John Durham Peters
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John Durham Peters (born 1958) is the María Rosa Menocal Professor of English and of Film & Media Studies at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
. A media historian and social theorist, he has authored a number of noted scholarly works. His first book, '' Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication'', traces out broad historical, philosophical, religious, cultural, legal, and technological contexts for the study of communication. His second book ''Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition'' updates the philosophy of free expression with a history of liberal thought since Paul of Tarsus. His signal work of media philosophy ''The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media'' radically rethinks how media are environments and environments are also media. His most recent book, coauthored with the late Kenneth Cmiel, ''Promiscuous Knowledge'' offers a genealogy of the information age from its earliest origins, focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries into the present moment. He has advised dozens of dissertations and published hundreds of articles and chapters. Peters has held fellowships with the
National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Leverhulme Trust, among others. Peters grew up in
Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...
, pursued studies at
Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...
in Provo, Utah, and graduated with a BA in English from the University of Utah, where he also earned his MA in
speech communication Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, s ...
. He received a
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in communication theory and research from
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
in 1986 before accepting a faculty appointment at the University of Iowa. After teaching there for thirty years, he accepted a position at Yale University in 2017.


Dialogue and dissemination

In chapter one of '' Speaking Into the Air'', Peters (1999) compares two forms of
communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...
: dialogue and dissemination. Even though
dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...
tends to be viewed as the better means of communication, Peters believes that it can be cruel and destructive.
Dissemination To disseminate (from Latin, lat. ''disseminare'' "scattering seeds"), in the field of communication, is to broadcast a message to the public without direct feedback from the audience. Meaning Dissemination takes on the theory of the traditional ...
is fair because, unlike dialogue, it does not force listeners to understand and reciprocate to the speaker. The lack of interaction provided by dissemination leaves the audience free to interpret meanings themselves. Peters explains that communication can be achieved even if it is one way.


Selected works

* ''Promiscuous Knowledge: Information, Image, and Other Truth Games in History'' (2021) coauthored with Kenneth Cmiel * ''The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media'' (2015) * ''Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition'' (2005) * ''Canonic Texts in Media Research: Are There Any? Should There Be? How About These?'' With co-editors Elihu Katz, Tamar Liebes, and Avril Orloff (2003) * ''Mass Communication and American Social Thought: Key Texts, 1919-1968''. With Peter Simonson (2004). * ''Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication'' (1999)
Excerpt about the Dead Letters Office
* “‘The Marketplace of Ideas’: A History of the Concept.” ''Toward a Political Economy of Culture: Capitalism and Communication in the Twenty-First Century''. Eds. Andrew Calabrese and Colin Sparks. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004. 65-82. * “Space, Time, and Communication Theory.” ''Canadian Journal of Communication'' 28 (2003): 397-411. * “Witnessing.” ''Media, Culture and Society'', 23.6 (2001): 707-724. * “Public Journalism and Democratic Theory: Four Challenges.” ''The Idea of Public Journalism''. Ed. Theodore L. Glasser. New York: Guilford Press, 1999. 99-117. * “Distrust of Representation: Habermas on the Public Sphere.” ''Media, Culture and Society'' 14.3 (1993): 441-471. * “Institutional Sources of Intellectual Poverty in Communication Research.” ''Communication Research'' 13.4 (1986): 527-59.


References


External links


Personal work site, including publications

University of Iowa faculty page

Comments on liberalism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, John Durham 1958 births Living people Academics from Brookline, Massachusetts Media historians American Latter Day Saints Brigham Young University alumni University of Iowa faculty University of Utah alumni Stanford University alumni Philosophers of technology