Media,Technology and Society A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet

Challenging the popular myth of a present-day 'information revolution', Media Technology and Society is essential reading for anyone interested in the social impact of technological change. Winston argues that the development of new media forms, 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.

Introduction: The Storm from Paradise: Technological Innovation, Diffusion and Suppression Part One: Propagating Sound at Considerable Distance 1. The Telegraph: The First Electrical Medium 2. Before the Speaking Telephone 3. The Capture of SoundPart Two: The Vital Spark & Fugitive Pictures 4. Wireless and Radio 5. Mechanically Scanned Television 6. Electronically Scanned Television 7. Television Spin-offs and RedundanciesPart Three: Device For Casting Up Sums Very Pretty 8. Mechanising Calculation 9. The First Computers 10. Suppressing The Mainframes 11. The Integrated Circuit 12. The Coming of the MicrocomputerPart Four: The Intricate Web of Trails 13. The Beginnings of Networks 14. Networks & Recording Technologies 15. Communications Satellites 16. The Satellite Era 17. Cable Television 18. The InternetConclusion: The Pile of DebrisFrom the Boulevard des Capucins to the Leningradsky Prospect

Brian Winston is Head of the School of Communication, Design and Media at the University of Westminster. He has been Dean of the College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University, Chair of Cinema Studies at New York University and Founding Research Director of the Glasgow University Media Group. His books include Claiming the Real (1995). As a television professional, he has worked on World in Action and has an Emmy for documentary script-writing.