The Medium Is Still the Message (Paperback)

Grant N. Havers

ISBN 10: 1501782932 / ISBN 13: 9781501782930

Published by Cornell University Press, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. The Medium Is Still the Message presents Marshall McLuhan, history's foremost philosopher of media, as the indispensable guide for understanding the impact of technologies. McLuhan (1911-1980) shows that media are not simply tools of communication: they create new environments with transformational effects on politics, economics, culture, identity, religion, and nature. Grant N. Havers argues that McLuhan's key insight - "the medium is the message" - is even more relevant today as humanity grapples with the unintended effects of new media. As McLuhan demonstrated, a lack of understanding about the power of media technologies allows these entities to become idols that enslave their makers. At the same time, they encourage human beings to act like gods who can reinvent reality itself, all the while leading to the decline of literacy, the weakening of democracy, the resurgence of tribalism within the global village, and the elusive search for identity in cyberspace. The Medium Is Still the Message ultimately offers good news: using McLuhan's insights, human beings can escape the technological cave that they have fashioned for themselves. "Examines the life and ideas of Marshall McLuhan and helps us to understand the effects of media on us, with reference to our current age"-- Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781501782930

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Medium Is Still the Message (Paperback)
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501782932
• ISBN 13: 9781501782930
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

The Medium Is Still the Message presents Marshall McLuhan, history's foremost philosopher of media, as the indispensable guide for understanding the impact of technologies. McLuhan (1911-1980) shows that media are not simply tools of communication: they create new environments with transformational effects on politics, economics, culture, identity, religion, and nature. Grant N. Havers argues that McLuhan's key insight--"the medium is the message"--is even more relevant today as humanity grapples with the unintended effects of new media.

As McLuhan demonstrated, a lack of understanding about the power of media technologies allows these entities to become idols that enslave their makers. At the same time, they encourage human beings to act like gods who can reinvent reality itself, all the while leading to the decline of literacy, the weakening of democracy, the resurgence of tribalism within the global village, and the elusive search for identity in cyberspace. The Medium Is Still the Message ultimately offers good news: using McLuhan's insights, human beings can escape the technological cave that they have fashioned for themselves.

About the Author

Grant N. Havers is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Trinity Western University. He is the author of Leo Strauss and Anglo-American Democracy and Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love. Havers and his family make their home in Langley, British Columbia.