LAB3

Do you agree or disagree with McLuhan when he defines comics as an extension of photographic media?
You may refer Marshall McLuhan's //Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man//.

In Marshall McLuhan’s article, //Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man,// McLuhan draws the notion between ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ media. While hot media - such as movies - requires a passive or minimal level of thought and effort to understand, cool media - such as photographs - involves a bigger effort to look for information and decipher meanings behind the images. This is because screen images and still images conveys information differently. Hot media displays one universal message that is easily understood by the common audience. However, when interpreting cool media there is no clear one message - when looking at a picture, different people see different things. There entails a relationship between the artist and the audience, where the artist attempts to convey a certain message and the audience make assumptions. These assumptions do not always translate the same message to different people. Furthermore, there needs to exist a series of images to translate these messages. A story cannot can conveys from just one picture, as opposed to a movie.

Hence, I disagree with McLuhan when he defines comics as an extension of photographic media. Many may arguing that McLuhan’s definition is agreeable due to the idea that comics are just multiples of photographs put together. There are similarities between the two mediums - they are both engaging and requires active participation. However, photographs and comics are interpreted in different ways. A comic provides a series of captivating medium involving text, offering action, entertainment, different characters and different themes and plots. They may belong in the same category of cool media, but they use different methods of communication, and attracts different degrees of participation. Thus, although both photographs and comics are cool media in their pictorial narratives, they are still different entities - it is unjust to describe one as an extension of another.