Experimental Investigation of Mc Luhan's Ideas concerning Effects of “Hot” and “Cool” Communications Media

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The present study was carried out to investigate recent theories of Marshall McLuhan concerning the differential effects of “hot” (movie) and “cool” (television) communications media. Four groups of college students ( N = 51) viewed the same highway accident film, “Signal 30,” under four different media conditions (color movie and black and white television with and without sound track). Dependent variable measurements were made by administering the “today-form” of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) to all Ss four times before and once after the stressful film. According to McLuhan, Ss who were shown the accident film by a “hot” medium (movie) were expected to score significantly higher on the anxiety, depression, and hostility sub-scales of the MAACL than those who were exposed to the “cool” medium (television). There was, however, no significant difference in postfilm MAACL scores for the different media conditions and thus Mc-Luhan's hypotheses were not supported.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: