Yuri Rozhdestvensky Versus Marshall McLuhan: A Triumph Versus a Vortex

This article introduces the communication theory of Yuri Rozhdestvensky, using Marshall McLuhan to contextualize Rozhdestvensky's work. Rozhdestvensky and McLuhan both analyze the effects of new media on old. McLuhan argues that new media tend to make old media obsolete; Rozhdestvensky argues that new media enhance and extend old media. Both compare the social and psychological effects of the present shift in technologies to the shifts that occurred with the development of speech, writing, and print. The article provides evidence that Rozhdestvensky's theory is more accurate and that their different perceptions of media color their prognosis for the future: McLuhan perceiving the future as a return to atavism and irrationality, Rozhdestvensky believing in a continuation of human control of outer and inner nature.