McLuhan’s 100 years celebrated in Kathmandu
Dec 08, 2011
A centenary celebration for renowned new media visionary Herbert Marshall McLuhan was organized in Kathmandu Thursday by Media Foundation Nepal, Institute for Advanced Communication, Education and Research and Creative Press.
Journalist and editor of Nepali Times, Kunda Dixit, spoke about McLuhan’s uncanny ability to foresee in the 1960s as to how the new media would develop.
“For me one of his geniuses was to look at things in a new way, turning around accepted phrases,” Dixit said.
Hot and cool media, surfing and even ‘wiki’ were derived from McLuhan, he said of the Canadian media theorist, who coined popular phrases like ‘medium is the message’.
Dixit said the message, not the Internet medium, had the power to bridge ideologies.
“In the hash tag of trivia, wisdom may be suffering,” he said. “The message, that is, the content is still the king.”
Dr. Arun Gupto, an English professor at IACER, highlighted McLuhan’s time and milieu from the perspective of literature.
“Media and myths were popular in those days. The form mattered,” he said.
Dr. Dharma Adhikari of Media Foundation made a presentation on the life and work of McLuhan and traced his possible links with the eastern tradition in his works and in related works by others in South Asia.
“He drew on eastern analogies,” Dr. Adhikari said.
Gopal Chitrakar of Media Foundation delivered the welcome speech to the select audiences gathered to celebrate the occasion.
Dr. Ananda Sharma of IACER delivered vote of thanks.
The program began with introduction of McLuhan by journalist Gopal Jha, reading of the messages received from Dr Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, Director, McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, Toronto, Dr. Paul Grosswiler, editor of Explorations in Media Ecology (EME) journal, and Lance Strate, Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University, New York. The messages were read out by a school boy, Astitwa Adhikari. A video clip of a 1967 interview with McLuhan was also shown.
The program was organized at Shangri-La hotel in Kathmandu.
Click here to read McLuhan @100 Newletter
Click here for the official centennial celebration poster.
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