How the information society differs from earlier societies?

Webster (2002):

Five ways to define how IS differs from other types of societies:

  1. Technological
  2. Economic
  3. Occupational
  4. Spatial
  5. Cultural

1. Technological

Information technology as the defining feature of society

Different eras / different infrastructures:

Problems:

2. Economic

 

Machlup (1962): structure of American information economy:

 

Porat (1977): primary, secondary and non- information sectors

 

·      The information sector is becoming more important in the economy

Problems:

 

3. Occupational

Problems:

4. Spatial

·      The rise of networks

·      The IS changes concepts of time and space

Harold A. Innis:

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

Problems:

Is "postmodernity" fundamentally different from "modernity"? If it is, how do we measure the change?