Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

Abstract

This reissue of Understanding Media marks thirtieth anniversary (1964-1994) of Marshall McLuhan's classic expose on state of then emerging phenomenon of mass media. Terms and phrases such as the global village and the medium is message are now part of lexicon, and McLuhan's theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate. There has been a notable resurgence of interest in McLuhan's work in last few years, fueled by recent and continuing conjunctions between cable companies and regional phone companies, appearance of magazines such as WiRed, and development of new media models and information ecologies, many of which were spawned from MIT's Media Lab. In effect, media now begs to be redefined. In a new introduction to this edition of Understanding Media, Harper's editor Lewis Lapham reevaluates McLuhan's work in light of technological as well as political and social changes that have occurred in last part of this century.