Marshall McLuhan argued that the medium itself, not just the content, should be the focus of study. He gave the example of how a light bulb enables the creation of spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be dark. McLuhan wrote that electronic mass media collapse space and time, enabling global interaction and living. Today, the "global village" metaphor describes how the Internet allows global communication and linking of websites across borders, with implications for new sociological structures and cultures.

1. Marshall McLuhan 1964

2. The Media is the Message
Now what doesTHIS mean?

3. Media themselves, not the
content they carry, should be
the focus of study.

4. For instance, a light bulb has no
content, yet it creates space;
that is, a light bulb enables
people to create spaces
during nighttime that would
otherwise be enveloped by
darkness.They can read at
night.

5. McLuhan wrote about this term in his book The Gutenberg
Galaxy:The Making ofTypographic Man (1962). His book
describes how electronic mass media collapse space and
time barriers in human communication, enabling people
to interact and live on a global scale. In this sense, the
globe has been turned into a village by the electronic
mass media.

6. Today, the global village is mostly used as a metaphor to
describe the Internet and WorldWideWeb.The Internet
globalizes communication by allowing users from around
the world to connect with each other. Similarly, web-
connected computers enable people to link their web
sites together.This new reality has implications for
forming new sociological structures within the context of
culture.

7. The Frankfurt School

9. Baudrillard

10. Television does not just
“represent” the world to us, it
increasingly defines what the
world in which we live actually is.
(From Giddens et al, 2005

11. The O.J. SimpsonTrial
 It became a spectacle. It
did not happen in the
courthouse so much as
it did on the television.
 Baudrillard calls this
hyperreality—the reality
that is only seen onTV.

12. He stated that the GulfWar
cannot happen.
Then, after the war, he stated
that the GulfWar did not
happen.

13. And of course it all happens again!

14. JohnThompson describes it:
1 Face to face interaction
2 Mediated interaction: a letter or a phone call
3 Mediated quasi-interaction: social relations created by
the mass media—does NOT link individuals directly
Is monological (likeTV being one-way)

15. Mass media changes the balance between the
PUBLIC
And the
PRIVATE

16.  Facebook
 Twitter
 Blogs
 Wikis
 MassTexting
 YouTube
 Vimeo
 Slideshare

17. The Culture Industry
discussion