Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society

3 Comments

1. Anonymous says:

   September 13, 2009 at 10:15 pm

   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.
2. Christopher Ridgeway says:

   September 14, 2009 at 12:27 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
3. Christopher Ridgeway says:

   September 14, 2009 at 3:07 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