The Science of Intrigue and Satisfaction

“Any hot medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for less participation than a seminar, and a book for less than dialogue. With print many earlier forms were excluded from life and art, and many were given strange new intensity, ” states McLuhan in Understanding Media. McLuhan highlights that the principle difference between hot and cool media resides in the level of audience participation, a defining factor that can be measured by the participant themselves as they self-evaluate their role in the media presented. Eduardo Nava, in “After Media (Hot and Cold)”, explains that, “When updating McLuhan’s definition of hot and cold, it becomes evident that networked culture is, by default, a cool culture, meaning that is is neither hot nor cold,” providing a modern take on how McLuhan’s assessments can be applied to today’s world. At first glance, it seems that the general media shies away from committing to an extreme of hot or cold. From this act, the premise of the “cool” characteristic comes into play, defining much of what we watch and read, today. Crime shows, like CSI or Criminal Minds, stand as a clear example of this modern-day middle ground. Audience participation increases steadily until a final peak, at which point the entirety of the plot is revealed to the viewer and no more interpretation is required of the audience. People tend to be deeply drawn to this combination of temperatures, intrigued by the cool aspects and satisfied by the hot. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring “Opening” additionally follows this model, beginning at a slow mysterious pace and ending with an explosion of energy that speaks volumes to the true plot of the ballet’s unfolding story. Just as the audience becomes impatient with the intricately slow speed of the dance, the viewer’s desires are satisfied by the dramatic change in pace.

The deep effectiveness of the formula of cool media tends to dictate the creation of today’s pop culture. Purely “hot” and “cold” media struggle to maintain the long term attention of viewers and thus cannot yet stand the test of time in the same way that cool media proves so capable.  As McLuhan expresses in Chapter 2 of Understanding Media, the audience too quickly becomes overwhelmed or underwhelmed by hot and cool forms of entertainment, resulting in the abandonment of the media itself. Because of this, artists like Stravinsky and Nava have discovered the deeply effective formula of intrigue and satisfaction offered by cool media and thus have no reason to return to the likes of purely “hot” and “cold”. As such, cool media will continue to stand as the media style of our time and of all time.