Chapter three
Section A the media is the massage
During the 1960s, a Canadian literary scholar, Marshall McLuhan, gained worldwide prominence as someone who had a profound understanding of electronic media and their impact on both culture and society.
In a series of books so densely written as to be almost unreadable ( the ironically titled Understanding Media [1964] is a good
example ), McLuhan outlined his vision of the changes that were taking place as result of the spread of radio and television. He proclaimed that the medium is the message. In other words, new forms of media (message) transform our experience of ourselves and our society, and this influence is ultimately more important than the content that is transmitted in its specific messages.
McLuhan coined several phrases and terms that have become part of the common vocabulary we use to talk about media and society. He suggested the terms global village to refer to the new form of social organization that would inevitably emerge as instantaneous, electric media tied the entire world into one great social, political, and cultural system. McLuhan didn’t bother to concern himself with