Its the Medium, stupid

 

 

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “medium is the message”, the channel of delivery supersedes the content in importance, or less adamantly, the mediums influences how the message is perceived. This idea is more evident than ever during the time of elections, when political candidates and parties fall over each other to capture a slice of our consciousness & memory. Today Dr. Waheed hoisted  a larger than life “Selfie”, on a random street in Male’. The picture looms imposingly from above, with a certain amount of banality in his expression, which, at some level is awe-inspiring, and intimating at the same time. What is significant is that there is no other content other than the man himself, except for an ornate chair to rest his hand on. The message becomes the size, the height from which we have to view it, and the subservient position/ passive role, it imposes upon the viewer. For someone who came to power by bringing down the first democratically elected government, via a military coup, I guess he only has to convince himself, he is the President. Lets just hope this help him fabricate an image of himself, as a person of credibility and power.