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Dive into the profound theories of Marshall McLuhan and his son Eric as they foreshadow the transformative effects of modern media on society. Explore how new media technologies reshape our world and predict their future evolution.
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Marshaling McLuhans’ Laws to Explicate New Media Presented to the Communication Technology Division of AEJMC Mike Dorsher, Ph.D. Department of Comm. & Journalism University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire My Research Goals: • Rescue the ‘Laws of Media’ from obscurity • Apply them to new media born since McLuhan’s death • Reveal how new media already distort our lives • Forecast how today’s new media will mature • ... and what they’ll ultimately morph into • Marshall McLuhan, 1911-1980 • “The medium is the message” 1964 • “The medium is the massage” 1967 • “Laws of Media: The New Science” 1988 • Finished by his son, Eric McLuhan • Presciently predicts a plane becomes a projectile (p. 202) For example: the Four Media Laws Applied to Digital Video Recorders • DVRs such as TiVo retrieve: • Computers • DVDs • VCRs • Cable TV • The Internet • Because they are cybernetic; i.e., they complete the feedback loop • DVRs extend: • Time shifting • Commercial skipping • Live sports telecasts • Online shopping and marketing • Dataveillance • DVRs obsolesce: • VCRs • Catalog shopping • Commercials • Watching sports live • Viewers’ home privacy • DVRs reverse into: • Nonlinear media • Commercials with program breaks • Video jukeboxes • Gesellschaft; i.e., uncommon ground for society The McLuhans’ 4 Laws of Media • All media, simultaneously: • Extendsome sense or organ of the user • Obsolesce, or close, another sense • Retrievesome facets of older media • Reverseinto some unintended form • When pushed to their limits The father, son and ‘Holy smokes!’ For example, McLuhan’s Xerox copy machine ‘tetrad’: Conclusion: McLuhan the Media Determinist? • ‘There is no inevitability where there is willingness to pay attention’ -- Laws of Media, p. 128