Today would be the 100th birthday of Marshall McLuhan, the literary and later technology professor who in the early 1960s famously wrote prophetically, albeit almost chillingly, about the evolution of media. Coining phrases such as "the medium is the message" and "the global village" he established lenses that were interesting for viewing the adoption of television at the time, and maybe even more poignantly, the recent impacts of the internet.
I first read McLuhan as an undergrad in journalism school in the very first days of the Web, so early that the reading was for a class that did not cover any online or digital media. But as an early student of what the internet could mean for journalism his way of looking at the large trends in media consumption and the role of technology forever changed my perspective on the potential of the industry.
I purchased a copy of McLuhan's Understanding Media as the my first book after graduation. It was to be the start of an eventual library and as a reminder to keep focus on the larger trends in media evolution and not get too caught up in the daily incremental fad that is touted as changing the world. I keep a copy at my desk to this day.
It is now twelve years later and I have seen a lot of change in the media--both as an avid consumer, and as a professional working in various aspects. It's time for me to formally join discussions online. I continually share thoughts, have discussions, and seek to learn new perspectives, but I have not formally collected or shared them in one place yet, such as this blog. So please join in the discussions and let's see where this goes, and how the message changes with the medium.
