Dynamics of Modern Communication

Translated by LIZ LIBBRECHT Combining political economy with the sociology of innovation, Dynamics of Modern Communication is a comprehensive social history of communication technology from 1790 to the present. Author Patrice Flichy presents a careful critique and historical analysis of the social shaping and impact of the major communication technologies of the past 200 years. From the semaphore and telegraph to contemporary information technologies like the phonograph, photograph, telephone, radio, cinema, and television, this book focuses on the relationship between technological change and the social changes in which they were situated. Particular emphasis is put on four social processes: the birth of the modern state at the end of the 18th century, the development of stock markets, the transformation of private life in the modern nuclear family, and the individualism of the late 20th century. Dynamics of Modern Communication provides a provocative exploration of the interaction of technology and social context in processes such as the move from public forms of communication to more private and individualized forms. Patrice Flichy excellently demonstrates the gap between the original conception of a technology and its end use after molding by political and economic forces. Students and academics in communications, media and technology studies, sociology and social history will appreciate the author′s accessible style and the insights this text has to offer.

Patrice Flichy is head of the communications research group at the French Centre National d′Études des Télécommunications