The Vital Network: A Theory of Communication and Society

by Patrick Williams

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0313203245
• ISBN13: 9780313203244
• Release Date: October 1978
• Publisher: Greenwood Press
• Length: 121 Pages

Customer Reviews

Tough read for a book about stories, but worth the effort

The authors discuss the role that stories play in the development and maintenance of culture. It is through stories that we learn about our world - what is fact [the literature of knowledge] and what is make believe [the literature of imagination] and how something may move between fact and fiction [or fiction and fact].Within the topic of imagination the authors discuss two roles - the role to inform and the role to entertain - with the importance of both. If as a society we are only exposed to the entertainment we lose understanding and increase the need for more graphic entertainment - an early look at the impact violence in entertainment has on society.The book may have been written in 1978 but it still speaks to the need for literacy, a background in the classics, and a good story.