The article aims to conduct a historical review, with hermeneutical purposes, to discuss two relevant contributions to the development of a science and the establishment of a metadiscipline, whose significance and meaning were recognized belatedly. The first contribution we will address lies within the realm of communication studies, while the second one pertains to the realm of media ecology. In the first part, we highlight that Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), a seminal figure in media ecology, contributed to the recognition of media studies and communication studies within the scientific imagination by rejecting sociological determinism. In the second part, we refer to the fact that media ecology, the complex metadiscipline that emerged from McLuhan and Neil Postman's intellectual pursuits, focuses on analyzing the impact of technologies on cultural environments in societies throughout h...

This text is composed of 4 sections. In the first one, I recovered the emotive speech made by WilburSchramm about the first television broadcasting carried out on January 26th 1926 by John Logie Bairdin order to support the relevance of the term “Age of television”. The television is actually considered asthe emblematic media in the “Age of electricity”. In the second section, I studied the thesis developed byMarshall McLuhan about the so-called “shy giant”. At the beginning of 1960s, the television captivatedMarshall McLuhan. From a particular ecumenical perspective, the Canadian researcher believed thatthe television would restore the sensitive balance, thus favoring the transition to the “global village”. Asthe years went by, his optimism about the television started to vanish, and McLuhan adopted a morecritical position, similar to Neil Postman’s, against the televi...

En 2014, se cumplieron 50 años de la publicación de la primera edición del libro Understanding media: The extensions of man (1964) -en castellano: Comprender los medios de comunicación. Las extensiones del ser humano-, cuarto libro de Herbert Marshall McLuhan, de enorme trascendencia en la imaginación comunicológica contemporánea. En el referido texto, subyacen los fundamentos de la “Tétrada de McLuhan”, que admite ser considerada como la perfecta conclusión del fecundo trabajo intelectual del fundador de la Media Ecology -en castellano: Ecología de los medios-. La Tétrada fue dada a conocer por Eric McLuhan, el mayor de los seis hijos de McLuhan, en el libro Laws of media. The new science (1988) –en castellano: Las leyes de los medios. La nueva ciencia.

This text is composed of 4 sections. In the first one, I recovered the emotive speech made by WilburSchramm about the first television broadcasting carried out on January 26th 1926 by John Logie Bairdin order to support the relevance of the term “Age of television”. The television is actually considered asthe emblematic media in the “Age of electricity”. In the second section, I studied the thesis developed byMarshall McLuhan about the so-called “shy giant”. At the beginning of 1960s, the television captivatedMarshall McLuhan. From a particular ecumenical perspective, the Canadian researcher believed thatthe television would restore the sensitive balance, thus favoring the transition to the “global village”. Asthe years went by, his optimism about the television started to vanish, and McLuhan adopted a morecritical position, similar to Neil Postman’s, against the televi...

En 2014, se cumplieron 50 años de la publicación de la primera edición del libro Understanding media: The extensions of man (1964) -en castellano: Comprender los medios de comunicación. Las extensiones del ser humano-, cuarto libro de Herbert Marshall McLuhan, de enorme trascendencia en la imaginación comunicológica contemporánea. En el referido texto, subyacen los fundamentos de la “Tétrada de McLuhan”, que admite ser considerada como la perfecta conclusión del fecundo trabajo intelectual del fundador de la Media Ecology -en castellano: Ecología de los medios-. La Tétrada fue dada a conocer por Eric McLuhan, el mayor de los seis hijos de McLuhan, en el libro Laws of media. The new science (1988) –en castellano: Las leyes de los medios. La nueva ciencia.