Media Technology and Society: A History From the Printing Press to the Superhighway

How are media born? How do they change? And how do they change us? Media Technology and Societyoffers a comprehensive account of the history of communications technologies, from the printing press to the internet. Brian Winston argues that the development of new media, 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. Winston's fascinating account examines the role played by individuals such as Alexander Graham Bell, Gugliemo Marconi, John Logie Baird, Boris Rozing and Charles Babbage, and challenges the popular myth of the present-day "information revolution."

Brian Winston is Head of the School of Communication, Design and Media at the University of Westminster.