The Director of the Center for the Study of the Extensions of Man
at the University of Toronto, Marshall MoLuhan here investigates
the psychic and social consequences of technological media on man
and his societies. The medium itself, rather than the content, is
the message, he asserts, and turns to inspect the manner in which
it affects us. He extends his inquiry beyond the expected media of
print, radio, television, telephone to include "the mechanical
bride" - the automobile, clothing - "our extended skin," money,
clocks, housing. He differentiates between the cool and hot media,
the former leaving more for the participant or user to do, the
latter more comprehensive in its content - and indicates how these
affect diversely the tribal or the individualistic culture. His
insights into the nature of our society, the role the media play in
it, the meaning of media, the actualities of the cold war (again
that temperature reading is important) are provocative and
brilliant. The printed word, however, is a cold medium, and this
book requires concentrated reader application for reward. (Kirkus
Reviews)
When Marshall McLuhan first coined the phrases global village and
the medium is the message in 1964, no-one could have predicted
today's information-dependent planet. No-one, that is, except for a
handful of science fiction writers and Marshall McLuhan.
Understanding Media was written twenty years before the PC
revolution and thirty years before the rise of the Internet. Yet
McLuhan's insights into our engagement with a variety of media led
to a complete rethinking of our entire society. He believed that
the message of electronic media foretold the end of humanity as it
was known. In 1964, this looked like the paranoid babblings of a
madman. In our twenty-first century digital world, the madman looks
quite sane. Understanding Media: the most important book ever
written on communication. Ignore its message at your peril.
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