Resumen del libro

Reseña: When Marshall McLuhan first coined the phrases "global village" and "the medium is the message" in 1964, no-one could have predicted today's information-dependent planet. No-one, that is, except for a handful of science fiction writers and Marshall McLuhan. Understanding Media was written twenty years before the PC revolution and thirty years before the rise of the Internet. Yet McLuhan's insights into our engagement with a variety of media led to a complete rethinking of our entire society. He believed that the message of electronic media foretold the end of humanity as it was known. In 1964, this looked like the paranoid babblings of a madman. In our twenty-first century digital world, the madman looks quite sane. Understanding Media: the most important book ever written on communication. Ignore its message at your peril.

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indice: Introduction 3 1 The Medium is the Message 7 2 Media Hot and Cold 24 3 Reversal of the Overheated Medium 36 4 The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis 45 5 Hybrid Energy: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 53 6 Media as Translators 62 7 Challenge and Collapse: the Nemesis of Creativity 68 8 The Spoken Word: Flower of Evil? 83 9 The Written World: an Eye for an Ear 88 10 Roads and Paper Routes 97 11 Number: Profile of the Crowd 115 12 Clothing: Our Extended Skin 129 13 Housing: New Look and New Outlook 133 14 Money: the Poor Man's Credit Card 142 15 Clocks: the Scent of Time 157 16 The Print: How to Dig it 170 17 Comics: Mad Vestibule to TV 178 18 The Printed Word: Architect of Nationalism 185 19 Wheel, Bicycle, and Airplane 195 20 The Photograph: the Brothel-without-Walls 204 21 Press: Government by News Leak 220 22 Motorcar: the Mechanical Bride 236 23 Ads: Keeping Upset with the Joneses 246 24 Games: the Extensions of Man 254 25 Telegraph: the Social Hormone 267 More...

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