Fifty years ago, Marshall McLuhan published Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Assessing all media that came before television and predicting all that would come after, he argued that we shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. Someday, he saw, we would all think differently. WNYC’s Sara Fishko offers us a quick glimpse of the enigmatic ideas of the enigmatic man.
On The Media is funded, in part, by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Overbrook Foundation and the Jane Marcher Foundation.
Comments [4]
For more on the hot vs. cold distinction in McLuhan, and also a discussion of how his work intersects with Claude Shannon's theory of information, check out this slideshare and youtube content...
http://www.slideshare.net/flywheel1/whats-at-stake-in-the-information-debate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_eOJGG502w
"The MEDIUM is the message," he said, famously. I can't resist the correction of the blurb on the program page here, but I'm grateful for the story on him. What an influence! Thank you!
Did you contact Quentin Fiore, who collaborated in popularizing McLuhans work? By the way, Quention was always charmed that McLuhan always said Paris, France, never just Paris
Dear Ms Fishko,
Next time you do a story on any subject I suggest you dig deeper and wider beyond the way OTM covers story aka "staying within established coordinates." While Mr Luhan's book is important and interesting it presents a rather limited scope of matter that was directed toward American public with American point of view. While we live in global times in 24/7 news cycle that TV epitomizes I wish you took time to look over a very interesting documentary from Germany form 1999: "Television under Swastika." You would then realize that TV is not an American phenomenon as advertised but it also outlines the way of propagating ideology, lifestyle or "way of life" that most American viewers would find chillingly familiar. Once again OTM falls short on research and whether it is by design or sheer incompetence is in an ear of the listener.
Truly Yours,
The Reporter
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