He called it the "global village" and said it would be an age when everyone had access to the same information through technology. The "global village" could be understood to be the internet.

In his follow-up book, Understanding Media, he expanded the theory to show the method of communication rather than the information itself would come to be the most influential fact of the electronic age.

He soon became a TV personality, making regular appearances to explain his theory of why "the medium is the message".

He became the most publicised English teacher of the 20th century, a prestige that only grew with the realisation of his vision of the "computer as a research and communication instrument".

In the 21st century people have a world of information at their finger tips on smartphones, tablets and laptops. The internet has facilitated a breaking down of global barriers and the democratisation of knowledge.

McLuhan's predictions caused a frenzy in the US, with high profile magazines and authors rallying around him. He was the subject of a Tom Wolfe article titled "What if he is right?" that was published in New York Magazine.

His theory influenced the likes of French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister's father, and artist Andy Warhol.