Following in the Footsteps of M. McLuhan: the Screen Culture in the Context of Industrial Civilisation

Abstract

Several decades ago a Canadian professor, H. M. McLuhan, was the first to try to explain the nature of television – a new medium that was gaining popularity at that time. And in order to comprehend the nature of this new medium, he had to interpret the history of culture in terms of communication. Without doubt, it was his major contribution to the field of media studies and his discoveries influenced later studies on the subject. However, it is obvious today that the perspective on the historical development of communication outlined by McLuhan, which is both the background to and the history of virtual reality in its screen manifestations, requires a new interpretation in terms of virtuality studies. Basing his own analysis on the ideas of M. McLuhan, the author attempts to gain an insight into the forms of mass culture related to the screen culture as a unified whole.