TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISMMARSHALL MCLUHAN

1. INTRODUCTION.

. Media critic Marshall Mcluhan was himself a media figureo He believed that the new electronic media have radically altered the way

people think, feel, and act.

2. COMMUNICATION I]\IVENTIONS: THE BALANCE POINTS OFHISTORY

o Mcluhan divided human history into four epochs: tribal, literate, print, andelectronic

o The changes from one age to *re next were rapid and were caused by newcommunication technology

o These new technologies were the phonetic alphabet, the printing press, and thetelegraph

o The electronic media have created social upheaval.

3. WE SHAPE OUR TOOLS AND THEY IN TURN SHAPE US

, Mcluhan's theory is technological determinism-changes in modes ofcommunication cause cultural change and shape human existence. Mcluhan extended the work of Harold Innis

. No aspect of culture is untouched by communication technology, Mcluhanproposed

. He believed that every new form of media innovation extended some humanfaculty

. Media organize and interpret our social existence.

4. THE MEDIUM TS THf, Mf,,SSAGE.

I Our lives are a function of the way we process informationI Key communication technologies change the way people think about

. themselves and their worldi A medium has more influence than its explicit messages& Mcluhan's pun "the medium is the massage" indicates that the media work us

overI The dominant medium of an age dominates people.

5. A MEDIA ANALYSIS OF HUMAN HISTORY

.i The tribal age: an acoustrc communityl. The senses ofhearing, touch, taste, and smell were more advanced than

visualization

2. "Primitive" people lived richer lives than their literate descendantsbecause the ear does not select

3. People acted with more passion and spontaneity..i. The age of literacy: a visual point of view.

L Literacy moved people from collective tribal involvement to privatedetachment

2. Literacy encouraged logical, linear thinking, and fostered mathematics,science, and philosophy.

* The print age: prototype of the industrial revolution.I . The pnnting press made visual dependence widespread2. The development of fixed national languages produced nationalism3. Mcluhan regarded the fragrnentation of sociefy as the most significant

outcome of print* The electronic age: the rise ofthe global village

L Mcluhan believed that the electronic media are re-tribalizing humanity2. In an electronic age, privacy is a luxury or a curse ofthe past3. Linear logic is useless in the electronic society; we focus on what we

feel.

6. TELEVISION IS MEDIUM COOL

i Mcluhan's media-cultural analysis sought to explain the social unrest of the1960s

i He classified media as either hot or cooll. Hot media are high-definition channels of communication usually

directed at a single sense receptor print, photographs, motionpictures, and radio

2. Cool media's low-definition display draws a person in, requiring highaudience participation-telephone

i Parallels exist between the categories of hot and cool and the left-brain andright brain functions

l. Hot media tend to be highly visual, logical, and private2. Cool media tend to be aural, intuitive, and emotionally involving

i Although people think of television as visual, Mcluhan disagrees; to him,television is cool because it requires viewer involvement and doesn't bypasseither sight or sound.

7. LIVING ON THE EDGE OF AN ERA

/ Politicsl Modem politicians must work the medium of television effectively2. The fall of the lron Curtain demonstrates the ability of the electronic

media to carry the message of freedom throughout the global village/ Education.

l. The acoustic media threaten an educational establishment invested inbooks

2. Educators need to plunge into the vo rtex ofelectronic technology

r' Sex and drugsI - Mcluhan believed that television is tactile and acoustic2. Thus, he argued that television inspired the sexual revolution and

increased drug usage

8. THE NEW DIGITAL AGE_AN ERA Otr'TECHNOPOLY

r Has the recent revolution in communication technology wrenched us into anew digital age that is qualitatively different from the four historical epochsMcluhan names?

o Neil Postman wams that each media technology carries an inherent ideologythat it thrusts upon its users

. Postman believes we have become a technopoly-our thought-world isdominated by technology; tools have taken over

o The mediated world has replaced traditional print values wiih cyber-virtuessuch as speech, emotional involvement, and immediate gratification

. Postman believes we must assess the effect on our lives oftechnologies beforewe adopt them.

9. CRITIQUE: HOW COULD HE BE RIGHT? BUT WHAT IF HE IS?

o Mcluhan did not adequately support his claimso His prose is very difficult to understando Deterministic theories have difficulty with the criterion of falsifiabilityo Yet some cultural critics and media practitioners praise Mcluhan's insights

1. Tom Wolfe suggests that Mcluhan may be one of the great geniuses ofour era

2. Tony Schwartz praises his insights into political advertising3. Malcolm Muggeridge conducts Mcluhanesque analyses of religious

broadcasting4. Although it is difficult to accept all that he said, his historical analysis

has heightened awareness ofthe possible cultural effects ofnew mediatechnologies