A Social History of the Media

A book of extraordinary scope that brings the reader right up to date and which has already been translated into ten languages. The fact that it begins with the invention of printing makes one reflect on the larger context of the development of media communications and their relationship to emerging technologies, social trends, transport, trade and economic life more generally. The 19th and 20th centuries have seen extraordinary technological advance as well as media used as a mixture of education and entertainment. The last two chapters address the convergence of technologies and the use of multimedia. The many strands of the book do not amount to an argument for uniform progress as each new technology