A Thread For Marshal McLuhan

kdnxdr

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I read his work so long ago but believe he still has a significant affect on communication and public media.

Just wanted to open the thread and see if anyone wanted to comment.
 

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I read his work so long ago but believe he still has a significant affect on communication and public media.
I agree, but I'm not sure what I think about that. I've brought up the notion of simulacra in another thread, which is a similar notion to "the medium is the message": the thing represented is subsumed by that which represents it, the image is the new reality. Here's a link that connects the two.
 

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Thank you for the link. I read it about half-way through

Here are some of the concepts that I pulled out of the article that I thought especially interesting:

1. "...individuals functioning as terminals of media and communcation networks"

2. "...information processing replaces human practice and techne and poesis alike"

3. "...the most intimate processes of our life become the virtual feeding ground of the media."

4. "...restricted space..."

5. "...the obscenity of what no longer has a secret."

6. "evaporating passion"

7. "...we become a pure screen, a switching center for all the networks of influence..."
 

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Marshall

I read his work so long ago but believe he still has a significant affect on communication and public media.

Just wanted to open the thread and see if anyone wanted to comment.

The guy was brilliant. Just his remarks about radio as a "hot medium" all by themselves should have warned people about such things as the genocide in Ruwanda.

PLUS: he's in a Woody Allen movie. The man knew all about cool.
 
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pdr

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And...

how many times was he right about:

'The medium IS the message.'

I watched the changes take place particularly in newspapers. Once there were some newspapers you could read for information and journalistic endeavour. Not now.
 

kdnxdr

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If, suppose, that it is true that "the medium is the message".

Where does that leave those that compose the message?

And, what happens to the message makers?

And, what becomes of the intent of writing?