Marshall McLuhan
Herbert
Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was a Canadian professor of English literature
whose writings on communication and technology virtually founded modern
media studies. With his two key texts on the power and importance of the
media - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) and The
Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967) - McLuhan became
a prominent and provocative figure, frequently appearing in newspapers,
magazines, and on television. At the height of his fame McLuhan was visited
by The Beatles, featured
on the cover of Newsweek
magazine, was interviewed by Playboy,
and appeared in Woody Allen's classic film Annie
Hall. Although McLuhan was most active during the 1960s the importance
of his prophetic ideas is only now becoming apparent, with the advent of
the internet and other new media. In 1993 Wired
magazine named McLuhan its patron saint.
Getting Started: The best place to start if you're interested in McLuhan's work is Gordon and Willmarth's book McLuhan for Beginners, which provides a good overview in an accessible format. Gordon's book McLuhan: A Guide for the Perplexed also introduces the key ideas, but in greater depth. Tom Wolfe's short essay The New Life Out There is very readable, and captures the mood of the mid sixties. Finally, it is worth looking at Mark Federman's online article On Reading McLuhan, which provides useful advice on how best to approach McLuhan's sometimes difficult ideas.
Bibliography
Carpenter, E. and McLuhan, M. (1960b). 'Acoustic
Space'. In: Carpenter, E. and McLuhan, M. (eds), Explorations in Communication.
Boston: Beacon Press, pp. 65-70; reprinted in Moos, M. A. (ed.) (1997).
Media Research: Technology, Art, Communication: Essays by Marshall
McLuhan. Amsterdam: G+B Arts International, pp. 39-44.
McLuhan, M. (1960). Classroom without Walls. In: Carpenter, E. and
McLuhan, M. (eds), Explorations in Communication. Boston: Beacon
Press, pp. 1-3.
McLuhan, Marshall (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
McLuhan, M. (1965). Address at Vision 65. In:
McLuhan, E. and Zingrone, F. (eds) (1995). Essential McLuhan. New
York: BasicBooks, pp. 219-32.
McLuhan, M. (1966), The Relation of Environment
to Anti-Environment. In: University of Windsor Review, 11:1 (Fall),
pp. 1-10; reprinted in: Matson, F. and Montagu, A. (eds.) (1967). The
Human Dialogue. New York: Macmillan, pp. 1-10; reprinted in: Moos,
M. A. (ed.) (1997). Media Research: Technology, Art, Communication:
Essays by Marshall McLuhan. Amsterdam: G+B Arts International, pp.
110-20; reprinted in McLuhan, M. (2005). Marshall McLuhan Unbound.
Eric McLuhan (ed.), Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press.
McLuhan, M., and Fiore, Q. with Agel, J. (1967).
The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects.
New York: Random House.
McLuhan, M. (1967). Verbi-Voco-Visual Explorations. New York:
Something Else Press.
McLuhan, M., and Fiore, Q. with Agel, J. (1968).
War and Peace in the Global Village. New York: McGraw-Hill Book
Company.
McLuhan, M. and Parker, H. (1968). Through the Vanishing Point:
Space in Poetry and Painting. New York: Harper & Row.
McLuhan, M. (1968). The Emperor's New Clothes. In:
McLuhan, E. and Zingrone, F. (eds) (1995). Essential McLuhan. New
York: BasicBooks, pp. 339-56.
McLuhan, M. (1969). The Interior Landscape: The Literary Criticism
of Marshall McLuhan 1943-1962. Eugene McNamara (ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
McLuhan, M. (1969). Playboy Interview: Marshall
McLuhan - A candid conversation with the high priest of popcult and metaphysician
of media. Playboy (March); reprinted in McLuhan, E. and Zingrone,
F. (eds) (1995). Essential McLuhan. New York: BasicBooks, pp. 233-69.
Retrieved 13 March 2005 from: http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1025;
and from: http://www.digitallantern.net/mcluhan/mcluhanplayboy.htm.
McLuhan, M. (1970). Culture Is Our Business. New York: McGraw-Hill.
