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Overview
The most virulent viruses today are composed of information. In this information-driven age, the easiest way to manipulate the culture is through the media. A hip and caustically humorous McLuhan for the '90s, culture watcher Douglas Rushkoff now offers a fascinating expose of media manipulation in today's age of instant information.
The most virulent viruses today are composed of information. In this information-driven age, the easiest way to manipulate the culture is through the media. A hip and caustically humorous McLuhan for the '90s, culture watcher Douglas Rushkoff now offers a fascinating expose of media manipulation in today's age of instant information.
Synopsis
The most virulent viruses today are composed of information. In this information-driven age, the easiest way to manipulate the culture is through the media. A hip and caustically humorous McLuhan for the '90s, culture watcher Douglas Rushkoff now offers a fascinating expose of media manipulation in today's age of instant information.
Publishers Weekly
This provocative title suggests the author will follow the familiar route of explaining how popular culture manipulates its audience into complacency. On the contrary, Rushkoff (The GenX Reader) asserts that media ``viruses'' empower audiences both to become more actively engaged with the media and to challenge the status quo. Viruses, e.g., rap song ``Cop Killer'' and the videotape of the Rodney King beating, are controversial, compelling images or ideas that allow countercultural politics to infiltrate mainstream media. The hidden agendas Rushkoff explores here are thus subversive ones. His readings of various media outlets, such as TV shows like The Simpsons and Ren and Stimpy, as launchpads for antiestablishment messages about alternative lifestyles, are smart and interesting. But his conclusions about the revolutionary potential of media viruses are not always substantiated by his analyses, and his use of techno-jargon makes his arguments often difficult to follow. Author tour. (Oct.)