Down to Earth

LISA PARKS is a professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Cultures in Orbit:Satellites and the Televisual and coeditor of Planet TV: A Global Television Reader.JAMES SCHWOCH is the senior associate dean for the School of Communication at Northwestern University in Qatar, and a professor at Northwestern University. His research explores the nexus of global media, media history, international studies, and global security.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionI Concepts and Cartographies1. The Invention of Air Space, Outer Space, and Cyberspace2. Dethroning the View from Above3. The Geostationary Orbit4. “Freedom to Communicate”5. The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System6. Satellites, Oil, and FootprintsII Satellite Mediascapes7. From Satellite to Screen8. Beyond the Terrestrial?9. Crossing Borders10. WorldSpace Satellite Radio and the South African Footprint11. Content vs. DeliveryIII Orbital Matters12. When Satellites Fall13. AFP-731 or The Other Night Sky14. Microsatellites15. Disjecta Membra, the KÁrmÁn Line, and the 38th Parallel Contributors Index

"Useful for readers interested in the evolution of media-oriented satellites and the cultures they serve. Recommended."(Choice) "Grounded in fact and garnished with theory, this volume both excites and builds on a renewed appreciation for satellites…a treasurehouse of materials for people who want to figure out the technical colonization of the air!" - John Durham Peters (author of Speaking into the Air) "Philosophers have looked upward into the starry heavens and been filled with wonder and awe. Down to Earth reverses the gaze, revealing how satellites impinge on so many aspects of our lives. Read it before Skynet goes online." - James Der Derian (Brown University)