The Metaphysics of Media: Toward an End of Postmodern Cynicism and the Construction of a Virtuous Reality [Paperback]

Peter K. Fallon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2010

In The Metaphysics of Media, award-winning media critic Peter K. Fallon tackles the complicated question of how a succession of dominant forms of media have supported—and even to some extent created—different conceptions of reality. To do so, he starts with the basics: a critical discussion of the very idea of objective reality and the various postmodern responses that have tended to dominate recent philosophical approaches to the subject. From there, he embarks on a survey of the evolution of communication through four major eras: orality; literacy; print; and electricity. 

Within each era, Fallon argues, the dominant form of media supported particular ways of understanding the world, from the ascendance of reason that followed the development of alphabets to the obliteration of space and time that we associate with electronic communications. Fallon concludes with a hard look at the mass ignorance that prevails today despite (or perhaps because of) the sea of information with which contemporary life is surrounded. 

A stirring, philosophically rich investigation, The Metaphysics of Media offers not only a clear picture of where our society has been but also a road map to a more engaged, informed, and fully human future.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter K. Fallon is associate professor of journalism at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Product Details

• Paperback: 275 pages
• Publisher: University of Scranton Press (May 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589662024
• ISBN-13: 978-1589662025
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,851,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Son of Irish immigrants, Peter K. Fallon was born on Long Island (NY) in 1954. Through grammar and high schools, he was educated by Dominican sisters and spent ten years teaching at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, NY, an independent college founded by the Amityville Dominican sisters.

Winner of the 2007 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology, for his book "Printing, Literacy, and Education in Eighteenth Century Ireland : Why the Irish Speak English," Fallon's second book, "The Metaphysics of Media : Toward an end to Postmodern Cynicism and the Construction of a Virtuous Reality," recently won the Lewis Mumford Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Technics for 2010. He served as editor of the journal of the Media Ecology Association, EME: Explorations in Media Ecology from 2009 through 2010.

A veteran of 23 years in television, 17 of those years at NBC's TODAY program, Peter K. Fallon spent several of those years either working full-time while pursuing his Doctorate (studying under Neil Postman in New York University's "Media Ecology" program), working full time and teaching as an adjunct, or working full time and writing his dissertation -- or some combination of all three.

Fallon teaches media theory, media ethics, and critical media studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He moved to Chicago after meeting his wife, Mary Pat, at a summer study program on Dominican history in 2002 in Fanjeaux, France where St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers. They were married in October 2003, six weeks after Fallon began his first class at Roosevelt.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A well researched and provocative book, June 1, 2011

By 

Christian Vandendorpe (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Metaphysics of Media: Toward an End of Postmodern Cynicism and the Construction of a Virtuous Reality (Paperback)

Peter K. Fallon proposes a broad synthesis of the evolution of the media sphere through the various periods of orality, literacy and the electric culture. The documentation is extensive and encompasses the main references in the field: Ong, Goody, Ellul, Innis, McLuhan, Havelock, Mumford, Postman and many others. If the chapters on orality and literacy are convincing, many readers would like to discuss the strong position taken in the chapter on electric culture which is resolutely reactionary and imitates the stance Plato took against poetry. Also, this electric culture is mainly seen through the prism of television, and is almost mute on the Internet.

In spite of that (and of the abuse of the binom immanent/transcendent), I would recommend this book as an introduction to the field and eventually as a textbook for students in communications since it would facilitate debate about important issues. The author should also be praised for the introduction exposing quite clearly his assumptions and the context that gave rise to this book.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Metaphysics of Media, March 9, 2011

By 

Sukinsyn - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Metaphysics of Media: Toward an End of Postmodern Cynicism and the Construction of a Virtuous Reality (Paperback)

This book is a cynical attempt to impose a Christian theology on the field of media ecology. The most useful part of this book is its bibliography and notes. It is a good shortcut to library research.

I recommend it as a good replacement for Ambien. Snoooooooooooz!