Keynote Address

David Finkelstein (Professor of Media & Print Culture, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh) | bio
“Print Culture, New Media and Communication Revolutions”
Saturday, October 29, 9:00 – 10:30 am
SFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings Street): Theatre 1700

It is commonplace in twenty-first century to trumpet the ‘communication revolution’ represented by digital technology and electronic communication structures as something new and revolutionary. Digital media, online technology, email and the world wide web have begun to insert themselves into the ordinary lives of many ‘first world’ inhabitants, to become an invisible part of life, moving from an engagement with media and ‘new media’ in external spaces (offices, clubs, news stands, etc.) to internal spaces (reading at home, online home computer access). But how new is this new ‘communication revolution’? This multimedia lecture will draw links between nineteenth-century print culture ‘revolutions’ and twentieth-century media developments to illustrate how current cultural trends in fact replicate concerns and developments of the past. Themes covered include: changes in industry, communication and transportation; legal and commercial implementations and structures; and the resulting shaping of regional and national identities. The general theme of the lecture can be summarised as, “times change, but the song remains the same ”…

back to conference home page | back to conference program | go to Yopie Prins' keynote address