“Medium is the Message,” Marshall McLuhan proclaimed in 1964, a prescient insight into how media, from television to today’s algorithms, shapes society beyond its content. We at Provisions Library for Art and Social Change are delighted to present our summer Books in the Window Collection: From Gutenberg to Algorithms, a vibrant display of 15 works that explore media culture’s profound influence on our world. We invite you to journey through media’s evolution—from the dawn of print to the complexities of artificial intelligence—reflecting on how these technologies mold our values, identities, and futures. Organized into four themes—Foundations of Media Culture, Technology and Control, Digital Culture and Creative Tensions, and Crisis and Resistance in the Networked Age—this collection crafts a narrative of media’s past, present, and potential
Each theme unveils a critical dimension of media’s societal impact. Foundations of Media Culture examines how print and early mass media shaped thought and culture, revealing shifts from deep literacy to sensory engagement. Technology and Control exposes how media technologies, driven by corporate and technological forces, manipulate attention and consolidate power, often eroding truth and autonomy. Digital Culture and Creative Tensions explores the promise of digital platforms for artistic expression and identity, tempered by constraints like labor exploitation and algorithmic control. Crisis and Resistance in the Networked Age grapples with digital media’s role in amplifying connectivity and activism while fueling division, misinformation, and inequity.
Visit Provisions, explore books online, or book an appointment ([email protected], [email protected]) to discuss your research or creative projects regarding this topic.
This curation was realized through a partnership with George Mason University Libraries.
Visit the Mason University Libraries’ book collection page to check some of these books.
Foundations of Media Culture
- The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age by Sven Birkerts (1995)
- The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture by Frank R. Wilson (1999)
- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman (1985)
- Media Research: Technology, Art and Communication by Marshall McLuhan (1998)
Technology and Control
- Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman (1993)
- The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era by William J. Mitchell (1994)
- The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim Wu (2016)
- Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky (1988)
Digital Culture and Creative Tensions
- Clicking In: Hot Links to a Digital Culture by Lynn Hershman Leeson (1996)
- (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work by Brooke Erin Duffy (2017)
- Artificial Intelligence – Intelligent Art?: Human-Machine Interaction and Creative Practice by Eckart Voigts, Sebastian Kunas, Christoph Seelinger, Robin Markus Auer, Jan Röhnert, and Dietmar Elflein (2024) (online)
Crisis and Resistance in the Networked Age
- Amazing Ourselves to Death: Neil Postman’s Brave New World Revisited by Lance Strate (2014)
- Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another by Matt Taibbi (2019)
- Asynchronicity: The Temporal Dimensions of the Information Crisis by Philip Pond (2025)
- Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci (2017) (online)
Keywords: Media Culture, Digital Media, Algorithmic Influence, Attention Economy, Technological Control, Print Culture, Surveillance, Media Literacy, Creative Labor, Disinformation, Networked society, digital activism, Human-Machine Interaction
