Marshall McLuhan on the TODAY Show

[bowerbjo]

@2:02

[sochify]

Go Canada! McLuhan!

[eleutheromaniac]

The real Eminem. When Marshall speaks, everyone else should just listen.

[JohnGoodman909]

I got bored after around 4 or 5 minutes.

[TheTdotPyro]

McLuhan was a fucking genius.

When he first came up with these theories it was debated and contested, everyone accepts them now.

[Atheeizm]

And boy have we moved on since .....not.

[yoseph89]

wow what truth.

[radiodj1520]

I Believe This Was A Video Clip Of NBC News' Today's Report On Marshall McLuhan On Friday Morning, September 24, 1976.

[Arkanj3l]

Towards the end, that insight blew my mind... mainly for being expressed so eloquently.

[niallyeah]

THE ABOMINABLE SHOWMAN

[mikedelgado8888]

awesome.

[PLev20062006]

In addition to being way out of his league, Brokaw also got the name of McLuhan's book wrong, at least twice - it's The Medium is the Massage ("the medium is the message" is McLuhan's most famous aphorism, but was not the title of any of his books).

[CocteauDalighari]

PLev20062006 "the medium is the message": from his first book, Understanding Media.

[PLev20062006]

@CocteauDalighari Right, but as I said, "the medium is the message" is not the title of any of McLuhan's books.

[jackrowet1234]

McLuhan schools people.

[natmanprime]

these days the medium is the massage

[medialies100]

"The next medium, whatever it is - it may be the extension of consciousness - will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individual's encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind".

Marshall McLuhan, 1962

[SidewalkFrequencies]

Tom Brokah came off as a total dip shit, God I miss the days of rational thought and discussion

[coquettesanscoke]

panic cool

[medialies100]

"His accent is corporate, not private". Fascinating to hear someone actually acknowledging accents from an occupational standpoint. We never address the reality that accents don't just stem from our geographical position, but also our position in class and occupation. That says a lot about human society.

[natmanprime]

@medialies100 exactly, thats right

also, our history, AND psychology

like the pronunciaton of "a" for example

cultural and personal psychology

[lralon]

Check out Eric McLuhan's interview with Figure/Ground Communications:

figureground dot ca/interviews/eric-mcluhan/

[guinnesstrail]

McLuhan is Toto pulling the curtain aside to reveal the great Wizard of Oz. Amazing insight into politics.

[blabblab1212]

If this was Fox News, they would be interrupting him, the lead-up would be that he is a quack, in general they would disrespect him as they do to anybody with a brain that doesn't think conservatively.

[SaulChel]

@blabblab1212 that is the sad truth

[PeterRoeder31]

"I´ve never been against the book but I am obsessed with TV." That´s what he is saying.

[jacksawild]

I have never in my life seen an American on TV like this and I'd never heard of this man. What does that tell you?

[THISUTUBESUCKS]

I wonder if Brokaw was acknowledging McLuhan’s teachings with this comment—‘time now for this message’—or was generally throwing to a break without much thought.

Regardless, it speaks directly to McLuhan’s idea that electronic media in the Ford/Carter debate was primarily an image maker, designed to amuse, distract, and with Brokaw’s final comment, sell advertising.

McLuhan’s teachings are more relevant and needed today than ever. Read Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death"

[ironmanboy]

" You're assuming that what these people say is important" McLuhan was a very bright man. Brokaw seems lost trying to speak to him.

[slippereal]

mmftmfw

[hcgazoo]

I wonder what Mr.McLuhan would think about the advent of the internet and on going saturation of our various cultures and the resulting effects by digital media. I wonder if he would see it as an advanced user controlled version of television or an entirely different animal?

[caisediab]

@hcgazoo Good question. McLuhan examined technology's affects on the psyche and how they extend our senses.

The computer and internet are extensions of the human neural system. Like a brain, the net is high speed data retrieval. Hence, the human thought process is sped beyond TV. The message becomes speed. If something isnt done or said quickly, it is meaningless. People have no patience because they always must move. This prohibits thinking--a dictator's dream.

[jtatsiue]

@caisediab, that's great stuff, the "medium is message" is perfectly defined, that the message is speed, always, regardless of the content, is brilliant. That there's no time to reflect on anything is absolutely a dictator's dream and everyone talks about the democratizing powers of the Internet, what a deception!

