Videodrome and McLuhan

Videodrome demonstrates McLuhan’s ideas of media being an extension of the mind and body. The television has become part of the physical structure of a human being as well as having a profound impact on a person’s mental thoughts. This is clearly shown through the main character that becomes physically and mentally part of the show. Videodrome is a virus; it infects people just like media. We are shown the consumptive power of television, how the viewer is not only consuming the television but through this addiction they themselves are being consumed. Then through this consumption the viewer can be manipulated.

                I think one of the most prominent metaphors of McLuhan’s concept of media being an extension of the human body and mind is the perverse nature of the television show and the inability of the viewers to turn away. We are sucked into the experience. Possibly the reason for this is that those behaviours are unacceptable and therefore we cannot experience them except through this medium. But this also brings into question the lack of sensitivity; the audience is exposed to a vast number of images and therefore has lost a lot of compassion. Or possibly it is through the distance created between the created reality of the television and the reality that the viewer occupies. In this way the audience is allowed to each out into an extended version of themselves through the new media as is shown in Videodrome.