legacy Of McLuhan, Hampton Press Inc, Cresskill, NJ
Kleinman, Neil (2005) ‘How Cool It Was’ in Strate, Lance & Wachtel, Edward (ed) The Legacy Of McLuhan, Hampton Press Inc, Cresskill, NJ
Levinson, Paul (2005) ‘Way Cool Text Through Light Hot Wires And Thin Air’ in Strate, Lance & Wachtel, Edward (ed) The Legacy Of McLuhan, Hampton Press Inc, Cresskill, NJ