Criticism of Technical Rationality in Visual Communication: A Subject Under Discussion from Mcluhan's Theory of "Cool Media" (Marshall Mcluhan) (Report‪)‬

Introduction Is history like a book or a picture? We used to compare history to books, since they provide us with the concept of history itself, its evolution process and the political, economic and cultural traces history left, just as a book does. History became knowledge just like a book, based on which we gain new knowledge. Today, we choose the latter comparison, that is, history presents itself in front of us just like a picture, which is plane and clear at a glance. In this sense, the history recorded by words--constructed by logical and lasting analysis, reasoning and deduction--is replaced by the visual images. "Because the present human experience is more visualized and concrete than ever before," (1) visualization is paid special attention to. The oral and written languages that were regarded as the supreme intelligent activities by the western culture (images were regarded as the inferior forms) are gradually overshadowed by image languages.