Information studies and media theory

I recently watched the Manufacturing Consent documentary, which presents Noam Chomsky's theory of non-conspiratorial manipulation of the mass media by powerful social forces (essentially corporate interests but the analysis go deeper if combined with the ideas of Foucault for example). I have had an interest in Chomsky's ideas for some time now and wanted to think about how dominant forces influence discourse. This ties in with some ideas I'm having about the nature of information society discourse; utopian, technologically deterministic, value-laden (gendered perhaps, certainly culturally coloured), presented as synonymous with individual empowerment and social progress, and hence beneign, almost unquestionable (Godlike?).

I have already noted, in previous posts, my interest in the ideas of Neil Postman who writes in this vein. It seems to me that the convergence of technology, telecommunications, media, personal and social information flows, online communication and entertainment brings with it the need for cross-disciniplary perspectives. Potential sources:

• Living in the information age: a new media reader edited by Erik Bucy
• Communication theory - media, technology and society by David Holmes (not the Belfast DJ) - see http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/books/communication-theory.html
• Making sense of media: key texts in media and cultural studies edited by Arthur Berger
• Amusing ourselves to death: public discourse in the age of show business by Neil Postman
• Technopoly: the surrender of culture to technology by Neil Postman
• Habermas on the public sphere

A trip to the library beckons....