In the course of improving the means of communication, thanks to the enormous speeds created by electricity, time and space began to be eliminated, which allowed a person, in addition to his personal issues, to take part in solutions to global problems. To describe the current communication and, later on, cultural situation, the Canadian philosopher M. McLuhan introduces the concept of “global village”, which he widely describes in his books “The Gutenberg Galaxy” (1962) and “Understanding the Media” (1964). The researcher gives a picture of how, through electronic means of communication, the entire planet is “compressed” to the size of a village, and now it is possible to instantly transfer information to anywhere in the world.
In one "village"
The concept of “global village”, which appeared in scientific circles in the middle of the twentieth century, thanks to Canadian e-culture leader Herbert Marshall McLuhan, is used mainly metaphorically, giving a description of the World Wide Web. In this network, the distance between people ceases to have any significance for communication, time and space seem to be erased, and at the same time, cultures, traditions, worldviews and values are drawing closer together. Due to the high speed of information exchange, a person has an advantage: he can quickly respond to what is happening in the world, receive and disseminate information.
McLuhan suggested that modern communications would force people to be drawn into each other's affairs and problems as their own. Contacting each other through electronic communication channels, they begin to interact in such a way as if they are very close, as if they live in the same village. This form of communication produces a different sociological structure within the existing context of culture.
Communication guru
Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) is considered one of the brightest personalities of the intellectual and scientific community of Canada and the United States of the 60s and 70s, who was recognized for studying the impact of electrical and electronic forms of communication on modern man and society.
In the early stages of his career, McLuhan was a “traditional” literary critic who criticized the modern world, blaming him for insufficient attention to classical literature. Since the 50s, leaving critical pathos, he begins to study communication systems in their own terms. After the release of the works “The Gutenberg Galaxy” and “Understanding the Media”, the name of McLuhan gained popularity not only in academic circles, but also beyond.
The author of acclaimed books for a long time did not leave the pages of periodicals and television screens, shocking the public with his witty sayings. The media theoretician also managed to please the young generation, who perceived him as an outstanding hip professor who formulated their vision of the world. It is worth noting that the design of McLuhan's books was very different from the dry scientific works of that time, thanks to the use of the language of graphics, photography and a kind of text.
The concept of M. McLuhan
In his studies, McLuhan argued that in the twentieth century, culture reached a milestone no less than in the Renaissance. All significant steps in the history of mankind, in his opinion, are associated with the innovation of technical means of communication.
The main provisions of the concept:
- The development of any culture is influenced by the means of communication that are widespread in it: speech, writing, printed word, transport, telecommunications, computer systems, and others.
- A certain form of communication forms a whole social world - the galaxy.
- Communication tools are not just information carriers, but apart from it are means of structuring reality.
- The formation of new forms of communication, communication and information will form a new picture of the world, a style of thinking and other principles of public organization.
- The human ability to perceive makes it possible to distinguish between audio (speech) and video (visual) communications.
- The following milestones are distinguished in the history of the development of mankind: the era of oral speech, the millennium of phonetic writing, the time of the “Gutenberg galaxy” and modern electronic civilization.
The Gutenberg Galaxy
One of the most fundamentally important works of the Canadian researcher M. McLuhan is the work “The Gutenberg Galaxy”. The book has become a significant event in the development of the theory of communication. According to the author, the appearance of a goose feather became a fuse for the “explosion of technology”, and his epicenter was the invention of a manual printing press by I. Gutenberg. From that time, the fragmentation of society and the alienation of the individual began to take place: the printed word made it possible for individual knowledge of the world, beyond the collective consciousness of society.
In his book, McLuhan collected quite interesting material, drawing the reader's attention to the development of communication tools from ancient culture to the era of television. He argued that advances in electromagnetics have re-created the “field” in all areas of human life, thanks to which mankind now exists within the framework of the “global village”.
From the galaxy to the village
Indulging in thoughts about the communicative space, M. McLuhan repeatedly used the exact sciences. Following the example of the architect Z. Gideon, who considered space in art from the perspective of the latest achievements in electromechanics, he analyzes the communicative space in comparison with the development of scientific thought in physics. Thus, the world of print culture that masquerades as the Gutenberg galaxy for the Canadian researcher has a uniform nature of Newtonian space. And he connects the concept of a unified space and time of Einstein (1905–1906) with a new revolution in the media of communication: the advent of the telephone, telegraph, and then electronic media.
The discovered discoveries, as McLuhan believed, caused the collapse of the “Gutenberg galaxy” and the emergence of a voluminous communicative space that could at any moment collapse into a point. The scientist wrote about a new world where time and distance cease to matter, and everything happens instantly, as if we live in a "global village."
Discussions on the rubble
In the age of the Internet and information technology, McLuhan's views took on a new meaning. The concept of the world as a “global village” has become relevant to the time: now it is impossible to conceal anything, and everyone is responsible for everything. The virtual environment is compared with the rural one, where everything is discussed on the rubble. Such fillings are excellent social networks, chat rooms, blogs, forums and more. The subject of discussion is any news brought to the attention of everyone, regardless of how true it is. In this environment, each person can be in the center of attention and become an object of discussion. Internet users are confident that they have the right to discuss everything and everyone, as well as the veracity and fairness of their views.
The features of modern Internet society are more and more similar to the life of people in the village: elders, eminent personalities, ordinary inhabitants and hermits. And most importantly, in this village, a person often loses his true face, he becomes a figure who is given the missing elements and eliminates unnecessary ones. Behind educated masks, life is increasingly turning into a theater in which various roles constantly need to be played.
The era of information civilization
The Canadian theoretician, openly showing his position in relation to the "global village", does not approve of it approvingly, but as if observes the current state of things. If the “visual person” was moving towards goals, wanting to realize his serious ideas, then for the “virtual person” dialogue and immediate involvement are important.
McLuhan's “Global Village” has the following features:
- synthesis of various forms and means of communication;
- growth of lines of interaction;
- global information and communication processes.
The characterization of the information civilization formulated by the researcher corresponds to the existing reality much more than could be expected in the 60s. The revolution of communications has led to an unprecedented fusion of all kinds of human cultures in the global information space, where their interaction has become a constant and inextricable process.
Foresight of the future
M. McLuhan’s concept of minimizing the world to a “village” size under the pressure of lightning-fast information spreading to any part of the planet was for the most part a foresight character, because he himself did not live up to the release of his first personal computer. In the era of the development of telephone, radio, and television, the tendency to eliminate borders (state, cultural, and religious), to eliminate language barriers and to eliminate distances between continents was only barely outlined, but it fully came to reality when the Internet appeared.
Network technologies have brought into the sphere of communication a sense of narrowing space and instantness, provided universal access to information and the ability to communicate with a huge number of people. The thesis voiced by the “global village” of M. McLuhan as a universal platform for communication has actually become a prophecy about cyberspace and prepared people for new technologies.