Images from the Video Revolution

In Video Revolutions: On the History of a Medium, Michael Z. Newman examines how video has been seen in both a utopian and a negative light in terms of its cultural impact.

Newman also includes a variety of images that detail how video was depicted in popular culture and advertising as something that would revolutionize the way we consumed culture. Below are some example and for more images, you can also visit the book’s Pinterest page:

Sony’s campaign sold the Betamax video recorder as a device for time-shifting programs taped off the air. By placing the product boldly in the foreground with the TV set in the background, Sony emphasized video’s value as a technology improving on television.

Illustration by Doris Ettlinger for the article, “For Many, TV Tape Means Watching More—and Loving It,” New York Times, August 27, 1977, using the most popular movie of the day to represent the appeals of home video.

Newsweek‘s cover on August 6, 1984, announced The Video Revolution, picturing a VCR as a movie theater.

Spring 1991 cover artwork by Gary Viskupic for The Perfect Vision conveys the potential of home video technology to improve on the experience of cinema and bring film classics to life in the home.

Byte magazine, July 1983; cover artwork by Robert Tinney depicts a future of convergence integrating many familiar objects: CRT display, telephone, television antenna, and calculator