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Reading: The information society

Sunday 8th August, 2010 - 1:19pm with 0 comments

Subject: Regulating Communication
Reading: May, C. (2002). What is the Global Information Society?. In: The information society: a sceptical view. Cambridge: Polity Press. p1-18.

  • everything is organised on the basis of information and knowledge or soon will be
  • the arrival of a (global) information society – ‘weightless world’ or new network society
  • ICTs (information and communication technologies) are a revolution and remaking of the world
  • a dystopian world the likes of Bladerunner (film)
  • key claims in new era of information society:
    • we’re experiencing a social revolution
    • organisation of economic relations has been transformed
    • political practices and communities involved are changing
    • the state and its authority are in terminal decline
  • while forms of activity have changed, their substance remains the same
  • the idea of an information society – early 1960s to 1980s
  • ICTs have become more widespread hence speculation about social impact expanded over the years
  • recently benefits of the global information society and its links to economic development have been recognised
  • Fritz Machlup identified five sectors:
    • education
    • media of communication
    • information machines
    • information services
    • other information activities
  • postwar: base of economy shifted from manual to knowledge work and centre of gravity of social expenditure from good to knowledge (Drucker, 1968)
  • Porat and the transformation of society with primary and secondary information sectors
  • concerns primarily with analysis of economic activities however a clear link between technological development and its social impact was implied
  • Dizard reworked Porat’s sectors as a shift towards an information society in America (rather than existing industrial sectors)
  • new networks would appear and transform the flows of information throughout society (Dizard, 1982)
  • Bell (1974) suggested three dynamics:
    • theoretical knowledge would become more important (a change in the ‘axial principle’ of society)
    • expectations about future would foreground issues of technology, its control and potential for transforming existence
    • new decision making processes would appear
  • change in character of knowledge itself – primacy of theory over empiricism
  • Toffler: future shock of the information age – the information society ‘not a straight line extension of industrial society but a radical shift of direction… a comprehensive transformation at least as revolutionary’
  • the very act of formulating this idea of this society has exercised much of the transforming power towards it (Smith, 1996)
  • these real changes need a response, hence social/economic development has been pushed in a particular direction
  • ‘the medium is the message’ – McLuhan
  • hot media: closed, unidirectional/transmitted, complete messages
  • cool media: open, multidirectional/interactive message requiring engagement
  • cool technologies extend our capabilities and enhance previously limited aspects of practice
  • different ages have different ways of communicating and will produce different societies
  • Poster’s main stages: face-to-face, orally mediated exchange, written exchanges mediated by print, and electronically mediated exchange
  • each stage is superimposed
  • the heart of the information society is a radical decentring of communication – we can remake society by remaking communication networks
  • one of the key transformations heralded by the information society is the ability to (re)construct identity due to the (potential) anonymity of online communication (Turkle, 1997)
  • electronically mediated networks support development/dissemination of knowledge and information, allowing acceleration of adaptation and discovery
  • a social revolution: new age ushered in by information technologies
    • ‘like a force of nature, the digital age cannot be stopped’ (Negroponte, 1995)
  • the new economy: a fragmented network of individual contractors
    • rise of services to a ‘weightless economy’ – products are informational rather than physical
    • working with minds, not hands
    • provision of information and deployment of knowledge
    • knowledge is an important resource of idea
  • information politics: controller of knowledge/information would replace ruse of wealth, military power and religion that typified previous societies
    • new politically active communities
    • communities independent of geography and individuals belonging to many cyber communities related to different interests
    • mobilising widely dispersed individuals into niche interest groups, having greater impact on political process
    • emerging of networked politics
  • decline of state: civil society confrontation no longer the most efficient way to organise society
    • information revolution undermining the state’s ability to control information, with fatal consequences
    • a changing role, but states are crucial to the societies they govern
Posted on: Sunday, August 8th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
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