Understanding Media is a book by Marshall McLuhan. It is the source of the phrase "The medium is the message" meaning that available media shape human activity, more so than what media are used for. The book also predicts the upheaval of local cultures against growingly globalized values. The contents of the book have greatly influenced writers and social analysts. Jump to: navigation, search Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar, professor of English literature, literary critic, and communications theorist, who is one of the founders of the study of media ecology and is today an honorary guru among technophiles. ... Look up Culture on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikinews has news related to this article: Culture and entertainment Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Cultural Development in Antiquity Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Culture and Civilization in Modern Times Classificatory system for cultures and civilizations, by Dr. Sam Vaknin... Jump to: navigation, search Globalisation (or globalization) is a modern term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that result from dramatically increased international trade and cultural exchange. ... Value is a term that expresses the concept of worth in general, and it is thought to be connected to reasons for certain practices, policies or actions. ...

In Part One, McLuhan discusses the differences between hot and cold media and the ways that one medium translates the content of another medium. In other words, "the content of a medium is always another medium".

In Part Two, McLuhan analyzes each medium (in existence in 1964) in a manner that exposes the form, rather than the content of each medium. In order, McLuhan covers The Spoken Word, The Written Word (as in a manuscript or incunabulum), Roads and Paper Routes, Numbers, Clothing, Housing, Money, Clocks, The Print (as in pictorial lithograph or woodcut), Comics, The Printed Word (as in typography, Wheel Bicycle and Airplane, The Photograph, The Press, Motorcar, Ads, Games, Telegraph, The Typewriter, The Telephone, The Phonograph, Movies, Radio, Television, Weapons, and Automation. A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... A page from a rare Blackletter Bible (1497) printed in Strasbourg by J.R. Grueninger. ... Jump to: navigation, search A typical rural county road in Indiana, USA, where traffic drives on the right. ... A number is an abstract entity used originally to describe quantity. ... Jump to: navigation, search (See also List of types of clothing and Clothing terminology) Humans nearly universally wear articles of clothing (also known as dress, garments, or attire) on the body. ... Houses in Fishpool Street, St Albans, England For other meanings of the word house, see House (disambiguation). ... Jump to: navigation, search Money Money is any marketable good or token used by a society as a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Printing is an industrial process for reproducing copies of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. ... Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface, as well as a method of manufacturing semiconductor and MEMS devices. ... A woodcut is a method of printing in which an image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with chisels. ... See comedian Stand up comedian List of Comedians List of British comedians comics comic book comic strip underground comics alternative comics web comic sprite comics manga graphic novel List of comic characters This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same... Typographic work Typography (from the Greek words typos = form and grapho = write) is the art and technique of selecting and arranging type styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing for typeset applications. ... Jump to: navigation, search A driving wheel on a steam locomotive. ... Jump to: navigation, search This racing bicycle is built using lightweight, shaped aluminium tubing and carbon fiber stays and forks. ... Fixed-wing aircraft is a term used to refer to what are more commonly known as aeroplanes in Commonwealth English (excluding Canada) or airplanes in North American English. ... A photograph (often just called a photo) is an image (or a representation of that on e. ... Car redirects here. ... Look up AD, ad-, and ad in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A game is a recreational activity involving one or more players. ... Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... Jump to: navigation, search This Smith Premier typewriter, purchased around the end of the 19th century, was found abandoned in the Bodie ghost town. ... Jump to: navigation, search A telephone handset A touch-tone telephone dial Telephone Complex relay used in a telephone switching system. ... Jump to: navigation, search It has been suggested that Direct-drive_turntable be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of... Jump to: navigation, search The bayonet, still used in war as both knife and spearpoint. ... Automation (ancient Greek: = self dictated) or industrial automation is the use of computers to control industrial machinery and processes, replacing human operators. ...

Throughout Understanding Media, McLuhan uses historical quotes and anecdotes to illustrate the ways in which new media change the perceptions of societies, with specific focus on the form of each medium as opposed to the information that is transferred by each medium. For example, McLuhan examines television as an extension of the movie, with the exception that the visual quality of television as a medium is much less resolute than a movie as it would be seen in a theatre. Whereas a movie extends man's vision to a high degree and is thus "hot", a television image with less detail requires the viewer to fill in more details with their imagination and is therefore a "cool" medium. Jump to: navigation, search ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of... Jump to: navigation, search Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ...

See also

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud makes a similar and more in-depth analysis of comics using the comic medium itself. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a 215-page non-fiction graphic novel by Scott McCloud, widely considered the definitive text to date on the theory of comics (or sequential art) as an artform and a communications medium. ... Scott McCloud (born 1960 in Massachusetts, USA) is a cartoonist and a leading popular scholar of comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium. ...