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The Information Society
and Other Issues

“Information Age”

Information Society

Global village

Post-industrial society

Digital society/Wired society

Network society

Information Society

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Creation, distribution, use, integration of information is
regarded as being an important and central activity in
the economy, in political life and in culture

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Much used term in EU



EU agenda

Information Society

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Technological

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Economic

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Occupational

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Spatial

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Cultural

Technological

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So many technological innovations.....

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.....changes in society due to impact of these

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Technologically determinist – technology is the cause of
change in society

Futurist thinkers

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Toffler

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Three waves of technological innovation

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Agricultural

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Industrial

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Information

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Concept of "prosumer“: the merging of the producer and
consumer(professional–consumer)or(producer–consumer)

Futurist thinkers

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Negroponte

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Wired magazine

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Being Digital (1995)

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Predicted how the interactive world, the entertainment
world and the information world would eventually
merge

Global Village

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Marshall McLuhan

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Electronic media will
replace visual culture
(eg print media) with
aural/oral culture

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Move to a more
collective identity – a
global village

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Marshall McLuhan

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Marshall McLuhan

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Global Village: the
globalisation of
communication media has
brought the world closer
together,

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everyone is interconnected

Economic

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Growth of information industries

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Cost of data and information

Could also say….

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Information as a strategic economic resource is globally
produced and diffused by networks.

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Information is intangible. It can easily be copied, which
results in multiple ownerships

Occupational

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Most occupations are ’information work’

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Change in employment patterns can be seen

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New ideas include the creative class (see Richard
Florida ”The Rise of the Creative Class” see

www.creativeclass.com

)

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”looks at the forces reshaping our economy and how
companies, communities and people can survive and
prosper in uncertain times”

The Creative Economy (John
Howkins)

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”The creative economy is based on a new way of
thinking and doing. The primary inputs are our
individual talent or skill. These inputs may be familiar
or novel; what is more important is that our creativity
transforms them in novel ways.  In some sectors the
output value depends on their uniqueness; in others,
on how easily it can be copied and sold to large
numbers of people.”

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Brings together ideas about the creative industries, the
cultural industries, creative cities, clusters and the
creative class. 

Post-Industrial Society

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Daniel Bell

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The Coming of the Post-Industrial

Society (1973)

Post-Industrial Society

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Used widely to describe the extraordinary range of
changes that run through the social structure of the
emerging post-industrial world

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Moved to using ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’ during
the 1980s

Spatial

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Information networks and the rise of the virtual
organisation

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Key words:



global economy

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information infrastructure

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digital networks

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flexible organisations

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new means of production and consumption

Network Society

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Key writer: Manuel Castells

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A network society is a
society whose social
structure is made of
networks powered by
information and
communication
technologies

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Social Construction of
Technology (SCOT)

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Technology does not determine human action, but that
rather, human action shapes technology.

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The ways a technology is used cannot be understood
without understanding how that technology is
embedded in its social context.

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Eg SMS

Cultural

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Increase of information in society

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Variety of technologies with which to access
information

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Media laden society

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http://streetartview.com/

”Generation C”

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”the avalanche of consumer generated 'content' that is
building on the Web”

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Two main drivers fuelling this trend:

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The creative urges each consumer undeniably possesses.

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The manufacturers of content-creating tools

Futures?

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Rise of social networks/community

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Producing AND consuming media

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Equality or not?

‘Mobile Society’

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2002 marked a turning point in the history of
telecommunications – number of mobile subscribers
overtook the number of fixed-line subscribers on a
global scale, and mobile became the dominant
technology for voice communications.

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Mobile phone has moved beyond being a mere
technological object to become a key "social object"
present in every aspect of our daily lives.

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“..changed the dynamics of social networks and the
dynamics of social networks..” (Ling & Doner 2009:10)

Mobile Society

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Changing our ways of interaction eg compare the
typical land-line call to one on a mobile

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A direct and immediate channel

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“A world of technological ubiquity”

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Convenience or surveillance?

Mobile Society



Mobile devices become the remote control for our daily
lives.

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Has been said that the Mobile Society is completely
different to the industrial society. It requires a new logic
and a new way of thinking of how to create business,
civil governance, health care, and education.

Mobile Attitudes

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Mobile devices: no longer perceived as what they used
to be years ago - communication tools

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Seen as lifestyle products now

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“No matter what the service is, no matter what the
equipment may be, they need to have an element of
fun besides being useful, in order to be appealing to a
wide range of people” [NTTDoCoMo]

Delivery

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Processes are changing

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“The term “Information” society, still appropriate for
the wired nineties, has now become a tired and
vacuous concept. It still talks only about content, while
the real news is in process, not content”

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Derrick de Kerckhove, (successor of Marshall McLuhan)

Thought…

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“But the degree of participation in the media not only
concerns the availability of production and circulation
technologies, but also how visible information is, how
much attention it gains, how much difference it makes,
how much control of actual decision processes is
enabled and the degree to which the structures of
ownership, power and discourse are shaped in
participatory and cooperative ways”

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(Fuchs C (2009) European Journal of
Communication 24 (1) p 83)

McLuhan again…

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Marshall-Mcluhan-1960