Week 9 : Marshall McLuhan
Journal Entry 7
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall
McLuhan is a literary scholar from Canada who is one of the best known media
theorists and critics of the era.
Marshall McLuhan is the author of the famous books, The Gutenberg Galaxy: the Making
of Typographic Man (1962) and Understanding
Media: the Extensions of Man (1964).
- 1953-1955 Chairman of Ford Foundation Seminar on Culture and Communication.
- 1959-1960 Director of Project in Understanding New-Media for National Association of Educational Broadcasters, and Office of Education, U.S.A.
- 1962 The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man won the Governor General's Medal for that year.
- 1963 Appointment by the President of The University of Toronto to direct a new Centre for Culture and Technology
The Medium is The Massage/Message ?
The medium is the massage was a simple printing error that occurred when
McLuhan ordered his book to be printed. But he had like the mistake so much, he
kept it as it is and confused everyone who read it.
Meaning : The message is the
message. (A deliberate paradoxical statement.)
“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...” –
Understanding Media, p. 7
Throughout history, what has been communicated has been less important
than the medium.
Technology as the Extensions of the Human Beings:
-
When an individual/society uses something in a way that extends the
range of the human body/mind in a new way.
-
Ex : A shovel for digging is an extension of the hands, a microscope is
the extension of the eye.
Amputations?
-
The counterpart of extension
-
Every extension of mankind amputates or modifies some other extension.
-
Ex : The telephone extends the voice but amputates the art of
penmanship.
Mankinds obsession with extensions and ignorance of the amputations
would lead to our own demise.
Global Village :
-
You have extreme concern over everybody’s life.
-
It is as big as a globe and as small as a village.
-
The shrinking of the world through the use of communications.
Tetrad
-
Laws in which we refer to when looking at a culture.
-
What does it (the medium of technology extend? => What does it make
obsolete? => What is retrieved? => What does the technology reverse into
if it is over extended?
1. Marshall McLuhan had theories
about media as the extensions of man. Kindly explain how does the theories
being applied in this age and time using mass media.
The
extensions of man can be seen through the internet as an extension of their
mind and mouth. Especially through mass media, where you can say something from
a thousand miles away and it will reach the world immediately. It is the
greater form of the telephone. This time, you aren’t only speaking to an
individual, but almost the entire world. There is a limitless world in the
world of the internet. Through social media, like Facebook or Twitter, people
are able to send their message and receive more than words, but also through
other media forms like pictures or videos. Politicians are also well known for
spreading their propaganda through social media. A candidates 45-minute message
would not be able to be fully aired on a 30-minute newscast because of the
editing required. So, politicians are able to bypass broadcast and print media
to reach the country through social media. Politicians have also been known to use the
extensions of the mouth through TV Commercials and Print Ads.
Mass
media such as Skype or Video Calls can also be an extension of the eyes, ears, mouth
and (in a very broad point of view,) feet. The fact the two people can see and
converse with each other through a computer screen as extensions is simple
amazing. However, it amputates the need to actually have a real life
interaction with the person we communicate with. It can become an extreme
shortcut. However, it retrieves communication with your loved one through a
long distance, the sense of togetherness returns with the arrival of video
calls. An auto-extended video call communication longs for a need for physical
touch.
In
conclusion, the extensions of man has its amputations that people need to pay
attention to, else the bad end of the stick is going to stab us when we least
expect it.
References
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