Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan

McLuhan argues that technology introduces a new scale into our operations

this scale alters our social relationship and the basic way we organize our society

McLuhan sees movies as revolutionizing because they

transformed sequential thinking into creative configuration and structure

Knowledge system

Culture is socially learned and provides people with what they need to know to act appropriately.

What does McLuhan fail to take into account?

He fails to take into account social structures, habits, low, religion, politics, economy, etc.

How Does McLuhan make the argument that the message is technology?

McLuhan points out that we do not see the larger pattern, that people are easily distracted by superficiality and are not intelligent enough to see through this

How does McLuhan critique Sarnoff?

McLuhan says that Sarnoff is ignoring the true qualities of the medium

What does McLuhan mean by "the medium is the message"?

The total impact of the technology in cultural, social, material spheres counts

What do our knowledge systems do?

They divide, segment, and categorize

According to McLuhan trains and planes

did not introduce locomotion but they speeded up travel

According to McLuhan what does the content of any medium do?

it blinds us to its truest character

Sarnoff stated that

technology is not good or bad but the way we use it determines its value

Technological Determinism

the idea that machines and their development drive economic and cultural change

According to McLuhan the medium is

the medium is technology; technical qualities of the medium are the message, he stresses "technological determinants"