The article suggests an explanation for the emergence of new media. Media are not merely the consequence of technical inventions, but derive from a two-stage process of inventing and ‘social institutionalizing’. The technical invention just improves on the old media: for example, Gutenberg improved writing, films improved older optical media and wireless improved wired telegraphy. In the next phase of innovation, new media become institutionalized: now, new media such as the periodical press, motion pictures and broadcasting emerge. A process of ‘social institutionalizing’ changes the invented media fundamentally. Society ‘institutionalizes’ inventions by discovering new possibilities of communication; it adopts and formats new media. The theoretical approach suggested in this article combines evolution theory with Joseph Schumpeter’s distinction between invention and innovation. The article deals with the competitive media history of press, telegraphy, film, radio, television and multimedia. It provides a survey of the emergence of new media with respect to social, political, cultural, economic and technical debates.

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