McLuhan, M. and Watson, W. (1970). From Cliché
to Archetype. New York: Viking.
McLuhan, M. and Nevitt, B. (1972). Take Today: The Executive as Drop Out. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
McLuhan, M. (1975). McLuhan's Laws of the Media.
Technology and Culture. January, pp. 74-78. This very short,
rather cryptic discussion paper is hard to obtain, but I have a copy I
can distribute to those who are interested.
McLuhan, M. (1977). The Laws of the Media. Et
cetera 34 (2), pp. 173-79; reprinted in McLuhan, M. (2005). Marshall
McLuhan Unbound. Eric McLuhan (ed.), Corte Madera, CA: Gingko
Press.
McLuhan, M. (1978). A Last Look at the Tube. New
York Magazine, 17th March. In: Sanderson, G. and Macdonald, F. (1989).
Marshall McLuhan: The Man and His Message. Golden, CO: Fulcrum,
pp. 196-200. Retrieved 12th March 2005 from: http://www.thehandstand.org/archive/march2004/articles/mcluhan.htm.
McLuhan briefly lays out a range of ideas about television, including
his notion of 'discarnate man'.
McLuhan, M., Hutchon, K. and McLuhan, E. (1980). Media, Messages
and Language: The World as your Classroom. Skokie, Ill: National Textbook
Co.
McLuhan, M. (1988). Letters of Marshall McLuhan. Matie Molinaro, Corrine
Mcluhan and William Toye (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McLuhan, M. and McLuhan, E. (1992). Laws of Media: The New Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
McLuhan, M. (2002). The Medium and the Light: Reflections on Religion. Eric McLuhan and Jacek Szklarek (eds). Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press.
McLuhan, M. (2003). Understanding Me: Lectures & Interviews.
McLuhan, S.and Staines, D. (eds). Cambridge, MA: MIT.
McLuhan, M. (2005). Marshall McLuhan Unbound. Eric McLuhan
(ed.), Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press.
McLuhan, M. (no date). The Missing Media Laws.
McLuhan Studies, 5. Retrieved 20th March 2005 from: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/mcluhan-studies/v1_iss5/1_5art11.htm.
Illustrative examples of McLuhan's Laws of the Media
left out of the final published version.
Secondary Texts
Andrews, J. (1988). Reading McLuhan. Retrieved 24th September 2005
from: http://www.vispo.com/writings/essays/Reading_McLuhan_by_Jim_Andrews.pdf.
Andrews, J. (1995). McLuhan Reconsidered. Retrieved 24th September
2005 from: http://www.vispo.com/writings/essays/mcluhana.htm.
Also available here: http://beehive.temporalimage.com/archive/24arc.html.
Chandler, D. (1995). Biases of the Ear and Eye: 'Great Divide' Theories,
Phonocentrism, Graphocentrism & Logocentrism. Retrieved 24th September
2005 from: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/litoral/litoral.html. Useful essay on the background to debates over the 'great divide' between
orality and literacy.
Crosby, H. H. and Bond, G. R. (eds) (1968). The
McLuhan Explosion: A Casebook on Marshall McLuhan and Understanding Media.
New York: American Book Company.
Davis, E. (1997). Acoustic Cyberspace. Presentation at the Xchange
Conference, Riga, Latvia (November). Retrieved 23rd June 2006 from: http://www.techgnosis.com/acoustic.html.
Davis explains McLuhan's notions of visual and acoustic space and relates
them to virtual realities, the immersive potential of sound, internet
radio, electronic music (theremin, dub), and the use of acoustic space
to forge different subjectivities.
Day, B. (1968). The Message of Marshall McLuhan. 5th ed. London:
Lintas.
Doherty, M. E. (1995). Marshall McLuhan Meets William Gibson in "Cyberspace".
CMC Magazine. 1st September, p. 4. Retrieved 14th July 2005 from: http://ibiblio.org/cmc/mag/1995/sep/doherty.html.
Federman, M. (no date). On Reading McLuhan. Retrieved
25th January 2005 from: http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/OnReadingMcLuhan.pdf.
