Tetrad of Media.

McLuhan's 'Tetrad of Media'

Tetrad of Media shows how media effects us and give us the sight to improve or renew our culture by dividing its effects into four categories and displaying them simultaneously.

McLuhan designed the tetrad as a pedagogical tool, phrasing his laws as questions with which to consider any medium:

I've choosed

INTERNET BLOGGING
as my medium/media application to explain it's impact according to the Tetrad's Law.

Blogging enhances “many to many” communication. As a medium, blogging allows me to get my message out to many without the need of access to television or radio. Blogging also allows me to receive messages from many sources.


Blogging retrieves the habits of diarists. Though this varies widely, at the minimum blogging requires that we capture and express our thoughts via keyboard. Some bloggers go much further than that.


When pushed to an extreme, blogging reverses into total narcissism. I write only to myself, for myself. I put myself into the blogosphere, and seeing my own image, become entranced.

I’m sure there are many other ways McLuhan would have analyzed blogging using his tetrad tool