Marshall McLuhan’s Ambivalent Prophecies of Digital Age and Kathrin Röggla’s Pessimistic Diagnoses
Keywords:
digital media, postmodernism, post-democracy, simulacrum, McLuhan, Marshall, Röggla, KathrinAbstract
Marshall McLuhan’s works can be applied to the interpretation of our digital media situations and postmodernist, post-democratic media constellations in the 21st century. Although his views have to be corrected in some of their details, many of his explanations of media issues can be consulted to shed light on contemporary media and political problems. Media theorists who use McLuhan’s observations have made his ideas topical in the contemporary context, with modifications and additions of current considerations. Whereas McLuhan’s works show his ambivalence, Kathrin Röggla seems to be an unequivocal pessimistic, Cassandra-type media theorist and writer, which comes to light explicitly in her radio play as well prose text die alarmbereiten. The comparison between McLuhan’s and Röggla’s explanations has shown that there is a considerable degree of agreement on the subjects of consumerism, commercial interests of rulers, role playing, simulacra, post-democracy, and resignation – despite the fact that Röggla never overtly uses McLuhan’s works. The dystopian half of McLuhan’s predictions seems to be realized in Röggla’s Weltanschauung, as she unknowingly moves within the field of McLuhan’s explanations.References
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