The book is only four chapters, but the first three are rather lengthy. Each chapter is broken up into several headings, which makes putting it down mid-chapter easier to do without getting lost. The basic premise centers on the torrent of media that surrounds us. Gitlin presents this idea as a contrast to McLuhan's popular metaphor of the Global Village. Gitlin makes a good case. He has the advantage of seeing the way computers and multimedia devices have become part of the culture. He re-emphasizes one of Postman's points that a medium changes the culture as opposed to the old culture just with the addition of TV, for example. According to Gitlin, the torrent surrounds us and is found in everything we do today. I do think his metaphor works, but not necessarily in contrast to McLuhan's. Because I have a hard time with metaphors being much more that a caricature or or partial explanation, I believe multiple metaphors are needed to explain various aspects of the same thing. We do live in a torrent of images and we do live in an interconnected global village. To me they are different expressions of the same thing. Each has strengths and weaknesses.
The purpose of the book appears to be less about criticizing American culture, but demonstrating what the media forces do and the affect they have on our culture and the world. Near the end of the book Gitlin talks about how the american culture has spread throughout the world. From reading a lot of criticism of american culture, I come to expect chapters like this to take shots at the downsides of the US. Gitlin does a great job of showing that the success of american culture is spread by not only the economic success of the US, but the willingness of people in other nations to adopt out media (especially Music, Movies, and TV).
In short, Giltin sees the adopters as willing participants, rather than hapless victims, an image that other critics often use. According to Gitlin, one reason american culture spreads is because it is comprised of some many other cultures. The multi-cultural make up of the US makes for many forms and expressions of creativity. The economic success of the US after the world wars also made exporting entertainment throughout the world very easy. Where other nations saw their professional entertainment put on pause for the wars. Ultimately the book almost lauds the free market nature of the US as one of the reasons for it's success in the world, not just in entertainment.
I enjoyed the book overall. My main issue really has little to do with the book itself. I've read a lot of media commentary books by Neil Postman, Ben Bagdikian, Eric Alterman and others. Because I've read so many other books, I found it easy for me to pay less attention to the book. I think If this were one of the first media books I'd read, then I would have gotten more out of it.
I still think it's a worthwhile read. It's certainly a book I would like to see in a film course. The topics of the book really hit home for that kind of a course. If I had one criticism of the book it's that Gitlin provided the incorrect title to one of Marshall McLuhan's books. He referred to The Medium is the Massage as The Media is the Massage. Minor, but still shouldn't have happened. Unless there's some secret McLuhan book I don't know about.
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