How the information society differs from earlier
societies?
Webster (2002):
Five ways to define how IS differs from other types of
societies:
- Technological
- Economic
- Occupational
- Spatial
- Cultural
1. Technological
Information technology as the defining feature of society
Different eras / different infrastructures:
- Industrial revolution: roads and railways
- Information revolution: networks and
electronic highways
Problems:
- "technological determinism"
- When does a society cease to be
industrial and when does it enter the informational era?
- How does one measure this shift?
- Is there really a difference between
the "information society" and the "advanced industrial society"?
- How about social values, social shaping of technology
2. Economic
Machlup (1962): structure of American information economy:
- education
- media
- information
machines
- information
services
-
other informational activities (R & D, non-profit activities)
Porat (1977): primary, secondary and non- information sectors
·
The information sector is
becoming more important in the economy
Problems:
- value judgements; how
to define what constitutes information sector and non-information sector?
3. Occupational
- We have achieved an IS
when the predominance of occupations is found in information work (when
physical strength is replaced by manipulation of figures and text)
Problems:
- How to allocate
different types of work to different categories?
- Every occupation
requires a degree of information processing
4. Spatial
·
The rise of networks
·
The IS changes concepts of time
and space
Harold A. Innis:
- Empire and
Communications (1950), The Bias of Communication (1951) and Changing Concepts
of Time (1952).
- Innis was interested
in the question of how media technology affect societies and cultures
- Innis classifies
different cultures according to what communication technology is dominant in
those cultures. According to Innis there has been three different cultural
phases in the world-history
1) Oral phase
2) The phase of print and writing
3) The phase of electronic communication
·
time-binding media vs.
space-binding media.
·
modern ICT: the constraints of time and space have been dramatically limited
Problems:
Why more volume and
velocity of information flow should mark a new society? Networks have been
around for a very long time:
1837 Electric telegraph
(Morse and Cooke-Wheatstone)
1851 France – England underwater cable
1866 First transatlantic cable
1876 Invention of the telephone
1878 First American telephone lines
1881 The American network had 123 000 telephones
1887 First international telephone calls (Between Paris and Brussels) (Between
London and Paris in 1891)
1896 First steps in radiocommunications (Marconi)
1901 First wireless transatlantic telegraph transmission
1922 First regular radio broadcasts
5. Cultural
- Information in social
circulation has increased extraordinarily
- We live in a
media-saturated society
- "Postmodern condition"
Problems:
Is "postmodernity" fundamentally different
from "modernity"? If it is, how do we measure the change?