Professor Lopez Presents His Latest Book The Media Ecosystem

JCU Communications Professor Antonio Lopez today gave a special presentation of his latest book “The Media Ecosystem” (Evolver Editions) at San Francisco’s Alexander Book Company.

In The Media Ecosystem, Antonio Lopez draws together the seemingly disparate realms of ecology and media studies to present a fresh and provocative interpretation of the current state of the mass media—and its potential future. Lopez explores the connections between media and the environment, arguing that just as the world’s powers have seized and exploited the physical territories and natural resources of the earth, so, too, have they colonized the “cultural commons”—the space of ideas that everyone shares. He identifies the root of the problem in the privileging of “mechanistic” thinking over ecological intelligence, which recognizes that people live in a relationship with every other living thing on the planet.

Antonio Lopez is a media educator and journalist whose essays have been featured in several anthologies. He designed the groundbreaking media literacy and health CD-ROM “Merchants of Culture,” and contributed to the MacArthur Foundation’s series, Digital Learning in the 21st Century. In 2008, he published Mediacology: A Multicultural Approach to Media Literacy in the 21st Century, on the topic of media education and sustainability.

At John Cabot University, he will teach courses on Media and the Environment and Advanced Communications Theory during the Fall 2012 Semester.