mass-communication-theory

232 Section 3 From Limited-Effects to Critical Cultural Theories: Ferment in the Field
the extensions of
man
McLuhan’s idea
that media literally
extend sight,
hearing, and
touch through
time and space
McLuhan proclaimed, as we’ve seen, media to be the extensions of man [sic]
and argued that media quite literally extend sight, hearing, and touch through
time and space. Electronic media would open up new vistas for average people
and enable us to be everywhere instantaneously. But was this an egalitarian and
democratic vision? What would ordinary people do when their senses were extended
in this way? Would they succumb to information overload? Would they be
stimulated to greater participation in politics? Would they flee into the virtual
worlds opened to them by their extended senses? In his writing and interviews,
McLuhan tossed out cryptic and frequently contradictory ideas that addressed
such questions. Occasionally, his ideas were profound and prophetic. More often,
they were arcane, mundane, or just confusing.
Though he was often a cryptic prophet, McLuhan’s observations concerning
the global village and the role of electronic media in it are seen by many as anticipating
the most recent developments in electronic media—this is precisely why the
editors of Wired made McLuhan their patron saint. At a time when satellite communication
was just being developed, he seemed to foretell the rise of twentyfour-hour
cable news networks and their ability to seemingly make us eyewitnesses
to history as it’s made on the battlefield or at the barricade. At a time when mainframe
computers filled entire floors of office buildings, he envisioned a time when
personal computers would be everywhere and the Internet would give everyone instant
access to immense stores of information. But as one media critic (Meyrowitz,
1985) noted, to be everywhere is to be nowhere—to have no sense of place. To
have access to information is not the same thing as being able to effectively select
and use information. The global village isn’t situated in space or time. Is it possible
to adjust to living in such an amorphous, ambiguous social structure? Or will the
global village merely be a facade used by cynical elites to exploit people? These
questions go far beyond the paeans to electronic media that can be found throughout
Understanding Media.
McLuhan’s ideas achieved enormous public popularity. He became one of the
first pop culture gurus of the 1960s. His pronouncements on the Nixon/Kennedy presidential
race propelled him to national prominence. (Nixon was too “hot” for the
“cool” medium of television; Kennedy was appropriately “cool.”) McLuhan’s ideas
received serious attention but then fell into disfavor. Why the rise and sudden fall?
Initially, McLuhan’s work fit the spirit of the early 1960s—“The Age of
Camelot.” In sharp contrast with political economists like Innis or neo-Marxist thinkers
like those of the Frankfurt School, he was unabashedly optimistic about the
profound but ultimately positive changes in our personal experience, social structure,
and culture that new media technology would make possible. Unlike limited-effects
theorists, he didn’t dismiss media as unimportant. McLuhan was the darling of the
media industries—their prophet with honor. For a brief period, he commanded
huge fees as a consultant and seminar leader for large companies. His ideas were
used to rationalize rapid expansion of electronic media with little concern for their
negative consequences. They were corrupted to become broadcast industry gospel:
So what if children spend most of their free time in front of television sets and become
functionally illiterate? Reading is doomed anyway—why prolong its demise?
Eventually, we will all live in a global village where literacy is as unnecessary as it
was in preliterate tribal villages. Why worry about the negative consequences of
Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.