Paul A. Taylor, Jan Ll Harris: Critical Theories of Mass Media: Then and Now (2007)

With the exception of occasional moral panics about the coarsening of public discourse, and the impact of advertising and television violence upon children, mass media tend to be viewed as a largely neutral or benign part of contemporary life. Even when criticisms are voiced, the media chooses how and when to discuss its own inadequacies. More radical external critiques are often excluded and media theorists are frequently more optimistic than realistic about the negative aspects of mass culture.

This book reassesses this situation in the light of both early and contemporary critical scholarship and explores the intimate relationship between the mass media and the dis-empowering nature of commodity culture. The authors cast a fresh perspective on contemporary mass culture by comparing past and present critiques. They:

* Outline the key criticisms of mass culture from past critical thinkers
* Reassess past critical thought in the changed circumstances of today
* Evaluate the significance of new critical thinkers for today’s mass culture

The book begins by introducing the critical insights from major theorists from the past – Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor Adorno, Marshall McLuhan and Guy Debord. Paul Taylor and Jan Harris then apply these insights to recent provocative writers such as Jean Baudrillard and Slavoj Zizek, and discuss the links between such otherwise apparently unrelated contemporary events as the Iraqi Abu Ghraib controversy and the rise of reality television.

Critical Theories of Mass Media is a key text for students of cultural studies, communications and media studies, and sociology.

Publisher Open University Press, 2007
ISBN 0335218113, 9780335218110
233 pages

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2012-8-3)

Andrew Feenberg: Transforming Technology. A Critical Theory Revisited (2002)

Thoroughly revised, this new edition of Critical Theory of Technology rethinks the relationships between technology, rationality, and democracy, arguing that the degradation of labor–as well as of many environmental, educational, and political systems–is rooted in the social values that preside over technological development. It contains materials on political theory, but the emphasis has shifted to reflect a growing interest in the fields of technology and cultural studies.

Publisher Oxford University Press US, 2002
ISBN 0195146158, 9780195146158
218 pages

Keywords and phrases
Marxism, critical theory, theory of technology, critique of technology, capitalist, deskilling, Frankfurt School, technological rationality, technoscience, Marx, Minitel, double aspect theory, socialist, Soviet Union, artificial intelligence, public ownership, posthumanist, online education, hegemony, division of labor

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2012-7-31)

Simon Tormey, Jules Townshend: Key Thinkers from Critical Theory to Post-Marxism (2006)

Key Thinkers in Critical Theory to Post Marxism is the first comprehensive introduction to perhaps the most key intellectual trend in contemporary critical theory. In jargon-free language, it seeks to unpack, explain and review many of the key figures behind the rethinking of the legacy of Marxism in theory and practice.

Key thinkers covered include Cornelius Castoriadis, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Deleuze and Guattari, Laclau and Mouffe, Agnes Heller, Jacques Derrida, Jurgen Habermas and post-Marxist feminism.

Each chapter covers a key thinker or contribution and thus can be read as a stand alone introduction to the principal aspects of their approach. Each chapter is followed by a summary of key points with a guide to further reading.

Underlying the text is also the central question: What is Post-Marxism?

Instead of viewing Post-Marxism as an ideology, movement or tradition of theorizing, the authors advocate Post-Marxism as a loose appellation describing those who have problematised Marx’s approach to understanding and challenging contemporary capitalism. As such the book also offers an engaging commentary on some of the key political developments of our time including, for example, the anti-globalisation movement.

Key Thinkers in Critical Theory to Post Marxism provides an ideal introduction to a hitherto complex subject and will be essential reading for all students of contemporary social and political inquiry today.

Publisher Pine Forge Press, 2006
ISBN 0761967621, 9780761967620
234 pages

Keywords and phrases
Post-Marxism, feminism, Derrida, Lyotard, Post-Marxist, Anti-Oedipus, Thousand Plateaus, Habermas, feminist, meta-narrative, Cornelius Castoriadis, post-structuralist, post-structuralism, hegemony, proletariat, lifeworld, Agnes Heller, Donna Haraway, cyborg, division of labour

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2012-7-31)