An Overview of Social Media Effects

Having studied communications in university and learning the theories of Marshall McLuhan, I’ve learned that when communicating any message, the medium is just as important as the actual message. As we digest media products it is apparent that the message and the medium work together to shape the effects of the message; we understand the limitations and freedoms a particular medium warrants. Whether you’re reading a blog post or newspaper article, the messages, even if they are the same, have different effects. We attribute a certain bias and pre-understanding of each medium before we actually read the message and thus, the medium shapes the message. And further, as McLuhan states, “the medium IS the message.”

An overview of social media effects

In McLuhan’s Tetrad of Media Effects, McLuhan divides a medium’s effect into four categories; Enhancement (figure), Obsolescence (ground), Retrieval (figure) and Reversal (ground). “Figure” refers to the medium and “ground” refers to the medium’s context.
Just like any other medium, social media as a medium produces a certain effect when examining the message.

Examining McLuhan’s Tetrad of Media Effects on Social Media

Enhancement (figure): What the medium amplifies or intensifies.
Social Media intensifies a two-way flow of communication. For example, when reading a blog, a reader can leave a comment on the blog and can even offer their own opinion on the content with a blog of their own.

Obsolescence (ground): What the medium drives out of prominence.
Social Media reduces the prominence of one-way flows of communication. Newspaper articles, books and videos are meant to be passively digested. These mediums do not offer a means to communicate back to the original medium. Social Media overcomes this short-fall of traditional medium forms as it welcomes a discussion and a variance of opinion.

Retrieval (figure): What the medium recovers which was previously lost.Social Media makes conversation and debate achievable. People no longer are passive consumers of media products but rather are now media producers themselves.

Reversal (ground): What the medium does when pushed to its limits.
Prominent Social Media figures become the newsmakers of today. Social Media has the ability to become a credible news source for readers everywhere. Also, now more than ever, media outlets (newspapers, magazines etc.) are offering means for readers to communicate back to them. Online newspapers now offer discussion forums and comment boxes so that readers can voice their opinions on a particular matter. This reality has been produced by Social Media’s prominence in our society.
 
In the end, Social Media has moved our mediated society forward as we no longer need to passively consume media products; we can talk back and engage in the discussion, effectively becoming media producers. Simply put, Social Media enables us to have a voice when in the past we had to sit idle and simply accept a medium’s message.