Four elements of McLuhan's medium model

McLuhan used a model with four elements surrounding the term MEDIUM. Touching on the four elements, describe how this model can help us in interpreting social media?

The four elements surrounding the term ‘Medium’ are retrieve, reverse, obsolete & enhance. In interpreting social media “retrieve” can be applied to ones ability to retrieve the individual voice. With social media, our personal opinions can be heard as we are able to add our own input, react to other peoples information and engage in conversations with these people. Reverse can be applied to the methods used in communication. With social media we can reverse traditional methods of communication and the flow of information. Social media has also made other more of communication obsolete. An example of this is ‘face-to-face” contact. Through social media we are able to communicate to others without ever having to meet with them in person. Finally, through social media we are able to enhance community and communication platforms. We can also enhance information outputs by allowing multiple venues to display, discuss and intake information.

PR and the advancement of technology

In Deirdre Breakenridge's article PR 2.0, Brian Cross discusses how changes in technology will change the function of PR practitioners. In what ways do you think public relations will change and what role will PR professional's play in these changes?

Public relations will change in a number of ways because of technology changes. The first major change is that companies or brands will be able to have conversations directly with the consumers. As technology advances, users are able to share an incredible amount of information. Consumer behaviour will also evolve as they are now able to decide what information they want to intake, allowing them to organize and share information to make better consumer choices. In turn, the consumer wants more from their brands as they desire direct communication to hear about new products and services while also being able to give feedback. PR professionals will play a huge role in this change as they will now be invited to participate in dialogue in places they were not invited before. It also allows companies to eliminate the ‘middle man’ and rely more so in internal pieces of the company to communicate with the consumer. The role of communicator then become more significant for those in PR as they are now expected to engage in the new wave of dialogue and information sharing while representing themselves and their brand(s). A final impact is on the way PR professionals must go about their business. PR was a lot about developing relationships and contacts more directly (face to face) where as now these relationships are much more accessible on the web and almost less personal than before.

He shoots he scores: Hockeybuzz.com brings social networking to hockey fans

It wasn't until I went to college that I realized how much of my life was involved with social networking. Just like most of you, I have a list of go-to websites I check every time I turn on the Internet. Only now do I realize that they are mostly social applications. Of all the social applications that I use, my favourite one is Hockeybuzz.com.


Hockeybuzz is a great way for fans of the sport to get together and argue over who supports the better team. With over 50 bloggers, it is one of the fastest ways to find out rumours around the league and discuss them with others. While there are many different sites that allow for fans to discuss current events in hockey, this site has a few extra features that make it so unique. One only needs to register to a free online account to have full access the site.

One of the perks of joining this site is that you gains access to the chat rooms. This allows hockey fans from all over the world to discuss issues with each other and the site's bloggers. There are also Hockeybuzz forums where fans are able to talk about more specific events around the league.

As mentioned before, there are well over 50 bloggers on the site. Some of these bloggers post live podcasts while others are linked through other applications such as Twitter. This makes it much easier to follow what they are doing and what is going on in the league.

One of the best aspects of this site is the fantasy hockey leagues. This is when you form into groups with other users and simulate creating competitive hockey teams. Over the course of the season you manage your team by picking up free agent players, or trading players with others in the league. The statistics are kept throughout the season and at the end the winners are given prizes.

The reason Hockeybuzz is such a great media application is because it is user friendly. For example, the toolbar on the homepage allows users to navigate through all the different applications with ease. When you first open the site, there are a number of boxes with the most recent league transactions and rumours, as well as a little video welcoming users to the page.



While it was difficult for me to find out exactly who started the site, it appears that it was founded by several bloggers. One of these bloggers goes by the name of Eklund. He is very involved in the site through various blogs, depth/rumour charts, podcasts and chat forums. While I have only been following the website for the past year, it seems to have been around since 2005.

As far as longevity goes, there isn't any reason why this site should falter. In all actuality, Hockeybuzz has the potential expand. With revenue coming in through ad space and the store, the site is likely to grow. One of its main advantages is that it relies heavily on its users. As long as there are hockey fans with something to say, this site will exist. This sense of community amongst the users of the site makes the site stronger, creating a loyalty that is hard to beat.

While this social application does not directly tie into PR, it can be useful for those in the sports industry. This site is an example of how one can set up a user friendly application so that everyone can join in on social networking.