ABSTRACT
In the closing years of the twentieth century the advanced capitalist nations appear to be on the brink of a new multimedia age. More and more households are adopting digital television and connecting to the Internet and the technical ingenuity of these devices is impressive. Yet, powerful as these technologies are, of equal, if not greater importance is their symbolic dimension. Digital technologies have become a potent symbol in a discourse that sees the inhabitants of the advanced capitalist world as living through a new era: the Information Age. Implicit in this perspective is an optimism that celebrates current innovations in media and network technologies as heralding a new and hopeful period.
