Marshall McLuhan: A Man With A Message

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the social repercussions felt as a result of the mass media. The author examines the life and contribution to how the media is viewed by Canadian Marshall McLuhan. Some of the different areas examined are how language is used to express ideas, which individuals receive them and the mode of technology that occurs between the two. The author examines two different aspects of media, the languages of speech and the written word and how their impact is felt differently in society. The author also examines McLuhan's view on how new technology in this field impacted society, especially the individual. This paper demonstrates how McLuhan's different theories tied together and how in his opinion, it is the different modes of technology who have really come to influence how the media and its role in influencing society.

From the Paper:

"When a new technology is introduced to a society, new ratios will develop throughout and cultural perception will change. This is where one begins to see the basis of McLuhan thought, the impact on the individual of the technology of the media. When most individuals receive a message they are aware of the content, and the content only. Few recognize how important it is to be aware of how something is said. The attitudes conveyed throughout the message, the meanings that lie beneath the surface, are more important as they shape how the actual content is perceived. These two schools of thought made up the whole of popular thinking. At least, that is the way it was until McLuhan. With one sentence McLuhan introduced a whole new point of view. That sentence was: "The medium is the message". McLuhan contended that what was truly important was the technology that was used, not the content or the way that the content was presented."

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