Region Western philosophy Education New York University | Died October 10, 2012 Name Mark Poster | |
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Born July 5, 1941 ( 1941-07-05 ) Era 20th / 21st-century philosophy School Post-Structuralism · Marxism · Post-Marxism · Critical Theory · Media Studies Main interests Intellectual History · Mass Media · New Media Influenced by Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Karl Marx Books The mode of information, The second media age, What's the Matter with the Intern, Information Please: Culture a, Cultural history and postmodernity Similar People Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Karl Marx, Gilles Deleuze, Jean‑Paul Sartre | ||
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Mark Poster (July 5, 1941 – October 10, 2012) was Professor Emeritus of History and Film and Media Studies at UC Irvine, where he also taught in the Critical Theory Emphasis. He was pivotal to "bringing French critical theory to the U.S., and went on to analyse contemporary media."
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Early life
Poster was born in New York on 5 July 1941, studied at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and completed a PhD in history at New York University in 1968. His research interests included European Intellectual and Cultural History, Existentialism, Marxism, Critical Theory, and Media Studies.
Career
He was known for surveying the work of Henri Lefebvre, Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault. He applied the ideas of these and other French theorists (including Jean Baudrillard, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida) to digital new media of the late 20th and early 21st century (including television, databases, hypertext and the internet).
Poster sought to politicize the issue of the use and development of the internet by emphasizing its possibilities for liberatory political change, while acknowledging the existence of a deep digital divide, as well as the interests of transnational corporations and national governments.
Poster was also co-editor of the "Electronic Mediations" book series at the University of Minnesota Press, which includes almost 40 titles which explore the humanistic and social implications of the internet, virtual reality technologies, video games, literary hypertexts, and new media art forms.
Death
Poster died on 10 October 2012 of pneumonia and is survived by his wife, Annette Schlichter, and two daughters.