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Understanding Media
Book

Understanding Media

The Extensions of Man

Marshall McLuhan
MIT Press, 1964
First Edition: 1964

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Reading Understanding Media brings to mind the old line that Shakespeare’s plays are nothing but a bunch of clichés. McLuhan’s 1964 look at the impact of technology and communications on society is laced with phrases that have become fixtures of modern language, like ’Global Village’, ’Age of Information’ and ’The medium is the message’. The book seeks to tie together big themes like art, culture, and social and economic history. While often successful at drawing these sweeping connections, McLuhan in certain chapters wanders into what sound like self-indulgent lectures. His analysis of television as a "cool" or low-resolution medium is dated. Phrases like "dig it" and too-numerous references to "the bomb," Mad magazine and skin-divers clearly belong to the early 1960s. But this book is valuable for its prophetic analyses. McLuhan’s prediction of an emerging information-based economy and a global integration facilitated by the Internet and digital technologies is stunningly accurate. getAbstract.com recommends Understanding Media to executives working in media, telecommunications and technology, all of whom should have at least a passing knowledge of this classic.

Take-Aways

  • All media are extensions of Man’s physical and psychological being that seek to increase speed and power.
  • Media, in turn, shape Man’s physical and psychological being.
  • Older communications media like writing, roads, military force and printing produced a linear-thinking, rational and civilized Man.

About the Author

Marshall McLuhan was born in Alberta, Canada, and received a Ph.D. in English Literature from Cambridge University. He taught at the University of Wisconsin, the University of St. Louis, and the University of Toronto. In addition to Understanding Media, he wrote The Mechanical Bride and The Gutenberg Galaxy.

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