Variations on media thinking /

In this book Zielinski (European Graduate School, Switzerland) brings together 18 essays written over the past 40 years. Zielinski's work represents a qualitative tradition that focuses on the long-term and more immediate impacts of media technologies and programming on human inquiry and cultural progress. The essays provide insights about the capabilities of media as a tool for personal use and a channel of communication. For example, one essay is devoted to the social implications of the use of video recording technologies (VCRs) compared to watching television without these capabilities. Zielinski suggests the collective viewing experience fostered by a simultaneous mass viewing of traditional television declines when persons have the option to select their own programming by using VCRs and similar technologies. In other essays, Zielinski notes how even old media technologies have extended human productivity (he references Albert Einstein's observation that his pencil was smarter than he was). A thoughtful translation of Zielinski's essays into English, this book is an excellent companion to Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964, available in a variety of other editions). Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, resarchers, faculty. --Robert A. Logan, emeritus, University of Missouri--Columbia