Media convergence : the three degrees of network, mass, and interpersonal communication /

Jensen (Univ. of Copenhagen, Denmark) writes for an audience immersed in the turbulent waters of media theory and cultural studies. He neither hides from complex neologisms in the fields of semiotics, philosophy, and postmodern theory nor avoids tackling the complex interactions produced by rapid media proliferation. His thesis--that media convergence presents challenges (complexity) and opportunities to reform media studies through a reduction in dualistic/binary thinking--is refreshing. His ideas--dense and multifocal, assailing issues as broad as cell phones, media transmission theories, search engines, philosophies of communication, and cultural controversies--are bracing. The case studies explore the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which inflamed cultural communication between West and East. Jensen cleverly attacks quixotic issues such as "weather" communication, including how evolving mass media shaped debate about climate change. His complicated agenda involves avoiding divisions between mass and interpersonal communication and online/offline interaction. He begins his critique in Kantian pragmatic terms, argues for a move from media to communication, or "institutions to think with," and considers new toolboxes for diverse media study, principally the fields of "political, economic, and cultural practices." His approach is simultaneously timely and classic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. S. Lenig Columbia State Community College