The (Dis)information Age: The Persistence of Ignorance: 79 (Digital Formations) - Hardcover

Mohammed, Shaheed Nick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1433115026 ISBN 13: 9781433115028

Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Inc, 2012

Synopsis

The (Dis)information Age challenges prevailing notions about the impact of new information and media technologies. The widespread acceptance of ideas about the socially transformative power of these technologies demands a close and critical interrogation. The technologies of the information revolution, often perceived as harbingers of social transformation, may more appropriately be viewed as tools, capable of positive and negative uses. This book encourages a more rational and even skeptical approach to the claims of the information revolution and demonstrates that, despite a wealth of information, ignorance persists and even thrives. As the volume of information available to us increases, our ability to process and evaluate that information diminishes, rendering us, at times, less informed. Despite the assumed globalization potential of new information technologies, users of global media such as the World Wide Web and Facebook tend to cluster locally around their own communities of interest and even around traditional communities of geography, nationalism, and heritage. Thus new media technologies may contribute to ignorance about various «others» and, in this and many other ways, contribute to the persistence of ignorance.

About this title

About the Author

Shaheed Nick Mohammed, Associate Professor of Communications at Penn State Altoona, earned his doctorate from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. He is the author of Communication and the Globalization of Culture: Beyond Tradition and Borders (2011).

Edition details

• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Inc
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1433115026
• ISBN 13: 9781433115028
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 215