Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information

Marshall McLuhan died on the last day of 1980, on the doorstep of the personal computer revolution. Yet McLuhan's ideas anticipated a world of media in motion, and its impact on our lives on the dawn of the new millennium. Paul Levinson examines why McLuhan's theories about media are more important to us today than when they were first written, and why theWiredgeneration is now turning to McLuhan's work to understand the global village in the digital age.

Acknowledgements

xi

Introduction: Coinciding Realms

1

(23)

The game plan

4

(14)

McLuhan & Company

18

(6)

``I don't explain - I explore''

The Reluctant Explicator

24

(11)

Analogy and logic

26

(2)

The digital fulfillment, part I

28

(2)

The digital fulfillment, part II

30

(2)

McLuhan's medium

32

(3)

``The medium is the message''

Net Content

35

(9)

The medium as content: writing up on the screen

36

(3)

The user as content online

39

(2)

Media within media within media... the primacy of speech and the exception of photography

41

(3)

``Acoustic space''

The Song of the Alphabet in Cyberspace

44

(11)

The acoustic world, heard offline

46

(2)

Script, print, cyberspace

48

(1)

The acoustic world, seen online

49

(2)

A cyberspace sans alphabet?

51

(4)

``Discarnate man''

Online Angles

55

(10)

Virtual virtue and sex discarnate

57

(3)

God's-eye views

60

(2)

The devil in the DNA

62

(3)

``The global village''

From Voyeur to Participant

65

(15)

Village of children, village of voyeurs

67

(3)

Politics in the online global village

70

(5)

Business in the online global village

75

(5)

``Centers everywhere, margins nowhere''

The Fate of the Center

80

(15)

God's space

81

(2)

Online education everywhere

83

(3)

The gravity of government

86

(2)

Monopoly online?

88

(4)

The city eternal: analog as digital

92

(3)

``Light-through/light-on''

The Mind Behind the Screen

95

(10)

Science and the aesthetician

96

(2)

A Kinetic understanding of media

98

(3)

The peripatetic couch potato

101

(1)

The screens and the skies

102

(3)

``Hot and cool''

Way Cool Text

105

(14)

Bare essentials of the media thermometer

107

(3)

Cultural consequences

110

(3)

Text interactive

113

(6)

``Everyone a publisher''

The Rusted Gatekeeper

119

(13)

Janus ascendant

121

(4)

Gatekeeping mentality

125

(2)

Filtration versus evaluation

127

(2)

From gatekeeper to matchmaker

129

(3)

``Surf-boarding electronic waves''

Serfs to Surf

132

(13)

Inside-out on the phone

133

(2)

The home office: friend of the family

135

(3)

The home office as friend: counter-indications

138

(2)

Toy, mirror, and art

140

(5)

``The machine turned Nature into an art form''

Beauty Machines

145

(13)

Of delicatessen and convertibles

147

(2)

Television as art in the digital age

149

(3)

First loves and nostalgia versus art

152

(2)

The Internet as mainstream

154

(4)

``We have no art, we do everything well''

Balinese at Work Online

158

(15)

Mythic proportions and Herculean tasks: vertical vs. horizontal

160

(4)

Theremin as therapy for art

164

(5)

Virtual virtuosity

169

(4)

``Rear-view mirror''

Through a Glass, Brightly

173

(14)

The Web of rear-view mirrors

175

(3)

Rear-view mirror in the toolbox

178

(4)

Prescriptions for the future

182

(5)

``Laws of media''

Spirals of Media Evolution

187

(17)

Basics of the tetrad

189

(2)

Spirit of the digital age

191

(3)

Deep retrieval and the digital arts

194

(3)

Reversal of the digital age

197

(3)

Reversal of media determinism

200

(4)

Bibliography

204

(8)

Index

212

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials