The Digital Revolution A Short History of an Ideology

'A must-read to anyone interested in the digital world.' - Valérie Schafer, Center for Contemporary and Digital History, University of Luxembourg

A concise history of the digital revolution and the lore, rhetoric, and debates that surround it.

The Digital Revolution aims to tell a story, one of the most powerful ideologies of recent decades: that digitalization constitutes a revolution, a break with the past, a radical change for the human beings who are living through it. The book aims to investigate the origins of this idea, how it evolved, which other past revolutions consciously or unconsciously inspired it, which great stories it has conveyed over time, which of its key elements have changed and which ones have persisted and have been repeated in different historical periods. All these discussions, large or small, have settled and condensed into a series of media, advertising, corporate, political, and technical sources. Readers will be introduced to new, previously unpublished historical sources. The main aim of the book is to deconstruct what looks like a “natural” and incontestable idea and to help rethink digital societies today.

Gabriele Balbi, Full Professor in Media Studies, Institute of Media and Journalism, Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, Università della Svizzera Italiana

Gabriele Balbi is Full Professor in Media Studies at the Institute of Media and Journalism in the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society at the Università della Svizzera Italiana. At this institution, he is also Program Director of the Bachelor in Communication, Director of the China Media Observatory, and Deputy Director of the Institute of Media and Journalism. Furthermore, he is Vice-Chair of the Communication History Division of the International Communication Association. He has been a lecturer and visiting professor at several universities including: Harvard, Maastricht, Columbia, Westminster, Oxford, Northumbria, Perugia, Augsburg, Concordia, and Bologna. His main research area is media and communication history.

Introduction: Understanding the Digital Revolution as an Ideology
1. Defining the Revolution: Blessed Uncertainty
2. Comparing the Revolution: Past Inheritance, Present Construction
3. Thinking About the Revolution: The Mantras
4. Believing in the Revolution: A Contemporary Quasi-Religion
Conclusion: Who Needs the Digital Revolution and Why Does it Keep Going?