Laws of Media

Description

*Laws of Media; The New Science* started as an anticipated 2nd edition to *Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man*. In this book the "Laws" are four principles discussed in *Understanding Media*, used here as a set of four questions to query any artifact created by humans, including theory, procedures, and style. These can also be viewed as four perspectives or dimensions of such an artifact. The four dimensions are referenced in the book as the "tetrad." About eighty pages of the book are devoted to examples of artifacts tested as tetrads. The examples—laid out, per Eric, as poetic stanzas, without further elaboration—can confuse the reader's newly minted understanding of the tetrad; however, one does not need to understand the examples to gain insights from the book, a collaboration between Marshall McLuhan and his son, Eric McLuhan. --F.A. Moore

Excerpt

We learned that [the four Laws of Media] applied to more than what is conventionally called media: they were applicable to the products of all human endeavour, and also to the endeavour itself. One colleague at the university tried them on remedies for cancer, and found they worked. With another, my father tried business procedures; with another, Newton's laws of motion. They worked! The floodgates burst. (E. McLuhan, 1988, p. ix)

Excerpt

A New Science replaces the current Old Science of media and artefacts, which is too narrow and too rigid, having drawn its techniques from the abstract Method used since the Renaissance. It is a science of content and of messages only. The study of human media and technologies must begin with their humanity and remain steeped in the study of the senses. (McLuhan & McLuhan, 1988, pp. 3–4)

Subjects

Other Editions

• Laws of Media: The New SciencePaperbackUniversity of Toronto Press1992-09-16
• Laws of mediaUniversity of Toronto Press1988-01-01
• Laws of mediaUniversity of Toronto Press1988-01-01
• Laws of media