DPHU1007 Chap.2 Medium Theory: Figure, Ground and Extension
Medium Theory: Figure, Ground and Extension
Week 2 reads Lance Strate's article on Marshall McLuhan's phrase the medium is the message, with a podcast that talks through the argument. Medium theory, in Joshua Meyrowitz's terms quoted in the course list, asks how the characteristics of a medium make it physically, psychologically and socially different from other media and from face-to-face interaction, whatever messages it carries.
The reading presents McLuhan's slogan as a call to stop sleepwalking through a media environment we rarely notice.
The chapter works through the reversal of figure and ground, which shifts attention from content to the medium in the background; the pairing of extension and amputation, illustrated in the course quotation from Strate about reading and instant search; and the idea that the content of any medium is another medium, as speech becomes the content of writing and writing of print.
It also clears up the most common error in this topic: treating McLuhan as a technological determinist.
The reading insists that technology takes command only when people stop paying attention.
A worked paragraph on a short-video platform shows how to keep every sentence about the format rather than about any single clip.
Where this shows up in assessment. Medium theory suits essays that draw on your own experience, because everyone can describe how a phone, a feed or a recorded lecture has changed a habit.
It is also a strong choice for the play dough model: a container that shapes its contents, or a limb extended by a tool, can be recognised without explanation.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The medium is the message: a technology's existence reshapes social life more than any one use of it.
- 02
Figure and ground: content draws attention while the medium stays in the unnoticed background.
- 03
Extensions and amputations: each medium extends a human capacity and weakens another, such as memory.
- 04
Nested media: the content of a medium is always another, older medium.
- 05
Media environments: oral, scribal, print and electronic settings that organise societies differently.
- 06
Context: Postman's warning that electronic media can create a context of no context.
- 07
New media and old problems: inventions such as voicemail arise to fix gaps that earlier media created.
Worked example · free
Extension and amputation in a navigation app
- +1Identify the medium, not the content: the app's turn-by-turn voice and moving map, regardless of any destination.
- +1Extension: it extends the ability to find your way in unfamiliar places, at any hour, without asking anyone.
- +1Amputation: reliance on it can weaken your own sense of direction and the habit of reading a place.
- +1Consequence: drivers follow the same suggested routes, reshaping traffic through quiet streets, which shows a social effect of the medium itself.
Key terms
- Medium theory
- An approach that studies how the characteristics of a medium shape perception and social interaction.
- Figure and ground
- The contrast between the content we notice and the medium that surrounds it unnoticed.
- Extension
- A medium's enlargement of a human capacity, such as writing extending memory across time.
- Amputation
- The capacity that weakens when a medium takes over its work, such as recall with instant search.
Medium Theory: Figure, Ground and Extension FAQ
What does 'the medium is the message' mean?
McLuhan argued that a technology's presence changes how people perceive, relate and organise society more deeply than any particular content it carries. The automobile reshaped cities and politics whatever any single trip was for.
Is medium theory a form of technological determinism?
Strate's reading rejects that view. Technology takes command only when people give up responsibility, usually because they ignore its consequences. Write about tendencies and biases that people can recognise and resist.
How is figure and ground different from content and form?
Figure and ground describes attention. We focus on the figure, usually content, and overlook the ground, the medium. The analytical exercise is reversal: deliberately studying the background that normally escapes notice.
How can I use medium theory in the essay?
Choose one built-in property of a platform, such as autoplay or vertical video, then explain what it extends, what it weakens and how that affects politics or power, citing Meyrowitz or Strate from the course list.
What is the difference between a medium and media in McLuhan's sense?
Strate's reading stresses the singular medium. Each medium has its own bias that pushes communication in certain directions, so analysis should focus on one medium's characteristics rather than on media in general.
Assessment move
Pick one technology you use every day and keep a three-column note: what it extends, what it amputates and who gains from the change. Listen to the reading's podcast for orientation, then read Strate's article itself, because the course stresses that the academic language is modelled there. Practise one paragraph per week in which every sentence would still be true if the content changed.
When you prepare for the play dough task, think about how to show a medium rather than a message: a container shaping its contents is easier to model than an abstract slogan. Before the viva, rehearse a short answer to the determinism objection.
