Media Research: Technology, Art and Communication

It is Michel Moos' premise that the importance of Marshall McLuhan derives from his achievements in rethinking the entire process of education and training itself, and that it has less to do with his popular fame as media guru. He proceeds to analyze McLuhan's work from the feedback effect his vision continues to provide, rather than from the perspective of interpreting McLuhan's pronouncements on the electronic media. Moos sees that effect as a valuable form of feedforward. Focusing on the pressing questions that confront the critical endeavors of the sciences and the humanities in a postmodern age, he proceeds to address the profound theoretical implications of McLuhan's work. He contrasts McLuhan's thoughts with that of such thinkers as Roland Barthes, Fredric Jameson, Friedrich Kittler, Donna Haraway, and Deleuze and Guattari, and renders an updated account of the effect of the mass media on our society and ourselves.