McLuhan said that media is the message, i am going to agree him because the director/writer of the media can modify the descriptions of a fact based on their standpoint, which will cause the readers have different feeling and understanding.
For example, during the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong last year. The TVB new recorders recorded that there was seven police officers hit a subdued protester together in a corner at Tamar Park for 4 minutes. After that, the director of TVB news changed the description of the news and tried to dilute the fact.
This modification which based on the standpoint of the director of TVB news made some of the citizens in Hong Kong, those who do not know how to use a computer and only try to read news from TVB news, cannot understand the fact deeply and think that there was a clash between protesters only. This shown that the focus point of the citizens, which is the “message” can be changed easily by the writer of the media.
But luckily, in this age of advanced information technology, the Internet give us many different ways to know a fact, our understanding is not limited to the standpoint of specified media. We can find out more information to make our conclusion. Although the message is modified by the media, we will not trust the message blindly.(229 words)
Student name: Pun shuk kwan, Audrey
Dear Audrey, your discussion of Umbrella Revolution is fine. News' angle can frame audience's understanding of an event. What you need to notice is about the difference between "content of media" and "media technology per se". McLuhan's argument is more about the importance of the latter. The writing here addresses both the conent and the media now.
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