McLulan

Really, I think that Marshall McLulan addresses in his chapters “The Medium is the Message” and “Media Hot and Cold” the ways in which society interacts with literature. He discusses the effects of media coverage in politics. Napoleon is quoted in saying “Three hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets” and McLulan also mentions writings effect on the French Revolution: “the printed word that, achieving cultural saturation in the eighteenth century, had homogenized the French nation”. When the general public gains access to the printed word, and thus a freer means of mass communication by the masses for the masses, there is often times a displacement of power from those who previously held it into the hands of the people. One of the first mass produced books was the Bible, and the widespread printing of the Bible released the power from the church. McLulan also addresses the different reactions to either “cold” or “hot” media depending on if it is introduced to a “hot” or “cold” culture. “Nevertheless, it makes all the difference whether a hot medium is used in a hot or a cool culture”, he says on page 43.