Understanding media : the extensions of man

McLuhan, Marshall 1911-1980 (Author). Gordon, W. Terrence, 1942- (Added Author).

Summary: This reissue marks the thirtieth anniversary (1964-1994) of McLuhan's classic expose on the state of the then emerging phenomenon of mass media. Terms and phrases such as "the global village" and "the medium is the message" are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan's theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate. There has been a notable resurgence of interest in McLuhan's work in recent years, fueled by the Internet and growing competition and confluence among cable, telephone, wireless and other telecommunications technologies, resulting in new media models and information ecologies. In a new introduction to this edition of Understanding Media, Harper's editor Lewis Lapham reevaluates McLuhan's work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes that have occurred in the last part of this century.--From publisher description.

Item details

ISBN: 1584230738
ISBN: 9781584230731
Physical Description: print
xxi, 616 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm
Edition: Critical edition.
Publisher: Corte Madera, CA : Gingko Press, 2003.

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 569-574) and indexes.

Formatted Contents Note:

The medium is the message -- Media hot and cold -- Reversal of the overheated medium -- The gadget love: Narcissus as narcosis -- Hybrid energy: Les Liaisons Dangereuses -- Media as translators -- Challenge and collapse: The nemesis of creativity -- The spoken word: Flower of evil? -- The written word: An eye for an ear -- Roads and paper routes -- Number: Profile of the crowd -- Clothing: Our extended skin -- Housing: New look and new outlook -- Money: The poor man's credit card -- Clocks: The scent of time -- The print: How to dig it -- Comics: MAD vestibule to TV -- The printed work: Architect of nationalism -- Wheel, bicycle, and airplane -- The photograph: The brothel-without-walls -- Press: Government by news leak -- Motorcar: The mechanical bride -- Ads: Keeping upset with the Joneses -- Games: The extensions of man -- Telegraph: The social horomone -- The typewriter: Into the age of the Iron whim -- The telephone: Sounding brass or tinkling symbol? -- The phonograph: The toy that shrank the national chest -- Movies: The reel world -- Radio: The tribal drum -- Television: The timid giant -- Weapons: War of the icons -- Automation: Learning a living -- Appendix.