Marshall McLuhan was born in Edmonton, Canada, July 21, 1911. Marshall attended University of Manitoba and Cambridge University before becoming a lecturer at the University of Toronto.
McLuhan's career began to skyrocket in the 196-0's as a media theorist after putting forward the "global village" theory. When you sign in to a Google page, we're presented with the symbols of communication. Starting from the sound, fire, industry icons, writing, to the television screen that features McLuhan's own face.
These symbols are the history of human communication in the "global village" theory. According to McLuhan, the history of human communication is divided into four periods: acoustics, literature, mass production, and electronics.
The theory is written in The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962), which appeared in the year when the new television era triumphed.
The acoustic era, the era of the development of oral tradition. The literary era, that is when writing began to develop. Era print or mass production, ie after the discovery of the printing press. The electronic era is when information is disseminated over the Internet.
The period that will most affect the lives of mankind is the electronic age. According to him, humanity will connect with advanced communication technology and can access a lot of information through the technology.
After The Guttenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962), McLuhan published his second book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). Thanks to this work, his name instantly skyrocketed in the universe of communication academics.
In his second book McLuhan explains, that in the electronic age, communication methods will be very influential rather than the information itself. This theory is what he calls "medium is the message itself" or "how to transmit messages into messages themselves".
