The book is the source of the well-known phrase " The medium is the message". There is a kind of "all at once-ness" about films and television. On the other hand, a medium like film presents information more holistically. He made the point that reading, by its very nature, is a sequential medium. He noted that all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways for instance, a passage in a book could be reread at will, but a movie had to be screened again in its entirety to study any individual part of it. More controversially, he thought that content had little effect on society - for example, it did not matter if television broadcasts children's shows or violent programming - the effect of television on society would be identical. McLuhan states that "a light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence". He describes the light bulb as a medium without any content. The light bulb lets people do things at nighttime which would be impossible in darkness. A light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, but it is a medium that has a social effect. McLuhan pointed to the light bulb as an example.
McLuhan suggests that media play a role, not by the content delivered, but by the characteristics of the medium itself. It is an attempt to understand how changing media have affected society. The book proposes that media themselves affect their content in important ways. McCluhan was a Professor of literature who was deeply interested in the way media had changed society. It was a pioneering study in media theory. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man is a 1964 book by Marshall McLuhan.
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