The talk will summarize and discuss some of the main results from the book The Digital Revolution. A Short History of an Ideology (Oxford University Press, 2023). It will provide a short history of the ways in which the “digital revolution” has been narrated, of the rhetoric, the narratives, and the overt or implied debates that have accompanied it and continue to accompany it today. The goal is to unveil the story of an idea, which can be defined as one of the most powerful ideologies of recent decades: that digitalization constitutes a revolution, a break with the past, a radical change for the human beings who are living through it. The talk aims to investigate the origins of this idea, how it evolved, which other past revolutions consciously or unconsciously inspired it, which great stories it has conveyed over time, which of its key elements have changed and which ones have persisted and have been repeated in different historical periods. All these discussions, large or small, have settled and condensed into a series of media, advertising, corporate, political, and technical historical sources previously unpublished. The ultimate goal of the talk is to deconstruct what looks like a “natural” and incontestable idea and to help rethink digital societies today.
Short Bio
Gabriele Balbi is Full Professor in Media Studies at the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG), Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, USI Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland). At USI, he is Pro-Rector for Education and Students' Experience, director of the China Media Observatory, and vice director of the Institute of Media and Journalism. In the academic community, he is currently chair of the ICA Communication History Division, a member of the steering committee of the MediaHistory.ch association, and an elected member of Academia Europaea. His main research area is media and communication history and his last book is Communication Maintenance in Longue Durée, co-edited with Roberto Leggero (Routledge, 2024). For more information, visit the following website: http://usi.to/cyi
Rückfragen richten Sie bitte an: katharina.oke(at)uni-graz.at
Gefördert durch die Abteilung 12 – Wirtschaft, Tourismus, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Steiermark.
Konzept und Organisation:
Institut für Geschichte, Arbeitsbereich Zeitgeschichte: Christiane Berth, Sarah Knoll, Katharina Oke