Reshaping Communications
Technology, Information and Social Change
First Edition
- Paschal Preston - Dublin City University, Ireland
March 2001 | 320 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Thirty years ago, one writer complained that 'to admire technology is all out of fashion'. Today excited claims are made for the impact that these technologies are having on social, political and economic life. But how are we to assess these claims? This book critically interrogates many of the prevailing ideas offers a fresh perspective on this new `digital age'.
Reshaping Communications:
- Provides an alternative and more grounded account of the complex interplay between new technology and information structures and changes in society
- Illuminates the fundamental continuities as well as changes in socioeconomic and political processes
-Draws on an interdisciplinary perspective and original empirical research.
The book will be essential reading for all those concerned with the new communication technologies, including students of media and communications as well as policy-makers
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Information Superhighways or Super-Hypeways
PART TWO: COMPETING THEORIES OF THE CONTEMPORARY
Third Wave Visions
An Archeology of Imformation (Sector) Matters
'Information Society' Theories
Culture and Information
PART THREE: MAPPING A NEW MILLENNIUM AND MULTIMEDIA ORDER
Changes, Continuities and Cycles
The 'Atoms and Bits' of Informational Capitalism
Polarities
'Content Is King'?
Information as New Frontier
PART FOUR: ALTERNATIVE PROSPECTS AND POSSIBILITIES
Beyond Technological Fetishism