Communication Power (Oxford University Press), a book by University
"Manuel Castells unites the mind of a social scientist with the soul of an artist," said Rosalind Williams, director of the Program on Science, Technology and Society at MIT. "His trilogy took us to the edge of the millennium. This book takes us beyond to the critical crossroads of the 21st century, where technology, communication, and power converge."
From the publisher: We live in the midst of a revolution in communication technologies that affects the way in which people feel, think, and behave. Castells, holder of the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology & Society, argues that mass media — including Web-based media — has become the space where political and business power strategies are played out. Power now lies in the hands of those who understand or control communication.
Over the last 30 years, Castells has emerged as one of the world's leading communications theorists. In this, his most far-reaching book for a decade, he explores the nature of power itself, in the new communications environment. His vision encompasses business, media, neuroscience, technology, and, above all, politics. His case histories include global media deregulation, the misinformation that surrounded the invasion of Iraq, environmental movements, the role of the Internet in the Obama presidential campaign, and media control in Russia and China. In the new network society of instant messaging, social networking, and blogging--"mass self-communication"--politics is fundamentally media politics. This fact is behind a worldwide crisis of political legitimacy that challenges the meaning of democracy in much of the world.
Deeply researched, far-reaching in scope, and incisively argued, this is a book for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics and character of the modern world.
"How could Manuel Castells have predicted that now is the time of the perfect storm?" asked Antonio Damasio, the David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at USC. "I do not know. But I do know that his new book coincides with the largest downturn in global economies since the 1930s, with the most important American election since the 1960s, with a most radical transformation of world politics in many generations, and with the most profound reevaluation of the lives of modern citizens, from what they value to how they communicate. We have become used to Castells' careful scholarship and penetrating analyses but in this new book he cuts deeper into the heart of the matter. Sometimes he provides illuminating answers and where he cannot, he frames the questions that must be answered. This is a powerful and much needed book for a world in crisis."
Said W. Russell Neuman, Evans Professor of Media Technology at the University of Michigan: "Castells has done it again, a masterpiece of global perspective and enviable erudition. Moving beyond his trilogy on the information age, Castells focuses on how cultural, economic and particularly political power relationships are constituted and sustained through systematic communication flows. ... Case studies include global media deregulation, the politics of scandal, framing the war in Iraq, ecological social movements, the Obama presidential candidacy and a fascinating comparison of media control dynamics in Russia and China."
Features (from the publisher):
- Manuel Castells is our foremost theorist of the power of communication in modern society
- This book is a natural progression from his 'Network Society' trilogy - a powerful, forward-looking analysis of communication in the Network Society
- Builds on some of the themes of Castells' Internet Galaxy (OUP, 2001), and considers the social and political implications of recent phenomena such as social networking and blogging
- Draws on theories from across the social sciences: politics, sociology, psychology, communication studies, management studies
- Rich and wide-ranging, including examples from the author's experience of Franco's Spain, the operation of global media companies, and Barack Obama's campaign
