Publisher Description

Computer Media and Communication: A Reader is a collection of key texts selected for their significance to thought about computers as media. The book is divided into two parts. The chapters in the first part offer a chronological overview of how thinking about computers as a means of communication developed, while the second part offers far-reaching analyses of the implications of computer media for culture and society, while highlighting significantdirections of current research. The book not only provides an insight into how thinking about computers as media has developed but also is an excellent guide for students and others interested in the field of mediaand communication studies. (This book is the first in the Oxford Readers in Media and Communication series under the General Editorship of Professors Brian Winston and Everette Dennis which will be an authoritative wide-ranging series of readings for media students. There are more than eighty institutions in the UK offering courses in the field at present and in the USA this number is ten times as great.)

Author Biography

Paul A. Mayer has taught at the Department of Communication at Seton Hall University in the areas of television production, digital technologies, and multimedia design and production

Table of Contents

IntroductionPART ONE: HISTORYIntroduction: From Logic Machines to the Dynabook: An Overview of the Conceptual Development of Computer Media1: Vannevar Bush: As We May Think2: Alan M. Turing: Computing Machinery3: John C. R. Licklider: Man-Computer Symbiosis4: Douglas C. Engelbart: A Conceptual Framework for the Augmentation of Man's Intellect5: John C. R. Licklider and Robert R. Taylor: The Computer as a Communication Device6: Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg: Personal Dynamic Media7: Ted Nelson: A New Home for the Mind8: Alan Kay: Computer Software PART TWO: SYSTEMATIC STUDIES9: Niels Ole Finnemann: Modernity Modernized: The Cultural Impact of Computerization10: Jens F. Jensen: `Interactivity': Tracking a New Concept in Media and Communication Studies11: Klaus Bruhn Jensen: One Person, One Computer: The Social Construction of the Personal Computer12: Langdon Winner: Who Will We Be in Cyberspace?13: Steven G. Jones: Understanding Community in the Information Age14: Susan C. Herring: Posting in a Different Voice: Gender and Ethics in Computer-Mediated Communication15: Allucquere Rosanne Stone: Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?: Boundary Stories About Virtual Cultures16: Jay David Bolter: Topographic Writing: Hypertext and the Electronic Writing Space17: David Miles: The CD-ROM Novel Myst and McLuhan's Fourth law of Media: Myst and It's `Retrievals'18: Paul A. Mayer: Computer Mediated Studies: An Emerging FieldIndex

Review

`Paul Mayer's interesting collection of papers is a very welcome sign of the growing maturity of computer-based media and communication as an area of academic study.'Peter Dean, Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies Special Issue: The Internet Autumn 2000 Vol 6 No 3

Long Description

Computer Media and Communication: A Reader is a collection of key texts selected for their significance to thought about computers as media. The book is divided into two parts. The chapters in the first part offer a chronological overview of how thinking about computers as a means of communication developed, while the second part offers far-reaching analyses of the implications of computer media for culture and society, while highlighting significant
directions of current research. The book not only provides an insight into how thinking about computers as media has developed but also is an excellent guide for students and others interested in the field of media
and communication studies. (This book is the first in the Oxford Readers in Media and Communication series under the General Editorship of Professors Brian Winston and Everette Dennis which will be an authoritative wide-ranging series of readings for media students. There are more than eighty institutions in the UK offering courses in the field at present and in the USA this number is ten times as great.)

Review Text

`Paul Mayer's interesting collection of papers is a very welcome sign of the growing maturity of computer-based media and communication as an area of academic study.'
Peter Dean, Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies Special Issue: The Internet Autumn 2000 Vol 6 No 3

Review Quote

'Paul Mayer's interesting collection of papers is a very welcome sign of the growing maturity of computer-based media and communication as an area of academic study.'Peter Dean, Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies Special Issue: The Internet Autumn 2000 Vol 6 No 3

Feature

Key texts brought together in one volume for the first time
Highly qualified anthology of historical analysis
The use of computer media is an international subject and this book is equally useful in all markets

Details