Technological Determinism
of
Marshall McLuhan
From Chapter 26 in Em Griffin,
A First Look at Communication Theory,
1994
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MCLUHAN WAS EARLY TO
RECOGNIZE THAT WE WERE
ENTERING THE AGE OF PRINT;
A = TRUE
B = FALSE
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MCLUHAN WOULD SAY:
A = Inventions in communication technology
cause cultural change;
B = The age of print had its obituary tapped out
by the telegraph;
C = The electronic media are retribalizing the
human race;
D = Instant communication has returned us to a
prealphabetic oral tradition;
E = ALL OF THE ABOVE
McLuhan was early to recognize that:
 We were entering the
Electronic Age
 Electronic Media
radically alter the way
people
– think
– feel
– act
Historical
Epoch
Tribal
Age
Literate
Age
Print
Age
Electronic
Age
Technological
Development
Phonetic alphabet
2000 B.C.
Printing
Press
1450
Telegraph
1850
Dominant Sense
Receptors
According to McLuhan, the
crucial inventions were:
 The phonetic alphabet
 The printing press
 The telegraph
WHY THESE 3 PARTICULAR
INVENTIONS?
Core Concepts
 Inventions in communication technology cause cultural
change
 Changes in modes of communication shape human life
 Channels of communication are the primary cause of
cultural change
 “We shape our tools and they in turn shape us”
 Each new media innovation is an extension of
some human faculty
 The book is an extension of the eye
 The wheel is an extension of the foot
 Clothing is an extension of the skin
 Electronic circuitry is an extension of the
central nervous system
 Media are anything that amplify or intensify a bodily
organ, sense, or function
 Media (NOT ONLY)
 extend our reach
 increase our efficiency
 Media (ALSO)
 act as a filter
 to organize
 and interpret our social existence
 The way we live is largely a function of the way we
process information
 The phonetic alphabet, the printing press, and the
telegraph changed the way people thought about
themselves and their world
 “The medium is the message”
 The same words spoken face-to-face, printed on paper,
or presented on television provide three different
messages
McLuhan Web Site
McLuhan Web Site
 The primary channel of communication changes the
way we perceive the world
 The dominant medium of any age dominates people
A Media Analysis of History
 The Tribal Age
 an acoustic place
 where the senses of hearing, touch, taste, & smell
were most developed
 “Primitive” people led richer and more complex lives
than their literate descendants because the ear, unlike the
eye, is unable to select the stimuli it takes in
 The spoken word is more emotionally laden than the
written
The Age of Literacy
 The phonetic alphabet put sight at the head of the
hierarchy of senses: with reading people exchanged an ear
for an eye
 Literacy (reading) jarred people out of collective tribal
involvement into “civilized” private detachment
 The phonetic alphabet established the line as the
organizing principle
The Print Age
 If the phonetic alphabet made visual dependence
possible, the printing press made it widespread
 Repeatability is the most important characteristic
of movable type
 The print revolution demonstrated mass
production of identical products--it was the
forerunner of the industrial revolution
 It created the book that people could read in
privacy and in isolation
 The printed book glorifies individualism
The Electronic Age: The Global Village
 “The age of print had its obituary tapped out by
the telegraph”
 The electronic media are retribalizing the human
race
 Instant communication has returned us to a
prealphabetic oral tradition
 where sound and touch are more important
than sight
 All of us as members of a global village
Hot & Cool Media
 Hot media are beamed at a single sense receptor
 Print is a hot, visual medium
 Photographs are a hot, visual medium
 Motion Pictures are a hot, visual medium
 They package lots of information in a way that
requires little work on the part of the viewer
Cool Media
 Cool media require high participation to fill in the
blanks
 A lecture is hot
 Discussions are cool
McLuhan-esque Examples
 Education
 People living in the midst of innovation often
cling to what was, as opposed to what is
 Education is a prime example of a battle ground
over forms of literacy--video as an audio/video aid
as opposed to the primary tool
 The acoustic media are a threat to an educational
establishment that has a vested interest in books
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