The Medium is the Trivium
Laura Trujillo Liñán

Abstract
The different modes of information: Throughout history man has tried to access to the information emanating from the world around him through different ways, which have not always taken him to knowledge, sometimes the opposite. For McLuhan these media of access can be summarized into three categories: grammar, dialectic and rhetoric. They comprise the Trivium and have the same goal but his method differs. We can observe their development through a historical analysis. The aim of this essay is to show that the way the mass media inform can be explained through the elements of the trivium. Just a McLuhan explains, the historical process via grammar, rhetoric and dialectic, in the same way to apply these methods to the way of being of present media. For example, books use grammar, because through words we understand what the autor want to say and the internet the rhetoric via images.

Full Text: PDF