Message, medium and massage in the global village according to McLuhan

Title: Message, medium and massage in the global village according to McLuhan
Author: Olos, Ana
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2003, vol. 3, iss. [1], pp. [83]-97
Extent
[83]-97
  • ISSN
    1213-7715 (print)
    2336-4556 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
The article revisits Marshall McLuhan's life and most important media books in order to comment upon September 11, 2001 through his "theories". The author tries to clarify the meaning of "medium" as it results from McLuhan's analysis of the passage to the electronic age in The Gutenberg Galaxy and from his Understanding Media, which launched the successful but obscure dictum "the medium is the message". The references to The Medium Is the Massage (with its punning title) are meant to offer an insight into the relationship between the medium and the message, while those to War and Peace in the Global Village, the most topical of his books, insist upon the importance of the historical moment in shaping McLuhan's vision of the future. The interpretation of the terrorist attack is an illustration of how an apparently contradictory formula from McLuhan's "pop" philosophy can help one to "read" a message that is one with its medium of delivery and produces a "massage", first on a national, and then in an international context.
L'article passe en revue la vie et les livres les plus importants de Marshall McLuhan portant sur les moyens de communication à l'intention de commenter les événements de Septembre 11, 2001 à travers ses theories. L'auteure y tent d'éclercir la signification du mot "medium" au terme de l'analyse que McLuhan fait au passage vers l'époque éléctronique dans ses livres La Galaxie Gutenberg et La compréhension des Médias, ce dernier avant lancé le dicton ambigu, mais à succès "le message est le moyen même". Nos références au Moyen en tant que Massage (titre issue d'un calambour) tenent à aprofondir la compréhension des relations entre moyen et message, tandis que celles à Guenre et Paix dans le Village Global, l'un des plus actuels livres de McLuhan, insistent sur l'importance du moment historique qui a façonné la vision de McLuhan sur l'avenir. L'interprétation de l'attaque terroriste illustre comment une formule apparemment contradictoire de la philosophie "pop" de McLuhan peut aider à "lire" un message qui este en même temps son propre moyen de transmission tout en agissant comme un "massage" d'abord à l'échelle nationale, et ensuite, dans un contexte intemational.
References
[1] BBC English Dictionary. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

[2] Carey, James W. "Marshall McLuhan: Genealogy and Legacy", Canadian Journal of Communication, 23/21, 1998. (http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1045/951)

[3] Culkin, John M. "Marshall McLuhan". Secolul 20,6 (1970) : 115-116.

[4] Gurevitch, Michael. "The Globalization of Electronic Journalism". In Curran, James, and Gurevitch, Michael (eds), Mass Media and Society. London, New York, Sidney, Auckland: Arnold, 1997.

[5] Fekete, John. The Critical Twilight: Explorations in the Ideology of Anglo-American Literary Theory from Eliot to McLuhan. Foreword by Raymond Williams. New York, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977.

[6] Frye, Northrop. Divisions on a Ground. Essays on Canadian Culture. Toronto: Anansi, 1982.

[7] Lapham, Lewis H. "Introduction" in Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media. Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 1995. IX-XXIII.

[8] McLuhan, Eric, and Zingrone, Frank (eds). Mass-media sau mediul invizibil (Essential McLuhan). Translated by Mihai Miroiu. Bucuresti: Nemira, 1997.

[9] McLuhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy. The Making of the Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962.

[10] McLuhan, Marshall. Galaxialui Gutenberg. Omul si era tiparului. (The Gutenberg Galaxy). Translated by L. and P. Navodaru. Bucuresti: Editura politica, 1975.

[11] McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 1995.

[12] McLuhan, Marshall. The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1967.

[13] McLuhan, Marshall. War and Peace in the Global Village. New York, London, Toronto: Bantam Books, 1968.

[14] O'Sullivan, Tim, et al. Key Concepts in Communications and Cultural Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.

[15] Surette, Leon. "Marshall McLuhan", in The John Hopkins Guide to Literature and Theory of Criticism, Michael Gorden and Martin Kreiswirth (eds.). The John Hopkins University Press, 1997. http://www.press.jhn.edu./books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/marshall_mcluhan.html.

[16] Web Links for Marshall McLuhan. http:ccins.camosun.bc.ca/pculture/mcluhan/mc_web.html.