I have insisted that any new structure for 
codifying experience and moving information, be it 
alphabet or photography, has the power of 
imposing its structural character and 
assumptions upon all levels of our private and 
social lives—even without benefit of concepts or 
of conscious acceptance. . . . That is what I’ve 
always meant by the “medium is the message.”

Thomas P. McDonnell, “Marshall McLuhan—The 
Man Who Infuriates the Critics,” U.S. Catholic , 
(March 1966), p. 32.