A hot medium has the features of: A. Pre-supposition of interaction B.…

Concept

Marshall McLuhan (Understanding Media, 1964) classifies a medium by its "definition" — how much well-defined sensory data the medium itself supplies — and by how much the audience must contribute in return. A hot medium is high-definition: it fills a single sense with a large, complete body of data, so the audience is left with little to fill in. A cool medium is low-definition: it supplies sparse, incomplete data and therefore demands participation, completion and interaction from the audience.

Application

1. Statement A, pre-supposition of interaction: two-way involvement is what a low-definition medium must extract from its audience, so presupposed interaction belongs to the cool side of the classification.

2. Statement B, providing large amounts of information: high definition means a dense, complete supply of data, which is precisely what makes a medium hot.

3. Statement C, little effort needed for interpretation: because the data arrives already well defined, the audience does very little decoding or completing work.

4. Statement D, less scope for participation: low participation follows directly from high definition, since the medium leaves few gaps for the audience to fill.

5. Statement E, immediate feedback: an instantaneous two-way response channel belongs to interactive, low-definition media rather than to a one-way high-definition medium.

Statements B, C and D therefore describe a hot medium, while statements A and E describe a cool one. The correct choice is the one that lists exactly these three features — large amounts of information, little interpretive effort, and less scope for participation.

Cross-check

Radio, McLuhan’s standard illustration of a hot medium, confirms the reading: it delivers a dense and complete audio signal that the listener simply receives, presupposes no interaction, and offers no immediate feedback channel back to the broadcaster.