To be honest this weeks lecture was rather confusing for me, and the research after it didn’t help. Once I felt like I was beginning to understand the concept, I would learn something else that would throw me off, but here is my attempt to explain what I learnt.

Marshall Mcluhan, a Canadian philosopher, once stated that
“The medium is the message”. Whilst initially confusing (and to be honest, still is), the statement begins to make a bit more sense once it is fully broken down.

Mcluhan saw that the effect of the message was more important than the message itself, how it made the receiver feel (happy, sad, angry, etc) was more important that the literal message being sent.

Mcluhan argued that what has been communicated throughout history has been less important than the particular medium in which people have communicated with, the effects of the technology, not the technology itself.

So what does that all actually mean? I don’t know for certain, but what I have gathered from the lecture and my own research is that the medium changes people, and it changes how the message being communicated is perceived, for example the internet is the medium, it communicates a message, but it has also fundamentally changed the way we live our lives.

Still, extremely confusing, hence the tittle.

• 

Being part of an audience gives the opportunity to share moments with others, evoking differing emotions depending on what is being witnessed and who you are with.

One of my fondest memories whilst being part of an audience would have to be seeing the NSW Blues win the 2018 State of Origin series live in the stadium. My mate and I were keen to attend the game as the Blues were one up in the series, and had a chance to secure it in front of their home crowd.

I watched the Blues win the series in 2014, after eight straight years of defeat, with joy in the comfort of my home. So when the opportunity arose to attend a possible series winning game after another three years of straight defeats, I jumped at it.

It was an excellent game to attend, the atmosphere was amazing. I had attended many football matches in the past, but this one took the cake in terms of energy around the stadium. What surprised me was how involved the fans became in the dying stages of the game, when the Blues were on the back foot, the crowd rose another level to ride them home to their eventual win.

The night only got better as the team huddled around the particular section of seating my mate and I were in and sang with the fans. To make it even better my mate and I realised later on that not only were we on TV, but also photographed and placed all over social media and newspapers with the team.

I think the most important thing I took away from the experience was that no matter how good the TV experience is, or watching anything after the event has taken place, you can never get the true, real time emotions and experiences unless you are apart of the live audience, seen not only in sport, but movies and TV shows as well.

Welcome to the blog of a student who still doesn’t know exactly what they want to be when they grow up. My name is Luke and I am a first year student at the University of Wollongong doing a Bachelors degree in communication and media, which I have quickly discovered consists of lots of memes, and I’m fine with that.

I will continually be posting on this blog as well as my personal twitter account https://twitter.com/SalvioLuke?lang=en, (once I figure out how it works) . I am very excited to see where this course can take me, and to share my thoughts and opinions with you all, so stay tuned.