Der elektronische Mensch, Medium und Botschaft - Szenenwechsel für Marshall McLuhan?

Abstract

Wenn von einem Wissenschaftler unserer Zeit gesagt werden kann, er sei mit einer einzigen Formel weltberühmt geworden, dann gilt das von dem kanadischen Professor Marshall McLuhan und dessen Motto: Das Medium ist die Botschaft. Es gibt noch ein paar andere prägnante Formulierungen von ihm, etwa seine hartnäckige Behauptung, die elektronische Revolution mache aus unserer Welt ein "Dorf", aber keine seiner formelhaften Behauptungen fand eine solche Verarbeitung wie die Gleichung von Medium und Botschaft. Das weltweite "Ankommen" dieser Formel, als ob es sich um einen Zauberspruch handelt, die geheimnisvolle Welt der Medien und ihrer Wirkungen aufzuschließen, wäre schon für sich genommen eine Untersuchung wert, woher die übergroßen Erwartungshaltungen stammen und warum man überhaupt auf solche Erklärungsversuche eines "Kommunikationswissenschaftlers" eingeht. (...) 

English 

The Canadian Professor Marshall McLuhan became famous for his statement that the electronic revolution reduced the world into a "village", and for his equation of message and medium. Prophet or charlatan, that is the question arising in view of his attempted smvey, on which it has become very quiet in the meantime. Did he lay down solid foundations for its continuation? He often renounced scorned the "perception of reality" of science. Otto B. Roegele nevertheless speaks of a certain change of scene in the estimation of McLuhan's popular science. Does the new media not have a considerable changing influence on the model of culture and thought? Meanwhile this question has again been raised. McLuhan was an Outsider, and his ideas can hardly be summarized. With irritating "methods" he composed his arguments with "facts" from many disciplines. Many of these thesises are certainly not acceptable, but his interdisciplinary discovery encounters sometimes the right points. So, he perceives, for example, that the rationality of functionalism is not the only method of perception. He hirnself sees the origin of his media work in his literary work. Media analysis was exciting for him, being extended to many, and the electronic era unifying everbody. The author attempts an appreciation of the extremes. But is a definite classification of McLuhan, who died in December 1980, not stilltobe expected?