MTU Cork Library Catalogue

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The media and modernity : a social theory of the media / John B. Thompson.

By: Thompson, John B. (John Brookshire).
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: Cambridge : Polity, 1995Description: viii, 314 p. : ill ; 24 cm. + hbk.ISBN: 0745610048 m (hbk); 0745610056 v (pbk).Subject(s): Mass media -- Social aspects | Communication -- Social aspectsDDC classification: 302.23
Contents:
Communication and social context -- The media and the development of modern societies -- The rise of mediated interaction -- The transformation of visibility -- The globalization of communication -- The re-mooring of tradition -- Self and experience in a mediated world -- The reinvention of publicness.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
General Lending MTU Bishopstown Library Lending 302.23 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00015725
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

What role was played by communication media in the formation of modern societies? How should we understand the social impact of new forms of communication and information diffusion, from the advent of printing in 15th-century Europe to the expansion of global communication networks today?

Includes bibliographical references (pages 266-297) and index.

Communication and social context -- The media and the development of modern societies -- The rise of mediated interaction -- The transformation of visibility -- The globalization of communication -- The re-mooring of tradition -- Self and experience in a mediated world -- The reinvention of publicness.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • 1 Communication and Social Context
  • 2 The Media and the Development of Modern Societies
  • 3 The Rise of Mediated Interaction
  • 4 The Transformation of Visibility
  • 5 The Globalization of Communication
  • 6 The Re-mooring of Tradition
  • 7 Self and Experience in a Mediated World
  • 8 The Re-invention of Publicness
  • Notes
  • Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In this sequel to Ideology and Modern Culture (CH, Sep'91), Thompson argues that communication media were "an integral part of the rise of modern societies." In line with the work of Anthony Giddens, whom he thanks in the preface, the author presents a positive portrait of the role of the communication media and dismisses the Frankfurt School's pessimistic assessments of mass society. Thompson uses such Giddens vocabulary as "space-time distanciation" to argue that the media disrupt symbolic forms and then "re-embed" them in new contexts. This "despatialized simultaneity" gives the consumer of information a "mediated worldliness," and the reception of information is supposed to be "an activity, not ... something passive." This reception "is a skilled accomplishment." In fact, the entire book reads like an extension of Giddens's thought: the communication media are responsible for globalization, the "re-mooring of tradition," the creation of the self, and the renewal of democracy. Thompson's argument, which is not original, might have been compelling had he taken up opposing points of view, stressed by critical theorists and postmodernists, on the new forms of enslavement caused by the communication media. It is an unconvincing argument when contrasted with clear examples of such enslavement offered by, for example, Douglas Kellner's The Persian Gulf TV War (CH, Mar'93). Adequate notes and index. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students. S. G. Mestrovic Texas A&M University

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