A Study Of Mcluhan's Theory Of Media

The media was divided into two very different types by Innis,according to the characteristics of the media,that it may be better suited to the dissemination of knowledge over time or over space,so as to explain how the media affect to the culture in which it is embedded through time or space.Time and space as a major framework of McLuhan to understand media based on the bias and communication of Innis.The civilization of western world was divided into three eras by McLuhan:The first is the tribal era,the second is Gutenberg era,the third is electronic era.According to this division,McLuhan creatively understand media through these three aspects.They're the extent of the senses' s participation,the characteristics of these three ages of civilization and the characteristics of the hot and cold media.And then he systematically explain that the characters of dominant media of each civilization have an important influence and bias of the civilization,as well as the differentiation or integration of human senses.The tribal era refers to the world before the invention of the phonetic alphabet,also known as the preliterate age.The main media of this era is oral communication.The oral tradition of the tribal period has created a acoustic space that the transmission of information mainly relies on sound rather than sight.The participation of all the senses in the acoustic space are very high,Which corresponds to the characteristics of the cold medium.The era of civilization,referring to the world after the usage of the alphabet and the invention of the printing press,also known as the Gutenberg era.The civilization of the Gutenberg era is mainly manifested by the fact that mechanical technologies,especially the precise uniformity of the alphabet and the printing and the large numbers of identical copies which could be produced very quickly,create a uniform and homogeneous visual space.And the privileges of the visual bias give rise to a division of the senses,which leads to the exclusion of other non-visual senses,also correspond to the characteristics of hot media.The electronic era,refers to the world after the commercialization of electricity.The essence of electronic media in this era is in order to return to the resonating word and the privilege the ear,in other words,this era is the process of retribalization.The electronic media in preliminary stage is indeed an extension of the speed of the mechanical medium,but the explosion of the mechanical media immediately reversed into the implosion of the electronic media while the speed of electronic media advanced at the speed of light.This kind of implosion effectively eliminates the differences between different time and space,So that the extension of stature by the mechanical medium turns into the extension of the central nervous system by the electronic media.The basic form of the electric media is the tactile form.The dominance of the visual bias was broken by the tactility,and then replaced by the intersection of the senses.McLuhan believes that the oral tradition of the tribal period is the vitality and basis of Western civilization.However,the uniformity and repeatability of mechanical technology brings about a one-dimensional challenge to the Western world with the widespread of alphabet and print.This one-dimensional pattern of mechanical technology affect the way we understand the world and the way we recognize the world.At the same time,the perception and judgment of human are removed,the differences and possibilities of individuals are being lost.Therefore,the difficulties of Western civilization should be solved by the way that the civilization returns to the oral tradition through electronic media,that is,the retribalization of the electronic media.