Brian Winston: Media Technology and Society. A History From the Printing Press to the Superhighway (1998)
Filed under book | Tags: · history of communications, history of computing, history of technology
How are media born? How do they change? And how do they change us?
Media Technology and Society offers a comprehensive account of the history of communications technologies, from the printing press to the internet. Brian Winston argues that the development of new media, from the telegraph and the telephone to computers, satellite and virtual reality, is the product of a constant play-off between social necessity and suppression: the unwritten law by which new technologies are introduced into society only insofar as their disruptive potential is limited. Winston’s fascinating account examines the role played by individuals such as Alexander Graham Bell, Gugliemo Marconi, John Logie Baird, Boris Rozing and Charles Babbage, and challenges the popular myth of the present-day “information revolution.”
Publisher Routledge, 1998
ISBN 041514230X, 9780415142304
374 pages
Keywords and phrases
ENIAC, AT&T, Bell Labs, EDVAC, cathode ray tube, Intelsat, Bletchley Park, integrated circuit, UNIVAC, selenium, microprocessor, point-contact transistor, iconoscope, ARPANET, NTSC, solid state electronics, However, differential analyser, holography, Entscheidungsproblem
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Comment (1)Laszlo Solymar: Getting the Message: A History of Communications (1999)
Filed under book | Tags: · history of communications, history of technology, media history, technology, telegraph, telegraphy, telephone
The past century has seen developments in communications technology that rival those in any other field of human activity. Significant advances are made every year, and the impact on our day-to-day lives has been tremendous. Getting the message explores the fascinating history of communications, starting with ancient civilizations, the Greeks and Romans, then leading through the development of the electric telegraph, and up to the present day with e-mail and cellular phones. In clear, non-technical language the book explains the details of each new development while interweaving ideas from politics, economics, and cultural history. The book concludes with a look at the possible future developments and how they may further transform how we live. Lavishly illustrated and including many original illustrations, the book is an informative and highly entertaining guide to this lively field.
Published by Oxford University Press, 1999
ISBN 0198503334, 9780198503330
311 pages
Key terms: optical fibres, waveguide, carrier wave, AT&T, field effect transistor, integrated circuits, Morse Code, capacitor, Minitel, Second Industrial Revolution, personal computers, electromagnetic waves, p-n junction, Bell Laboratories, Robert Noyce, Poldhu, Claude Chappe, pulse code modulation, teleprinter, semaphore
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