Profile of Marshall McLuhan Marshall McLuhan argued that the "medium is the message. McLuhan believed that the nature of technology was as important as its content. His ideas were so controversial for the time and had so much influence on scholars of mass media that the term McLuhanism appears in the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary distills his entire work into a statement that the introduction of mass media deadens the critical faculties of individuals. Herbert Marshall McLuhan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on July2l, 1911, to a Protestant family of Scottish-Irish descent. His mother, Elsie, was an actress, and his father, Herbert, was a salesman. He went to the University of Manitoba to become an engineer but switched his major to English literature. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1933 and earned a master's degree the following year. He then studied literature at Cambridge University in England, where he obtained a BA in 1936 and a doctorate in 1942. McLuhan married Corrine Keller, a Texan who studied drama at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. McLuhan established his teaching and scholarly career at the University of Toronto, where he was influenced by Harold Innis, a pioneer in communication studies. In 1963, McLuhan was appointed director of the University of Toronto's Marshall McLuhan Center for Culture and Technology, where he worked for fourteen years before retiring. Today, the university's McLuhan Program continues his work by focuses on how technology affects culture and society. McLuhan wrote more than fifteen books, including The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man, published in 1951. That book was his first attempt to examine the effects of mass culture and "the pressures set up around us today by the mechanical agencies of the press, radio, movies, and advertising." He made a greater impact with his second book, The Gutenberg Galaxy, written in 1961, which discusses the effect of movable type on Western European culture in the fifteenth century. In 1964, McLuhan earned popular acclaim with Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, in which he contends that the introduction of electronic circuitry made behavior less isolated and more conformist than before. He expands on his concept of the "global village," arguing that media bring different cultures closer together. Another popular book, The Medium Is the Massage, published in 1967, illustrated McLuhan's ideas of "hot" and "cold" media. His objective was to show that a medium is not neutral but rather it transforms life. In 1969, McLuhan was the subject of a lengthy interview in Playboy Magazine. McLuhan earned praise as the media guru of the 1960s, but he also was the target of criticism from scholars. He received many honors, awards, and medals, including citations from the British and Italian governments. McLuhan died on December 31, 1980, at the age of 69. Five Short Profiles Politicians must be masters of the media in modern election campaigns. Robert "Bob" Dole (1923-- ) was born in Kansas. He became majority leader in the U.S. Senate in 1985, then minority leader in 1987 when Democrats took over the Senate. In 1995 he again became majority leader. He ran unsuccessfully for president on the Republican ticket in 1996, despite efforts to cater to younger voters by appearing on MTV. After his loss, Dole was criticized for becoming involved in another controversy, involving computer software giant Microsoft. For more information, see page 1 of The Media In Your Life. Dole ran against a politician whose election was credited, in part, to his mastery of television. William "Bill" Clinton (1946-- ) is an Arkansas native, who studied at Georgetown University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He was Democratic governor of Arkansas for twelve years (1979 to 1981; 1983 to 1992) before becoming United States President in 1992. He won reelection in 1996. The White House maintains an official web site with information about the president. For more information, see pages 8-9 of The Media In Your Life. The meaning of the First Amendment has been shaped by people like Hugo La Fayette Black, supreme court justice (1886--1971). Black practiced law and became a police court judge in Alabama. He went from the U.S. Senate to the Supreme Court in 1937. He believed the First Amendment's guarantees of freedoms are absolute. To read some of his judicial opinions, go to this page at Cornell University and click on Black's name. For more information, see page 9 of The Media In Your Life. A belief that free speech is essential to democracy was shared by the country's founders, including James Madison (1751--1836). Madison was born in Virginia and studied at the College of New Jersey, which was renamed Princeton University. He was known as the "Father of the Constitution" for the role he played in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He helped write The Federalist Papers and was United States President for two terms (1809 to 1817). The University of Virginia has a web site devoted to Madison. For more information, see page 9 of The Media In Your Life. Another early president who believed reading newspapers was an essential part of being a citizen was Thomas Jefferson (1743--1826). Jefferson was born in Virginia. He was a farmer, inventor, and scientist who participated in the first Continental Congress, drafting the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was Virginia's governor from 1779 to 1781 and the third U.S. President (1801 to 1809). A Public Broadcasting Service web site is devoted to Jefferson's life and thinking. For more information, see page 9 of The Media In Your Life.