About This Book

This volume of my writings opens with texts that examine some aspects of the potential that interactivity and networks present globally. They explore the impact of digital communication tools in the election of Barack Obama; the role of interactive technologies in universities; the marketplace of ideas in the decentralization of power structures, including churches; new communication flows; organizational infrastructures; and how different generations view and utilize digital technologies.

Part II introduces tools I have found useful: Fact Sheets and Grids. I often assembled a one-page summary of basic factual data on a topic so my students and other audiences could have a copy of the data on such topics as digital networks, patriarchy, poverty, telephone technology in India, power structures and m-powerment for women, for example.

The texts in Part III explore varied dimensions of earlier mass media: early developments of Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) for classrooms; my own Harvard study of the policy implications of direct broadcast satellite service to homes; the role of collaboration as new tools develop; and some ethical reflections on global media developments.

In Part IV I focus on the telephone exclusively. One early text of mine – written as AT&T was breaking up into “the baby Bells”, explores the technological and human dimensions of the breakup. Christian and I also explore how mobile phone technology has empowered women globally, with many examples from India.

Part V includes numerous reviews I have written about books dealing with various aspects of the information society. Most of these reviews have appeared in the international journal Communication Research Trends, edited by Paul Soukup, a noted communication scholar. Past issues are available at the Santa Clara University web site. [cscc.scu.edu/trends]

I have assumed that “creativity is communication” so Sections VI and VII of this volume contains some of my travel writings and personal essays. It’s easy to move around among these texts or various sections of the book since the topics vary and can be read independently.