M. McLuhan: Between medium and mediatization

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to the key ideas of the media theorist M. McLuhan. The Canadian culturologist and philologist conceptualized the advent of the era of a new, “electronic”, person and new electronic media. Theoretical analysis. M. McLuhan’s works, in a certain sense, shaped the direction and style of studying media in a social context, “The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man” (1951), “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man” (1962), “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man” (1964). According to his position, electronic media technologies can be understood as a medium, a means of communication. They have evolved from the simplest sound signals to signs on various surfaces (from rock art to the modern alphabet) and an electronic signal. Conclusion. Despite the inconsistency of the figure of M. McLuhan among media theorists, the view on electronic media, according to which the author offers a kind of “Renaissance”, turning prism, is of epistemological value, which, among other things, is used in the concept of the global village. The value of this idea is due to the tendency towards convergence of users of modern communication technologies (for example, social networks) and the media transformation of the era.