Looking for Books on Media History
Can anyone suggest any good books for the history of media? Interested in media generally, as well as specific media (newspapers, TV, radio, etc.). I believe we learn a lot about the future by looking to the past, but have yet to find any really good books in this category.
Hi Chip,
My Communication professor from undergrad recommends the following:
A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet by Asa Briggs & Peter Burke Polity Press (2001) ISBN: 0745623751
The Institutions of American Democracy: The Press (Institutions of American Democracy Series) by Geneva Overholser & Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Editors). Oxford University Press, USA; (2005) ISBN: 0195309146
Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television
(Console-ing Passions Series) by Jeffrey Sconce. Duke University Press (2000). ISBN: 0822325721
Read anything by Neil Postman and you’ll be smarter than you were when you started.
Chip
From Mitch Stephens, professor at the NYU Journalism Department:
D:
OK, I’ll recommend my own two: “The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word,” and “History of News.”
Also:
“A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet” by Peter Burke and Asa Briggs.
And Irving Fang has been writing on the subject, lately.
Don