Understanding Media

résumé

contents

Medium is the message --
Media hot and cold --
Reversal of the overheated medium --
The gadget lover: Narcissus as narcosis --
Hybrid energy: les liaisons dangereuses --
Media as translators --
Challenge and collapse: the nemesis of creativity --
The spoken word: flower of evil? --
The written word: an eye for an ear --
Roads and paper routes --
Number: profile of the crowd --
Clothing: our extended skin --
Housing: new look and new outlook --
Money: the poor man's credit card --
Clocks: the scent of time --
The print: how to dig it --
Comics: Mad vestibule to TV --
The printed word: architect of nationalism --
Wheel, bicycle, and airplane --
The photograph: the brothel-without-walls --
Press: government by news leak --
Motorcar: the mechanical bride --
Ads: keeping upset with the Joneses --
Games: the extensions of man --
Telegraph: the social hormone --
The typewriter: into the age of the iron whim --
The telephone: sounding brass or tinkling symbol? --
The phonograph: the toy that shrank the national chest --
Movies: the reel world --
Radio: the tribal drum --
Television: the timid giant --
Weapons: war of the icons --
Automation: learning a living.