Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)

Herbert Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar, a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory, as well as having practical applications in the advertising and television industries.

McLuhan is known for coining the expressions "the medium is the message" and "the global village" and predicted the World Wide Web almost thirty years before it was invented. Although he was a fixture in media discourse in the late 1960s, his influence started to wane in the early seventies. In the years after his death, he would continue to be a controversial figure in academic circles. With the arrival of the internet, however, there was renewed interest in his work and perspective.

Everyone experiences more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior, especially in collective matters of media and technology, where the individual is almost inevitably unaware of their effect on him.

For the "content" of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.

The serious artist is the only person able to encounter technology with impunity, just because he is an expert aware of the changes in sense perception.

A man is not free if he cannot see where he is going, even if he has a gun to help him get there.