In 1957 Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, dazzled people as it zipped around the planet By the turn of the twenty-first century, more than eight thousand satellites orbited the Earth, and satellite practices such as live transmission, direct broadcasting, remote sensing, and astronomical observation had altered how we imagined ourselves озрзг in relation to others and our planet within the cosmos In Cultures in Orbit, Lisa Parks analyzes these satellite practices and shows how they have impacted meanings of the global and the televisual Parks suggests that the convergence of broadcast, satellite, and computer technologies necessitates an expanded definition of television, one that encompasses practices of military monitoring and scientific observation as well as commercial entertainment and public broadcasting Roaming across the disciplines of media studies, geography, and science and technology studies, Parks examines uses of satellites by broadcasters, military officials, archaeologists, and astronomers She looks at Our World, a live intercontinental television program that reached five hundred million viewers in 1967, and Imparja tv, an Aboriginal satellite tv network in Australia Turning to satellites’ remote sensing capabilities, she explores the U S military’s production of satellite images of the war in Bosnia as well as archaeologists’ use of satellites in the excavation of Cleopatra’s palace in Alexandria, Egypt Parks’s reflections on how Western fantasies of control are implicated in the Hubble telescope’s views of outer space point to a broader concern: that while satellite uses promise a global village, they also cut and divide the planet in ways that extend the hegemony of the post-industrial West In focusing on such contradictions, Parks highlights how satellites cross paths with cultural politics and social struggles.  Mottola2005 г Мягкая обложка, 256 стр ISBN 0822334976.