[hcgazoo]

@caisediab Of course one of the problems now is that information is exchanged so immediately that we often find ourselves commenting on thing before they are substantiated leading us to often be prone to knee jerk reactions before we know the facts.

[jtatsiue]

@hcgazoo, very true, you've just described the theater of contemporary American political discourse, "knee jerk" reactionary rhetoric designed to elicit an emotional response, a propagandist's dream

[jtatsiue]

@hcgazoo, my guess is that he'd consider it the Global Village finally realized. One of his ideas was that electronic media was retribalizing humanity. The Internet is not a "mass" medium; the information isn't disseminated from a singular source to an undifferentiated, "mass". The Internet is millions of private, semi-private discussions aimed at the relative few.  The once mass audience is now split into tiny micro-niches or "tribes" each with their own customs, lingo or catch "memes".

[hcgazoo]

@jtatsiue The only major issue of course being that these comments are made anonymously allowing anyone to say anything about anyone else without fear of repercussion. I would expect in a tribe if you spoke ill of another tribe member and the basis of your discussion turned out to be false then the consequences would be swift and unpleasant. I wish MM were still alive I would love to hear his take on our "modern" world.

[jtatsiue]

@hcgazoo, I wonder if he'd consider modern civilization to be significantly more savage

[twocentsCanada]

A funny & observant Canadian. MM quote "Television is a potent drug."

[Mavrilon]

Brokaw is totally clueless!

Not listening to what McLuan is saying,promoting his own agenda.

Edwin Newman, on the other hand, is listening and really grasps what Marshall was saying.

Newman knew how to converse with people, Brokaw. doesn't.

[CocteauDalighari]

@Mavrilon That's for sure: Brokaw squirmed like an unearthed worm listening to talk about "hot" & "cool" media. Brokaw's territory was always "the issues," about which you can be super-vague. Plus he's projecting his own image there, tryna be hip, but his seriously un-hipness shined thru.

[turquoise770]

with a laser focus on the dynamics of power and image, he was able to distinguish content (requiring the "discussion" of important issues) and context ( how the idea of importance, and thus power, becomes an attribute or remains a defecit in the mind of the viewer regarding the person televised) and how more than often than not in t.v., content is simply superficial and context is everything.

[nambypamby34]

" A stupid show had been put together" Very carefully!" LOL!!

[coolwafferman]

Tom Brokaw looks a little like Pat Sajak when he first started hosting "Wheel of Fortune".

[Shaneanagins]

Everything McLuhan said should have been adopted by the presidential debate has been. That's crazy how ahead of his time he was.

[CocteauDalighari]

@Shaneanagins What's more, you never hear anyone these days state anything with such conviction; maybe because all TV is scripted, usually with plenty of help from sponsors.

[f1ghtclub2k3]

mcluhan was an existentialist

[TheWizzooo]

McCluhan IS a Catholic and our brother.

[drkthms1]

mcluhan was genuis

[huntertristan]

brokaw got pwnd

[tikiatomica]

The Drunken Clutching of Lamposts! ... As usual MM was brilliant and speaks the truth. TB was either to ignorant (in which case I feel sorry for him) or too egotistical to realize he was in the company of a giant and thoroughly exposes himself as the childish defensive corporatist hack he was groomed to be. Truth like this long ago disappeared from the telcom monopoly. Soon they will filter it from mediums like this as well.

[tristramshandy3]

6:50- brokaw looks just like the estranged former illinois governor rob blegoyaviech

[m4lvolio]

This mustache man does not respect Howard Stern's penis.

[ockfener]

MM could have handled HS with ease.

[buewgewstmeiers]

HAHAHA yea i know who he is!!!!

[MillsApparatus]

"... And now for this message."

[neurochris]

lol exactly what i was thinking

[wakeupchannel]

truth

[ocdave99]

Brokaw is uncomfortable here as McLuhan is alpha in every interview he does.

[MaryOMackie]

Ah...back when intellectual, alternative and dissenting views were allowed on the mainstream media.

[JimB667]

right eh? freaky

[Milkmadness]

political correctness is just one of the many pieces of bullshit cast into the divide between man and himself.

[flammesombres]

Yes!

