The Media and Modernity
Subtitle: A Social Theory of the Media
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: February 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9780804726788
Subjects: Sociology; Social Science; Mass Communication Media And Society; Social Change; Philosophy; Sociology - General; Social aspects; Media Studies; Mass media; Communication
First sentence: 'I have said that, in my opinion, all was chaos, that is, earth, air, water, and fire were mixed together; and out of that bulk a mass formed - just as cheese is made out of milk - and worms appeared in it, and these were the angels.
Description: What role have communication media played 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 fifteenth-century Europe to the expansion of global communication networks today? In this major new work, Thompson addresses these and other questions by elaborating a distinctive social theory of communication media and their impact. He argues that the development of communication media has transformed the spatial and temporal constitution of social life, creating new forms of action and interaction which are no longer linked to the sharing of a common locale. The consequences of this transformation are far-reaching and impinge on many aspects of our lives, from the most intimate aspects of personal experience and self-formation to the changing nature of power and visibility in the public domain. -- Publisher description.