Introduction: A storm from paradise -- technological innovation, diffusion and suppression -- pt. I. Propagating sound at considerable distances. 1. The telegraph. 2. Before the speaking telephone. 3. The capture of sound -- pt. II. The vital spark and fugitive pictures. 4. Wireless and radio. 5. Mechanically scanned television. 6. Electronically scanned television. 7. Television spin-offs and redundancies -- pt. III. Inventions for casting up sums very pretty. 8. Mechanising calculation. 9. The first computers. 10. Suppressing the main frames. 11. The integrated circuit. 12. The coming of the microcomputer -- pt. IV. The intricate web of trails, this grand system. 13. The beginnings of networks. 14. Networks and recording technologies. 15. Communications satellites. 16. The satellite era. 17. Cable television. 18. The Internet -- Conclusion: The pile of debris -- from the Boulevard des Capucins to the Leningradsky Prospect
Summary
How are new media born? How do they change? And how do they change us? This work reports on the history of communication technologies, from the printing press to the Internet, and seeks to challenge the myth of an 'information revolution'
Notes
Revised edition of: Misunderstanding media. 1986
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 343-360) and index
