MARSHALL

MACLUHAN
1911-1980
• Herbert Marshall McLuhan
• Canadian professor, philosopher, and
public intellectual
• Born in Canada in 1911
• Influential communications theorists of
the 20th century
• His book, The Mechanical Bride,
published in 1951
Medium is the message

Content of any medium is always another

medium”

light bulb as a clear demonstration of the

concept of "the medium is the message
 According to marshal saying in his own words:
 “This is merely to say that the personal and social
consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of
ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into
our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new
technology”
 Imaginary example :The well is our medium (as the radio or Web
would be), and the water is our message
 Every information is perceive differently trough different medium
 Uses emails than phone texts
 Specific medium for specific audiences
Global Village
 Marshall McLuhan predicted the global village, one
world interconnected by an electronic nervous system,
making it part of our popular culture before it actually
happened.
 McLuhan's concept was based on the idea that culture
would move toward greater personal interaction, after
leaving behind early eras of humanity, focused on the
spoken and written word.
 McLuhan's belief was that the world was entering a
fourth ''age'' he called the electronic age, where people
everywhere would be able to find and experience the
same information through technological tools.
 McLuhan chose the insightful phrase "global village" to
highlight his observation that an electronic nervous
system (the media) was rapidly integrating the planet --
events in one part of the world could be experienced
from other parts in real-time, which is what human
experience was like when we lived in small villages.
 His studies on trends in technology, and how human
communication was affected, helped him develop his
hypotheses about the future, and how innovations
such as the coming internet, (he didn't yet know its
name, of course), would impact individuals and culture
as a whole.
 McLuhan warned that the future global village would
be wrought with violence. He figured the electronic
process would force people to "re-tribalize," placing
excessive stress on individuals and traditional
identities.
Understanding Media

 Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man is a 1964 book by

Marshall McLuhan, in which he proposes that the media, not the
content that they carry, should be the focus of study.
 He suggests that media affects the society in which it plays the
role not only by the content delivered through it but also by the
characteristic of the medium.
 He uses the example of a light bulb. The light bulb has no content
in of itself yet it has a social effect.
• The Light bulb is McLuhan's favorite example
because all the light bulb does is emit light. It does
nothing to communicate information, it only helps
create a wide range of behaviors by illuminating
information and creating spaces in your home
otherwise wouldn’t be able to be inhabited.
• McLuhan argues that Cubism is a form that
announces that media is the message by “by
giving the inside and outside, the top, bottom,
back, and front and the rest, in two dimensions,
drops the illusion of perspective in favor of instant
sensory awareness of the whole.”
• Media becomes an extension of ourselves and our
senses. Media becomes a fixed charge on our lives
that we live on a daily basis.
  McLuhan argued, the electronic media of television
and computers, would liberate us from our
dependence on the printed word. Print was what he
Hot and Cold called a "hot" medium, one that absorbed all of our
attention and left little room for participation.
Media
 The medium it had supplanted, the spoken word,
was by contrast a "cool" medium that left plenty of
space for participation.
  Reading, to put it simply, is a lonely pursuit, while
speech is a social one. So when we became readers,
rather than listeners, we sacrificed our shared, tribal
consciousness and became locked into private
consciousness.
Hot and Cool
 Electric media, being cool technologies that promote
Media interaction, would bring back our lost tribal
consciousness, McLuhan believed. But our tribes
would no longer be small, isolated groups. Because
the new media spanned the planet, we would
become members of a "global village".
Hot and Cool
Media
  Google's celebration
Recently, Google celebrated the 106th birthday
of Marshall McLuhan - an intellectual who pioneered
Media related the study of media theory with the famous
examples declaration," The medium is the message." With the 3.5
billion people who ran Google searches and saw
Google's doodle dedicated to McLuhan
  So, the medium is the message—what does it mean?
Quite simply, it means that the way that we send and
receive information is more important than the
information itself. Where we were once consumers,
Media related consuming information by watching television or
listening to the radio, in the 21st century we have now
examples also become producers, creating our own information
as well. For example, after watching the latest episode
of a television series, we can now instantly connect
with anyone, anywhere in the world who also watched
the programmed and communicate with them.
Media related examples

 Tweeter and Emojis

The mediums have changed the way we behave. Studies have shown that
our memory spans have reduced due to digital technology. News stories have
been replaced with 140 character tweets. Conversations have been replaced with
emojis.
  Egyptian revolution 2011
For McLuhan watching television changed the
way we looked at the world. He said “It is impossible to
understand social and cultural changes without a
knowledge of the workings of media.”
Media related The Egyptian revolution of 2011 was a successful
examples uprising in part due to the extensive use of Facebook
and other social media. Online activism helped to
organise and publicise demonstrations and acts of non-
violent civil disobedience which resulted in the
eventual overthrow of the government.
 In McLuhan’s prophesied, “One big gossip
column that is unforgiving, forgetful and from
which there is no redemption”. We can see present
day examples of this where tweets and comments
posted online have resulted in job dismissals,
arrests and online abuse. The deleting of these
tweets or comments has minimal effect—anything
posted on the internet potentially could last
forever.
Media related
examples
  The white house battle
McLuhan said, “Real, total war has become information
war.
Media related . The battle for the White House was multi-faceted and
examples complex, but information and propaganda was key,
with both sides working hard to broadcast their views.
The two protagonists, Trump and Clinton tried to
influence the public, with information from WikiLeaks
and alleged actions from Russia taking centre stage.
  Media as extension of human sense
 All things can be considered as medium
 Personal changes correspond with social changes
resulting in new media
Research  New media changes what and how society perceives
 Hot and cool
 Language too is a medium
 Provides us sense of freedom and energy
Thank You!