Description
Book SynopsisBeyond newspapers, television, and social networks, media are the means by which any information is shared, from antique graffiti to playlists on Spotify. Cultures are held together as much by bookkeeping and records as they are by stories and myths. From Big Bang to Big Data shows how every society has been a media society, in its own way.
Trade Review“The big-history approach to media we’ve been missing. Cosmopolitan in intellectual outlook and integrated in argument, From Big Bang to Big Data moves along briskly. Any curious reader will enjoy this book, while the clued-in scholarly reader will spot sentences and paragraphs that index whole traditions of complex argument.” John Durham Peters, co-author of Promiscuous Knowledge: Information, Image, and Other Truth Games in History
“This book is big, not just in size but in scope. How else might one characterize a book that opens with the beginning of time and then impressively winds its way through Arabia, China, and medieval Europe to finish with a chapter on digital media and big data? ... the book’s focus is somewhat unique to media history texts in that it focuses not on chronology but on implications, i.e., the transformations that have shaped society and people's acquisition of meaning from whatever platform a media producer chooses. The book makes readers think and is also richly illustrated to help guide such thoughts. Media theorist Neil Postman once said that 'for every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage.' This book reinforces that theory. Highly recommended." Choice
