Talk:Marshall McLuhan

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 13 January 2022 and 16 April 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jessejoseph (article contribs).

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This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Georgetown University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2011 Q3 term. Further details are available on the course page.

Above message substituted from {{WAP assignment}} on 14:34, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

****SOMETHING MISSING HERE****

Hi, I don't know the solution but thought the editors of the page should know that someone has added some text saying ****SOMETHING MISSING HERE**** in the middle of the content. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 106.186.212.26 (talk) 01:12, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for letting us know. This problem has already been taken care of. Most of the time, when a page gets a lot of exposure, there is a flurry of attempts to improve it or vandalize it. Most of the vandal edits don't last more than a few minutes. — jmcgnh^{(talk) (contribs)} 07:16, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Grammar

Second paragraph of "Legacy": The text "who would later wrote" should be "who would later write" or "who later wrote"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.134.106.245 (talk) 13:51, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 July 2017

Change "Massage" to "Message" in "The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967)". It is in the hyperlinked contents. Thank you. 47.158.44.251 (talk) 13:57, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Not done: PLEASE NOTE: "The Medium is the MASSAGE" is the correct title of the book. regards, DRAGON BOOSTER ★ 15:19, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 July 2017

Change "The main concept of McLuhan's argument (later elaborated upon in The Medium is the Massage) is that new technologies..." to "The main concept of McLuhan's argument (later elaborated upon in The Medium is the Message) is that new technologies...".

Note: Change from "Massage" to "Message". 204.27.169.105 (talk) 15:13, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Not done: PLEASE NOTE: "The Medium is the MASSAGE" is the correct title of the book. regards, DRAGON BOOSTER ★ 15:19, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Heritage Minutes

There's a Historica Canada Heritage Minute dedicated to Marshall McLuhan which may be useful to add to the External Links section.

https://www.historicacanada.ca/content/heritage-minutes/marshall-mcluhan

Smelsela (talk) 16:02, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Spelling error

Is it the title of his book "The Medium is the Massage" or Message? Pick one that is correct as it appears with both spellings. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.216.144.200 (talk) 19:17, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

The title of the 1967 book is The Medium Is the Massage, a pun on "the medium is the message" which is not the title of a book but a phrase McLuhan coined earlier. I didn't see "The Medium Is the Message" given as a book title in the article (but maybe someone already fixed it. It is a bit confusing). ---Sluzzelin talk 02:36, 22 July 2017 (UTC)

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Woody Allen Appearance

There has to be room in this article for the fact that McLuhan appeared as himself in the Woody Allen movie, Annie Hall. That must be something of an apotheosis in pop cultural terms. Get Jordan Peterson a cameo in a Tarantino pic and you'll ave an analog.

@Christofurio: It is mentioned in the life and career section. Hrodvarsson (talk) 02:24, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

Historical accuracy

However, with the arrival of the Internet and the World Wide Web, interest was renewed in his work and perspectives

This is a revisionist take in some sense. I was deep into McLuhan in the late 1980s, and the tech community at the time was very much heavily into his philosophy. In other words, the idea that interest waned in McLuhan isn’t true. It’s just that mainstream information technology at the time was business and finance-oriented. Computer science departments were filled to the brim with students wearing suits and ties, not philosophers of science wishing to understand how the internet was going to change culture and the media. This is one reason why, quite ironically and paradoxically, some of the biggest roadblocks and opponents to early internet adoption were the mainstream tech behemoths (Microsoft, etc.) They didn’t care about McLuhan’s vision until they could make a buck from it. For this reason, the above statement reflects their perspective, not that of the wider community. It would take a really deep dive into old periodicals to fix this mess, but the people at the vanguard of technology never lost interest in his work and perspectives. I should also note that the statement that "interest was renewed" is even more incorrect when one considers that students of other disciplines, such as media, journalism, and broadcasting, were learning about McLuhan and his legacy before the rise of the internet. To summarize and conclude: I don’t know where this idea that interest waned and was later renewed in McLuhan comes from. It’s simply not true. The only thing I can surmise is that some writer made it up. Given that McLuhan was a hero of the counterculture of the 1960s, one wonders if the idea that interest in his work waned was a reactionary talking point from conservatives in the early 1980s. Viriditas (talk) 01:31, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Additional Cultural Impact

McLuhan was relevant enough at the time of writing that he is referenced in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. In the first page of Chapter 5, the narrator notes that Kilgore Trout was supposed to "take part in a symposium out there entitled 'The Future of the American Novel in the Age of McLuhan.'" I thought this was a significant enough reference to be worth including in that list. Gjungwir (talk) 00:37, 1 August 2024 (UTC)