If the arts have changed with the times, why hasn't literature kept up? According to David Shields, music, theater, and the visual arts have all kept pace with technology and our changing society. But literature sits in the nineteenth century, content to rewrite Dickens and Chekhov, or so Shields contends, bringing in motifs from film, politics, and the world of the internet.

As we become more wired, and our lives ever more penetrated by the internet, are we losing something precious? Writer Nicholas Carr provocatively argues that we are, and that what we are losing is our ability to think deeply. Carr contends that probing, and often solitary, contemplative thought -- which was shaped by our interaction with the book -- cannot be replaced by the superficial breadth of information that the web allows us.

Two decades into the internet revolution, what's the state of a medium that was supposed to create new, perhaps utopian, relationships between people around the world? Why is it not dominated by collaborative nonprofit efforts like Wikipedia? Media critic Robert McChesney describes how capitalist interests have managed to enclose the non-commercial promise of the internet -- and argues that it doesn't have to be so. He also considers the state of online journalism. (Encore presentation.)

Two decades into the internet revolution, what's the state of a medium that was supposed to create new, perhaps utopian, relationships between people around the world? Why is it not dominated by collaborative, nonprofit efforts like Wikipedia? Media critic Robert McChesney describes how capitalist interests have managed to enclose the non-commercial promise of the internet -- and argues that it doesn't have to be so. He also considers the state of online journalism.

 

Two decades into the internet revolution, what's the state of a medium that was supposed to create new, perhaps utopian, relationships between people around the world? Why is it not dominated by collaborative, non-profit efforts like Wikipedia?  Media critic Robert McChesney describes how capitalist interests have managed to enclose the non-commercial promise of the internet -- and argues that it doesn't have to be so. He also considers the state of online journalism.

Has the Internet ushered in a new era of mass participation and greater democracy? Or has the communications and networking revolution encouraged millions on the Left to be politically passive, while neoliberal capitalism strengthens its position? In her new book Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies, Jodi Dean reconsiders the democratic potential of communications media.