The Master Switch

During a conversation with Christina Stojanova two weeks ago (actually during her successful interview for the tenure track position in film studies) I got interested in a book she mentioned called "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu. I ordered in a copy and have been glued to it for the past couple of days. It chronicles the rise and fall of various media based monopolies such as the telephone, the Hollywood studies, the radio and television broadcasters, and of course is leading up to discussing the internet. It is a very good read, smart but clear and very entertaining. Margaret just came home from a art performance by Erin Gee where she dressed herself as an Ipod. Tim Wu describes vertical integration, an economic model where a company owns all stages of production such as the Hollywood studies that made movies as well as the distribution and theaters that showed them. Macintosh is a vertically integrated company.