Marshall McLuhan Google doodle pays tribute to ‘The medium is the message’ media theorist

In his 1962 book "Understanding Media," McLuhan argued that the way people receive information is more important than the information being received.

Chat with SearchBot

Marshall Mcluhans 106th Birthday 6207431578222592.3 Law

Today’s Google doodle marks what would have been Marshall McLuhan’s 106th birthday.

A Canadian philosopher, professor and author, McLuhan was an astute media theorist with a prescient vision of how technology would continue to shape our world.

In 1962, McLuhan published “The Gutenberg Galaxy” — a book that popularized the term “global village” and the concept that technology unites people by giving everyone equal access to information.

Two years later, he published “Understanding Media,” where he coined the famous phrase, “The medium is the message.” In the 1964 book, McLuhan theorized that the way humans receive information is more important and influential on our history than the actual information being received.

The doodle leads to a search for “Marshall McLuhan” and includes an animated image of McLuhan on TV, along with images representing the four specific eras of human history as defined by the philosopher: the acoustic age, the written (or literary) age, the print age with mass production resources, and the global village/electronic age.

Mcluhan.

Google says today’s doodle honors “… the man whose prophetic vision of the ‘computer as a research and communication instrument’ has undeniably become a reality.”


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Amy Gesenhues
Contributor
Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.