Question Three

McLuhan used a model with four elements surrounding the term MEDIUM. Touching on the four elements, describe how this model can help us in interpreting social media.




Does the medium enhance?
Social media absolutely enhances one’s personal brand as well as a company’s brand as it creates an atmosphere where information is easily accessible. You have access to information from all over the world right at your fingertips. This offers an advantage when finding target audiences as well as when you are doing issues management, your aware of everything. Social media also enhances communication methods. With the growth of social media as a business tool, you’re getting access to a wide range of audiences; you are able to target audiences that before were inaccessible. Social media also makes communicating to international communities easier with the development of Skype, or Onestop etc. Business conferences can be held with international partners without the expense of flights and hotels.


Does the medium reverse?
For every pro there is a con. By this I mean that while social media enhances online communication it takes away a little from actual physical interaction. This could be as simple as less face-to-face conversations, for example, the development of ICQ and MSN (or AOL if you’re in the United States). People no longer had to make plans or communicate via phone, or in person, they were able to make plans and have entire conversations without seeing each other or actually saying a word. This in no way is saying that social media is replacing face-to-face communication or making it obsolete because, at the end of the day, I still feel that is the best way of making an impression on someone. However, it is eliminating the amount of face-to-face communication that is necessary.

Does the medium retrieve?
Social media is a tool for receiving information and insight into the public’s wants and needs. In this way it retrieves the information that is vital to you and/or your company. It is also an effective way of giving a voice back to the people so that they once again are in control of what they want instead of being told what they want.


Does the medium create obsolesces?
To a certain extent it does. It makes the need for printed newspaper less important because everything you want to know, from every newspaper is online and offers the extra benefit of comments and opinions from other users. Do I think it’s going to replace printed press? No, probably not, enough people still prefer a concrete paper to hold. It will lessen the need for human interaction, but will not eliminate it; interaction is part of human nature. I think that the biggest worry is making facts obsolete, social media is getting boggled with personal opinion that it makes it difficult to differentiate between fact and fiction and eventually people will just stop trying to differentiate.

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