E-COMM: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE

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An initial assumption of the word message is the information being conveyed, or the content of what is communicated. In a broader sense, a message is the vital element of communication. It defines the process of sending and receiving information through a medium (Kennedy & Davis, 1992). For others, a message is a concept or a principle that may in effect shape behavior, perceptions, and understanding.

Our lives are saturated with information and images delivered by media technologies. Our exposure to mass communications significantly forms our interpretation of the world. Indeed, media serve as the providers of information interpreted by the receivers.

Media messages are universally perceived by the audience members. They are also seen as “magic bullets” striking every eye and ear, and therefore create massive behavioral effects. Furthermore, media provide us meaning for reality that influences us in shaping our personal and shared interpretations of the physical and social world around us (DeFleur, 1991). It is also often defined that media are major channel by which passing of meanings takes place and thus help us describe and think about things and situations around us.

The interrelationship of medium, message, and meanings was summarized by the idea of Marshall Mcluhan who coined the phrase, “the medium is the message”. It is a paradox statement which means, the medium itself is a powerful tool to convey meanings that is in turn shape people’s understanding in the situation they are into. The message is literary the content being conveyed and certainly influential in nature, but the manner in which it is emerged creates a stronger effect (McLuhan, 1964).

Consequently, Mcluhan argued that a particular media through which people communicate is indecisively more important than what has been communicated or what we call the message.

At present, media are the reflections of technological development that we as audience and the users consider them as part of our daily lives. In today’s cybernetic age, internet is the extension of our human affairs being the tool for our social engagement or just an expression of our personal thoughts.

That being said, the technology itself that serves as the channel to transfer the message changes us. The electronic technology in restraining and reconstructing patterns of social independence and most importantly, all aspect of personal life-self, family, neighborhood, education, job, government, and relationship to others (McLuhan, 1967). Electronic technology also helps to strengthen participation and unification of our understanding on social issues which now has been more apparent with the use of internet.

It is not the invention or the machine or electronic technology that helps us to understand the message or the content of what is being conveyed. Rather it is the usage and the importance of the technology itself that shapes and contributes to our own perception. A common example is cellphone. Text messages and calls are no use without the cellphone. Truly, we may receive the same message with the use of other kinds of media. But our notion on cellphone as a technological device is another thing-its purposes, its very own characteristics, its importance, and its usage.