Media Technology: Critical Perspectives

Abstract

What are media? Why are more and more objects being turned into media? How do people interconnect with the media in structuring their everyday lives? In Technology: Critical Perspectives, Joost van Loon illustrates how throughout the course of society, different forms of media have helped to shape our perceptions, expectations and interpretations of reality. Drawing on the work of media scholars such as Marshall McLuhan, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes and Raymond Williams, the author provides a theoretical analysis of the complexity of media processes. He urges the reader to challenge mainstream assumptions of media merely as instruments of communication, and shows how the matter, form, use and purpose of media technologies can affect content.The book uses practical examples from both old and new media to help readers think through complex issues about the place of media. This helps to create a more innovative toolkit for understanding what media actually are and the basis for trying to make sense of what media actually do. It uses case studies and examples from television, radio, print, computer games and domestic appliances. Media Technology is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on media, social theory and critical theory-related courses.

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