Raymond Williams: Television: Technology and Cultural Form (1974–)

“Twenty-first century TV offers an apparently endless stream of images, unfolding at high speed. We no longer watch individual programs but flick from channel to channel, absorbing a continuous flow of news, game shows, comedy, drama, movies, advertising and trailers. Television: Technology and Cultural Form was first published in 1974, long before the dawn of multi-channel TV, or the reality and celebrity shows that now pack the schedules. Yet Williams’ analysis of television’s history, its institutions, programs and practices, and its future prospects, remains remarkably prescient. TV offers an apparently endless engagement with a flood of Williams stresses the importance of technology in shaping the cultural form of television, while always resisting the determinism of Marshall McLuhan’s dictum that “the medium is the message”. If the medium really is the message, Williams asks, what is left for us to do or say? Williams argues that, on the contrary, we as viewers have the power to disturb, disrupt and to distract the otherwise cold logic of history and technology – not just because television is part of the fabric of our daily lives, but because new technologies continue to offer opportunities, momentarily outside the sway of transnational corporations or the grasp of media moguls, for new forms of self and political expression.”

First published by Fontana, London, 1974

Edited by Ederyn Williams
With a New Preface by Roger Silverstone
Publisher Routledge, 2003
ISBN 0415314569, 9780415314565
xvii+172 pages

Keywords and phrases
KQED, Fihn, Anacin, telegraphy, technological determinism, satellite television, Britain, Tony Hancock, Sesame Street, cable television, music-hall, Cathy Come Home, Masterpiece Theatre, analysis of flow, five channels, dumbshow, privatised, Golden Gate Bridge, Lord Lambton

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2015-7-10)

Christopher May (ed.): Key Thinkers for the Information Society (2003)

With the aim of widening current perspectives on the information society, each contributor introduces a particular social theorist and discusses the way in which their insights can be reintroduced into debates regarding the social, political and cultural impact of information and communication technologies. Theorists include: Walter Benjamin; Murray Edeleman; Jacques Ellul; Harold Innes; Lewis Mumford; Karl Polanyi; Eric Elmer Scattachneider and Raymond Williams.

Published by Routledge, 2003
ISBN 0415296722, 9780415296724
194 pages

Key terms:
information society, Lewis Mumford, Walter Benjamin, Harold Innis, megalopolis, Karl Polanyi, technological determinism, information age, digital divide, Wolin, Jacques Ellul, Elmer Eric Schattschneider, industrial revolution, information revolution, Frankfurt School, globalisation, Marxist, Internet, postmodern, history of technology

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2012-8-11)

New Media: A Critical Introduction, 2nd ed. (2003/2008)

“New Media: A Critical Introduction is a comprehensive introduction to the culture, history, technologies and theories of new media. Written especially for students, the book considers the ways in which ‘new media’ really are new, assesses the claims that a media and technological revolution has taken place and formulates new ways for media studies to respond to new technologies.

The authors introduce a wide variety of topics including: how to define the characteristics of new media; social and political uses of new media and new communications; new media technologies, politics and globalization; everyday life and new media; theories of interactivity, simulation, the new media economy; cybernetics, cyberculture, the history of automata and artificial life.

Substantially updated from the first edition to cover recent theoretical developments, approaches and significant technological developments, this is the best and by far the most comprehensive textbook available on this exciting and expanding subject.

At www.newmediaintro.com you will find:
* additional international case studies with online references
* specially created You Tube videos on machines and digital photography
* a new ‘Virtual Camera’ case study, with links to short film examples
* useful links to related websites, resources and research sites
* further online reading links to specific arguments or discussion topics in the book
* links to key scholars in the field of new media”

By Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant, Kieran Kelly
Publisher Routledge
ISBN 0415431611, 9780415431613
464 pages

Authors
Publisher

PDF (updated on 2012-12-14)