McLuhan’s global village, ca 1960

[Stephen posted a link](http://www.downes.ca/post/53972/rd) to [this newly rediscovered video](http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2010/03/15/marshall-mcluhan-global-village/) of [Marshall McLuhan](http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/) discussing media on [CBC’s Explorations documentary series in 1960](http://archives.cbc.ca/programs/241/). This was 4 years before [Understanding Media](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Media) was published. It’s well worth watching. It strikes me that this kind of deep, theoretical presentation/discussion would likely be impossible to broadcast now.

video-takedown.jpg

**UPDATE:** As of October 27, 2010, the video was taken down from YouTube, due to a copyright violation claim by CBC. I suppose they’re planning to rebroadcast the 50 year old video at some point?

Screen shot 2010-10-27 at 1.31.17 PM.png

I’m sure McLuhan would have something to say about the message of copyright takedowns and the ephemeral nature of corporate digital media.

Carpenter & McLuhan. (1956). The New Languages.

Carpenter, E. & McLuhan, M. (1956) [The new languages](http://scholar.google.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=info:sGI-I_PNL8oJ:scholar.google.com/&output=search). Chicago Review. 10(1) pp. 46-52.

on the format of newspapers, and the effect on perception:

>The position and size of articles on the front page is determined by interest and importance, not content. Unrelated reports… are juxtaposed; time and space are destroyed and the *here* and *now* are presented as a single Gestalt. … Such a format lends itself to simultaneity, not chronology or lineality. Items abstracted from a total situation are not arranged in causal sequence, but presented in association, as raw experience.

on communication channels:

>Thus each communication channel codifies reality differently and thereby influences, to a surprising degree, the content of the message communicated.

**DN:** both concepts apply nicely to educational technology, and to online discussion. How does the format of the online discussion platform shape the presentation, perception, and shape of the message(s) communicated?