Federman, M. (2004). What is the Meaning of The
Medium is the Message? Retrieved 25th October 2010 from: http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm.
Federman, M. and De Kerckhove, D. (2003). McLuhan for Managers:
New Tools for New Thinking. Toronto: Viking Canada.
Genosko, G. (1999). McLuhan and Baudrillard:
The Masters of Implosion. London: Routledge. A series of lectures,
on which this book was based, is available online: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/cyber/genout.html.
Genosko, G., ed. (2005). Marshall McLuhan: Critical Evaluations
in Cultural Theory. 3 vols. London: Taylor & Francis. A huge collection
of essays on McLuhan. Selections are available online: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4Ve7_jMQPysC&printsec=frontcover&dq=genosko%2Bcritical%2Bevaluations.
Gordon, W. T., Hamaji, E., and Albert, J. (2007). Everyman’s Mcluhan.
New York, NY: Mark Batty.
Grosswiler, P. (1998). The Method is the Message. London: Black Rose Books.
Griffin, E. (2008). Media Ecology of Marshall McLuhan. In: A First
Look at Communication Theory. 7th ed. McGraw-Hill.
Horrocks, C. (2000). Marshall McLuhan and Virtuality. Cambridge:
Icon. Horrocks is as sceptical of the utility of McLuhan's work for exploring
new media as Levinson (1999) is enthusiastic.
Kroker, A. (1984). Technology and the Canadian
Mind: Innis/McLuhan/Grant. Montreal: New World Perspectives. PDF copy
available from: http://www.ctheory.net/book_default.asp
(free registration required). An excerpt from this book has also been
published as Digital Humanism.
Kroker, A. (1995). Digital Humanism: The Processed
World of Marshall McLuhan. Ctheory.
5th June. Retrieved 15th September from: http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=70.
This is an excerpt from Kroker's Technology and the
Canadian Mind.
Lapham, L. H. (1994). Introduction to the MIT Press
Edition: The Eternal Now. In: McLuhan, M. Understanding Media.
Cambridge, MA: MIT, pp. ix-xxiii.
Levinson, P. (1999). Digital
McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium. London: Routledge.
Lister, M. et al. (2009). New Media: A Critical Introduction. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, pp. 77-85, 89-97.
Lupton, E. and Miller, A. (1996). McLuhan/Fiore:
Massaging the Message. In: Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic
Design. London: Phaidon, pp. 90-101.
McLuhan, E. (1998). Electric Language: Understanding the Message . New York: St. Martin's Press.
McLuhan, E. (no date). The Source of the Term,
'Global Village'. McLuhan Studies, 2. Retrieved 20th March 2005
from: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/mcluhan-studies/v1_iss2/1_2art2.htm.
Miles, D. (1996). The CD-ROM Novel Myst
and McLuhan’s Fourth Law of Media: Myst and its 'Retrievals'. Journal
of Communication, 46(2) (Spring), pp. 4-18. Applies just one of McLuhan's
laws to the interactive novel/digital game Myst.
Miller, J. (1971). McLuhan. London: Fontana.
Somewhat inaccurate account of McLuhan's earlier work: beware.
Moss, J. and Morra, L. M. (eds) (2004). At the Speed of Light there
is Only Illumination: A Reappraisal of Marshall McLuhan. Ottawa: University
of Ottawa Press.
Moulthrop, S. (1991). You Say You Want a Revolution?
Hypertext and the Laws of Media. Postmodern Culture, 1(3) (May).
Retrieved 22nd October 2007 from http://serials.infomotions.com/pmc/pmc-v1n3-moulthrop-you.txt.
Reprinted in N. Wardrip-Fruin and N. Montfort (2003), The New Media
Reader. Cambridge, MA: MIT, pp. 691-704. Retrieved 22nd October 2007
from http://www.newmediareader.com/book_samples/nmr-48-moulthrop.pdf.
Applies McLuhan's tetrad to hypertext; difficult but thought-provoking.
