McLuhan Believes

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McLuhan Believes

• It is impossible to understand social and
  cultural changes without a knowledge of the
  workings of media.
• ---Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage

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McLuhans contribution to communication
philosophy

• The Medium is the Massage
• The Medium is the Message

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The Medium is the Massage?

• According to McLuhan, societies have always been
  shaped more by the nature of the media by which
  people communicate than by the content of the
  communication.
• The alphabet and print technology fostered and
  encouraged a fragmenting process, a process of
  specialism and detachment.
• In The Gutenberg Galaxy McLuhan stated that
  'print is the technology of individualism.'

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• Electronic technology fosters and encourages
  unification and involvement.
• Similarly electric modes of communication reshape
  civilization in the 20th century.
• "Electricity does not centralise, but
  decentralises." (from Understanding Media)
• McLuhan argued that technology is an extension
  of the human nervous system and that
  technological changes create new environments of
  sense and feeling gradually altering patterns of
  perception.

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Art, or the translation of a culture, is shaped
by the way space is perceived.

• Primitive and pre-alphabet people integrate time
  and space as one and live in an acoustic,
  horizonless, boundless, olfactory space, rather
  than in visual space.

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• Their graphic presentation is like an x-ray. They
  put in everything they know, rather than only
  what they see.

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Acoustic Time

• Until writing was invented
• man lived in acoustic space
• boundless
• directionless
• horizonless
• in the dark of the mind
• in the world of emotion
• by primordial intuition
• by terror
• --Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage

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The Ear was the Earliest

• The dominant organ of sensory and social
  orientation in pre-alphabet societies was the
  ear
• hearing was believing
• The phonetic alphabet forced the magic world of
  the ear to yield to the neutral world of the eye.
  
• Man was given an eye for an ear.
• ---Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage

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Writing is a technology, too!What happened
when we humans began to write?

• when new technologies are introduced
• there are always those who are skeptical
• One skeptic about writing was the philosopher,
  Socrates

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Socrates Cautions Against Literacy in Phaedrus

• The discovery of the alphabet will create
  forgetfulness in the learners souls,
• because they will not use their memories
• They will trust to the external written
  characters and not remember of themselves
• You give your disciples not truth
• but only the semblance of truth
• They will be heroes of many things,
• and will have learned nothing
• They will appear to be omniscient
• and will generally know nothing.

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created the portable book, which people could
read in privacy and in isolation from others.
People could now inspireand conspireLiteracy
conferred the power of detachment,
non-involvement.Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is
the Massage
Printing
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• Enter
• Television

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E.B. WhiteJuly, 1938

• I believe television is going to be the test
  of the modern world, and that in this new
  opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision
  we shall discover either a new and unbearable
  disturbance of the general peace or a saving
  radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by
  televisionof that I am quite sure.
• E.B. White, Removal

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McLuhans contribution to communication
philosophy

• The Global Village

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Global Village

• Ours is a brand-new world of
• Allatonceness.
• Time has ceased, space has vanished.
• We now live in a global villagea simultaneous
  happening. We are back in acoustic space. We
  have begun again to structure the primordial
  feeling, the tribal emotions from which a few
  centuries of literacy divorced us. ---Marshall
  McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage

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• We have had to shift our stress
  of attention from action to reaction.
• We must now know in advance the
  consequences of any policy or action, since the
  results are experienced without delay. Because of
  electric speed, we can no longer wait
  and see
• The new electronic interdependence recreates
  the world in the image of a global village.
  ---Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage

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Television completes the cycle of the human
sensorium. With the omnipresent ear and the
moving eye, we have abolished writing
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• In television there occurs an extension of the
  sense of active, exploratory touch which involves
  all the senses simultaneously, rather than that
  of sight alone
• electric technology has meant for Western
  people a considerable drop in the visual
  component, in their experience, and a
  corresponding increase in the activity of their
  other senses
• In television, images are projected at you. You
  are the screen. The images wrap around you. You
  are the vanishing point. ---Marshall McLuhan, The
  Medium is the Massage

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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village)
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. The alphabet and print fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, specialism and detachment.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. The alphabet and print fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, specialism and detachment. Print is the technology of individualism.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. The alphabet and print fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, specialism and detachment. Print is the technology of individualism. Books could be read in privacy, isolation. Literacy conferred the power of detachment non-involvement.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. The alphabet and print fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, specialism and detachment. Print is the technology of individualism. Books could be read in privacy, isolation. Literacy conferred the power of detachment non-involvement. In TV there is an extension of the sense of active touch which involves all the senses, rather than of sight alone.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. The alphabet and print fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, specialism and detachment. Print is the technology of individualism. Books could be read in privacy, isolation. Literacy conferred the power of detachment non-involvement. In TV there is an extension of the sense of active touch which involves all the senses, rather than of sight alone. Electronic technology fosters unification and involvement.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. The alphabet and print fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, specialism and detachment. Print is the technology of individualism. Books could be read in privacy, isolation. Literacy conferred the power of detachment non-involvement. In TV there is an extension of the sense of active touch which involves all the senses, rather than of sight alone. Electronic technology fosters unification and involvement. Technology is an extension of the nervous system.
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McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. The alphabet and print fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, specialism and detachment. Print is the technology of individualism. Books could be read in privacy, isolation. Literacy conferred the power of detachment non-involvement. In TV there is an extension of the sense of active touch which involves all the senses, rather than of sight alone. Electronic technology fosters unification and involvement. Technology is an extension of the nervous system. Technological changes create new environments of sense and feeling gradually altering patterns of perception.
34
McLuhans ideas on how technology affected people
during three eras
Pre Literate Era Literate Era
Electronic Era (pre-alphabet, oral,
tribal)
Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Integration of time and space as one. Live in an acoustic, boundless olfactory space. Their art shows everything they know, rather than only what they see. Other (global village) Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. The alphabet and print fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, specialism and detachment. Print is the technology of individualism. Books could be read in privacy, isolation. Literacy conferred the power of detachment non-involvement. In TV there is an extension of the sense of active touch which involves all the senses, rather than of sight alone. Electronic technology fosters unification and involvement. Technology is an extension of the nervous system. Technological changes create new environments of sense and feeling gradually altering patterns of perception. Global village restructuring of tribal emotions.