Mc Luhan Believes It is impossible to understand

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

Mc. Luhan’s contribution to communication & philosophy The Medium is the Massage The Medium is the Message

The Medium is the Massage? According to Mc. Luhan, 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 Mc. Luhan stated that 'print is the technology of individualism. '

Electronic technology fosters and encourages unification and involvement. • Similarly electric modes of communication reshape civilization in the 20 th century. • "Electricity does not centralise, but decentralises. " (from Understanding Media) • Mc. Luhan 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.

Art, or the translation of a culture, is shaped by the way space is perceived. Primitive and prealphabet people integrate time and space as one and live in an acoustic, horizonless, boundless, olfactory space, rather than in visual space.

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

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 Mc. Luhan, The Medium is the Massage

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 Mc. Luhan, The Medium is the Massage

Writing is a technology, too! What happened when we humans began to write? …when new technologies are introduced there always those who are skeptical… One skeptic about writing was the philosopher, Socrates

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. ”

created the portable book, which people could read in privacy and in isolation from others. People could now inspire—and conspire… Literacy conferred the power of detachment, non-involvement. Marshall Mc. Luhan, The Medium is the Massage

Enter Television…

E. B. White July, 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 television—of that I am quite sure. ” E. B. White, “Removal”

July, 1938 “Clearly the race today is between loud speaking and soft, between the things that are and the things that seem to be, between the chemist of RCA and the angel of God. Radio has already given sound a wide currency, and sound “effects” are taking the place once enjoyed by sound itself. Television will enormously enlarge the eye’s range, and like radio, will advertise the Elsewhere. ” E. B. White, “Removal”

July, 1938 “Together with the tabs, the mags, and the movies, television will insist that we forget the primary and the near in favor of the secondary and the remote. More hours in every twenty-four will be spent digesting ideas, sounds, images—distant and concocted. In sufficient accumulation, radio sounds and television sights may become more familiar to us than their originals. ” E. B. White, “Removal”

July, 1938 “When I was a child people simply looked about them and were moderately happy; today they peer beyond the seven seas, bury themselves waist deep in tidings, and by and large what they see and hear makes them unutterably sad. ” E. B. White, “Removal”

Mc. Luhan’s contribution to communication & philosophy The Global Village

Global Village “Ours is a brand-new world of Allatonceness. “Time” has ceased, “space” has vanished. We now live in a global village…a 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 Mc. Luhan, The Medium is the Massage

“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 Mc. Luhan, The Medium is the Massage

Television completes the cycle of the human sensorium. With the omnipresent ear and the moving eye, we have abolished writing…

…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 Mc. Luhan, The Medium is the Massage

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate Era: (pre-alphabet, oral, tribal) Dominant organ of sensory and social orientation was the ear. Literate Era: Electronic Era:

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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. Literate Era: Electronic Era:

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: Electronic Era:

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: Phonetic alphabet forced magic world of ear to yield to neutral world of the eye. Electronic Era:

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: 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. Electronic Era:

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: 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. Electronic Era:

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: 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. Electronic Era:

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: 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. Electronic Era: In TV there is an extension of the sense of active touch which involves all the senses, rather than of sight alone.

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: 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. Electronic Era: 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.

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: 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. Electronic Era: 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.

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate 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) Literate Era: 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. Electronic Era: 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. Books could be read in privacy, isolation. Literacy Technological changes conferred the power of create new environments of detachment non-involvement. sense and feeling gradually altering patterns of perception.

Mc. Luhan’s ideas on how technology affected people during three eras: Pre Literate Era: (pre-alphabet, Dominant organ of oral, tribal) 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) Literate Era: 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. Electronic Era: 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. Books could be read in privacy, isolation. Literacy Technological changes conferred the power of create new environments of detachment non-involvement. sense and feeling gradually altering patterns of perception. Global village: restructuring of tribal emotions.