electronic presence from telegraphy to television Sconce, Jeffrey 1962- creator text bibliography ncu Durham, NC Duke University Press 2000 monographic eng

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x, 257 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. "In Haunted Media Jeffrey Sconce examines American culture's persistent association of new electronic media--from the invention of the telegraph to the introduction of television and computers--with paranormal or spiritual phenomena. By offering a historical analysis of the relation between communication technologies, discourses of modernity, and metaphysical preoccupations, Sconce demonstrates how accounts of 'electronic presence' have gradually changed over the decades from a fascination with the boundaries of space and time to a more generalized anxiety over the seeming sovereignty of technology. Sconce focuses on five important cultural moments in the history of telecommunication from the mid-nineteenth century to the present: the advent of telegraphy; the arrival of wireless communication; radio's transformation into network broadcasting; the introduction of television; and contemporary debates over computers, cyberspace, and virtual reality. In the process of examining the trajectory of these technological innovations, he discusses topics such as the rise of spiritualism as a utopian response to the electronic powers presented by telegraphy and how radio, in the twentieth century, came to be regarded as a way of connecting to a more atomized vision of the afterlife."--Book cover. 1. Mediums and media -- 2. The voice from the void -- 3. Alien ether -- 4. Static and Stasis -- 5. Simulation and psychosis. Jeffrey Sconce. Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-247) and index. Mass media Technological innovations History Telecommunication History Mass media and culture History Medios de comunicación de masas Historia Comunicación y tecnología Historia Estados Unidos Medios de comunicación de masas Aspectos sociales Comunicación y tecnología Historia Ciberespacio P 96 S422h 2000 302.2309 0822325535 (cloth : alk. paper) 0822325721 (pbk. : alk. paper) 9780822325727 00029387 DLC 000313 20230410130400.0 122949