McLuhan, << muhk LOO ihn, >> Marshall (1911-1980), was a Canadian professor and writer whose theories on mass communication caused widespread debate. According to McLuhan, electronic communication–especially television–dominates the life of all Western peoples. It affects their ways of thinking as well as their institutions. McLuhan analyzed the effects of communications media on people and society in The Mechanical Bride (1951), The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), Understanding Media (1964), The Medium Is the Massage (1967), and War and Peace in the Global Village (1968).
McLuhan argued that each major period in history takes its character from the medium of communication used most widely at the time. For example, he called the period from 1700 to the mid-1900’s the age of print. At that time, printing was the chief means by which people gained and shared knowledge. McLuhan claimed that printing encouraged individualism, nationalism, democracy, the desire for privacy, specialization in work, and the separation of work and leisure.
According to McLuhan, the electronic age has replaced the age of print. Electronics speeds communication so greatly that people in all parts of the world become deeply involved in the lives of everyone else. As a result, said McLuhan, electronics leads to the end of individualism and nationalism and to the growth of new international communities.
Interest in McLuhan’s work resurfaced in the 1980’s. He was among the first of the post-modernist writers, who believe that our society has become driven by computers and electronics. They argue that electronics have revolutionized work, politics, culture, and art.
McLuhan was born on July 21, 1911, in Edmonton. His full name was Herbert Marshall McLuhan. He died on Dec. 31, 1980.
