Theories of Media Evolution
W. Russell Neuman, University of Michigan
Tuesday, April 28, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required (rsvp@cyber.harvard.edu)
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET.
The Internet is a child of its forebears. In the tradition of the legendary ‘horseless carriage’ and ‘wireless receiver’ one hears today of movies, TV and radio as being ‘on the Internet.’ Clearly, we live in a period of transition. It may be useful to draw from recent media history to understand a world in which the Internet Protocol functions as a universal and ubiquitous human electronic interface. This presentation traces the flow of information and entertainment into the typical American home from 1960 to 2005 in search of a theory of media evolution.
About Russ
W. Russell Neuman is the John Derby Evans Professor of Media Technology in Communication Studies and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. He returned to UM after serving as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy working in the areas of information technology, broadband policy and technologies for border security. His recent books include The Gordian Knot: Political Gridlock on the Information Highway (MIT Press, 1997), Affective Intelligence (University of Chicago Press, 2000), The Affect Effect (University of Chicago Press, 2007) and Media Technology & Society (University of Michigan Press, 2009). Dr. Neuman taught at the University of Pennsylvania where he directed the Information and Society Program of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. He also taught at Harvard and Yale and was one of the founding faculty of the MIT Media Laboratory. His Ph.D. is from the University of California, Berkeley and his undergraduate degree is from Cornell University.