Munday, R. (no date). Marshall McLuhan declared that “the medium is
the message.” What did he mean and does this notion have any value? Retrieved
2nd March 2005 from: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/ram0202.html.
Very clear, brief discussion of McLuhan's infamous phrase, including a
concise summary of key criticisms.
Nevitt, B., McLuhan, M., Zingrone, F., Constantineau, W., McLuhan,
E., et al. (1996). Who Was Marshall McLuhan: Exploring a Mosaic of Impressions.
Toronto: Stoddart.
Patterson, G. (1990). History and Communications: Harold Innis,
Marshall McLuhan: The Interpretation of History. Toronto: Universeity
of Toronto Press.
Rosenthal, R. (ed.) (1968). McLuhan:
Pro and Con. New York: Penguin.
Sanderson, G. and Macdonald, F. (1989). Marshall
McLuhan: The Man and His Message. Golden, CO: Fulcrum.
Stamps, J. (2001). Unthinking Modernity: Innis, McLuhan, and the Frankfurt School. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press
Stearn, G. E. (ed.) (1967). McLuhan:
Hot and Cool: a primer for the understanding of and a critical symposium
with responses by McLuhan. New York: Dial.
Strate, L. and Wachtel, E. (eds) (2005). The Legacy of McLuhan.
Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.
Theall, D. F. (1971). The Medium is the Rear View Mirror: Understanding McLuhan. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Theall, D. F. (2001). The Virtual Marshall McLuhan. Montreal:
McGill-Queen's University Press.
Thornton, S. H. (2002). Let Them Eat IT: The Myth of the Global Village
as an Interactive Utopia. Ctheory.
17 Janurary. Retrieved 15th September 2005 from: http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=327.
Tyler, T. (2008). A Procrustean Probe. Game
Studies, 8(2) (Dec). Retrieved 7th January 2009 from http://gamestudies.org/0802/articles/tyler.
Tyler, T. (2009). The Test of Time: McLuhan, Space
and the Rise of Civilization. In: Dobrin, S. and S. Morey, eds.
Ecosee: Image, Rhetoric, and Nature. New York: SUNY, pp. 257-77. Retrieved
22nd June 2009 from http://www.cyberchimp.co.uk/research/testoftime.htm.
Tyler, T. (2013). New Tricks. Angelaki,
18(1) (Mar), pp. 65-82. Retrieved 30th May 2013 from http://www.cyberchimp.co.uk/research/newtricks.htm.
Willmott, G. (1996). McLuhan, or Modernism in Reverse. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Biographies
Coupland, D. (2010). Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! New York: Atlas.
Gordon, W. T. (2003). Marshall McLuhan: Escape Into Understanding,
A Biography. Corte Madera, CA: Gingko.
Marchand, P. (1998). Marshall McLuhan: The Medium and the Messenger,
a Biography. Revised Edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
Online Resources
Brent, D. (no date). Doug Brent's McLuhan Web.
Retrieved on 4th April 2005 from: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/mcluhan/mcluhan.htm.
Provides a useful "diagrammatic reading" of some of McLuhan's
key concepts, especially his ideas on the history of media.
Cavell, R. and Hilder, J. (no date). Specters of McLuhan. Retrieved 5th March 2007 from: http://spectersofmcluhan.net. An historical overview of engagements with McLuhan's work from 1981 to the present, including short exerpts from texts.
CIOS McLuhan Website, The (1996-1998). Retrieved
on 20th March 2005 from: http://www.cios.org/encyclopedia/mcluhan/index.html.
A website produced by the Communication
Institute for Online Scholarship (CIOS) and designed to help those
new to the ideas of McLuhan.
Gingko Press (no date). Retrieved 1st July 2005 from http://www.gingkopress.com.
Publisher of recent editions of many of McLuhan's works. Site includes
a number of McLuhan articles, images and links.
Hannemyr, G. (no date). Marshall McLuhan Link
Farm. Retrieved 4th April 2005 from: http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/overload/mcluhan/.
Includes links to a small number of texts by and on McLuhan.
