Conception Redefinition And Significance Research On Media Cold And Hot

As a heavyweight in the academic filed of mass communicationaround the world, Marshall Mcluhan established his eminent status byhis well-known "Three Theories on Media", published in his bookUnderstanding Media (1964). In the last 40 years, the public wasamazed of the fantasy change happened: Mcluhan's theories becamereality. However, Media Hot and Cold, one of his famous tree theories, isstill under argument. While accepting it as a new method to dividemedium, most scholars are unanimous think Mcluhan's dividingstandards are not clear enough, and there is no practical sense in it. Tothe academic filed of mass communication, it is important to define thedividing method in a scientific way and illustrate its theoretical value ina logical order. After the breakthrough of the academic bottleneck,there will be a much broader researching space for scholars.Through reading original work, relevant books and papers, thewriter find there are some consistent misunderstandings hidden behindthe scholars' unanimous negative attitudes. While trying to divide mediahot and media cold in an absolute standard, scholars ignore Mcluhan'soriginal intention in his media cold and hot theory. The fixed mode ofthinking leads research work to a crossroad. On the basis of relativity,four new standards to divide media cold and hot are presented in thispaper: Time and Space Bias, Target Twinning, Function Identity,Information Exchange Acceleration. From a new perspective, the everwidespread doubts are solved and the research bottlenecks aredisappeared.After redefining the theory concept and the dividing standards, thispaper further explore the practical sense of media cold and hot. On thebasis of full respect for Mcluhan's original book, three morecharacteristics of media hot and cold are summarized: Balance ofMedia Cold and Hot, Reversal of Media Cold and Hot, Media Hot FormExcludes and Media Cold Form Includes. In addition, associated withsocial reality, this paper explains the whole theory in an all-around andlogical way. The main goal of this paper is to revive academic researchon the theory of Media Cold and Hot.