Peter Urquhart is Associate Professor in the Communication Studies Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.

Paul Heyer was Professor Emeritus in the Communication Studies Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.

Part One: The Media of Early Civilization 1. The Earliest Precursor of Writing 2. Media in Ancient Empires 3. Civilization Without Writing-The Incas and the Quipu 4. The Origins of Writing Part Two: The Tradition of Western Literacy 5. The Greek Legacy 6. Writing and the Alphabet Effect 7. Writing Restructures Consciousness Part Three: The Print Revolution 8. Paper and Block Printing-From China to Europe 9. The Invention of Printing 10. Early Modern Literacies 11. Sensationalism and News Part Four: Electricity Creates the Wired World 12. Time, Space, and the Telegraph 13. Anti-Lynching Imagery as Visual Protest in in the 1890s Black Press 14. The Telephone Takes Command 15. Dream Worlds of Consumption 16. Wireless World Part Five: Image and Sound 17. Visual Reportage I 18. Visual Reportage II 19. Inscribing Sound 20. The Making of the Phonograph 21. Early Motion Pictures Chapter 22 "Talkies" and Stardom Part Six: Broadcasting 23. Early Radio 24. The Golden Age of Programming 25. Race on Radio 26. Television Begins 27. Making Room for TV 28. From Turmoil to Tranquility Part Seven: New Media and Old in the Digital Age 29. How Media Became New 30. Popularizing the Internet 31. The World Wide Web 32. A Cultural History of Web 2.0 33. Social Media Retweets History 34. How Algorithms Rule Online Discussion Questions