The second media age

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

The second media age

Mark Poster

Polity Press, c1995

  • : pbk

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Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780745613956

Description

This text examines the implications of new communication technologies in the light of the most recent work in social and cultural theory. It critically evaluates the concepts of media and technology in various traditions of cultural theory, with the aim of rethinking the relations of humans to machines. It also examines theories of postmodernity in relation to the new media, as well as the debate over multiculturalism. The author argues that new developments in electronic media, such as the Internet and virtual reality, may so alter our habits of communication and so deeply reposition our identities that the designation "a second media age" is justified. Poster assesses the contributions of theorists such as Baudrillard, Lyotard, Habermas, Haraway and Guattari. He also analyzes various cultural materials in light of his approach: Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", Richard Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung", and the televised reporting of the Gulf War. This book should be useful reading for students in media studies, cultural studies, sociology and social theory. Mark Poster is the author of "The Mode of Information", "Critical Theory and Post-Structuralism", "Foucault, Marxism and History" and "Critical Theory of the Family".

Table of Contents

  • Part 1 Theoretical reconsiderations: social theory and the new media
  • postmodern virtualities
  • postmodernity and the politics of multiculturalism
  • the mode of information and postmodernity
  • databases as discourse, or electronic interpellations
  • critical theory and technoculture - Habermas and Baudrillard. Part 2 Medias: politics in the mode of information - Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing"
  • RoboBody
  • what does Wotan want? - ambivalent feminism in Wagner's "Ring"
  • war in the mode of information.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780745613963

Description

This book examines the implications of new communication technologies in the light of the most recent work in social and cultural theory and argues that new developments in electronic media, such as the Internet and Virtual Reality, justify the designation of a "second media age".

Table of Contents

Part I: Theoretical Reconsiderations: . 1. Social Theory and the New Media. 2. Postmodern Virtualities. 3. Postmodernity and the Politics of Multiculturalism. 4. The Mode of Information and Postmodernity. 5. Databases as Discourse, or Electronic Interpellations. 6. Critical Theory and TechnoCulture: Habermas and Baudrillard. Part II: Medias: . 7. Politics in the Mode of Information: Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. . 8. RoboBody. 9. What Does Wotan Want? Ambivalent Feminism in Wagner's Ring. . 10. War in the Mode of Information. Notes. Index.

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