[sapphirerose666]

Check out Noam Chomsky's : manufacturing consent, his theories are amazing

[IExposeMormonism]

I wonder what M./ Mc' thinks of 911?WTC. event. It was an inside job and a media job.

[NeoOneOrg]

He would probably say it was a collective job because judgment is the real issue in how human perception becomes altered when we do not share a collective science of the mind based in the affects of evolution in technology as we create the world through what I call Egonomics which is the fact that all aspects to economy are physical and perceptive natures which we transfer to our collective machines tangible and intangible..they in turn begin to control society...Jc Knew this

[zideffil]

I find that mcLuhan is pretty damned full of hot air on a lot of fronts. Sometimes he makes lot of sense, while at other times, he rambles on stating and restating a lot of mumbo-jumbo somewhat like an overstuffed Englishman.

[NeoOneOrg]

Hi, I think the main point we as a collective society should get from these types of debate is that evolution in technology should be understood and applied to our social sciences and tied to why we have religious ideologies that do not take into consideration these factors in our evolution process of seeking a purpose..I appreciate your comments.

[sentunim]

He's a dirty Canuck. They're all like that.

[guinnesstrail]

@sentunim Better than being a flirty canard.

[VisualRabbi]

I would love to see McLuhan break down the 2008 Presidential campaign were he alive. Can we not agree that Obama absolutely overwhelmed McCain at holding people's attention "on his image" while saying pretty much nothing? And, as we all know, he won.

[NeoOneOrg]

He said "change" just as all past presidents win on....The media controls the election these days, where do these opinion polls really come from, are they really a science?

[Aivottaja]

I don't get what made some people oppose McLuhan so strongly. Obviously he knew what he was talking about when he presented the idea of a global village. Just look at the world now. We're practically hooked to a computer.

[penkul]

they take such defined roles, whats he getting at?

[ItsJustARide314]

my god this show has changed.

and McLuhan is brilliant

[alexjager7]

Brokaw is so far out of his depth he should be wearing a diving bell.

[Jitpring]

Too bad he had to be interviewed by such idiots.

[hobogasm]

well it is also interesting to see this. it makes you think of how we are using T.V now and how that relates to mcluhans ideas of how it could be.

[rebalancelf1]

Yup the "debates" are still a joke..a laugh riot..and the ones that actually want to debate and have something to actually say don't even get into the medium anyway. The ones i want to hear from aren't even welcome to the Friggin debate!

[brajtnerinjo]

E moj maršale...

[Breedoe]

Great Catholic!

[augustusmanor]

Like the middle guy was saying "why are you criticizing the brave new world?" and tom brokaw was saying "I am completely neutral" and Mcluhan was saying "the tv didn't really give us anything other than a show"

[Infolkus19]

Going on my fav. Because this man puts a true perspective on the information age and is not influenced and is right. He is human and knows more than what is there.

[GordonMorrice]

"You're assuming that what these people [Presidential candidates] say is important."

The casual manner in which Mac states this fact just cracks me up! What a character!

[DrFallon]

LOL. Yeah. I know. Poor Tom. Way out of his league.

[particleplease]

house hold world

[michaelbillypec]

he stated in understanding media that with each passing minute we are getting closer to the ability to download the entire "show" (read the matrix) to the memory of a computer; imagine how close we are now....

[heardism]

where do you think warol got his ideas from...

[SeaTac411]

Marshall McLuhan was ahead of his time on the way politicians look at T.V. & recorded media. Politicians sound so rehearsed and hollow because they don't want to make any mistakes; the internet has made them even more afraid. He had a great observation on how Carter's accent helped him in the south; I am sure W. got help with his phony accent to.

[Alexsy82]

"I think they couldn't have known that little about what they were doing."

great quote.

[milkingtherod]

Georgie2500 is seriously joking right?.......either way rflmao

[Georgie2500]

It seems to me that this marshall guy just doesn't understand new technology. Teaching him how to use a computer will be harder than when I had to teach my dad!

[DrFallon]

Have you read any of his works?

[GaryW48]

The interview was from September 1976. The only people who had computers then were NASA, the IRS and the Defense Department, sarcasticly. Who had PCs then? YouTube was not even around 10 years ago. McLuhan is indeed relevant!

