The Medium Is the Message

• Pages: 28-29
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Hon. Mark A. Drummond (Ret.)
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Published in Litigation News Volume 46, Number 4, Summer 20 21. © 2021 by the American Bar A ssociation. Repro duced with permissi on. All rights reser ved. This informati on or any portion the reof may not be copie d or disseminated in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

By Hon. Mark A . Drummond (Ret.), Litigatio n News Associate Editor

I

rst heard of the com munication theorist Marsha ll

McLuhan whi le watching the movie Annie Hall

(1977) several decades ago. I n that now famous scene,

Woody Allen’s character is irr itated by a man standing

behind him i n line to see a movie. The m an is dron-

ing on and on to his compan ion about diverse topics ranging

from Federico Felli ni to Marshall McLuhan.

The scene clim axes when the man behind Allen s tarts

talking about wh at Marshall McLu han “meant.” Allen

“breaks the fourt h wall,” talks directly to the ca mera, then

pulls Marsh all McLuhan from b ehind a movie poster, who

proceeds to tell th e man that he does not know what he i s

talking about . Allen then deadpan s to the camera, “Boy, if

life were only like t his.”

Scholars have long debated what Mc Luhan “meant”

by his phrase “the med ium is the message.” For the de-

nition, I tur n to Mark Federman, t he former chief strate-

gist for the McLuh an Program in Culture and Technology

at the University of Toronto who writes, “McLu han

denes mediu m for us as well. Right at the beginn ing of

Understanding Media, he tells us t hat a medium is ‘any

The Medium Is the Message

extension of ourselves .’ Classically, he suggests th at a ham-

mer extends our ar m and that the wheel extends our legs

and feet. Each enable s us to do more than our bodies could

do on their own.” Simila rly, remote advocacy has resulted i n

our computers becomi ng the “extension of ourselves” into

the remote court rooms.

The rst two pa ragraphs in this article appea r in a piece

I titled “Marsha ll McLuhan, Remote Jury Sele ction and

Voting in America.” That piec e dealt with my thoughts

on the possible effec ts, over a very long period of time, of

“extending” the cou rthouse into people’s homes and work-

places through re mote trials. Much of McLu han’s work

focused on the long- range effects of usi ng various mediums

to convey the message. L et’s say the message is about a vio-

lent crime. Accordi ng to McLuhan, whether that messa ge is

delivered in person, re ad in a newspaper, heard on the radio,

or shown on television matt ers.

My focus here is on the short ra nge and (1) how the

medium (remote advocacy t hrough the computer) affects our

message, (2) what message i s sent when that medium is us ed

poorly, and (3) how we can correct it.

© Getty Image s

28 | SECTION OF LITIGATIO N

PRACTICE POINTS