Marshall McLuhan's Technological Determinism concepts have a lot to say about the relationship between media and culture. One of my favorite concepts of McLuhan's is his idea of a Global Village.
Electronic media allows people to access all kinds of information from around the world at record speed. It makes it seem that people on different sides of the globe are actually in the same room speaking with one another. For a more detailed explanation of Technological Determinism, check out my blog entry "Would You Like That Hot or Cold?".
When it comes to electronic media and inventions, Tony Stark is the first person to pop into my mind. The movie Iron Man is an wonderful example of the Global Village. In the movie, Tony Stark is a technological genius, who specializes in creating weaponry. He is kidnapped by terrorists and forced to recreated a very dangerous weapon for them. Except that Tony really actually uses his knowledge to build an iron suit to help him escape.
After Stark is rescued and back home safe, he upgrades his suit and decides to go fight crime. Because of the technologic media Tony has access to, he can fly around the world at jet speed to save the world from evil and talk to his friend on the phone as if he were simply giving him a piggy-back ride. Of course, this is just a movie, and technology that advanced is not a medium that is readily accessible to people every where. However, it is a great example of how technology can bring people where are worlds apart closer together.
Because Tony Stark take technology to the next level, he also take the Global Village to the next level. I think the Marshall McLuhan would have loved to analyze the effects of such brilliant technological media.
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