Jeffrey, L. (no date). Bibliography: Works by
McLuhan and his Collaborators. Retreived on 9th July 2009 from:
http://www.mcluhan.org/bibliography.html.
A comprehensive bibliography of everything published by McLuhan.
Jeffrey, L. (no date). Understanding Media Symposium.
Retreived on 25th January 2005 from: http://www.mcluhan.ca/umsymposium/.
An online forum discussing individual chapters of Understanding
Media.
McLuhan.ca Global Research Network (no date). Retrieved 21st
September 2005 from: http://www.mcluhan.ca/.
Small site devoted to McLuhan.
McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology
(no date). Retreived on 25th January 2005 from: http://www.mcluhan.utoronto.ca/.
The website of Toronto University's ongoing McLuhan Program in Culture
and Technology, which includes a number of useful resources.
McLuhan Studies (1996-1999). Retreived on 20th
March 2005 from: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/mcluhan-studies/.
Six issues of a journal of McLuhan studies, edited by Francesco Guardiani
and Eric McLuhan. Includes pieces by Philip Marchand, Ted Gordon, Umberto
Eco and McLuhan himself.
Media Ecology Association (2005). Retrieved 22nd March 2005
from: http://www.media-ecology.org/.
The emerging discipline of Media Ecology continues McLuhan's project by
studying "how media of communication affect human perception, understanding,
feeling, and value" (Neil Postman). See especially the pages on 'What
is Media Ecology?' and the 'Introductory
Reading List'. The library takes the Association's journal Explorations
in Media Ecology.
Official Site of Marshall McLuhan,The (no
date). Retreived on 26th February 2005 from: http://www.marshallmcluhan.com.
The official Marshall McLuhan site, maintained by his son Eric. Contains
various unusual bits and pieces, including two short biographies of McLuhan
and links to other McLuhan resources.
Rae, A. (no date). Light Through McLuhan. Retrieved on 14th
January 2011 from: http://www.lightthroughmcluhan.org/.
Who was Marshall McLuhan? (2001). Retrieved 22nd September 2005
from: http://www.digitallantern.net/mcluhan/default.htm.
A miscellaneous collection of McLuhan items compiled by Mark Beaulieu.
Writing in Canada: Marshall McLuhan (no date). Retrieved 27th
March 2007 from: http://www.track0.com/ogwc/authors/mcluhan_m.html.
Bibliography of works by and on McLuhan.
Video and Acoustic McLuhan
Deoxy.org: McLuhan (2005). Retrieved on 4th January 2012 from:
http://deoxy.org/media/McLuhan.
Includes several audio, video and text pieces on and by McLuhan.
Marshall McLuhan: The Man and his Message (2005). CBC Archives.
Retrieved on 4th January 2012 from: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-74-342/people/mcluhan/.
Includes eighteen short television and radio clips from the Canadian Broadcast
Corporation featuring or discussing McLuhan.
McLuhan, M., and Fiore, Q. with Agel,
J. (1968). The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects.
Long playing record produced by John Simon. Columbia CS 9501, CL2701;
rereleased on CD (1999): SONY Catalog #: SRCS-8912. Retreived on 4th January
2012 from: http://www.ubu.com/sound/mcluhan.html.
An audio version of McLuhan's book The Medium is
the Massage.
McLuhan Galaxy Project (2011). Retrieved 4th January 2012 from: http://www.mcluhangalaxy.net/mcmovie/galaxy. Includes several television clips of McLuhan.
McLuhan's Wake (2002). Primitive Entertainment. DVD. Documentary on McLuhan's life and ideas.
UbuWeb (no date). Retrieved 4th January 2012 from: http://www.ubu.com/sound/mcluhan.html.
Several television and radio clips featuring McLuhan, including two radio
interviews with McLuhan, one from the Dick Cavett Show in 1970, alongside
Truman Capote, and one from Speaking Freely, hosted by Edwin Newman, in
1971.
Understanding McLuhan: In the Electric World, Change is the Only
Stable Factor (1996). USA: Southam Interactive. CD-ROM on the ideas
and life of Marshall McLuhan.