A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet

The book has a lot of arcane references. It tries to cover a lot of different aspects regarding the impact of communication media, but if you're looking for a "big picture" book, this might not be for you. It doesn't always connect the dots. It jumps between a lot of very specific examples. You sometimes wonder where they pull an example from. Ah, yes, Charles V visiting Bologna in 1529, of course. I remember it well. An example from the chapter on print:"In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, small books became popular, the octavo, for instance, or the still smaller 12mo or 16mo format, which the famous Venetian printer Aldo Manuzio used for his editions of the classics."The authors drop a lot of knowledge like this throughout the book, not always with enough context. But it's sort of up to you to follow up with some of these historical events or figures if you want to know more about it.Edit: Ah, the authors are from the UK? I was wondering why John Logie Baird got more attention than Philo Pharnsworth.

Asa is on it in this extensive assessment of media's impact on culture throughout time.

Exactly what I expected I am happy with my purchase and would recommend to anyone who is interested in this book.

required for History of Mass. Comm. class. Long winded

Seminal work, although first published in 2002, already a classic! In historical terms, this is simply the best and most authoritative history of modern media: it analyzes how each historically new media technology, - starting with print, followed mostly by broadcasting and digital media - transformed traditional social practices and created new ones, altering politics, economy, culture and everyday life in the process. It embeds evolution of modern media into developments of modern history, in political, economic and cultural transformations that created modern Western world. Although it is written in more or less in popular style, this is hardcore historical analysis, so not recommended for uninterested and lazy students (I am so fed up with reviews of seminal works that start with platitudes like "this book was part of my studies, but it uses too many new words and it is too complex for my indolent taste"). The last, 3rd ed. published 2009. Although the authors are old, in 2015 Briggs reached 94, I hope for a new edition and urgent publication in Kindle format. (I possess the 1st ed. in Slovenian translation, and had a look at the changes in the last English ed. as well). Most recommended for seriously researchers with background in history, humanities and social sciences.

This book has the worst setup I've ever seen. There is no order whatsoever and for someone who has to skim through this to find certain time periods and events for class, it's awful. It barely provides context when relating one event to another and the order is out of control. It skips from 1400's-1700's and from 1900's back to 1800's. It's just all over the place. I feel like the author just rambled on and didn't bother to make connections or order events.

Like other books I've read by Peter Burke, this is a great and informative work. Here he covers the "print revolution in context" showing the who, where, and how of the rise of printing, and discussing it's interaction with the continuing other media types such as oral communication, hand-written documents and visual images (woodcut printing, religious paintings and statuary). He also shows the political and religious conflicts and issues which are locked in a feedback loop with the development of the media.Fascinating to compare to the rise of modern media types like weblogs in conjunction with the present political discourse.

It is easy to read, however the book is jumping constantly in historical time. Then we are in the 1500, then the 1700 and then back to 1600. This sometimes makes it very confusing, and sometimes when reading I don't actually know what time I am in.

Das Buch gibt eine genau Beschreibung der Entwicklung aller Formen von Medien von ihren Anfängen bis zur heutigen Zeit. Jeder der an Medien und Medienwissenschaft interessiert ist, muss das Buch gelesen haben.

good book good source of media studyingit covers all important history in this booksome chapters are very good

I was really looking forward to this book and was puzzled by the very dismissive views of seemingly bored students. First of all, aged eyes say this is a book for Kindle magnifications and not for print.I gripe that media, which is after all to enlighten, entertain and shock is presented in a somewhat joyless fashion. My A level history teacher was more electrified when she described the sudden success of Protestantism was due to the printing press and the unprecidented dissemination of what one very annoyed monk had nailed to a church door. At times the statements are very parochial...I wanted to know if the Quiet train carriage had been introduced in other parts of the world.Not only is it slightly dated (2009), but it misses out one component almost completely, (which to skirt around Amazon's auto filters I will describe as the adult entertainment industry.). The p....graphy world is mentioned once, in the context of De Sade, 18th Century only. Ummn OK, VHS tapes, DVDs, glossy magazines, the Internet, all a bit of a driving force for.....If you have heard of the monochrome service WAP (which does get a reference) on mobile phones which tried to present some sort of graphics pre smartphones, I can assure you that there was an attempt to present excited unclothed people on that very early in its introduction. Although I maintain a disinterestedness in the pictoral, it would seem to be a driving force in human lives and education, for good or ill. Since this is also very dated it also cannot ask the question, would Savile have got away with it in the instant communication era? Yesterday a political candidate stepped down because of his dated views, other politicians have recordings of their contrary viewpoints shared and brass it out. Actresses have private moments that get hacked and broadcast. This really isn't a book of the moment, but it wasn't in 2009 either, or 1989.

At around 340 pages, including reading lists and an interesting timeline, this book can't cover everything about media, so focuses on context and impact. Subtitled "from Gutenburg to the Internet" it covers those (to an extent in the case of the latter), and many other things. There's a lot on technology and communication (both electronic and physical, such as the train system) and is a decent if occasionally superficial survey of the topic.Some of the more important chapters include New Processes and Patterns (the evolution of transport and communications) and Information, Education and Entertainment - three broad buckets into which to pace (most) media.As an introduction to the subject it is excellent, no doubt many will wish to dig deeper into some of the topics, but this book wisely avoids that in the interests of size / accessibility.Why 4*? Well the cyberspace section is very thin (and is so current we can't yet fully judge how things like social media are really evolving society, and the timeline while of some interest doesn't integrate well into the book as a whole. I also felt the chapter on convergence could be evolved further, but I am only a casual reader of this subject, so may well be wrong

One only needs to look at the authors (Asa Briggs and Peter Burke) to know that this is going to be a book worth reading and it certainly does not disappoint.The media holds an ever increasing grip on our way of life: whether it is the way in which our views are channelled by news programmes, or the rise of social media assuring us that our beliefs are the 'norm'. This book gives a history of the media, from its earliest guise to the twenty-first century megalith.If one is to understand the present status of media companies, it is important to know the history. I thought that I had a working understanding of our media industry but, I found much of which I was simply unaware in this fascinating book. If you are a student of the media, you NEED to read this: if you aren't, you OUGHT to read it!