Since the pioneering work of Harold Innes and Marshal McLuhan, accounts of social and cultural change that assign a key role to innovations in media have enjoyed considerable currency. These Medium Theories, as Joshua Meyrowitz has usefully dubbed them, are particularly concerned with how the shift from oral to literate to electronic media has successively reconfigured both cultural systems and their everyday deployment. This model of mediation suffers from major weaknesses however. It is media-centric, crudely deterministic, ethnocentric, and takes no account of patterns of social inequality. Hence, while this thesis retains Medium Theory's core concern with the impact of different modes of mediation, it draws on work in Critical Sociology and communications studies to address these deficiencies and develop an alternative model of Critical Mediation. Using contemporary Mexico City as a case study, the potential of this approach is pursued through a detailed study of the ways in which different forms of mediation shape the organisation and uses of the communal symbolic spaces that make up the Social Imaginary.

Le genre du super-héros s’impose de plus en plus dans l’imaginaire populaire. Les fictions de ce type suscitent l’intérêt des savants en raison de leur façon de véhiculer l’idéologie à travers des situations fantastiques. Les diverses manifestations du genre abordent implicitement ou explicitement des thèmes dont il est également question dans les discours religieux contemporains : autonomie et théonomie en éthique ; sacralité des hiérarchies, de l’environnement, des relations, de l’âme et du corps ; cosmogonie et eschatologie ; etc. Pour ne pas traiter à tort et à travers de l’enchevêtrement des univers religieux et fantastiques, il importe d’aborder cette convergence sous plusieurs angles susceptibles d’en faire ressortir les sens sans lui imposer de cohérence réductrice. Dans cet optique, une herméneutique pluraliste basée sur les perspectives interprétatives de Marshall et Eric McLuhan est tout indiquée. La méthode McLuhan propose trois angles d’approche, trois rapports d’altération entre culture de l’imaginaire et religieux contemporain : le super-héros critique, récupère et déconstruit les récits, discours et autres réalités du religieux. Puisque le temps et l’espace consacré à l’étude sont restreints par des considérations pratiques, son échantillon est limité aux « comic books » de super-héros des trente dernières années, à leurs produits dérivés et à la littérature savante qui s’y réfère.

The work of Marshall McLuhan has often been reduced to the form of catchphrases and "McLuhanisms," such as the "global village" and "the medium is the message" in the field of communication. Though these phrases capture an aspect of his thought, the scholarly understanding of McLuhan's vision remains incomplete, even within the specialized area of Media Ecology, of which McLuhan is recognized as the intellectual father. Throughout his corpus, McLuhan makes reference to the classical and medieval trivium, which was the basis for education throughout Western history until the Renaissance. Indeed, he developed a history of the trivium up to the Renaissance in order to understand the works of Thomas Nashe. At the end of his life, he worked to synthesize his views on technology, media, and communication, and the arts of the trivium-- grammar, logic, and rhetoric--which were essential to these works. Consequently, this project details the connection between the classical and medieval trivium and McLuhan's tetrad, which was the heuristic tool that advanced as New Science for the twentieth and twenty first centuries. By detailing this connection, the tetrad is a tool that advances a neo-Medieval theory of communication. In its essence, the neo-Medieval communication theory is attentive to the linguistic essence of the cosmos, is attentive to the transformative nature of understanding, and unifies the human person within a perceptual and poetic understanding of the world. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD / Dissertation

This thesis is designed as a comprehensive analysis of the advertising discourse within some pre-set constrains. Specifically, the main area of interest is the realm of American print advertising after 1945. Within these limits, advertising is understood as a mode of language, the chief semantic unit of which is a form of Barthesian myth, a superstructure divorced from reality that supersedes de Saussure's semiotics of the sign. The bulk of this thesis is then a diachronic analysis of the development of these myths and their role as both mirrors and catalysts of a whole range of stereotypes, value hierarchies or fixed ideas firmly embedded within American collective consciousness. The primary materials for this analysis are then various specimen of the advertisements themselves, carefully selected because of their representativeness, influence or significance within the advertising realm. The main theoretical framework rests on Marx's understanding of the commodity as a certain type of fetish, Barthes's description of the structure and social function of the myth, Baudrillard's and Debord's theories on such notions as the society of spectacle, the reign of simulacra and hyperreality, Benjamin's understanding of the uniqueness of representation and its aura and finally McLuhan's detailed accounts of...

To encounter and digest the oeuvre of H. Marshall McLuhan on his own terms, this study deploys a strategy not dissimilar to that of Poe’s sailor who survived his descent into the maelstrom by studying the action of the vortex and catching hold of a recurring form. Here, McLuhan’s career-spanning concern with “communication” may be seen as just such a recurrence — his concern with communication is evident at every turn of his effort to update the Great English Vortex of 1914 and develop a second vortex in mid-century America. Having taken hold of this central concern, this study uses the procedure he developed to expose the “theory of communication” of any figure in the arts and sciences, and applies it to McLuhan himself. In this process of folding McLuhan in on himself, five loosely chronological chapters are used to reveal the four historical “phases” of his career, and to show that McLuhan cannot properly be understood apart from: 1. The great tradition of Ciceronian humanism and the Ciceronian ideal —the doctus orator — a figure in whom eloquence and wisdom coalesce. 2. The programme of the figures frequently referred to as the Men of 1914: James Joyce, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis. In the final analysis, McLuhan is shown as having updated and transformed both — the Ciceronian ideal and the programme of the Men of 1914 — to become something of a singularity in the midst of what he saw as an Electric Renaissance: a paramodern (neither modernist nor post-modernist) doctus orator.

