The technical characteristics of the information superhighway and virtual reality are clear enough to call attention to their potential for new cultural formations. It is conceivable that the information superhighway will be restricted in the way the broadcast system is. In that case, the term “second media age” is unjustified. But the potential of a decentralized communications system is so great that it is certainly worthy of recognition.
Predictor: Poster, Mark
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Second Media Age,” Mark Poster, a member of the humanities faculty at the University of California at Irvine, writes: ”The information superhighway and virtual reality are communications media that enrich existing forms of consumer culture. But they also depart or may depart from what we have known as the mass media or the ‘culture industry’ in a number of crucial ways. I said ‘may depart’ because neither of these technologies has been fully constituted as cultural practices; they are emergent communication systems whose features are yet to be specified with some permanence or finality. One purpose of this essay is to suggest the important of some form of political concern about how these technologies are being actualized. The technical characteristics of the information superhighway and virtual reality are clear enough to call attention to their potential for new cultural formations. It is conceivable that the information superhighway will be restricted in the way the broadcast system is. In that case, the term ‘second media age’ is unjustified. But the potential of a decentralized communications system is so great that it is certainly worthy of recognition.”
Biography:Mark Poster wrote the paper “Cyberdemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere” in 1995 while teaching at the University of California, Irvine. He also wrote about technology for Wired magazine. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Second Media Age
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter Two: Postmodern Virtualities
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/writings/internet.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney