Just to take one example: The sole item that’s listed for the 1970′s is “The rise of color TV”? 1) Color TV really established itself in 2nd half of the 1960′s, pretty much every prime-time show from about ’67 on was shot in color, by 1970 about the only things on TV that were still in B&W were old movies and occasional bits of news footage (the news broadcasts themselves of the anchors at their desks were of course all in color) 2)When you get right down to it, did color really change how information was distributed in a truly significant way? I notice the author didn’t bother to mention the rise of hi-def broadcasting and the switch-over from analog to digital broadcast signals in the 00′s, that would seem to me to be a much more fundamental change than color because while you could still watch the new color shows on your old B&W set, the switch to a digital signal instantly made every analog TV not just obsolete but completely non-functional without a converter box. And 3) The author couldn’t come up with *anything* else for the 1970′s? Here’s a hint: He mentions Telstar, the first communications satellite, being launched in the 60′s, but up to the end of that decade satellite Television broadcasts were very much a rarity and pretty much a novelty. It was in the 1970′s that satellites truly linked the world and revolutionized communication. Footage of the Vietnam war took weeks to make it from the battlefield to the TV screen, ten years later we saw the Iranian Revolution & overthrow of the Shah live as it happened. That’s really a much more significant change than seeing it in color (which is how people saw much of that Vietnam footage way back in the 60′s anyway).

I could go on: The 80′s wasn’t the “rise” of the TV networks, it’s when they first started *losing* ground to cable, and you don’t think that maybe the invention of the telephone might have been worth a mention in there somewhere? But really it’s not even worth it; it’s just a carelessly slapped together half-assed timeline that’s pretty much useless.

It was the Georgian Era (1800s) not the Victorian (1900s) that had the huge coffee house culture leading to newspapers, with the first Daily Newspaper, the ‘Daily Courant’ set up as early as 1702 and the ‘Times of London’ still going strong today, set up in 1785.

Also there isn’t a single mention of print culture until that time… what about King Alfred the Great’s Library scheme of the 800s – or Illustrated manuscripts, printing press, the rise of the novel – news by balladry sent by ballad singers and chapmen; the troubadours.. Actually as good as the imagery is, in terms of history it perpetuates the myth that people of the past were not progressive.