Media Simplex: At the Edge of Meaning in the Age of Chaos

In this brilliant, prophetic book, Frank Zingrone shows how mass media, and all electronic technology, simplify our ability to represent experience. Reality is becoming for us entertainingly mediated, with nature itself becoming a filmic simulation of reality with media access from our living rooms. We watch gourmet cooks prepare complex meals on TV while increasing our consumption of convenience foods. We become increasingly sedentary while accessing escalating amounts of mass sport.The result of this overload? A paralysis that keeps us from taking social or political action, that confines us to consume as directed by the images created by advertisers. A paralysis that cripples public discourse. A paralysis that deadens the vitality of tradition and fosters dispersonalization. In The Media Symplex, Zingrone charts a path through the maze of modern media overload. In doing this, he gives us insights into retrieving meaning from the edge of chaos.