[cvad100]

@Georgie2500 lol "this marshall guy" Holy cow.

[camaroz28fatbuttgabe]

this isn't mickey mouse! :(

[xxwalkamongusxx]

you too eh?

[milkingtherod]

mcluhan was the bomb (I wonder what he'd say about the irony of this 'slang' term).......and oh so relevant today!!!!!

[chokewholeddotcom]

If everyone listened to what Mcluhan was expressing in this interview, then we wouldn't have the same political enterprise as we do now.

[IBTLpwn3r]

Tom Brokaw mis-pronounced the name of the book. It was intentionally called "The Medium is the MAssage."

[nothinglikeyouandi]

i wish mcluhan were still around: i would love to hear his thoughts on bush, obama and all the rest. it's rare we hear such thoughtful, detached analysis in media, much less network television, anymore.

[DrFallon]

I hope you wouldn't be disappointed. McLuhan was actually far more conservative than most people realize. I do think he'd be fascinated with Obama, who is a super-cool image. That is the reason why the right and the Clintonistas are trying to "hot him up."

[croscream]

@nothinglikeyouandi

I am sure he is a real social leftist-conservative.

[THISUTUBESUCKS]

@nothinglikeyouandi

The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto continues to this day, offering such courses as "Mind, Media, and Society."

[djlain]

Love it, thanks for posting.

[poder80]

hahahaha he owned that reporter.

[kurt11110]

mcluhan doth protest too much, and does so in a cryptic way. if there was any issue with the debate, it should have been concerning ford's pronouncement that the soviet bloc countries were not under soviet domination, not whether or not he had a private sector voice or cam across better in black and white. mcluhan intellectualizes his critique to the point of meaninglessness.

[DrFallon]

Okay. That's fine too.

[Mimizhusband]

Carter won the election. Do you think people went in to the polling booth and thought "Hey, it's Carter for me because that Ford guy doesn't get the Soviet Union"? Hardly.

Though, I did like your "doth protest too much" starter.

[kurt11110]

i think you'd have to admit that ford sounded ill informed, or at best , starry eyed when he made that proclamation. strangely enough, ford had picked up momentum just before the election, and had he had another day or two many politicos feel he would have won the electoral votes ! amazing in the light of watergate and for a president who had presided over the first war america had lost at that at that time.

[Careless4321]

"Doth"? What a smart little fellow you are!

[kurt11110]

i understand you want to protect the honor of a fellow canadian, but there really wasn't much substance to mcluhan's argument, it was mostly just complaining.

[StevenErnest]

Thanks for posting this!

It's fun to see two journalists so perplexed.

The video screen is the retina of the mind's eye.

[DrFallon]

LOL. Yes. I think, however, that Edwin Newman was somewhat less perplexed than Brokaw...

[falconlem]

Where's the KABOOM? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering KABOOM!!

:)) I'd rather watch cartoons than this anyday. Man its amazing how serious this program is. Only PBS has a discussion like this anymore.

[DrFallon]

(~~satire~~)

[wookie72]

It's amazing that they allowed 10 minutes to this segment... most morning show segments these days are barely 2 minutes.

[DrFallon]

It's ironic that it was McLuhan (in this interview) who talked about the television person not being able to sustain interest in long pieces. It was only a few years later that Steve Friedman, the producer of the Today Show decreed that no segment would be longfer than seven minutes, "because Americans have a short attention span."

[dontclickonmyname]

...."It's the present, which is also the future", ha ha!

[sammitchell77]

and what does tom say at the end?

"and now for this 'message'"

[bodhidarma1]

haha. yeah I was going to point that out.

[Mashdom]

magnificient

[masterj3]

Tom Brokaw is such a little bitch, not much changed. Everytime he has one of his shit thoughts he gets shot down with logic, i love it.

[DrFallon]

LOL!

[quarknimble]

THIS right here is the technology that has surrounded TV to catch it as an art form.

what shall surround the internet to make it an art form? the philosophers stone...?

[ironhills]

"Carter has a huge advantage. If only he manages to keep his mouth shut."

[Holdenon3]

He didn't say "keeps his mouth shut". He said "keeps his foot out of his mouth". Big difference, Ironhills.

[bulafritz]

Wow. Look what has become of the Today show 30 years later. It makes you want to cry.

