When we think about the immediate and long-term effects of our Communications technologies, we must but begin with the immensely influential theories of Marshall McLuhan, whose efforts at understanding the media in the 1960s and 1970s dominated popular thinking in many countries and helped create the climate in which the new media age has flourished. It is twenty-five years now since the height of McLuhan's influence, but we still remember vividly how startling his formulations were and how much he seemed to promise in the name of the media. Mention McLuhan to anyone and there is an excellent chance that person will think, "Medium is the message." Not since Einstein and his famous formula has any intellectual been so linked with a single phrase. McLuhan's "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man," published in 1964, outlined his theory of the impact of media both on culture and on our senses.
 
Miles ORWELL, "Another Look At Marshall McLuhan", The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review.