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  5. Susan Douglas, “The Turn Within: The Irony of Technology in a Globalized World”

Susan Douglas, “The Turn Within: The Irony of Technology in a Globalized World”

Summary

Despite the rise of more connected communications technologies and the need for television to respond to an international conflict, TV programming and culture have taken a “turn within” towards forms such as reality TV, celebrity gossip, and “news you can use.”

Questions

  1. How does Douglas challenge Marshall McLuhan’s notions of the “global village” and media as “extensions of man”?
  2. Why was it important for media to look outside at the dawn of the 21st century for media?
  3. What has been the result of the inward turn of mass media in the twenty-first century?
  4. What kinds of programs have thrived because of this turn within?
  5. Why have young people turned their backs on broadcast news? Has broadcast news failed these young people?
  6. Has there been any resistance to the inward turn of mass media in the twenty-first century?

P.S. How does Douglas's argument about the nature of digital communication technologies, the rise of reality TV, and the crisis in American journalism presage the rise of Donald Trump as president?