Understanding New Media: Extending Marshall McLuhan

by Robert K. Logan

Marshall McLuhan made many predictions in his seminal 1964 publication, Understanding Extensions of Man . Among them were his predictions that the Internet would become a «Global Village», making us more interconnected than television; the closing of the gap between consumers and producers; the elimination of space and time as barriers to communication; and the melting of national borders. He is also famously remembered for coining the expression «the medium is the message». These predictions form the genesis of this new volume by Robert Logan, a friend and colleague who worked with McLuhan. In Understanding New Media Logan expertly updates Understanding Media to analyze the «new media» McLuhan foreshadowed and yet was never able to analyze or experience. The book is designed to reach a new generation of readers as well as appealing to scholars and students who are familiar with Understanding Media . Visit the companion website, understandingnewmedia.org, for the latest updates on this book.

Genres: Nonfiction

389 pages, Paperback

First published February 29, 2000

Reviews

[Jari Pirhonen]

Marshall McLuhan wrote his famous book 'Understanding Media: Extensions of Man' in 1964 and coined quotes like 'We change our tools and then our tools change us' and 'The medium is the message'. McLuhan also predicted a born of 'The Global Village', where electric information moving at the speed of light creates new patterns of communications and social interactions. Sounds a lot like Internet and social media to me.

Robert K. Logan, the author of 'Understanding New Media: Extending Marshall McLuhan' has written an excellent book where he analyses how new media have impacted McLuhan's predictions. In addition, Logan analyses new media not dealt in McLuhans book, like PC, smart phone,software, Internet, social networks, etc. in a same manner as McLuhan did.

Very interesting reading and somewhat eye-opener too. I had never thought for example guns, money and clothing as a media.