The Medium is the Message

A medium is an environment, a context in and through which energies are expressed. The specific nature and form these energies take is shaped by the nature of the medium.

Ferdinand de Saussure points out the simple yet useful notion that ideas do not exist prior to language. An idea may be described as a phenomenon that is motivated by energy/thought and arises in and through the context of language. An idea is a simultaneous and inseparable combination of thought and language. And the nature of the idea will invariably be shaped by the nature of the language through which it is expressed. Better still, the idea is the language through which it is expressed.

The medium and the message cannot be separated. They both rely on each other for their existence and meaning. These two phenomena arise simultaneously, are inseparable and are involved in a reciprocal symbiotic  relationship. McLuhan once said that the medium and the message are the same. This is a statement that indicates most clearly what he meant by his famous aphorism.