A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

You certainly could not run a democracy on TV news. In such an instant social situation you have no representatives, you have only participants. Automatically TV wipes out representation in government and puts the public in the position of the direct participatory activist. The student activists are merely a mild foretaste of direct public participation in politics.
“The Hardware-Software Mergers: How Successful Have They Been?” Speech at the conference, Reappraisal of the Educational Technology Industry, University of Chicago, November 16-18, 1969. Transcript, p 10
Year: 1969
Chapter: Democracy
Compiled by William Kuhns
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