Abstract
This article discusses the relationship between (new) communication technologies and society in the period 1920-1970. Media scholars are engaged in this academic shift over time, which the author maps out in phases of common research topics and the various dominant schools of thought.
As new media have changed over time, so have the academics that studied them. In recent decades there has been an increasing academic support for social determinism in lieu of the previously favoured technological determinism.
However, since the turn of the millennium neo-technological determinism has been claimed by some to be the next era in media studies. The author concludes that technology contributes to the evolution of society, taking a position similar to that of Marshall McLuhan.