Virtual Geography: Living with Global Media Events

By McKenzie Wark

Book Overview

"The author's capacity to grasp and interpret these world media] events is astounding, and her ability to provide insights into a world where unbounded information is circling the earth with the speed of light is startling." --Choice

" . . . a wide-ranging, quirky and dextrous mix of description, theory and analysis, that documents the perils of the global telecommunications network . . . " --Times Literary Supplement

" . . . this is a stimulating, even moving, book, dense with ideas and with many quotable lines." --The New Statesman

"Wark is one of the most original and interesting cultural critics writing today." --Lawrence Grossberg

McKenzie Wark writes about the experience of everyday life under the impact of increasingly global media vectors. We no longer have roots, we have aerials. We no longer have origins, we have terminals.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253208947
• ISBN13: 9780253208941
• Release Date: November 1994
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Valuable & Insightful Book By Australian Theorist

A seminal book in media theory, McKenzie Wark looks at the psychological impact of 'shock' events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square uprisings, the 1987 Stock Market collapse, the Persinal Gulf War, and the Rodney King and O.J. Simpson trials. The book is written for a university level audience, but is accessible to the new reader. Wark has had many articles published in international journals, and is frequently featured in Australia in Arena, 21.C, World Art, and major metropolitan newspapers. He is one of the most respected Australian theorists of a slightly left-of-third-way bent.Wark examines how the media reports these events, what the impact on the larger cultural psyche is, and most interesting, how the journalists who report the events are affected themselves. Wark draws in contemporary postmodern and cultural theory, but his writing is insightful, crisp, and relevant.Another important aspect of the book is that Wark is able to carefully dissect the U.S. media critically, whilst not being caught up in prevailing models (Chomsky, Bagdikian et. al). He brings a fresh, mature, and intelligent voice to a frequently crowded arena.He is also somewhat unusual in that he doesn't simply repeat the doctrines of Marshall McLuhan and others, but really examines events. He is careful to include himself in this description, and his anecdotes are simultaneously revealing and powerful.