Marshall McLuhan Background

 Marshall McLuhan was a student at Cambridge University in 1934. During his studies, he became acquainted with one of his English professors I. A Richards who later inspired him to admire the approach that English studies are a process of communication.

Richards believed that "words won't stay put and are almost verbal construction is highly ambiguous". This perspective of communication influenced the depth study of media ecology by McLuhan, the way he expressed his study was by using metaphors and phrases such as "The Medium Is The Message" which later on became the most common understanding phrase for media ecology.

McLuhan used the approach of  Richard, Willam Empson, and Harold Innis as an entree to the study of media This took many years of work before he fulfilled his approach. McLuhan believed that the words were best studied in terms of the effect rather than the content. He proved this theory with help of TV and telegraphs leading to the emergence of media ecology.