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Michael Bakhtin lived and wrote in a world that in many ways was quite different from the Western World of the early 21st century. Apart from the political and economic climate, his was a culture of other dominant technologies and forms of representation and communication. The printing press technology and the forms of printed matter completely controlled the social and academic scene of his time and culture. With the growth of electronic and computer technologies this has changed in parts of the world, and television, the computer, the Internet and the mobile phone have produced other supplementing forms of representation and communication (Bolter and Grushin 1999). However, this should not be over-dramatized, as this technological evolution is still strongly experienced only in the main economic and urban centres of the world (Castells 2001). At this time in history it is important to point out this fact when introducing the technological aspect referred to above, in order to avoid falling into the traps of ethnocentricity and even technological determinism when discussing the role of media technologies as agents in our culture.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230005679_9

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