because we live in at least two kinds of 
environments: the natural, and the symbolic. I 
thought it would be helpful to call the programme 
Media Ecology. So from the beginning, the spectre 
of Marshall McLuhan was all over this department.

Of course since then, so many people, the heirs of 
McLuhan’s legacy, have written on the subject 
from a McLuhanesque point of view, that he is by 
no means even the best person to read on the 
subject these days. That wouldn’t bother him 
either. All of our students are required to read 
McLuhan, but we no longer place his work at the 
centre of their studies. I try to get them to