CMST 1A03 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Andrew Feenberg, Substantivism, Technological Determinism

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: CMST 1A03
• Professor: Dilyana Mincheva

Document Summary

Readings 6 chapter 6 (communication technology and society) Andrew feenberg: provides an account on the major frameworks people have used to think about technology, provides four main ways about understanding technology, instrumentalism: Views technology as a value-neutral tool that can shorten paths to ends or social goals technology = a means to an end and can be used for whatever purpose we choose: technological determinism: Technology operates according to inexorable logic inherent in the technology itself. Technology has an autonomous function that can be explained without society: substantivism: Claims that technology operates according to its own inherent logic, but this logic does not necessarily represent progress or improvement. View the modern condition as reflective of the essence of modern technology: critical theory: Insists that we have chocies about how we develop technology, shape its development, use it, and engage with it to a greater or lesser extent: constructivism: Argue that technology is socially constructed and shaped by social forces.