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Challenging the traditional view that credits the emergence of public opinion to the Enlightenment era, this article claims that the modern Western roots of the concept can be already identified in the political environment of the urban communes in late medieval and Renaissance Europe. Consequently, its focus is on the role that public opinion played in the constitutional framework of one of the most prominent European city-states, the Republic of Venice. In order to capture the complexity of the issue, the study juxtaposes normative political ideals against the social praxis of Venetian political life. This historical excursion culminates with an account of the dramatic defeat at Agnadello in 1509, which serves as a backdrop illustrating not only the deep impact that public opinion exercised over Venetian domestic politics but also the extensive international role that it played in the realm of the Renaissance world of politics, economics, and warfare.

This study surveys the fundamental technical approaches adopted by Renaissance artist Jacopo de' Barbari in drafting his 1500 bird's-eye view of Venice, as well as the ideological and military implications that accompanied the map's production. In doing so, the authors point out some fundamental parallels between the masterpiece of Renaissance map-making and the current computer-supported digital representations of urban spaces. The historical sources indicate that de' Barbari's map was a composite image stitched together from numerous partial views; such partial views were already "digitized" and consequently mechanically reproduced and manipulated into one synoptic image whose sheer size and amount of detail was able to evoke in viewers an experience of virtual reality. Ultimately, the study challenges the rhetoric of newness that dominates current media studies by emphasizing the need to separate what is genuinely new in our everyday experiences of media from what has been seen before.

Frontmatter --Contents --Digging into Digital Roots. Towards a Conceptual Media and Communication History --Technologies and Connections --Networks --Media Convergence --Multimedia --Interactivity --Artificial Intelligence --Agency and Politics --Global Governance --Data(fication) --Fake News --Echo Chambers --Digital Media Activism --Users and Practices --Telepresence --Digital Loneliness --Amateurism --User-Generated Content (UGC) --Fandom --Authenticity --Authors