The contribution of Alvin Toffler to the theoretical and conceptual imaginary of communication

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2018-1274

Keywords:

Marshall McLuhan, Alvin Toffler, Media Ecology

Abstract

We start by affirming the complexity of communication and refer some of the main contributions to communication that have come from other fields of knowledge. We next point out that Alvin Toffler, a prominent American futurist who died on June 27, 2016, is one of the intellectuals who made valuable contributions to the communication sciences. At the end of the decade of 1970, for example, he anticipated the phenomenon of the prosumtion and gave name to the figure of the prosumers. Not a few academics and researchers in communication - and of the social sciences, in general - have recognized the effective relevance of the prosumers in the development of digital communications. In the work and thinking of Alvin Toffler, we identified some concerns in common with Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) and the Media Ecology developed by Neil Postman. In this text, we will focus our attention on three of Alvin Toffler's main books, in which he discusses topics related to the development of communication: The 'future shock' (1970), The Third Wave (1980), Revolutionary Wealth (2006), in which Heidi, his wife, participated as coauthor.

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Author Biographies

Octavio Islas, Universidad de los Hemisferios

Octavio Islas (Mexico) (octavio.islas PHD in Social Sciences. Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Internet and Information Society, University of the Hemispheres, Quito, Ecuador.

Founder of the web magazine Razón y Palabra, a pioneer among scientific publications dedicated to issues of communication in Ibero-American cyberspace.

Director of the Julian Assange Chair of Technopolitics and Culture, at the International Center for Advanced Communication Studies in Latin America (Ciespal).

Author and coordinator of 16 books, more than 50 chapters in books, more than 75 texts published in journals indexed with arbitration. Member of the National Researchers System, Mexico, level 2.

Amaia Arribas, Universidad de los Hemisferios

Amaia Arribas (Spain) PHD communication and journalism graduated from the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain.

She currently serves as director of institutional communication at the University of Los Hemisferios, in Quito, Ecuador.

She is the author of books and scientific articles on strategic communication

Fernando Gutiérrez, Universidad TEC de Monterrey

Fernando Gutiérrez (Mexico) is the head of the Division of Humanities and Education at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (State of Mexico Campus).

He earned a PhD in Design and Data Visualization from The Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM).

He is author of several titles about media.

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Published

2018-03-26

How to Cite

Islas, O., Arribas, A. ., & Gutiérrez, F. . (2018). The contribution of Alvin Toffler to the theoretical and conceptual imaginary of communication. Revista Latina De Comunicación Social, (73), 648–661. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2018-1274

Issue

Section

Miscellaneous