In Theory, Practice and Theory Are the Same; In Practice, They Are Not

Abstract

In their respective books about information and communication technologies, The Internet and Society and Virtuality Check, authors James Slevin and Francois Fortier contendwith similar sets of issues but approach them from the somewhat oppositional standpoints of cultural studies and political economy. While it is not surprising that there are many differences between the two books, it is intriguing to see that the authors do indeed share some similar assessments and motivations for producing the two texts. Both authors seek to correct what they perceive as an unbalanced approach to the critical assessment of the new technologies, seeking to create a social context in which to understand the various impacts of technological change, and both strongly support the seeking of alternatives to what they perceive, to differing degrees, as a potentially damaging agent of social control. That said, Slevin’s book, while not a flawless accounting of the global cyberculture, clearly towers over the many new works, Fortier’s included, that attempt to address the social and cultural implications of the new information technologies. Slevin’s work is original and astute, and those who actively engage with digital media as a growing part of their practice will especially find much of value here. In many respects, Fortier has chosen a slighter task than has Slevin. Virtuality Check does offer a lucid analysis of a political economy of the information and communications technologies and includes some sharp observations and much-needed criticisms of the blue-sky rhetoric that tends to characterize the information revolution. But he is nearly one dimensional in his castigation of information technologies as part of the ever-worsening picture of the political economy and the multinational corporate media conglomerate’s exploitation of the world’s resources and workers, to their own benefit. While it is certainly true that the real dangers of this consolidation and its impact on information and communication technologies should not be underestimated, one might wish to mitigate the blunt pessimism with which Fortier envisions this scenario to be currently taking place. From the ever-present evils of social control