Marshall Mcluhan

Canadian communication theorist (Edmonton, July 21, 1911 – Toronto, December 31, 1980). He was a professor in the Department of English Literature at the University of Toronto (1946–79), where he founded and directed (1963–79) the Center for Culture and Technology. He became famous with the book The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), in which he dealt with the changes in the structure of information processing and reasoning that occurred after the discovery of printing and the institutionalization of writing, but also with far-reaching consequences for the development of science, technology, the creation of nations, etc. His interpretation of replacement orality with literacy (ear-eye perception), brought about by Gutenberg's invention, strongly influenced modern historiography as well. His study Understanding Media (Understanding Media, 1964) shows that orality is not a thing of the past, but its reactualization is the fundamental effect of modern electronic media. McLuhan's teaching that the form in which information is mediated is key to its understanding and that with electronic media the world becomes a global village, had a lasting impact on contemporary media studies. Other works: The Mechanical Bride (1951), The Medium is the Message (1967), War and Peace in the Global Village (1968).