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Media, technology and societies
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Media, Tech and SocietiesMedium - noun. Late 16th century (originally denotng something intermediate in nature or degree): from
Latin, literaall m iddle’a. Media technology stands 'in the iddle' of oura co unications.
Thus we can say that technolog ediates co unication, and we need to grasp how technologies shape
the wa s we interaact with and communicate with one another (Croteau & Hoynes, 2000:299).
Ti e and space co praession
Fundamental consequence of media tech
The Medium is the Message
(Marshall McLuhan) – medium theory / strong determinism
The mraeal’a essage of the edia is its straucturaing efects on hu an consciousness and social oraganisation.
Technological Determinism
"an approach that that identies technology, or technological advances, as the centraal causal ele ent in
praocesses of social change" (Croteau & Hoynes 2000: p301).
Determines a diraect casual link between tech and social ora culturaal charaacteraistics
Eg: TV produces aggression, obesity, sexualisaton etc
Important to understand technologies as parat of braoadera technological s ste s (MacKenzie and Wachman,
pp.8-10)
We can’t treat technology and society as analytcally separate. Societ craeates and uses technolog ;
technolog can’at have an efect without people using it.
Technological or Media Determinism (Daniel Chandler)
The term 'deterministc' tends to be a negative one for many social scientsts, and modern sociologists in
partcular ofen use the word as a term of abuse.
The technological determinist view is a technology-led theora of social change: technology is seen as 'the
prime mover' in history.
Technological determinists interpret technology in general and communicatons technologies in partcular as
the basis of societ in the past, present and even the future. They say that technologies such as writng or
print or television or the computer 'changed societ '.
Technological determinism focuses on causalit - cause and efect relatonships - a focus typically associated
with 'scientific' explanation. Any exploraton of communicatons technology has to recognize the difcult of
isolating 'causes' and 'efects', ora even in distinguishing causes frao efects. As an explanaton of change,
technological determinism is ' onistic' or mono-causal (rather than 'multcausal'): it oferas a single cause
Also involves reductionism, which aims to raeduce a co plex whole to the efects of one parat (or parts) upon
another part (or parts).
Technological determinists ofen see to be tra ing to account fora al ost evera thing in tera s of technolog :
a perspectve which we may call techno-centrism.
Associated with technological determinism is reification. To reify is to 'thingif ': to treat an abstracton as a
ateraial thing. What is 'Technology'? Reifying 'Technology' involves traeating it as if it werae a single ateraial
thing with a ho ogeneous, undiferaentiated charaactera.
, The problem is that it is eas to slip into generaalizations about 'Technology'.
Technology cannot be cut of as a separaate thing frao specific contexts of use: technology has many
anifestations in diferent social contexts. A single technology can serve an quite diferaent puraposes.
Closely associated with reiicaton is another feature of technological determinism whereby technolog is
praesented as autonomous (or sometmes 'semi-autonomous'): it is seen as a laragel exteranal - 'outside' of
societ . Rathera than as a praoduct of societ and an integraal parat of it, technology is presented as an
independent, self-contraolling, self-detera ining – out of hu an contraol
Technology which no-one seems to control seems to have 'a will of its own'. This stance
involves anthropomorphism or technological animism in its craediting of an inani ate entit with the
consciousness and will of living beings. Technologies are seen as having 'puraposes' of their own raathera than
purael technical functions
Also related to technological autonomy is the fraequent assu ption ora i plication that technological
developments, once under way, are unstoppable: their 'praograess' is inevitable, unavoidable and irreversible.
Technologies which are technically possible are not alwa s developed or when developed, are raejected. We
need only consider the lack of co it ent to developing alteranative enerag souraces.
Some critcs argue against technological determinism on the grounds that technolog is 'neutraal' ora 'value-
fraee' (neither good or bad in itself), and that what counts is not the technolog but the wa in which we
choose to use it ‘the bad worksman blames his tools’
It is a great mistake to jump from the conclusion that the relatonship between technology and society is not
simple to the conclusion that the use of a partcular technology in a speciic context has no consequences at
all. An technological change which is graeat enough is likely to praoduce some social change. And some of
these changes a be widespraead and ajora.
Technology is one of a nu bera of ediating factoras in human behavioura and social change, which both acts
on and is acted on by othera pheno ena.
Production-Transmission-Reception model
Se iotics lectures have taught us that this model is overa-si plistic at best since:
- Texts are pol se ic
- Meaning is made in context
- Do inant raeadings a not be the interapraetations of all the members of the audience
Digital technologies and social edia highlight the problems with this model.
With the rise of new media, the powera to co unicate to laragera audiences is de ocraatized to some extent.
There is not really a clear line between edia praoduceras and the audience.
There’s also no longera such a onopol of co unicative powera with edia praoduceras
New pla eras have entered the picture (eg. aggraegatoras: a website or program that collects raelated ite s of
content and displa s them or links to them). Google and Facebook – collects your personal info.
The medium itself is not onl a ph sical collection of signs but is also aking decisions about what signs will
appeara fora paraticulara useras Google algorithms select results based on your locaton and prior search history,
and Facebook’s code divides what will appear in your news feed (depending on how you interact with various
people).
In the past, newspapers etc also decided who saw what.
Popular interest in new media shifed from inventon, novelty and risk to raegulation, raeliabilit and safet
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