Understanding such a concept requires an adjustment of thinking; we are so used to accepting the message as the important part of information technology that it is difficult to shift that importance onto a different aspect of the process.
Another of McLuhan's theories is the idea that advancement in communication technology has created (and is creating) a global village'. Technologies can be comparatively applied to our human senses, especially sound and sight. The telephone and radio extend the lengths of hearing as the television extends vision. Technology alters senses and perceptions steadily and without resistance, and McLuhan theorizes that this progressive change affects our learning strategies and information processing. (Symes).
Electric technology has allowed society to observe events occurring on the other side of the world as though they were happening locally. Communication advancement has virtually eliminated barriers of time and space, as the world seems to be getting smaller and faster because we can see things as they happen on the other side of the planet. It must be considered, of course that the impact of these extended senses' are less forceful than our primary senses. Watching war on television and watching it occur right in front of you create different sensations; however, it cannot be denied that the development of technology has allowed for a greater identification and consciousness of the world in a global context. .
McLuhan's argument is simply this, that the world is becoming more unified because of this information access. His interpretation of this unification is a global village', where technology changes social structures as well as people on a personal level. The speed at which information can travel and be processed allows for society to act and react to global issues at the same speed as conventional face to face communication. The advancement not only allows society to do so, but in fact, forces responsibility on a global level.
Journalism Today Journalists distort the news we see in the media everyday. Information is misrepresented in the headlines, the lead and the facts. This in turn distorts the public's opinion. The concept of Spin is introduced "to favorably reflect upon one view or another." (---------) Spinnin...
The Medium is the Message The media affects our lives in ways we do not even realize. The news media chases after stories filled with tragedy and despair. It seems that they care more for the suspense of a story rather than the victims or people involved. The media provides us with a variety o...
Finally, some of the other theorists that Postman quotes include Marshall McLuhan who argues that the medium becomes the message since it control all human interaction hence, as Postman argued, we become tools of that which we created; Dracula-style. ... To a greater degree, Postman's interpretation and understanding of McLuhan seem to be slightly skewed since McLuhan's famous aphorism about the "media being the message" speaks about the effects of communications media and that the media itself, not its contents, should be the instrument that is studied since the medium itself has l...
E Pluribus Unum "When an Iowan buys a Pontiac from General Motors, 60% of his money goes to South Korea, Japan, West Germany, Taiwan, Singapore, Britain, and Barbados".(Iyer, BR p. 306) In our world today, we exchange language, goods, values, and people. This idea of the increasingly diversified...
GLOBAL UNIVERSITY • historical roots and antecedents, see the Sidebars "The WTO and the Politics of Global Trade", "Seeds of Globalization", and "Global Impacts of the Industrial Revolution" in the Industrial Revolution article. • Social and cultural impacts of globalization are discussed i...
The first decade of film exhibition (1896-1908) saw films exhibited in a great variety of venues rather than in special theaters. It is this period that this paper addresses. It was the work of Tom Gunning with his scholarship with others, into what he termed the "rapture and difference" of the tim...
He quickly became friends with the Canadian media man, Marshall McLuhan. ... McLuhan made Trudeau a common figure in the daily lives of all the people. ... Kennedy first demonstrated it with his win over an earnest but sweaty Richard Nixon- politics was perceived as exclusionary in Canada, or as McLuhan would have said, "hot.""...
" Why do you always complain about your cramps and your uncomfortability. Look at these people; they"re having a good time while on there period." That's what I told my girlfriend when looking at a recent tampon ad. It's funny though, that this particular ad we were looking at, was talking about how...