<p>This study examinates technology's traumatic impact on the male subject in The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard. In my analysis I show how the protagonist uses a fetischistic strategy in order to make sense of the trauma that technology embeds. Paradoxically it proves to be the agent of his trauma, but also functions as his shield. The machine is thus in a position of the hinge, the point in a structural system that both enables and deconstruct the system. In the same position we find the woman. She is the very epicentre of the novel and the violence directed towards her is part of a complex problem that I adress. The woman is divided into pieces and fetischized by the male gaze to serve as a solution for his trauma.</p><p>Hal Foster's notion ”the double logic of prosthesis” constitutes a theoretical base. The model shows how a fetischistic strategy is applied by avant-garde artists to solve the technological trauma that they experience. Both content and composition of The Atrocity Exhibition are inspired by avant-garde practices, I have therefore compared the text with Foster's theory on how the avant-garde problematized the interaction between man and machine. Marshall McLuhan's belief that the human body and technology are inseparable in the era of electronics further helps me to study technology's effect on perception.</p>

From 1972 until 1989, the artist trio General Idea produced FILE Megazine. The first eight issues of FILE, published from 1972 – 1975, are the focus of this thesis. They stand apart from the later issues because their covers hijacked the look and iconic logo of Life magazine. The red rectangle with white block letters attracted the attention of Time Inc. and resulted in a lawsuit. Rather than fight the corporate giant, General Idea changed their logo after the autumn 1975 issue. FILE, like many artists’ magazines, is typically discussed in idealistic language that privileges the subversive or democratic intentions of the publication while neglecting its significance as a device for the promotion of community and collaboration. I argue that General Idea envisioned FILE as a utopian project intended to produce the world they sought to live in. Authors frequently employ FILE as a tool to discuss General Idea’s work, focusing on it as a mirror or archive of a larger project and emphasizing FILE’s humorous, bawdy, and irreverent aspects. In this thesis, I situate FILE in terms of its historical, art historical, and theoretical frameworks. I pay particular attention to General Idea’s early involvement in the mail art network, FILE’s relationship to 1960s and 1970s artists’ magazines and magazine art, the contemporaneous social and political climate in Canada, and General Idea’s investigation and employment of theoretical frameworks culled from Marshall McLuhan’s text The Medium is the Message and Roland Barthes’ book Mythologies. / text

The aim of this thesis is to explain running of new media in the television's process in Czech republic. First part is dedicated to theoretical determination of new media include the Marshall MuLuhan's theoretic work. Second part describe czech televison market, characterization modern television's viewer and define practical using of new media in each television organization. The hypothesis described in the introduction are confirmed in conclusion.

This study examinates technology's traumatic impact on the male subject in The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard. In my analysis I show how the protagonist uses a fetischistic strategy in order to make sense of the trauma that technology embeds. Paradoxically it proves to be the agent of his trauma, but also functions as his shield. The machine is thus in a position of the hinge, the point in a structural system that both enables and deconstruct the system. In the same position we find the woman. She is the very epicentre of the novel and the violence directed towards her is part of a complex problem that I adress. The woman is divided into pieces and fetischized by the male gaze to serve as a solution for his trauma. Hal Foster's notion ”the double logic of prosthesis” constitutes a theoretical base. The model shows how a fetischistic strategy is applied by avant-garde artists to solve the technological trauma that they experience. Both content and composition of The Atrocity Exhibition are inspired by avant-garde practices, I have therefore compared the text with Foster's theory on how the avant-garde problematized the interaction between man and machine. Marshall McLuhan's belief that the human body and technology are inseparable in the era of electronics further helps me to study technology's effect on perception.

Storytelling is often looked at as something archaic or something that simpler cultures engage in. However, in our sophisticated and highly technological world storytelling swirls about us though we may not always recognize it. This thesis looks at the phenomenon of digital storytelling that functions to create community on the Internet. In order to ground this phenomenon in theory, I examine the works of Giambattista Vico, the 18th-century Neapolitan philosopher/rhetorician, who lived on the cusp of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. Furthermore, as a teacher of rhetoric to youth, Vico admonished young people to study the arts of poetry, painting, and oratory. These three arts are part of digital storytelling with the story line, visuals, and voice over. Digital storytelling, therefore, reaches more people because these arts are easily understood and accepted by people of all ages and education. Marshall McLuhan, the 20th-century Canadian scholar was an eclectic critic of technology and culture who anticipated the Internet. McLuhan used Vichian theory as the basis for some of his writings on technology. My study synthesizes and makes connections between McLuhan's writings on technology and the particular technology of digital storytelling. The new technologies bring back a secondary orality as well as more visual communication such as the radio and television in a print saturated culture. Today we are living in a world where writing, the spoken word and music, and visual images blend together in the digital milieu of the Internet. Digital storytelling is just one way that technology is being used to enhance an ancient genre. As one of its goals is to create community, this genre is trying to achieve what McLuhan suggested in the coming together of a global village.