CMNS1234 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Determinism, Judy Wajcman, Centrality
28 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Technological Innovation: Social or Technological Determinism?
The Toronto School and Marshall McLuhan
• McLuhan concluded that it is specifically changes in modes of communication that
shape human existence”
• Marshall McLuhan “held that inventions in technology invariably cause cultural
change”
• Harold Innis had suggested that sudden extensions of communication are reflected
in cultural disturbances
• McLuhan “was unique in claiming that channels of communication are the primary
cause of cultural change, specifically the alphabet, the printing press, and the
electronic media.
• four periods, or epochs:
- a tribal age
- a literate age
- a print age
- an electronic age
• The transitions between periods were neither gradual nor evolutionary
Technology
• According to Terry Flew, technologies are “the tools and artefacts used by humans to
transform nature, enable social interaction or extend human capacities”
• technologies are bound to the “the systems of knowledge and social meaning that
accompany their development and use.
• The use of radio technology was “a major breakthrough in the field of mass
communication, with momentous effects on the culture of the twentieth century”
Digital Technology
• This process of digitization is already having a considerable impact on the creative
industries.
• Digitization transforms the way creative works are generated, disseminated and used
• blurring the boundary between producers and consumers.
• “The Internet has been called a 'network of networks'
• It is a set of protocols that allow different types of computers, operating systems and
networks to be connected together
• That enabled new kinds of communications, as well as cultural and social
interactions
Manuel Castells and the Network Society
• Manuel Castells = network society
• network increasingly shapes the logic of social interaction
Affordance/Constraint
• Technologies have potential uses.
• There are also a set of constraints involved
• the awareness of new possibilities arising from a new media technology also draws
attention to practical limitations in achieving these gains
The Centrality of Copyright
• intellectual property law is now the focus of many of the issues and challenges
presented by the development of digital technologies
• The rapid development and mass dissemination of technologies which enable low-
cost reproduction of materials.
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Document Summary
An electronic age: the transitions between periods were neither gradual nor evolutionary. Digital technology: this process of digitization is already having a considerable impact on the creative industries, digitization transforms the way creative works are generated, disseminated and used, blurring the boundary between producers and consumers. The internet has been called a "network of networks" It is a set of protocols that allow different types of computers, operating systems and networks to be connected together: that enabled new kinds of communications, as well as cultural and social interactions. Manuel castells and the network society: manuel castells = network society, network increasingly shapes the logic of social interaction. Affordance/constraint: technologies have potential uses, there are also a set of constraints involved the awareness of new possibilities arising from a new media technology also draws attention to practical limitations in achieving these gains.
