Author: Mitchell Stephens
tl;dr: This book is from the late 90s and is meant to argue that the rise of TV is not necessarily a net negative. It doesn’t manifestly say so, but it seems like a rebuttal to Amusing Ourselves to Death.
More or less it argues that we’ve always viewed new communications mediums negatively, including the printing press! And that the new benefits don’t amount to better or worse, they’re different.
This book changed my personal view of Twitter. I went from believing it was a hellscape that’s wrecking our political discourse to realizing that is simply the cost of democratizing publishing.
Amazon: The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word
First published on May 23, 2020