A History of Digital Media ─ An Intermedia and Global Perspective

This book offers students an accessible introduction to the history of digital media from the birth of the computer to the ubiquitous computing that pervades society today. Taking a historical, intermedial, and global approach, History of Digital Media provides readers with a clear, in-depth overview of the main turning points and debates in the history of digital media including the emergence of computers, the Internet, and mobile media. With learning resources and activities in each chapter, the book explores the way "new" media are firmly intertwined with the social, cultural and political changes of the twentieth century.

Gabriele Balbi is Senior Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland), where he is vice-dean and teaches undergraduate courses in “Media history” and “Sociology of mass communication” at the Faculty of Communication Sciences. His main areas of interest are media history and the history of telecommunications. On these topics, he has published 4 books (3 in Italian and 1 in English) and several book chapters and articles for international journals such as “New Media and Society”, “Media History”, “The International Journal of Communication”, “Media, Culture and Society”, “Technology and Culture” and others.

Paolo Magaudda is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Padova (Italy) where his research is in technology, culture and society with particular reference to media and consumption processes. He has published 3 books in Italian, and two edited book in English plus several chapters and articles for international journals such as “Journal of Consumer Culture”, “Cultural Sociology”, “Appetite”, “Journal of Science Communication” and “Tecnoscienza”. Since 2013 he is Secretary of STS Italia, the Italian Society for the Study of Science and Technology.