Marshall mcluhan biography summary worksheet
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The Wave gradient the Future: Understanding Player McLuhan
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The Medium Is the Message Essay
Trying to understand the statement of Marshall McLuhan that the medium is the message? The author of the paper below does exactly that. This The Medium Is the Message essay explores the meaning behind the phrase, the art of communication, and the media’s influence on society.
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Introduction
Since the dawn of civilization, humanity has been interested in different ways to convey and preserve information. Over the centuries, people have developed numerous methods of communication that use a wide range of channels such as print, radio, telephone, television, and the Internet. Every method of communication has its own unique characteristics defining both cultures and individuals using them. When it comes to an understanding of how media shapes individuals and society at large, there is no better way to learn about the subject than to refer to one of Marshall McLuhan’s works.
Marshall McLuhan starts his classic book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by stating that “the medium is the message” (McLuhan 1964, p. 7). The arch-famous statement that sometimes is being referred to as McLuhan’s Equation is reiterated in his work The Medium is the Massage
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1. Introduction
Marshall McLuhan, born in Canada in 1911, was a philosopher and professor at the University of Wisconsin and Saint Louis University. He was the originator of several concepts such as Gutenberg Galaxy, global village and extension of personhood by mass media. McLuhan’s theories explored issues related to information, communication, technology and how new and developing media influence society. McLuhan is known as a pioneer in the study of media, and today he is considered a visionary.
We can exemplify this with the term “Global Village”, which was conceptualised in the late 1960s as the human interconnectedness on a global scale generated by electronic means of communication (McLuhan, 1995). The electronic media to which the author referred were television, radio and the phonograph; humanity would have to wait a few more years to learn about the benefits of internet connection.
McLuhan explains that the Western world has shifted its focus from the use and development of mechanical technologies, in which means were used to move our bodies in real, physical space, to a time when the central nervous system is now expanded “to encompass the entire globe, abolishing time and space, at least as far as this planet is concerned” (McLuhan, 1964).