Yellow Brick Road and the Information Superhighway

by Aisha Gilani

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This interpretation by Oscar H. Gandy, Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, sort of picks up where Littlefield's theory left off. In this article, the story of Oz as the underlying metaphoric hook concerning information technology and the Information Age it portends is presented. Gandy suggests the following in his article:

"Whatever else we know about Baum's wonderful tale, it is clearly a story about illusion, deception, and sleight of hand. It is my contention that much of what we think about the Information Age, and the information superhighway that is supposed to take us there, has been heavily influenced by similar forms of craft. And further, I suggest that these illusions serve the same kinds of instrumental purposes in political economy as they do in popular fiction."

 

 

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