Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/03315_Field_PRFG T10.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 688b | 14 lines

Any medium presents a figure whose ground is
always hidden, or subliminal. In the case of TV, as
of the telephone and radio, the subliminal ground
could be called the discarnate or disembodied
user. This is to say that when you are “on the
telephone,” or “on the air,” you do not have a
physical body. In these media, the sender is sent,
and is instantaneously present everywhere. The
disembodied user extends to all those who are
recipients of electric information. It is these people
who constitute the mass  audience, because mass
is a factor of speed rather than quantity,
although popular speech permits the term mass
to be used with large publics.