He was a famous Canadian communications scholar and educator, perhaps the most influential man that will have written in his field. His work was revolutionary in the field of communications. He taught in Canada and the United States. He had gained recognition in the 1960s with his proposal that electronic media, especially television, were creating a global village in which the medium is the message, that is, the means of communications has a greater influence on people than the information itself. His books include The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) and Understanding Media (1964).

His work involves messages left in his writings, for example, "The electric light escapes attention as a communication medium just because it has no "content". And this makes it an invaluable instance of how people fail to study media at all. For it is not till the electric light is used to spell out some brand name that it is noticed as a medium. Then it is not the light but the "content" (or what is really another medium) that is noticed. The message of the electric light is like the message of electric power in industry, totally radical, pervasive, and decentralized. For electric light and power are separate from their uses, yet they eliminate time and space factors in human association exactly as do radio, telegraph, telephone, and TV, creating involvement in depth."(Understanding Media, p.9 by Marshall McLuhan)

The writings by this giant have more meaning than ever before. Advanced technologies are making information available at an alarming rate. The impact on of the media is just now being scrutinized for its role in and responsibility for the message it carries. Does the violence shown on television to young children cause some type of harm? Should the media be responsible to some extent for the actions taken by others that are influenced by the programming? McLuhan would like us to be aware of the media and its message.