Rubber Soul, Poster

“If modernity or the mode of production signifies patterned practices that elicit identities as autonomous and (instrumentally) rational, postmodernity or the mode of information indicates communication practices that constitute subjects as unstable, multiple, and diffuse” (540).

Poster explores the relationship between postmodernism and new communication systems. He contends that the two interact with one another to form “a broad and extensive change in the culture, in the way identities are structured” (533). He describes the different communication revolutions starting from the Middle Ages when people spoke and acted in different ways for business exchanges, and continues on to the widespread use of the telephones and how this was the first time that the receiver and the sender could exchange universally. He stresses this democratic power over modes of communication is important because it “results in more freedom, more enlightenment, more rationality; capitalist or centralist control results in oppression, passivity, irrationality” (537). Today we have 5 major media giants that control most of the media and the messages we receive. Such a small concentration poses many concerns. The public only sees a limited view of what these corporations decide is “newsworthy.” I’ve read about many studies that show biased political opinions more prevalent on certain News channels. People hear and see one-sided arguments instead of the big picture in our society. The Internet and virtual worlds are significant because these systems have abilities to open up wider possibilities of expressions. Take this blog, for example. People cannot only access it from wherever they want, but they can also critique it, analyze it, and respond to what I’m saying. In this respect, a whole new realm of communication affects the way people think about the world and themselves. “Without visual cues about gender, age, ethnicity and social status, conversations open up in directions that otherwise might be avoided” (542).