Introduction to McLuhan

As part of my MA studies I’ve been forced encouraged to read a lot about/of McLuhan and technological determinism. Some of it good, some great, some “in the future you should cut down on the LSD”. I’d never really had a reason to study his writings and to spare others from reading the real sh**e once I’ve collected some of the videos and writings I found most interesting:

Easy to read Playboy interview with McLuhan from 1969

“Marshall McLuhan the man and his message” – one hour documentary, introduced by Tom Wolfe from 1984:

Marshall McLuhan – the man and his message

Marshall McLuhan – full lecture: The medium is the message – 1977:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Marshall McLuhan – the global village – a short introduction – quite impressive for someone who didn’t live to see the internet take off and worth watching if you’re interested in Yochai Benkler and his theory of Social Production.
Also worth reading/watching is Tom Pettitt explaining the Gutenberg theory  – a theory which states that digitalization is causing a return to the oral era – or the culture of the oral era – which makes the printing press and Gutenberg a mere parenthetical sentence (this was food for thought for me!)

Tom Wolfe’s article about McLuhan “suppose he is what he sounds like, the most important thinker since Newton, Darwin, Freud, Einstein and Pavlov, what if he is right?

Enjoy!