Mosco, Vincent 1948–

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MOSCO, Vincent 1948–

PERSONAL:

Born July 23, 1948, in New York, NY; son of Frank (a lithographer) and Rose (a homemaker) Mosco; married Catherine McKercher (a journalism professor), May 17, 1980; children: Rosemary, Madeline. Education: Georgetown University, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1970; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1975.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Sociology, Queen's University, Macintosh Corry, Room D431, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, researcher, and educator. University of Lowell, Lowell, MA, assistant professor of sociology and chair of department, 1975-77; Georgetown University, Washington, DC, associate professor of sociology, 1978-81; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, associate professor of communications, 1981-84; Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, associate professor of sociology, 1984-87, professor of sociology, 1987-89, Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society; Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, professor of journalism, 1989—, David Dunton lecturer, 1996—. Postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University, 1975-77, U.S. Office of Telecommunications Policy, 1977-78, and National Academy of Sciences' Commission on Sociotechnical Systems, 1981-82; consultant to National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 1980-81, U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, 1986-88, and Government of Canada, Ministry of Communication, 1987-88; Harvard University Program on Information Resources Policy, research affiliate; has held research positions with the U.S. Office of Telecommunications Policy, the U.S. National Research Council, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment and the Canadian Federal Department of Communication.

MEMBER:

International Association for Mass Communication Researchers (president of Political Economy Section), Union for Democratic Communications, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Woodrow Wilson fellow; National Science Foundation fellow, 1970-73; National Research Council fellow, 1981-82; Sharpe Lecturer, University of Toronto, 1991; Teaching Excellence Award, Carleton University Students' Association, 2000; Dallas Smythe Award, Union for Democratic Communication, 2004.

WRITINGS:

The Regulation of Broadcasting in the United States: A Comparative Analysis, Program on Information Resources Policy, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), 1975.

Broadcasting in the United States: Innovative Challenge and Organizational Control, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1979.

Pushbutton Fantasies: Critical Perspectives on Videotex and Information Technology, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1982.

The Pay-per Society: Computers and Communication in the Information Age, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1989.

Doing It Right with Computer Communication, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), 1994.

Will Computer Communication End Geography?, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), 1995.

The Political Economy of Communication: Rethinking and Renewal, Sage (Thousand Oaks, CA), 1996.

The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Communication and Social Structure, edited by E.G. McAnany, N. Janus, and Jorge Schnitman, Praeger, 1981; The National Research Council: Issues and Studies, 1981-1982, edited by Norman Metzger, National Academy Press, 1982; and International Encyclopedia of Communications. Contributor to journals. Contributing editor to Journal of Communication; member of editorial board of Media, Culture, and Society; Journal of Sport and Social Issues; and Science as Culture. Author's works have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, and Korean.

editor

(With Janet Wasko) Labor, the Working Class, and the Media, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1983.

Policy Research in Telecommunications, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1984.

(With Janet Wasko) Changing Patterns of Communication Control, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1984.

(With Janet Wasko, and author of introduction) Popular Culture and Media Events, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1985.

(With Janet Wasko, and author of introduction) The Political Economy of Information, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 1988.

(With Dean Schiller) Continental Order?: Integrating North America for Cybercapitalism, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS:

Vincent Mosco is a writer, educator, and researcher in areas related to mass communication and associated subjects. In many of his works, he explores the current state and future developments of mass communication media, particularly cyberspace and the World Wide Web. Even in the early 1980s, well before the advent of the Internet as it is known today, Mosco was speculating on technologies that would allow people to meet all their social, economic, and personal needs through technology, without leaving their homes.

Pushbutton Fantasies: Critical Perspectives on Videotex and Information Technology, published in 1982, explores this "ultimate information technology fantasy," with a particular emphasis on a then-popular method of transferring text for display over television sets or dedicated terminals, noted a reviewer for American Libraries. More than two decades later, when such a fantasy has become a practical reality, Mosco examines the concept of cyberspace as a "mythic space," a digital environment "transcending ordinary worlds of time, space, and politics," observed Library Journal reviewer Joe J. Accardi.

In The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace Mosco looks at three myths that have become prevalent with the world's widespread immersion in cyberspace: the myth of the end of politics, the end of geography, and the end of history. Mosco provides material to help readers understand these myths, become aware of why they are myths, and to better comprehend the tremendous power, but also the significant limitations, of digital communication. He warns against becoming so enamored by digital communications that no other alternative can be considered, and he places the position of cyberspace in context with past developments in communication, such as the telephone and radio, that were also considered tremendously important in their time. Reviewer B.P. Keating, writing in Choice, commented that Mosco's work is "suitable for anyone interested in technology and society."