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New communication systems are presented to the postmodern society and culture as a key to a better life and a more equitable society. In the 20th century electronic media is supporting an equally profound transformation of culture identity. Telephone, film, television, the computer and their integration as 'multimedia' has reconfigurations of individuality, modern society fostered an individual who is ration, autonomous, centred, and stable, whereas a postmodern society nurtured forms of identity different from those of modernity. Electronic communication technology significantly enhances these postmodern possibilities.

McLuhan defines media as technologies that create an extension of the human body, and with this said he also warns that 'we become what we behold' - (McLuhan 4) McLuhan's term extension means when an individual or society makes or uses something that in some way extends the range of the human body and mind in a fashion that is new, for example, a shovel is an extension of the hands and feet, or a telescope is an extension of the eyes, to see further. McLuhan's view of electronic technology is that it has become an extension of our senses, mainly of sight and sound. A more complicated extension is the vehicle which is an extension of the feet, allowing the travel between places only faster and with less effort. But with every extension there is a counterpart, termed by McLuhan as 'amputation.' -(Marshal McLuhan 5)

Every extension of mankind, especially technological extensions, has the effect of amputating or modifying some other extension. An example of an amputation would be the loss of catapult skills with the development of gunpowder and cannons. The need to be accurate with the new technology of cannons made the continued practice of catapults obsolete. The extension of a technology like the automobile, amputates the need for a highly developed walking culture, which in turn causes cities and countries to develop in different ways. The invention of the telephone extends the voice, but also amputates the art of penmanship.

McLuhan had a strong belief that mankind has always been fascinated and obsessed with these extensions; he also believed that too frequently we chose to ignore the amputations. For example, we praise the extension of high speed personal travel by the vehicle, but do not really want to be reminded of the pollution that comes with it. 'Additionally, we do not want to be made to think about the time we spend alone in our cars isolated from other humans, or the fact that the resulting amputations from automobiles have made us more obese and generally less healthy. We have become people who regularly praise all extensions, and minimise all amputations. McLuhan believed that we do so at our own peril.' - (Builders of the Global Village 6)

McLuhan made prophecy about media that discussed the role of technological change, in the ways in which people communicate, even before the internet as we know it today existed and even before the 'golden age' of television. McLuhan's media prophecy changed the written principle of metaphor into a historical methodology for analysing the rise and fall of successive media of communication. Marshall McLuhan saw novels as disused content of television, movie as the mechanisation of movement and gesture and photography as the mechanisation of the pe本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。