Background
Poster was born in New York on 5 July 1941, studied at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and completed a Doctor of Philosophy in history at New York University in 1968.
( Information Please advances the ongoing critical projec...)
Information Please advances the ongoing critical project of the media scholar Mark Poster: theorizing the social and cultural effects of electronically mediated information. In this book Poster conceptualizes a new relation of humans to information machines, a relation that avoids privileging either the human or the machine but instead focuses on the structures of their interactions. Synthesizing a broad range of critical theory, he explores how texts, images, and sounds are made different when they are mediated by information machines, how this difference affects individuals as well as social and political formations, and how it creates opportunities for progressive change. Poster’s critique develops through a series of lively studies. Analyzing the appearance of Sesame Street’s Bert next to Osama Bin Laden in a New York Times news photo, he examines the political repercussions of this Internet “hoax” as well as the unlimited opportunities that Internet technology presents for the appropriation and alteration of information. He considers the implications of open-source licensing agreements, online personas, the sudden rise of and interest in identity theft, peer-to-peer file sharing, and more. Focusing explicitly on theory, he reflects on the limitations of critical concepts developed before the emergence of new media, particularly globally networked digital communications, and he argues that, contrary to the assertions of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, new media do not necessarily reproduce neoimperialisms. Urging a rethinking of assumptions ingrained during the dominance of broadcast media, Poster charts new directions for work on politics and digital culture.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822338394/?tag=2022091-20
(Synthesizing a broad range of critical theory, this book ...)
Synthesizing a broad range of critical theory, this book explores how texts, images, and sounds are made different when they are mediated by information machines, how this difference affects individuals as well as social and political formations, and how it creates opportunities for progressive change.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002A73GAM/?tag=2022091-20
Poster was born in New York on 5 July 1941, studied at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and completed a Doctor of Philosophy in history at New York University in 1968.
He was pivotal to "bringing French critical theory to the United States., and went on to analyse contemporary media."
He was known for surveying the work of Henri Lefebvre, Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault. He applied the ideas of these and other French theorists (including Jean Baudrillard, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida) to digital new media of the late 20th and early 21st century (including television, databases, hypertext and the internet). Poster sought to politicize the issue of the use and development of the internet by emphasizing its possibilities for liberatory political change, while acknowledging the existence of a deep digital divide, as well as the interests of transnational corporations and national governments.
Poster was also co-editor of the "Electronic Mediations" book series at the University of Minnesota Press, which includes almost 40 titles which explore the humanistic and social implications of the internet, virtual reality technologies, video games, literary hypertexts, and new media art forms.
Guide to the Mark Poster Papers. Special Collections and Archives, The University of California Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Other
University of California Irvine faculty page
UCIspace the Libraries digital collection: Mark Poster born digital files, 1985-2009
Interview with Poster
What"s Left: Materialist responses to the internet by Poster.
(Synthesizing a broad range of critical theory, this book ...)
( Information Please advances the ongoing critical projec...)
(Book by Poster, Mark)
(Book by Poster, Mark)
(Book by Poster, Mark)
(Book by Poster, Mark)
His research interests included European Intellectual and Cultural History, Existentialism, Marxism, Critical Theory, and Media Studies.