Understanding Media : A Popular Philosophy

Why do we understand media the way we do? In their simplest forms, media are means of communication and instruments of human creativity. But on another level, news outlets are powerful entities that govern how we think and act in the world, and they can even take on a sinister character, with conglomerates working in opposition to freedom of information. Dominic Boyer grapples with these complexities in "Understanding Media", where he questions what our different ways of engaging media actually tell us about ourselves, communication, and how we relate to information. "Understanding Media" explores, in a serious yet entertaining way, our common habits of thinking about the presence and significance of the channels of information in our lives. Offering analysis of the philosophical and social foundations of contemporary media theory as well as everyday strategies of knowing media, it addresses the advantages and limitations of different ways of understanding it. Finally, Boyer reflects on how we can know media better than we do.