ABSTRACT
When Marshall McLuhan coined the term ‘the global village’ it was in a spirit of hope and expectation, in the belief that technology could and would change even the great globe itself. This was about communication as contact, as mediation, as community. In 1964 Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson tapped into the mood of the times when he launched his first term of government with a famous speech about the ‘white heat of new technology’. The Beatles were among the first recording artists to demonstrate the implications of the new technology when they took over the village hall for a live world-wide satellite link-up at Christmas 1968. Their message was the message of the Sixties: ‘It’s easy … All you need is Love’. ‘Village’ was aptly chosen because it suggested community not competition or coercion. It was clearly going to bring us all together.
