McLuhan Misunderstood: Setting the Record Straight - Robert K. Logan

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Résumé :
The past two decades, beginning with the public's use of the Internet in 1994 and continuing with the emergence of notebook computers, smart phones, tablets, e-readers, blogs, wikis, Twitter, and social media, has seen the most rapid evolution of communications and its impact on every aspect of society from commerce to education and from culture to government. Digital media are impacting every aspect of our lives, but they are more in control of us than we are of them. The ideas of Marshall McLuhan, scholar, social critic, literary critic, poet, and artist, can provide the kind of guidance we need, but sadly he is misunderstood by most. This book posits that McLuhan holds the key to our understanding of the new digital media. Marshall McLuhan was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. This book will set the record straight and provide a guide to and insights into the thinking of Marshall McLuhan. This book is the medium and Marshall is the message.

Biographie:
Robert K. Logan, PhD is professor emeritus of physics at the University of Toronto, fellow of St. Michael's College, and chief scientist at the sLab, OCAD University. He collaborated and published with Marshall McLuhan between 1974 to 1980. He is the author of a dozen books including one coauthored with McLuhan, The Future of the Library: An Old Figure in a New Ground as well as The Alphabet Effect (1984, 2004), The Sixth Language (2000, 2004), Understanding New Media (2011), and What Is Information? (2013).

In this slim volume, Robert K. Logan resituates the thought of Marshall McLuhan--fending off misunderstandings and misplaced critiques--by highlighting McLuhan's three major influences, by reviewing the his five major 'conceptual tools, ' and by summarizing four interrelated breakthroughs. In identifying the origin of some of McLuhan's ideas and showing the relevance of McLuhan's thought today, Logan does a great service to media ecology and McLuhan studies. He brings many of McLuhan's insights to wider audiences and to contemporary situations. --Corey Anton, Grand Valley State University, USA McLuhan Misunderstood is a courageous and brilliant guide to the exploration of the complex works of the famous Canadian scholar. Robert K. Logan--himself a close collaborator of Marshall McLuhan--offers a clear and comprehensive position about the most controversial topics in McLuhan's work. --Adriana Braga, Pontifical Catholic University, Brazil McLuhan Misunderstood reveals a secret that scientists know very well: any brilliant insight stems from a fallacy--misunderstanding leads to knowledge. By reversing McLuhan's cryptic style, Robert K. Logan replays his mentor, explains what McLuhan explored, merges two cultures and definitely marshals a flurry of insights that allow us to understand McLuhan's heuristic thinking as a way to reshape our brand new human ecology. --Paolo Granata, University of Bologna, Italy Media determinist! Technophile! Luddite! Marshall McLuhan has been misunderstood--even in contradictory ways--as few others. Robert Logan brilliantly sets the story straight as he grounds the contexts we need for a proper understanding of McLuhan. In a lucid, yet detailed fashion Logan explains McLuhan's cryptic and capturing one-liners, including how his work predicted and even explains social media. --Mogen Olesen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Professor Robert Logan has devoted much of his lat