The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects The cover of the first UK edition, published by Penguin Books (1967) " The medium is the message ." ? " The medium is the massage ." McLuhan adopted the term "massage" to denote the effect each medium has on the human sensorium, taking inventory of the "effects" of numerous media in terms of how they "massage" the sensorium. "Why is the title of the book The Medium is the Massage and not The Medium is the Message ? Actually, the title was a mistake. When the book came back from the typesetter's, it had on the cover 'Massage' as it still does. The title was supposed to have read The Medium is the Message but the typesetter had made an error. When McLuhan saw the typo he exclaimed, 'Leave it alone! It's great, and right on target!' Thus, there are now four possible re...