Editing Marshall McLuhan (section)

==== "Hot" and "cool" media<!--'Hot and cool media' redirects here--> ====
{{anchor|Hot and cool media}}In the first part of ''Understanding Media'', McLuhan writes that different media invite different degrees of participation on the part of a person who chooses to consume a medium. Using terminology derived from French anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]'s distinction between hot and cold societies,<ref name="LS1962"/><ref name="Taunton2019p223" /> McLuhan argues that a '''cool medium'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> requires increased involvement due to decreased description, while a '''hot medium'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> is the opposite, decreasing involvement and increasing description. In other words, a society that appears to be actively participating in streaming content but does not consider the tool's effects is not allowing an "extension of ourselves".<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=McLuhan|first=Marshall|date=March 1969|title=The Playboy Interview|magazine=Playboy}}</ref> A movie is thus said to be "high definition", demanding a viewer's attention, and a comic book "low definition", requiring much more conscious participation by the reader to extract value:{{sfn|M. McLuhan|1964|p=22}} "Any hot medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for less participation than a seminar, and a book for less than a dialogue."{{sfn|M. McLuhan|1964|p=25}}

Some media, such as movies, are ''hot''—that is, they enhance a single sense, in this case vision, in such a manner that a person does not need to exert much effort to perceive a detailed moving image. Hot media usually, but not always, provide complete involvement with considerable [[Stimulus (physiology)|stimulus]]. In contrast, "cool" print may also occupy [[visual space]], using [[Visual system|visual senses]], but require focus and comprehension to immerse readers. Hot media creation favour [[Analytic philosophy|analytical]] precision, [[Quantitative research|quantitative analysis]] and sequential ordering, as they are usually sequential, [[Linearity|linear]], and logical. They emphasize one sense (for example, of sight or sound) over the others. For this reason, hot media include film (especially [[silent film]]s), radio, the lecture, and photography.

McLuhan contrasts ''hot'' media with ''cool''—specifically, television [of the 1960s i.e. small black-and-white screens], which he claims requires more effort from the viewer to determine meaning; and comics, which, due to their minimal presentation of visual detail, require a high degree of effort to fill in details the cartoonist may have intended to portray. Cool media 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, in addition to television, cool media include [[seminar]]s and cartoons. McLuhan describes the term ''cool media'' as emerging from jazz and popular music used, in this context, to mean "detached".<ref>{{cite web|date=2001-09-11|title=A pop philosopher |url=http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-74-342-1818/people/mcluhan/clip4|access-date=2015-04-23|publisher=CBC Archives |archive-date=2006-06-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614104059/http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-74-342-1818/people/mcluhan/clip4|url-status=unfit }}</ref>

This appears to force media into binary categories, but McLuhan's hot and cool exist on a continuum: they are more correctly measured on a scale than as [[Dichotomy|dichotomous]] terms.<ref name="LAC" />