Page 16 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

INTRODUCTION

Michael Real begins the section with an introductory essay on how popular
culture and media spectacles have influenced the development of contem-
porary cultural theory. Annenberg School communication theorist Paul
Messaris argues for the central place of visual forms in cultural analysis. Com-
munication studies scholar Stephen Hinerman puts forward an argument for
what he considers to be the positive role of global media stars in cultural
life. Finally, emphasizing the extraordinary influence of computer-mediated
communication in contemporary cultural construction, communication
researchers Steve Jones and Stephanie Kucker discuss ‘virtual cultures’ and how
the skills of ‘Internetworking’ influence social and cultural reality in the
Communication Age.
It should be clear from this brief overview of the book’s chapters that no
single perspective on culture emerges from these pages. I hope to have stead-
fastly avoided editing a volume that could easily be said to represent a ‘post-
modernist’ or ‘essentialist’ or ‘social scientific’ or ‘cultural studies’ position.
The range of voices and views expressed in the book re flects the diverse and
dynamic state of culture in the Communication Age, and they are brought
together here to help provoke the discussions that these matters clearly merit.

References

Bauman, Z. (1998). Globalization: The Human Consequences. Cambridge: Polity Press;
New York: Columbia University Press.
Castells, M. (1996). The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
Laubichler, M. (1997). ‘Introduction’. S: European Journal for Semiotic Studies, 9: 248–50.
Lull, J. (2000). Media, Communication, Culture: A Global Approach (revised ed.).
Cambridge: Polity Press; New York: Columbia University Press.
Thompson, J. B. (1995). The Media and Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Tomlinson, J. (1999). Globalization and Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.

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