[simonesimone2]

thanks for posting!

[givethanks420]

Look towards the end of the interview how shakey the two are getting.(interviewers)

[zetetic23]

i try to imagine our current Today Show with this much actual thoughtful discussion with a unique scholar

[DrFallon]

Yes. It is unfortunate but true that McLuhan may have influenced a whole generation of television producers (like the TODAY Show's Steve Friedman in the 1980s) to keep the interviews light and short, because TV viewers could not attend to dialogue involving complex concepts for more than six minutes. Ironic.

[apollodionysus7]

and thanks for this!

[apollodionysus7]

It's nice to be reminded that tv was, actually, no, it is horrible! to see how slick, corporate, and rushed tv, especially journalistic tv is today, by comparing it to this. What strikes me immediately is a sense that he believes in his own infallibility. Maybe I am way off, but I don't find him engaging. I will look for another video, cause I have been interested in his books...

[DrFallon]

McLuhan was fascinating for a number of reasons, least of which is the fact that he can be confounding. If you're going to read him, be prepared. He was not a "scientist" in many senses of the word, and he prognosticated rather than theorized. He considered his aphoristic pronouncements "probes" rather than theories.

[DrFallon]

He had a matter-of-fact way with ideas. He would say to intense questioners, "Oh, you don't like that idea? Well, I've got more. How about this one?" He is also to have said (something like), "I may not always be right, but I'm never uncertain."

Yet so many of his insights, we can see now, were right on the money, so to speak.

[apollodionysus7]

I realize that I was slightly offended by him when I wrote that response. I can appreciate what you are saying and yes, it is fascinating to hear him expounding. He seems to be expounding and framing and proclaiming; his presentation is, to some extent, showmanlike.... It is wonderful that he doesn't tie himself down with a linear presentation...

[DrFallon]

It is an understandable reaction. I have been reading McLuhan for more nearly thirty-five years and he still often confounds me.

You're absolutely right about the non-linear thinking. McLuhan exhibited impressive use of his right brain, his presentational structures of thought.

Thanks for your responses.

[apollodionysus7]

I realize, coming back to this for a 3rd time, that my reactions to his imperious judgements and to his presentation obscured the actual points made, and so, of course now I am hearing much more of what he says.

What relationship have you had to his work for all this time? Anything professional?

[DrFallon]

See:

(after the h t t p : / / of course)

faculty(dot)roosevelt(dot)edu/­Fallon

[nney]

I've read Mcluhan a lot, but I never saw him before... Thank you for uploading this Dr. F!

[DrFallon]

My pleasure.

[TheCassettesWorld]

Fantastic. You've done us a service. We'd do well to try and understand McLuhan again before we sweep ourselves under our own rug.

[foolalex]

thank you

[mickalene]

great, he's a slimmer, taller Walter Cronkite and every thing he says sounds exactly so.

[WOMP2007]

if only we could get the full tape of their conversation after "the message" tom brokaw referred to.

[DrFallon]

This is actually the only one that I have that I think you cannot find anywhere else. One of the first things I did when I worked at NBC was to get a copy of this, and I don't think there are many in circulation. But there are quite a few up on Youtube. Do a seach under "McLuhan."

[DrFallon]

Yes. This is the TODAY I used to watch before I worked there. The producer during the 1980s, Steve Friedman, apparently took McLuhan at his word. He decreed that no segment of the show -- interview or feature -- would be longer than 7 minutes.

This interview actually ran about 12 minutes. I had to edit it down to get it into Youtube. I only took out what I considered to be Tom Brokaw's most egregiously stupid questions/comments.

;-)

[CamKiosoglous]

Dr. F. do you have any additional clips that show McLuhan in his glory?

[jaybee1973jaybee]

Wow! The "Today" program actually devoted 10 minutes to an intellectual discussion without dumbing it down.

I've heard so much about Prof. McLuhan - it was a delight to see what he looked like. His statements that Carter had a "corporate voice" and looked better on color TV and that Ford had an "individual" voice and looked better on black and white TV were intriguing.

It's interesting to see the dual interviewer format used.

[CamKiosoglous]

Thank you for posting this video. MCLuhan had a vision that is probably more relevant today than most leaders today!

[DrFallon]

My pleasure.