Introduction Mc Luhan PDF

Preview

Summary

Introduction to Theorist McLuhan...

Description

Introduction McLuhan Marshall McLuhan  1911-1980  Canadian literacy scholar and academic  Ideas gained widespread popular attention  Medium is the message/Medium is the massage (1967)  Global village (1989)  Consultant in the media industries  Fell out of favour in 1970s, but interest revived in 1990s as discussion of globalisation emerged   

McLuhan is important because: One of the first theorists to examine how our means of communicating contributes to the shaping, character and scope of our society, to economic, political and cultural life He emphasises the role of media and communication technologies in influencing the historical development of society

McLuhan's Media Fame  Bestselling book 'Understanding Media' brought McLuhan to attention as a media analyst  Wired magazine elected McLuhan their 'Patron Saint'  Features in Annie Hall (1977) According to McLuhan…  Content of the media is largely irrelevant to our understanding of its influence  For McLuhan, it is the technical forms of media communication that shape human perception  The medium is the message/massage  Perception of reality depends upon the structure of information  Impact upon cognition  An extension of self… Medium is the Message  The form of each medium is associated with a different arrangement, or ratio, among the senses, which creates new forms of awareness  These 'new ways of experiencing' that each medium creates, occur in the user regardless of the program content  The message of a medium is any change in scale, pace or pattern that the medium causes in societies or culture

Impact of Media Technology  Shift from oral to print communication changed senses and perceptions of society at the time  Print stresses sight or vision, and this influenced our thinking, making it 'linear, sequential, regular, repeated and logical allowing humans to 'separate thought from feeling' and 'led to a sense of alienation and individualism' (Severin and Tankard 1988, p.315)  Book vs Kindle  Mobile vs landline  Analogue Photos vs Digital photos etc.  



McLuhan also argues that written culture shortened human memory since information could now be stored in book form Furthermore, print also provided the opportunity for emergence of Nationalism, idea of the nation state, as books in languages other than Latin encouraged national legitimacy outside the authority of the Catholic Church (Gutenberg Press, mid 15th Century)

Emergence of Print  Emergence of books fostered a sense of private identity and imposed a (new) level of standardisation in language  Furthermore, before writing became widespread, humankind, lived in an 'acoustic space', shaped by the spoken word  Writing transformed space into something bounded, linear, ordered, structured and rational 

'The written page with its edges, margins, and sharply defined letters in row after row brought about a new way of thinking about space' (Terrence Gordon 1997, p.31)



For McLuhan, media technology changed the balance between the senses of sight, sound, even smell, touch and taste E.g. books Communication via social media Computer based work The university experience

   

 

Media has opened up the possibility of people being everywhere at the same time Electronic media severs ties to individual nations, we become members of the global village, move closer together (do you agree?)

McLuhan and Future Technology…  'A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organisation, retrieve the individual's encyclopaedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind' (From The Gutenberg Galaxy, McLuhan, 1962) Global Village  The global village is a reconstruction of the communal world ‘torn asunder’ by the print media.  McLuhan believed in the power of communication technologies to shape human history, with each medium shaping our senses to produce particular social outcomes  

McLuhan believed people make sense of the world in different ways, depending on whether they, e.g. watch TV or read newspapers (or consume other media) This is connected to McLuhan’s theories around hot and cold media, and how immersive they are

Technological Determinism  However, McLuhan has been criticised for subscribing to ‘technological determinism’, accused of placing faith in technology to bring about social change while neglecting the need for reform of social structures  The notion that technology shapes society; that technological change causes and is responsible for social change and cultural values  Seen as driving social change and progress  An independent factor, outside society  However, notions of technological determinism are problematic and subject to criticism    

What do you think of this notion? The notion that technology shapes society? That technological change causes and is responsible for social change and cultural values? Can you think of examples, or do you reject this notion?

McLuhan's Legacy  Can you apply any of McLuhan's ideas to your own work?  Tetrad of media effects  Global village  Media is the message/massage  Technological determinism...