How we communicate information and entertainment has changed dramatically over the millennia, writes book reviewer COLIN STEELE. 

The Gutenberg print revolution of the mid-15th century created a new medium that fundamentally changed western economics, politics and society.

Reading, however, was essentially a solitary occupation, except for parents reading to children.

The radio/wireless revolution of the 1920s dramatically changed family frameworks, which Beaty Rubens, a BBC producer for 35 years, documents in the beautifully produced and illustrated, Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home (Bodleian Library, $59.99). 

Hugh Mackay has recently observed that radio and television were “a partial return to a pre-print communication culture that was more communal, personal and transient than print ”.

The first Christmas issue of The Radio Times in 1923 featured a family gathering around their small radio.

Australia’s Dame Nellie Melba had given the first live broadcast performance in 1920, delivering Puccini arias and God save the King to British living rooms. Melba had initially declined the invitation saying: “My voice is not a subject for experimentation”, but the offer of £1000 for a 20-minute recital quickly changed her mind. 

Rubens reveals how British life and society was transformed by the “Radio Craze”. In 1922, when the BBC was established, just 150,000 people listened to radio broadcasts, but by 1939, there were 34 million listening in Britain out of a population of 47 million.

Rubens documents the big picture, as well as the impact on individuals, as radio shifted family dynamics and provided a wider sense of nationhood.

Rubens’ excellent survey provides a backdrop to today when radio and podcasts stream to devices, but nationhood is becoming increasingly compartmentalised. America is currently a divided country.

TELEVISION watching boomed in Britain in 1953 after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. For decades, television, with limited channels, continued to provide a family-based framework.

The 1977 Morecambe and Wise Christmas show attracted more than 20 million viewers, while 11 million watched the second series in 1979 of Fawlty Towers, regularly voted the best sit-com in British TV history.

John Cleese marks its 50th anniversary in Fawlty Towers: Fawlts & All – My Favourite Moments (Headline, $55).

With numerous illustrations and using archival sources, Cleese revisits the two series from conception to behind the scenes insights, “straight from the moose’s mouth” on all the 12 episodes and fellow actors. A must Christmas present for Cleese and Fawlty Towers’ fans,

TIM Berners-Lee, the key player as “the inventor” of the World Wide Web, eschewed financial reward, as he states in his memoir This Is for Everyone (Macmillan, 36.99).

Berners-Lee believed that the internet would bring people together and would be a force for good. Sadly, we also remember Google’s original slogan, “Don’t be evil”.

Since then, big-tech billionaires, such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, have used the web and AI algorithms essentially for profit and power in a digital world that has loosened family structures and reverted back to the individual on his or her device. 

BEFORE the internet, print encyclopedias could be found in most households. Then came Wikipedia in 2001.

Its founder, Jimmy Wales in The Seven Rules of Trust (Bloomsbury, $36.99), traces how he changed the landscape of reference access.

Wikipedia is apparently accessed 11 billion times every month, more than the combined traffic of the top 50 biggest world news websites. Despite questions about its editorial framework and Western bias, it stands as a beacon of trust in the “post-truth” era of disinformation.

Trust is a word used often by Wales, like Berners-Lee an optimist, in his book that reveals the fundamental principles of Wikipedia and which he believes can be applied to other business enterprises.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk have objected vigorously to what they perceive as “political and ideological bias” of Wikipedia. Musk hopes his AI “Grokipedia” will replace or rival Wikipedia but as ever, much depends on how the information is “scraped” and edited from net sources. 

Wikipedia, at least, remains one of the few large-scale platforms that openly acknowledges and documents its limitations. AI, nonetheless, will dramatically impact Wikipedia and other content providers.

Are we on the edge of the next societal revolution and, if so, trust and civility will be needed more than ever.