TEL 555

Social and Cultural Implications

Back to the Schedule

 

Kroker and Weinstein “The Theory of the Virtual Class”

 

“Reverse nihilism”

 

Commercialization leads to subordination of people though limitations of access, content, and culture

 

Shift from the human agent of knowledge to programming logic/knowledge

·                     Leading to technology dependency

 

Map 1: “Highway” Metaphor

 

Map 2: “Highway” does not exist

 

Map 3: Seduce and Virtualize

 

Map 4:Information Elite

 

Map 5: Soft Ideology

 

Map 6: Red Guard Meets Gen X

 

 

The Virtual Social

 

Social power and Technical power

Technopower

·         The tension between physical technology and inherent social values of technology

·         Usage determines one’s place in (amount of) technopower (relational or relative to one’s skills – think of hackers)

 

Spiral of Technopower

 

1.  Acceleration of information

 

2.  Information overload

·         “People are rescued from information overload at the seemingly minor cost of greater reliance on technology” (p.121).

 

Technopower Elite

·         Hackers, industry leaders, and shareware (communal software)

 

 

Seiter “Television and the Internet”

 

Television on Computers

·                     Institutional relationship between TV and the Web

Gendered Computer Use

Computerized Work

 

 

Communication, Technology and Politics

 

Critical perspectives on the market driven (advertising) model for new media

 

Critical of market forces

 

Disparities of information

·         Local-within the U.S. and Global-transnational

 

Loss of Content diversity

 

Information society

·         Poor quality/mere facts

·         Consumers

·         Education and computers

·         Sanitization of war

·         Taxation/purchasing potential

·         Privacy

 

 

Communication and the Politics of Everyday Life

 

Evaluation of Communication and Democracy

Issues with liberal democracy

·         Bureaucratic cage

·         Public cynicism

·         False senses of success

 

Poor model

 

·         Humanist   Marketplace of Ideas         Advocacy

    (person)           (experience)               (cmu)

 

Problems

·         Humanist: manufactured consent

·         Marketplace: Unequal access to mediation

·         Advocacy: Self/special interests

 

New Model and Deliberative Democracy

·         Examine the process choice construction

·         Use difference

·         Collaborative decision making

 

Is the Internet the answer?

 

 

According to Pavlik and Dennis

·         Access vs. Manipulation

·         Democracy: free speech vs. commercial control

·         Politics

 

 

Social and Cultural Consequences

 

Communication

·         New forms: Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)

·         Diverse content

 

Social

·         Fragmentation: culture destruction vs. diversity

·         Digital isolation

·         Homogenization

·         Virtual communities

·         Mobilization

 

Institutional

·         Public services

·         Education

·         Libraries

·         Occupational

·         Military

 

Cultural

·         Hypertext/activity

·         Arts and music

·         Demographics

 

Individual

·         Empowerment

 

Theoretical Perspectives

·         Uses and Gratifications

·         Systems

·         Critical

·         Information as a Commodity

·         Technology gap

·         International: national identity vs. technological expansion

 

 

Myths of Information

 

Myth 1 Data=Information=Power

·         Information quality is difficult to verify

·         Data production does not create information

·         The accumulation of information is not knowledge or meaningful

 

Myth 2 Information Revolution and Technologically Assisted Democracy

·         Questions the connection between information and social action

 

 

Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide (Full text)

 

See slides on the Digital Divide (Needs Internet Explorer)

The Digital Divide Network is another information clearing house

 

Haves and Have-Nots in the Information Age – Problems and Issues

 

Source

·         World media

·         Personal

·         Organizational

·         Professional

·         Commercial

 

Transmission

·         Exiles

·         Tyranny

·         Criminals

 

Reception

·         Education

·         Psychology

·         Noise

 

Solutions

·         Honesty

·         People power

·         Access

·         Learning shift

·         Equalize flow

 

 

Culture Jamming – political statements though information vandalism

·         RTMark

·         Sean’s Oprah spoof

·         See Adbusters for examples

 

 

Cyber-crime

 

 

Vulnerability of computer systems to crime

·         Density of information and processes

·         System accessibility

·         Complexity

·         Electronic vulnerability

·         Vulnerability of electronic data-processing media

·         Human factors

 

Types

·         Fraud by computer manipulation

·         Computer forgery

·         Damage to or modifications of computer data or programs

·         Unauthorized access to computer systems and service

·         Unauthorized reproduction of legally protected computer programs