Marshall McLuhanTechnological Determinism

McLuhan’s Vision

We are entering an electronic ageElectronic Media alter the way people

ThinkFeelAct

Technological Determinism

The belief that technological development determines cultural and social change.“The medium is the

message.”

Basic Concepts

Communication technology inventions cause cultural change

Changes in modes of communication shape human life

Channels of communication are the primary causes of cultural change

“We shape our tools and they in turn shape us.”

More Basic Concepts

Way we live is largely a function of how we process information

Phonetic alphabet, printing press, and telegraph changed the way people thought about themselves

Same words spoken face-to-face, printed on a paper or presented on television provide three different messages

More Basic Concepts

Primary channel of communication changes the way we perceive the world

Dominant medium of an age dominates people

Media

Technologies through which we relate to the world around usVery broad definition

(includes the light bulb and the wheel)

Dominant media determine our “ratio of the senses.”

Media

Anything that amplifies or intensifies a bodily organ, sense, or function

Extend our reachIncrease our efficiencyAct as a filter to

OrganizeInterpret

Extensions

Media innovations are really extensions of human facultiesBook extends the eyeWheel extends the legClothes extend the skinElectronic circuitry extends the central nervous

system

McLuhan’s “Ages”

Tribal Literacy PrintElectronic

Tribal Age: Oral Culture

World was an acoustic placeHearing, touch, taste, and smell more

developed than sightHigh involvement, passion, and

spontaneity in interactionsSpoken word more emotionally laden than

printed textLife more complex because the ear is not

capable of selecting the stimuli it takes in

Age of Literacy: Writing

Results from development of phonetic alphabet (2000 B.C.)

Visual becomes dominant senseEar exchanged for the eye

Encourages “civilized” private detachment rather than “primitive” tribal involvement

Encourages logical, linear thinking. Mathematics, logic, science, philosophyLine became the organizing principle

The Print Age: Printing PressInvention of the Printing Press (1400’s)Made visual dependence widespread“Repeatability” the most important

characteristic of movable typeStandardization of national languages

encouraged nationalismBooks could be read in privacy/isolation

Individualism glorifiedPrototype of Industrial Revolution

Mass production of identical products

Electronic Age: Electronic Media

Telegraph (1840’s)“Global Village” emergesCool medium of TV encourages

spontaniety and involvementRetribalization

Instant communication returns us to a pre-alphabetic oral tradition

Linear, logical thinking fades

Hot and Cool Media

HotA high definition channel of communication that

focuses on a single sensory receptorCool

A low definition channel of communication that stimulates several different senses and requires high sensory involvement

Hot MediaMoviesRadioPhotographsPrint

Lecture

Cool MediaTelevisionTelephoneCartoonFace to Face Talk

Class Discussion

McLuhan and Education

People living in the midst of change cling to what was rather than embrace the new

Education is a battle ground over forms of literacy -- print versus video versus audio

Acoustic media threaten book-bound establishment of education

The End