The McLuhan Mindset

Life and Career of Herbert Marshall McLuhan

Herbert Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher, educator, and scholar who studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge.
McLuhan coined the phrase "the medium is the message" and predicted the World Wide Web almost 30 years before it was invented.
He was a professor of English at several universities in the United States and Canada before moving to the University of Toronto in 1946, where he remained for the rest of his life.
McLuhan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1911, and his parents were both born in Canada.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge, respectively.
McLuhan converted to Catholicism in 1937 and remained a devout Catholic throughout his life.
He taught English at Saint Louis University from 1937 to 1944 and wrote his doctoral dissertation on Thomas Nashe and the verbal arts.
McLuhan began the Communication and Culture seminars at the University of Toronto in the early 1950s and published his first major work, The Mechanical Bride (1951), which examines the effect of advertising on society and culture.
McLuhan's most famous work, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), is a study in the fields of oral culture, print culture, cultural studies, and media ecology.
McLuhan was named the Albert Schweitzer Chair in Humanities at Fordham University in the Bronx in 1967-1968.
McLuhan suffered a stroke in September 1979, and he died in his sleep on December 31, 1980.
McLuhan's work and perspectives have been renewed with the arrival of the Internet and the World Wide Web.Marshall McLuhan's Works: Understanding Media and The Medium Is the Massage
McLuhan believed that new technologies have a gravitational effect on cognition and social organization.
Print culture brought about the cultural predominance of the visual over the aural/oral.
McLuhan coined the term "global village" to describe the collective identity of humankind in the electronic age.
McLuhan argued that technology has no per se moral bent and that its effects on cognition are a matter of perspective.
McLuhan's most widely-known work, Understanding Media, proposed that media themselves, not the content they carry, should be the focus of study.
McLuhan's insight was that a medium affects society not by the content delivered over it, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.
McLuhan argued that different media invite different degrees of participation and proposed the concepts of "hot" and "cool" media.
McLuhan's writing style and mode of argument have been criticized for being too simplistic and technologically deterministic.
The Medium Is the Massage was McLuhan's best-selling book, and it explored the effects of numerous media on the human sensorium.
In The Medium Is the Massage, McLuhan argued that all media are "extensions" of our human senses, bodies, and minds.
War and Peace in the Global Village used James Joyce's Finnegans Wake as an indicator of how war may be conducted in the future.
McLuhan's Ten Thunders in War and Peace in the Global Village are 100-character portmanteaus that create statements likened to the effects that each technology has on society.Marshall McLuhan's Key Concepts and Legacy
McLuhan's book, Understanding Media, explores the effects of communication media on human perception and society, introducing the concept that "the medium is the message".
McLuhan's work on the "global village" describes how electronic communication technologies shrink the world and create a sense of global community.
From Cliché to Archetype, McLuhan's collaboration with poet Wilfred Watson, explores how clichés and archetypes shape human perception.
McLuhan's tetrad is a tool for analyzing the effects of any technology on society, dividing its effects into four categories: enhancement, retrieval, obsolescence, and reversal.
McLuhan believed that media cannot be understood without analyzing the relationship between figure (medium) and ground (context).
McLuhan distinguished between visual space, a linear, quantitative model, and acoustic space, a holistic, qualitative order with a paradoxical topology.
McLuhan argued that electric media have an affinity with haptic and hearing perception, while mechanical media have an affinity with visual perception.
McLuhan's work heavily influenced cultural critics, thinkers, and media theorists such as Neil Postman, Jean Baudrillard, and Timothy Leary.
McLuhan was credited with coining the phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out" by Timothy Leary.
McLuhan's legacy is evident in popular culture, including his influence on Wired magazine and his appearance as a character in David Cronenberg's film Videodrome.
McLuhan's work remains relevant today, as society continues to grapple with the effects of new and emerging communication technologies.
McLuhan's ideas about media and perception continue to provoke critical thinking and debate.Marshall McLuhan: Life, Works, and Legacy
Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher, professor, and author.
McLuhan's work focused on the relationship between technology and culture, and he is best known for coining the phrase "the medium is the message."
McLuhan's book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) was a groundbreaking work that explored the effects of different media on human perception and communication.
McLuhan was a popular figure in the 1960s and 1970s, and his ideas influenced many artists, writers, and thinkers of the time.
McLuhan also appeared in popular media, including a cameo in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977).
Despite his death in 1980, someone claiming to be McLuhan was posting on a Wired mailing list in 1996.
McLuhan's legacy is celebrated through the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, which offers a fellowship program in his honor.
Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School in Toronto is named after him.
The media room at Canada House in Berlin is called the Marshall McLuhan Salon and hosts a permanent exhibition dedicated to McLuhan.
McLuhan's major works include The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962), Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964), and The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967).
McLuhan's ideas continue to be studied and debated by scholars and cultural critics.
McLuhan was referenced in the song "Broadway Melody of 1974" by Genesis and in an episode of The Sopranos entitled "House Arrest."
McLuhan is the subject of the 1993 play The Medium, which was revived for a farewell tour in 2022 by the SITI Company.