Introduction to the History of Communication: Evolutions and Revolutions

An Introduction to the History of Communication: Evolutions and Revolutions provides a comprehensive overview of how human communication has changed and is changing. Focusing on the evolutions and revolutions of six key changes in the history of communication – becoming human; creating writing; developing print; capturing the image; harnessing electricity; and exploring cybernetics – the author reveals how communication was generated, stored, and shared. This ecological approach provides a comprehensive understanding of the key variables that underlie each of these great evolutions-revolutions in human communication. Designed as an introduction for history of communication classes, the text examines the past, attempting to identify the key dynamics of change in these human, technical, semiotic, social, political, economic, and cultural structures, in order to better understand the present and prepare for possible future developments.

Terence P. Moran, Professor of Media Ecology in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication of New York University, is the co-editor of Language in America: A Report on Our Deteriorating Semantic Environment and the co-author of Selling War to America: From the Spanish American War to the Global War on Terror. He has received a Teaching Excellence Award from the Steinhardt School, a Louis Forsdale Award for Outstanding Educator in the Field of Media Ecology, and a special Founder of Media Ecology Award from the New York State Communication Association. In addition to writing numerous articles on language, culture, media, and communication, he was executive producer for two television documentaries, McSorley’s New York (New York Chapter 1987 Emmy Award) and Sons of Derry (1992), a report on the troubles in Northern Ireland.