Understanding Media
In the introduction to McLuhan 's Understanding Media he writes: ‘Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned’ (1964: p.3). Like much of McLuhan 's writing this statement is vast and poetic, with its strength of conviction making it quite persuasive. But if we are to be believers in this rhetoric we must have an understanding of what he means.
The underlying concept of McLuhan 's view of electronic technology is that it has become an extension of our senses, particularly those of sight and sound. The telephone and the radio become a long distance ear as the television and computer extend the eye by projecting further than our biological range of vision and hearing.
The basic precepts of his view are that the rapidity of communication through electric media echoes the speed of the senses. Through media such as the telephone, television and more recently the personal computer and the 'Internet ', we are increasingly linked together across the globe and this has enabled us to connect with people at the other side of the world as quickly as it takes us to contact and converse with those who inhabit the same physical space (i.e. the people that live in the same village). We can now hear and see events that take place thousands of miles away in a matter of seconds, often quicker than we hear of events in our own villages or even families, and McLuhan argues that it is the speed of these electronic media that allow us to act and react to global issues at the same speed as normal face to face verbal communication.
Before I consider whether any justification lies in McLuhan 's view I need to distinguish between two different meanings in the metaphor of the 'village '. In one sense the village represents simply the notion of a small space in which people can communicate quickly and know of every event that takes place. As he
The underlying concept of McLuhan 's view of electronic technology is that it has become an extension of our senses, particularly those of sight and sound. The telephone and the radio become a long distance ear as the television and computer extend the eye by projecting further than our biological range of vision and hearing.
The basic precepts of his view are that the rapidity of communication through electric media echoes the speed of the senses. Through media such as the telephone, television and more recently the personal computer and the 'Internet ', we are increasingly linked together across the globe and this has enabled us to connect with people at the other side of the world as quickly as it takes us to contact and converse with those who inhabit the same physical space (i.e. the people that live in the same village). We can now hear and see events that take place thousands of miles away in a matter of seconds, often quicker than we hear of events in our own villages or even families, and McLuhan argues that it is the speed of these electronic media that allow us to act and react to global issues at the same speed as normal face to face verbal communication.
Before I consider whether any justification lies in McLuhan 's view I need to distinguish between two different meanings in the metaphor of the 'village '. In one sense the village represents simply the notion of a small space in which people can communicate quickly and know of every event that takes place. As he
References: * McLuhan, M.(1964): Understanding Media. New York: Mentor * McLuhan, M.(1962): The Gutenberg Galaxy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul * McLuhan, M. and Q. Fiore (1967): The Medium is the Massage. New York: Bantam * McLuhan, M. and Q. Fiore(1968): War and Peace in the Global Village. New York: Bantam * Morris, D.( ) The Human Animal Rucker, R v.b. et al. (Eds.). (1992) Mondo 2000. New York: HarperCollins