Marshall McLuhan

Technological Determinism
McLuhan’s Vision

 We are entering an electronic age

 Electronic Media alter the way people
Think
Feel
Act
Technological Determinism

 The belief that

technological
development
determines cultural and
social change.
“The medium is the
message.”
Basic Concepts

 Communication technology inventions

cause cultural change
 Changes in modes of communication
shape human life
 Channels of communication are the
primary causes of cultural change
 “We shape our tools and they in turn
shape us.”
More Basic Concepts

 Way we live is largely a function of how we

process information
 Phonetic alphabet, printing press, and
telegraph changed the way people thought
about themselves
 Same words spoken face-to-face, printed
on a paper or presented on television
provide three different messages
 More Basic Concepts

 Primary channel of communication changes the

way we perceive the world
 Dominant medium of an age dominates people
Media

 Technologies through
which we relate to the
world around us
Very broad definition
(includes the light bulb
and the wheel)
Dominant media
determine our “
ratio of the senses.”
Media

 Anything that amplifies or intensifies a

bodily organ, sense, or function
 Extend our reach
 Increase our efficiency
 Act as a filter to
Organize
Interpret
Extensions

 Media innovations are really extensions of

human faculties
Book extends the eye
Wheel extends the leg
Clothes extend the skin
Electronic circuitry extends the central nervous
system
McLuhan’s “Ages”

 Tribal
 Literacy
 Print
 Electronic
Tribal Age: Oral Culture

 World was an acoustic place

 Hearing, touch, taste, and smell more
developed than sight
 High involvement, passion, and
spontaneity in interactions
Spoken word more emotionally laden than
printed text
 Life more complex because the ear is not
capable of selecting the stimuli it takes in
Age of Literacy: Writing

 Results from development of phonetic

alphabet (2000 B.C.)
 Visual becomes dominant sense
Ear exchanged for the eye
 Encourages “civilized” private detachment
rather than “primitive” tribal involvement
 Encourages logical, linear thinking.
Mathematics, logic, science, philosophy
Line became the organizing principle
The Print Age: Printing Press
 Invention of the Printing Press (1400’s)
 Made visual dependence widespread
 “Repeatability” the most important
characteristic of movable type
 Standardization of national languages
encouraged nationalism
 Books could be read in privacy/isolation
Individualism glorified
 Prototype of Industrial Revolution
Mass production of identical products
Electronic Age: Electronic Media

 Telegraph (1840’s)
 “Global Village” emerges
 Cool medium of TV encourages
spontaniety and involvement
Retribalization
 Instant communication returns us to a pre-
alphabetic oral tradition
 Linear, logical thinking fades
Hot and Cool Media

 Hot
A high definition channel of communication that
focuses on a single sensory receptor
 Cool
A low definition channel of communication that
stimulates several different senses and requires
high sensory involvement
Hot Media Cool Media
 Movies  Television
 Radio  Telephone
 Photographs  Cartoon
 Print  Face to Face Talk

 Lecture  Class Discussion

McLuhan and Education

 People living in the midst of change cling

to what was rather than embrace the new
 Education is a battle ground over forms of
literacy -- print versus video versus audio
 Acoustic media threaten book-bound
establishment of education
The End