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Sunday, June 18, 2023

Changing Meaning of “Medium”

Here's how Marshall McLuhan changed the meaning of "medium" over 25 years:

50s = the medium was simply TV, radio, etc. (just a new extension as a "figure", almost)

mid-60s = the medium was an "environment" (MM at the time said he now preferred that word)

1972 = the medium was the new services triggered by the new technology (for example, the gas stations, oil companies, sidewalks, etc., that came in with the automobile which now was a "figure")

1972 = in his talk with Father Peyton MM says one can't tell where a medium begins and where it leaves off (very Baudrillardian)

1975 = the medium was all the previous technologies and environments that made up the "society" before the new technology came in
Bob Dobbs

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