Marshall McLuhan: Is the Medium Still the Message? by Allan Sheppard – Reprised

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McLuhan Marshall photographed in 1974 by Canadian photographer Yousef Karsh

The following article written (for the most part) by Allan Sheppard is reprised from the first issue of mediamag.ca published in October 2002. It’s re-appearance here is to offer a ‘mashup’ of Allan’s text and my additions as my birthday gift to Marshall McLuhan on his 100th birthday. It seems appropriate to reprise and revisit Allan’s still relevant, insightful and delightfully provocative article on McLuhan in celebration of birthdays, McLuhan’s and ours (next year I celebrate the 10th birthday as the first online magazine in Alberta with mediamag.ca). Without (yet) Allan’s permission, I have taken the liberty of adding photographs I shot at other McLuhan centenary celebrations: the June 23, 2011 in Edmonton at the opening reception of the 12th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association at the University of Alberta and the opening reception of Spaces + Places: Visioning McLuhan @ 100 at Latitude 53 later that evening, as well as embedding YouTube videos that I think illustrate important points Allan makes in his 2002 article. I have also added comments that support my and many other people’s claims that McLuhan’s ideas are as relevant in today’s digital world as they were in his lifetime, despite that these communication channels were not yet invented until long after his death thirty years ago on New Year’s Eve 1980 in Toronto. Read more