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Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society


Product Description
Updated in a new 6th edition, Communication in History reveals how media has been influential in both maintaining social order and as powerful agents of change.

With revised new readings, this anthology continues to be, as one reviewer wrote, “the only book in the sea of History of Mass Communication books that introduces readers to a more expansive, intellectually enlivening study of the relationship between human history and communication history”. From pr… More >>

Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society

  1. #1 by Anonymous on September 2, 2010 - 3:00 am

    The previous edition had an excellent selection of articles, chapters and exerpts. I have used it twice for a class I teach on information in society. I would consider using the new edition if it was available by October. When will it be published? Please let me know by email.
    Rating: 5 / 5

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  2. #2 by Christopher Ridgeway on September 2, 2010 - 4:31 am

    This is exactly what I was looking for – a media studies perspective on world history. There is now a newer edition, but this one is remarkable and still feels rather up-to-date.

    Table of Contents

    —————————

    Part I–Media of Early Civilization

    [Chapter 1] The Art and Symbols of Ice Age Man

    Alexander Marshack

    [Chapter 2] A New Rosetta Stone

    Richard Rudgley (Denise Schmandt-Bessarat)

    [Chapter 3] Media in Ancient Empires

    Harold Innis

    [Chapter 4] Civilization without Writing–The Incas and the Quipu

    Marcia Ascher and Robert Ascher

    [Chapter 5] The Origins of Writing

    Andrew Robinson

    Part II–The Tradition of Western Literacy

    [Chapter 6] The Alphabet

    Johanna Drucker

    [Chapter 7] The Greek Legacy

    Eric Havelock

    [Chapter 8] Writing and the Alphabet Effect

    Robert K. Logan

    [Chapter 9] Orality, Literacy, and Modern Media

    Walter Ong

    [Chapter 10] A Medieval Library

    Umberto Eco

    [Chapter 11] Communication in the Middle Ages

    James Burke

    Part III–The Print Revolution

    [Chapter 12] Paper and Block Printing–From China to Europe

    T.F. Carter

    [Chapter 13] The Invention of Printing

    Lewis Mumford

    [Chapter 14] The Rise of the Reading Public

    Elizabeth Eisenstein

    [Chapter 15] Early Modern Literacies

    Harvey J. Graff

    [Chapter 16] The Trade in News

    John B. Thompson

    Part IV–Electricity Creates the Wired World

    [Chapter 17] The Optical Telegraph

    Daniel Headrick

    [Chapter 18] Telegraphy–The Victorian Internet

    Tom Standage

    [Chapter 19] The New Journalism

    Michael Schudson

    [Chapter 20] The Telephone Takes Command

    Claude S. Fischer

    [Chapter 21] Inventing the Expert

    Carolyn Marvin

    [Chapter 22] Time, Space, and the Telegraph

    James W. Carey

    Part V–Image Technologies and the Emergence of Mass Society

    [Chapter 23] On Photography

    Susan Sontag

    [Chapter 24] Early Photojournalism

    Ulrich Keller

    [Chapter 25] Dream Worlds of Consumption

    Rosalynd Williams

    [Chapter 26] Early Motion Pictures

    Daniel Czitrom

    [Chapter 27] Mass Media and the Star System

    Jib Fowles

    [Chapter 28] Advertising and the Idea of Mass Society

    Jackson Lears

    Part VI–Radio Days

    [Chapter 29] Wireless World

    Stephen Kern

    [Chapter 30] Early Radio

    Susan J Douglas

    [Chapter 31] The Golden Age of Programming

    Christopher Sterling and John M. Kittross

    [Chapter 32] Radio and Race

    Gerald Nachman

    [Chapter 33] Understanding Radio

    Marshall McLuhan

    Part VII–TV Times

    [Chapter 34] Television Begins

    Willaim Boddy

    [Chapter 35] The New Languages

    Edmund Carpenter

    [Chapter 36] Making Room for TV

    Lynn Spigel

    [Chapter 37] The Sixties Counterculture on TV

    Aniko Bodroghkozy

    [Chapter 38] Television Transforms the News

    Mitchell Stephens

    Part VIII–New Media and Old in the Information Age

    [Chapter 39] The Control Revolution

    James Beniger

    [Chapter 40] How Media Became New

    Lev Manovich

    [Chapter 41] Popularizing the Internet

    Janet Abbate

    [Chapter 42] From the Codex Page to the Homepage

    James J O’Donnell

    [Chapter 43] The World Wide Web

    Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin
    Rating: 4 / 5

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  3. #3 by Christopher Ridgeway on September 2, 2010 - 4:47 am

    This 2007 edition has some changes from the 2003 edition (link:Communication in History: Technology, Culture, and Society (4th Edition)), but at a price difference of almost $100, I’d go with the earlier edition, which is still excellent.

    Here’s a list of the exact changes, by each of the major sections (which have not changed):

    Part I: Media of Early Civilization

    * Article on writing pre-cursors (tokens) now by Denise Schmandy-Bessart instead of Rudgley

    Part II: The Tradition of Western Literacy

    * Adds article by Umberto Eco “A Medieval Library”

    Part III: The Print Revolution

    * No change

    Part IV: Electricity Creates the Wired World

    * Subtracts article “Inventing the Expert” by Carolyn Marvin

    Part V: Image Technologies and the Emergence of Mass Society

    * Subtracts “On Photography” by Susan Sontag

    * Adds “Movies Talk” by Scott Eyman

    Part VI: Radio Days

    * Subtracts “Radio and Race” by Gerald Nachman

    * Adds “Radio in a Television Age” by Fornatale and Joshua E Mills

    * Adds “Radio Voices” by Michele Hilmes

    Part VII: TV Times

    * Adds “Two-Cultures–Television versus Print by Neil Postman and Camille Paglia

    Part VIII: New Media and Old in the Information Age

    * Subtracts “From the Codex Page to the Homepage” by James J. O’Donnell

    * Adds “The Social Shape of Electronics” by Ruth Schwartz Cowen

    Rating: 4 / 5

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