Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), Canadian writer, whose unorthodox theories on communications sprang from his conviction that electronic media themselves have an impact far greater than that of the material they communicate. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, McLuhan was educated at the universities of Manitoba and Cambridge. Later he taught at various universities in the United States and Canada.

McLuhan is best known for coining the phrase “the medium is the message,” which became popular in the 1960s. He argued that in each cultural era the medium in which information is recorded and transmitted is decisive in determining the character of that culture. McLuhan also believed that the linking of electronic information media would create an interconnected “global village.” As a scholar of the effects of technology on human society, McLuhan is regarded as one of the most important 20th-century communications theorists. He has, however, been criticized for subscribing to technological determinism. McLuhan's books include The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1951), The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962), Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964), The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967), War and Peace in the Global Village (1968), and Laws of Media: The New Science (1988), cowritten with son Eric McLuhan.