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Deal Domains - Living in the Information Age: A New Media Reader (with InfoTrac®) (Wadsworth Series in Mass Communication and Journalism)
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List Price: $65.95
Our Price: $26.97
Your Save: $ 38.98 ( 59% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 004
EAN: 9780534633400
ISBN: 0534633404
Label: Wadsworth Publishing
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2004-07-12
Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing
Studio: Wadsworth Publishing
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Didn't like it.
Comment: I was immediately turned off on this book from page 1. I felt that the authors and editor make many assumptions about society/culture which are generally applied globally rather than to specific cultures and on a more local level. Even among similar societies/cultures, the differences can be great enough that presumption of similarity is an affront to the citizens of those societies/cultures. To speak of one is not to speak of all or others and I didn't feel that this book made an effort to make those types of distinctions.
Another issue I have with some of the material presented here is that developed nations are not yet completely in the information-based stage of development; nor will they ever be. A society will always have local agriculture, manufacturing, and service industries (no matter how small) because society/culture/economy is a continuum, not stepwise and discrete.
A society based solely on information processing will eventually collapse because information processing has no inherent value and is only supported by the "lower tiers" which give it a reason to be (i.e., information management and ICT's are unnecessary if there is no real product going through the supply chain). Assuming this, the information based society is the weakest link in the chain and is possibly the worst to be in (information processing can also be automated the same way as mass production). This book would have you believe the opposite.
The book is frequently optimistic to a fault. Technology (regrettably) does not always have solutions to life's problems, and in fact technology frequently complicates life's problems. In that regard, I specifically found Cairncross' "Trendspotter's Guide to New Communications" to be a laughable example of this, particularly items 3, 7, 9, 10, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, AND ESPECIALLY 28, 29, 30. The last three are examples of extreme techno-evangelical optimism and, while I believe they are highly worthy pursuits, they will be difficult goals to reach in practice; perhaps even impossible because intercultural strife is one human problem that technology can not solve.
To be fair, there are some well written, well thought articles to be found, it's just that there were not enough of them to carry the rest of the book. Alternatively there were some really bad articles (specifically pointless ones) which unnecessarily clutter the book.
Overall, I hated this book and I'm glad to be done with it. It was required reading for a college course (I earned a 3.9 GPA in the class in spite of reading the book). My copy is now so full of marginalia that it's likely to be unsellable so this curse will be darkening my bookshelf into the indefinite future...
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Editorial Reviews:
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Understand the impact of new technologies on the media landscape with LIVING IN THE INFORMATION AGE with InfoTrac®! Examining the conceptual and practical aspects of life in an information society, this communication text encourages you to consider how the media industries are being transformed through digital convergence and corporate concentration. Each reading is prefaced by a short introduction and three questions for critical thinking and discussion to help you master the material. Each article is followed by suggestions for taking research online using InfoTrac College Edition so that you can enhance your understanding of the material.
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