Media Unlimited, Revised Edition: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives

Todd Gitlin

Macmillan, Sep 18, 2007 - Social Science - 264 pages

"A balanced yet biting critique . . . Gitlin is a savvy guide to our increasingly kinetic times."--San Francisco Chronicle
 
In this original look at our electronically glutted, speed-addicted world, Todd Gitlin evokes a reality of relentless sensation, instant transition, and nonstop stimulus, which he argues is anything but progress. He shows how all media, all the time fuels celebrity worship, paranoia, and irony, and how attempts to ward off the onrush become occasion for yet more media. Far from bringing about a "new information age," Gitlin argues, the digital torrent has fostered a society of disposable emotions and casual commitments, and threatens to make democracy a sideshow. In a new afterword, Gitlin takes measure of the most recent wave of inundation in the form of iPods, blogs, and YouTube.
 
Both a startling analysis and a charged polemic, Media Unlimited reveals the unending stream of manufactured images and sounds as a defining feature of our civilization and a perverse culmination of Western hopes for freedom.

What people are saying

Review: Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images & Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives

User Review  - Joseph Garraty - Goodreads

I'm generally sympathetic to the premise of this book--we're constantly bombarded by imagery and sounds, and some of that experience has the potential to degrade our thinking and the quality of our ...

Review: Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images & Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives

User Review  - Amber - Goodreads

I had to read this for a summer reading project and I would definitely recommend it as an informational read maybe for more adult readers. It uses language that older audiences would understand more ...

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Speed and Sensibility: 71
• Styles of Navigation and Political Sideshows: 118
• Under the Sign of Mickey Mouse Co: 176

About the author

Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia
University and the author of twelve other books, including The Sixties, Inside Prime Time, The Twilight of Common Dreams, and The Bulldozer and the Big Tent. He lives in New York City.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Media Unlimited, Revised Edition: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives; Holt paperbacks; Metropolitan books
• Author: Todd Gitlin
• Edition: 2, illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2007
• ISBN: 0805086897, 9780805086898
• Length: 264 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies; Social Science / Popular Culture; Technology & Engineering / Social Aspects