This paper summarizes and analyzes Michael R. Real’s 1989 book, Super Media: A Cultural Studies Approach. Real investigates the nature and power of the technological communications revolution, what he terms super media, the electronically transmitted means of communication which provide global links among individuals. He studies the super media through the culture they create: the shared values, aspirations, ambivalent feelings, and distilled experiences they offer to modern society.

Real begins by considering the prevalence and power of electronic media. He observes, Today a person must constantly function with information that is from remote sources and [is] not immediately testable (p. 23). He notes that technological revolutions have made possible the transfer of information much…