Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
hands of end users, and thereby created the desktop era. ARPANET,
DARPANET, Ethernet, and the WWW (World Wide Web) all existed prior
to 1990, but were not seen as leading indicators of the way information
systems would be delivered, until the launch of the Web browser.
Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was a Canadian educator, phi-
losopher, and scholar, professor of English literature, literary critic, and
communications theorist. McLuhan's most widely known work,
Under-
standing Media,
published in 1964, is a pioneering study in media ecology.
In it, McLuhan proposes that media itself, not the content carried, should
be the focus of study. He points out that all media have individual
characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways.
McLuhan's most famous aphorism begins his groundbreaking work.
He writes that:
In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing
all things as means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock
to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the
medium is the message.
The “shock” in this statement is that the message has been equated to
the medium itself. We are accustomed to thinking that the message is
what the medium delivers to its intended audience. For example, when
considering television, we are mostly concerned with what is on television,
that is, the programs. We examine the content of a particular show,
interpret it, and judge its value. We may conclude that certain “messages”
on television are harmful while others are beneficial. But, for McLuhan,
it is the television medium itself, not its programs, that is the message. It
is a message of structural change in society, occurring slowly.
The significance of such structural changes that occur or take effect
slowly can be missed or discounted. Their effects on society, and produc-
tivity, work over long stretches of time. Thus, how can one recognize such
a message? By looking for a change in “scale or pace or patter n” in
interpersonal behavior. That is a message that something new has been
introduced. We see that most recently in the case of the Internet. Even in
its early manifestations, it has affected work and social relations. Note that
we are not talking about anything and everything that is newly introduced
in society. Every day, new gadgets are introduced and new inventions come
into play. Unless these new technologies or devices change interpersonal
and social relationships, we cannot treat them as the arrival of a new
message, which might be signaling the arrival of some new medium.
Recognizing such change is not always easy. We may have to depend on
experts in media ecology to study and interpret them.
Eric McLuhan, son of Marshall McLuhan, describes it by saying that:
