Marshall McLuhan

MARSHALL MC LUHAN

McLuhan was a canadian scholar whose career focused upon popular culture and trying to understanding the effects of technology on human beings and their relationships within their communities.

He was remembered as a 'cult hero' because he was one of the first to bring to light the issue of media ruling our lives. McLuhan's purpose was to provide insight into how the media functions. He wrote many books and one that underlines his philosophies. It refers to the media and what it's message is, the title says 'Massage' it is a play on McLuhan's regular spill of 'The medium is the Message',

he used 'massage' to denote the effect each medium has on the human sensorium, taking inventory of the 'effects' of numerous media in terms of how they 'massage' the sensorium. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Medium_is_the_Massage)

The issue was that society could be watching a television show and it would have the same effect on them physiologically even if they were watching a documentary or a child's cartoon. It didn't leave an impression because of the type of medium but they way it was communicated. Through the television people had both visuals and sounds while radio only had the sounds and posters only had visuals. The optimum from of communicating was television and it was very influential on the individuals in society and Marshal was the first to recognise this trend that is seemingly continuing into today.He was seen as very controversial suggesting the public having no control over their mind or thoughts because of media influence.

1st image -- http://www.metapedia.com/wiki/images/Mcluhan.jpg

2nd image -- http://sunagurol.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/36694.jpg