Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
interaction', he continues,
'is “stretched” across space and perhaps also
...
time; the participants
are unlikely to share a common spatio-temporal
framework' (Thompson, 2004: 174). Such mediated interaction became
mass
mediated from the early twentieth century, notably in western Europe and
the United States. Rail transportation and faster shipping permitted news-
papers to circulate more widely, while the telegraph, phonograph and radio
also allowed otherwise disparate populations to consider themselves part of
a wider, multi-scalar ecumene. Lives defined largely by local experiences and
routines became increasingly defined by access to information, ideas and
stories hailing from far afield. As another media theorist (Brian McNair)
puts it, commenting on the news:
when we receive it [the news], and we extend to it our trust in its authority as
a representation of the real, [it] transports us from the relative isolation of our
domestic environments, the parochialism of our streets and small towns, the
crowded bustle of our big cities, to membership of virtual [national and] global
communities united in their access to
these
events, communally experienced at
this
moment, through [far-flung]
...
communication networks.
(McNair, 2006: 6)
As Thompson's and McNair's words imply, the mass media arose - and
continue to prosper - because of technological innovations that facilitate
'time-space compression'. Such innovations bring the world 'out there'
close to home, and quickly too. However, lest this sounds like techno-
logical determinism, we need to remember that such innovations have
long been the product and medium of capitalist market expansion. The
geographically extended traffic in goods, services and information has,
of course, been hardwired not only to facilitating commodity exchange
but also to the realisation of profit. Surpluses of capital are invested in
the hope of selling commodities to more people in more places more of
the time.
While the spatial spread of capitalism has been key to the growth of
mass mediated communication, we must also acknowledge the rise of the
nation state as the world's dominant political unit. While capitalism tran-
scends political borders, the formal structures of government largely remain
national (even in the European Union). Governments, and the populations
they govern, have long needed means of communication that can encom-
pass all the cities, towns and smaller settlements that together comprise
munications are exclusively national in focus. On the contrary, it's long
been the case that such communications make substantial reference to, or
else hail directly from, the wider world. This connects to issues of culture
and personal identity. The mass media has played an important role in
up-scaling people's loyalties and affiliations beyond the local arena, encour-
aging (or allowing) them to identify with a range of norms, values and goals
