The Long History of New Media Technology, Historiography, and Contextualizing Newness

«Taken together, these fresh and inventive essays by a distinguished group of communications scholars document the often surprising ways in which recent innovations in communications technology have altered our understanding of the history of new media in the recent and not so recent past. Stimulating and provocative.» (Richard R. John, Columbia University)
«Although the title seems oxymoronic - how can 'new' media have such a long history? - the essays in this book will convince you that historical work on new media is indispensable to a sound understanding of the emerging media environment. The book brings a new generation of historical researchers together with a more familiar cast of senior scholars in a collaboration marked by both deep archival research and theoretical sophistication. It offers a snapshot of the state of historical scholarship on new media. Read this book to know who's who in this emerging field. Although the individual essays seem to study very different objects, they tend to come together around issues of the social and historical construction of technologies and media. Any student of the media, new or old, historical or contemporary, will enjoy reading these essays.» (John Nerone, University of Illinois)
«This remarkable collection opens up a whole new range of topics, deepens our historical imagination about some we thought were familiar, and most of all introduces a new generation of scholars with fresh perspectives on the past, present, and future of communication technology.» (Carolyn Marvin, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania)

David W. Park is Associate Professor of Communication at Lake Forest College. He is the founder and past chair of the International Communication Association’s Communication History Interest Group, and is co-editor of The History of Media and Communication Research: Contested Memories (Peter Lang, 2008).
Nicholas W. Jankowski is Visiting Fellow at the e-Humanities Group of the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences (KNAW). He has co-edited some half-dozen books. Two recent edited volumes are Internet and National Elections: A Comparative Study of Web Campaigning (2007) and e-Research: Transformation in Scholarly Practice (2009). Jankowski is co-editor of the journal New Media & Society.
Steve Jones is UIC Distinguished Professor, Professor of Communication, and Research Associate in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He was the founder and first President of the Association of Internet Researchers and is co-editor of New Media & Society.