I am starting a new book this evening. Jack Lule (2012) Globalization & Media. I have to share with you this from the opening of his preface...
"Dad," my eighteen-year-old son asks, "what's your book about?"
"Globalization and media," I tell him. He looks at me for a long while. "Dad," he says, "I don't even know what those words mean."
Here is his typical day: He wakes to a blaring clock radio and lies in bed until he hears the weather report. He showers while listening to his iPod, which was made in Taiwan and assembled and shipped from Shanghai. He eats breakfast while watching SportsCenter and reading the sports pages. He checks his cell phone for messages. He drives to school in his Honda, likely made in the United Kingdom and Japan, with the radio on, passing flashing billboards that advertise cars made in Germany and sneakers produced in South Korea. He attends school, in some classes using a Macintosh produced in Shanghai and in other classes watching foreign films. He eats lunch with two friends. One friend is Dominican and Puerto Rican. The other friend's parents migrated from Ghana to the United States. After school, my son returns home and sits down at the computer to finish his homework. After dinner, perhaps Chinese or Mexican food, if homework is finished he repairs to the basement and goes online to play video games such as Call of Duty, battling others logged on from around the world, while also chatting on the phone and keeping an eye on the television. He goes to bed with the iPod playing softly beside him.
Globalization and media are embedded in almost every aspect of his daily existence. Yet he does not know what the words mean. I don't fault my son at all. The terms are difficult and vague. They mean everything and nothing. And economic, political, and cultural debates have served to further complicate them.
Wow, now I am stoked to read this book. Of course, it could turn out to be less than fulfilling reading given the promise of this preface. I'll keep you posted.
By the way T. David, chapter one includes sections on Wael Ghonim, Martin Luther, Oprah Winfrey, and Marshall McLuhan. Chapter three has sections on oral communication, script, the printing press, electronic media, and digital media, as well as a section entitled Technology and Social Change: The Debate. So Lule seems to be using (at least from the front material of the book) the term media in a proper manner, not just referring to information providing services.
"Dad," my eighteen-year-old son asks, "what's your book about?"
"Globalization and media," I tell him. He looks at me for a long while. "Dad," he says, "I don't even know what those words mean."
Here is his typical day: He wakes to a blaring clock radio and lies in bed until he hears the weather report. He showers while listening to his iPod, which was made in Taiwan and assembled and shipped from Shanghai. He eats breakfast while watching SportsCenter and reading the sports pages. He checks his cell phone for messages. He drives to school in his Honda, likely made in the United Kingdom and Japan, with the radio on, passing flashing billboards that advertise cars made in Germany and sneakers produced in South Korea. He attends school, in some classes using a Macintosh produced in Shanghai and in other classes watching foreign films. He eats lunch with two friends. One friend is Dominican and Puerto Rican. The other friend's parents migrated from Ghana to the United States. After school, my son returns home and sits down at the computer to finish his homework. After dinner, perhaps Chinese or Mexican food, if homework is finished he repairs to the basement and goes online to play video games such as Call of Duty, battling others logged on from around the world, while also chatting on the phone and keeping an eye on the television. He goes to bed with the iPod playing softly beside him.
Globalization and media are embedded in almost every aspect of his daily existence. Yet he does not know what the words mean. I don't fault my son at all. The terms are difficult and vague. They mean everything and nothing. And economic, political, and cultural debates have served to further complicate them.
Wow, now I am stoked to read this book. Of course, it could turn out to be less than fulfilling reading given the promise of this preface. I'll keep you posted.
By the way T. David, chapter one includes sections on Wael Ghonim, Martin Luther, Oprah Winfrey, and Marshall McLuhan. Chapter three has sections on oral communication, script, the printing press, electronic media, and digital media, as well as a section entitled Technology and Social Change: The Debate. So Lule seems to be using (at least from the front material of the book) the term media in a proper manner, not just referring to information providing services.
No comments:
Post a Comment