ABSTRACT

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.

chapter |15 pages

Introduction: A Storm from Paradise

Technological Innovation, Diffusion and Suppression

part |48 pages

Propagating Sound at Considerable Distances

chapter |11 pages

The Telegraph

chapter |14 pages

The Capture of Sound

part |79 pages

The Vital Spark and Fugitive Pictures

part |96 pages

Inventions for Casting up Sums Very Pretty

chapter |19 pages

Mechanising Calculation

chapter |23 pages

The First Computers

chapter |17 pages

Suppressing the Main Frames

chapter |21 pages

The Integrated Circuit

part |96 pages

The Intricate Web of Trails, this Grand System

chapter |18 pages

The Beginnings of Networks

chapter |19 pages

Communications Satellites

chapter |10 pages

The Satellite Era

chapter |16 pages

Cable Television

chapter |16 pages

The Internet

chapter |6 pages

Conclusion: The Pile of Debris

From the Boulevard des Capucins to the Leningradsky Prospect