The Message is the Medium is both a radical reevaluation and a new approach to understanding online data and information systems, - the "Information Highway." It is not another "how-to" guide, although it does contain practical and instructional data. Rather, it offers a general tutorial explaining the system-at-large from the perspective of the user, and the data he or she needs to resolve problems and crises.

It thus provides a simple, powerful, and unique explanation to online resources: what they are and what they do for the individual. All chapters are illustrated.