This book investigates how the rapid expansion of global media and electronic communication technologies fundamentally reshapes collective cultural identities in a post-modern world. David Morley and Kevin Robins, both established scholars in media and cultural studies, utilize a framework of political geography to analyze how traditional markers of identity—such as nation, gender, and culture—are destabilized by modern satellite and cable broadcasting. They argue that European identity is not an isolated construct but is actively defined through its complex, often contradictory, political and cultural interactions with America, Islam, and the Orient.

Scholars and students of media studies frequently cite this work as a foundational text for understanding the intersection of technology and cultural identity. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which provides a rigorous examination of the shifting landscapes of the late twentieth century.