Week+4

**LAB #4: Do you agree with McLuhan when states comics are an extension of photographic media? Why or why not?**
The first //Law of Media// according to Marshall McLuhan is that "every new medium extends a human property (the car extends the foot" ([]). It is key to draw out the main reasons why people may favour driving a car to reach a destination rather than traveling by foot: It can be faster if there isn't any traffic, you can bring other along with you so that they don't have to walk either, you can be sheltered from inclement weather, you can easily bring any baggage or heavy material with you, etc. This quick analysis that outlines the specified advantages of traveling my car rather than by foot, shows that McLuhan's notion that "comics are an extension of photographic media" is not exactly correct.

From what I gather from his first law, his use of the word 'extension' generally means that the mass public will turn to the new medium because of the 'extended' or expanded range of benefits by doing so. I can't see how reading a comic book can work to a person's advantage more-so than viewing other photographic media or how comics consist of an extended range of functional benefits over viewing any other forms of photographic material. I believe that comics are simply a //genre// of photographic media -- a genre that resembles advertising and was "not meant for conscious consumption," and that any ad or comic "that is consciously attended to is comical." These quotes read that McLuhan was aware that one of the main appeals of reading a comic book or a comic magazine such a //Mad magazine// was for humour, entertainment, or perhaps even as a hobby.

The way that the car greatly benefits an individual who had to once always travel by foot, does not parallel with what a comic book means to photographic media as a whole. Just as McLuhan said, a comic, similar to an ad, was not created for the entire public to consciously view or consume, but did provide its viewers with a humourous or entertaining edge if or when read. Therefore, the comic cannot be a legitimate extension of photographic media, it is simply a //type// or //genre// oh photographic media.