A conservative Catholic Canadian academic who was one of the founders of critical media studies. He became a pop culture figure in the 1960's with the publication of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (McGraw?-Hill, 1964) and The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (with designer Quentin Fiore, Random House, 1967). Famous for coining the phrases "The medium is the message" and "the global village," McLuhan? was one of early purveyors of the sound bite. He asserted that each different medium affects the individual and society in distinct and pervasive ways, further classifying some media as "hot"--media which engaged one sense in a high intensity, exclusive way, such as typography, radio, and film--and "cool"--media which were of lower resolution or intensity, and therefore required more interaction from the viewer, such as the telephone and the television. While many of his pronouncements and theories were impenetrable, if not absurd, McLuhan?'s central message that to understand today's world, one must actively study the effects of media, remains ever more true in the Electronic Age.
Herbert Marshall McLuhan? was born July 21, 1911 to Elsie and Herbert in Edmonton, Alberta Canada of Scottish-Irish heritage. He died December 31, 1980 of a cerebral stroke which plagued the last year of his life.