advertising

affluence

America

anxiety

appetite

artist

body

Canada

charisma

clock

Cold War

communication

computer

darkness

education

electric age

electricity

expert

global village

identity

language

mass transportation

media

medium

modernity

money

name

newspaper

photograph

photography

pornography

prosthesis

publication

publishing

schizophrenia

sentimentality

silence

synesthesia

technology

television

typewriter

typographic man

typography

university

Vietnam

Vietnam War

violence

wealth

word

writing

nationality

Canadian

occupation / innovator as

public intellectual

innovator in the field of

communication theory

mass media

media theory

philosopher

sociologist

university teacher

literary critic

art history

literary studies

culturology

philosophy

religion

Catholicism

religious studies

semantics

is about ensuring that we go about our business with some tune or slogan throbbing quietly in the background of our minds.

The business of the advertiser is to see that we go about our business with some magic spell or tune or slogan throbbing quietly in the background of our minds. Marshall McLuhan, Commonweal, September 1953

 aims at standardizing the consumer (by creating a programmed harmony and collective consciousness among all human impulses and aspirations and endeavors).

Ads are now icons talk to him now and you' ll discover that everything is an icon and news, as in Time, are ads. ''Ideally.'' utters the prophet, ''advertising aims at the goal of a programmed harmony among all human impulses and aspirations and endeavours. Using handicraft methods, it stretches out toward the ultimate electronic goal of a collective consciousness.'' This is simply a high-flown way of saying that advertising aims at standardizing the consumer... this has nothing to do (I hope) with ''the ultimate harmony of all being.'' Then we are told that advertising is ''self-liquidating'' and that it is 'community entertainment.''

Affluence creates poverty. - Marshall McLuhan

is the defining characteristic of our age, in great part, as the result of trying to do today's job with yesterday's tools and yesterday's concepts.

Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's job with yesterday's tools and yesterday's concepts. Marshall McLuhan

is essentially insatiable, and where it operates as a criterion of both action and enjoyment (that is, everywhere in the western world since the sixteenth century) it will infallibly discover congenial agencies (mechanical and political) of expression.

Appetite is essentially insatiable, and where it operates as a criterion of both action and enjoyment (that is, everywhere in the Western world since the sixteenth century) it will infallibly discover congenial agencies (mechanical and political) of expression. (Marshall McLuhan)

is exact information of how to rearrange one's psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties.

I am curious to know what would happen if art were suddenly seen for what it is, namely, exact information of how to rearrange one's psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties. . . (Marshall McLuhan)

is a person who is expert in the training of perception.

The artist is a person who is expert in the training of perception. (Marshall McLuhan)

is its capacity to be stimulated by sensations.

McLuhan defines the body by its capacity to be stimulated by sensations. The central nervous system-rather than the heart or any other organ-ls thus most vital to him. Whenever that 'electric network (4 7) gets overburdened, the body will get rid of the source of its stress. Prolonged exposure to bright lights leads to (temporary) blindness... sudden loud sounds cause (instant) deafness. This is what McLuhan defines as auto-amputation: to prevent a complete meltdown, the central nervous system cuts off the overburdened organ. Parallel to the amputation of its own functions, the body needs to find ways to compensate for these losses. Technological gadgets are its countermeasure. They are invented to relieve the body of the stress caused by overstimulation. In order to explain this, McLuhan mentions the obvious example of the wheel: (Off Beat: Pluralizing Rhythm edited by Jan Hein Hoogstad, Birgitte Stougaard Pedersen)

is now an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad, and incomplete.

The car has become... an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad, and incomplete.

 has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.

The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.

is with the replacement of the use of force by the mere (virtual) threat of it, is an electronic battle of information and images.

Within this framework, both the detractors and the supporters helped shift war on to a completely virtual level of reality. The enormous power of nuclear weapons strengthened not so much the use of force itself as it did the threat of it (Montanari, 2004: 215). This is why McLuhan defined the Cold War as an electronic battle of information and images (Savarese 1992: 103-113)

is that about which mcluhan stated famously that 'I don't have a theory of communication'.

is the interval of space space just as silence is the interval of sound.

Darkness is to space what silence is to sound, i.e., the interval. Marshall McLuhan

is learning which ought to shift its mode from a concentration on instruction (i.e. The imposing of stencils) to one of discovery (i.e. To probing and exploration).

The method of our time is to use not a single but multiple models for explorations . . . Education must shift from instruction, from imposing of stencils, to discovery-- to probing and exploration.' (mcluhan 69, 100)The Medium is the Message.

is sharply distinguished from entertainment only by those who don't know the first thing about either.

Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either. (Marshall McLuhan)

is any technological extension of the body. It is anything that amplifies or intensifies a bodily organ, sense or function.

defines media as technological extensions of the body. mcluhan defines media as anything that amplifies or intensifies a bodily organ, sense or function.

is any technological extensions of some human facultypsychic or physical.

All media are extensions of some human facultypsychic or physical'

is that which has shaped societies more by its nature than by the content of the communication.

Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication. (Marshall McLuhan)

is the message is a phrase point to the the fundamental impact that media itself has on human experience. Though a lightbulb may have nothing on its own to say, by bringing light to darkness, it fundamentally changed existence by, among other things, extending time for social interaction.

From McLuhan's standpoint, a medium impacts human experience and society not primarily through the content that it mediates but through its formal, technical properties as a medium. The example he proffers in a central section of Understanding Media is the lightbulb, which, despite having no content of its own, profoundly impacts social life, literally illuminating the darkness and thereby extending the time of human social interaction.

is the age of anxiety, owing in great part to us trying to do today's job with yesterday's tools and yesterday's concepts.

Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's job with yesterday's tools and yesterday's concepts. (Marshall McLuhan)

Marshall McLuhanThinkers

Marshall McLuhan