Primal Scenes of Communication
Communication, Consumerism, and Social Movements
Proposes a new theory of communication called "comparative media theory. "
Description
Primal Scenes of Communication argues that the materiality of communication media constitute social relations and that social relations should be understood as "technology-identity complexes. " This theory is employed to characterize consumer society, and the social movements that criticize consumer society, as a unique epoch of communication.
Ian Angus is Associate Professor of Humanities and Sociology at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of many books, including most recently A Border Within: National Identity, Cultural Plurality and Wilderness.
Reviews
"Through a rigorous deployment of comparative media study, Ian Angus develops a conceptual scheme of mediation and articulation that addresses the key questions at the forefront of the philosophy of communication. Readers in any discipline who take the social and political practice of communication seriously with respect to questions of identity and new social movements will learn from this valuable book. " — Ramsey Eric Ramsey, author of The Long Path to Nearness: A Contribution to a Corporeal Philosophy of Communication and the Groundwork for an Ethics of ReliefM
"This book's focus on the materiality of communication is a central but often undertheorized problematic that haunts communication studies. The author's argument as to the primacy of the media of communication is a novel and effective answer to the charge of communication studies' inability to account for the 'real. ' Angus's use of political examples and problematics is a nice change of pace from much of the social constructionist work in communication studies which tends to focus on interpersonal and organizational contexts. " — Darrin Hicks, University of Denver