topical media & game development
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

talk show tell print

research directions -- the information society

There is no doubt about it, we live in an information society. But do we know what an information society is?

In  [History] (p. 187), the functions of the media are summarized as

functions of media


information, education, entertainment

So, perhaps, we could better state that we live in a media society. So far, in the latter part of the previous century, television has dominated our lives, and observe that (following Ernie Kovack, cited from  [History]):

medium


television is a medium 'because it is neither rare nor well done'

Back to the main issues, what is an information society? According to  [History]:

information society


the new term 'information society' gave form to a cluster of hitherto more loosely related aspects of communication -- knowledge, news, literature, entertainment, all exchanged through different media and different media materials -- paper, ink, canvas, paint, celluloid, cinema, radio, television and computers.

From the 1960s onwards, all messages, public and private, verbal and visual, began to be considered as 'data', information that could be transmitted, collected, recorded, whatever their point of origin, most effective through electronic technology.

So, from the varieties of perspectives we have discerned, including technological perspectives, societal perspectives and psychological perspectives, we must investigate the problem of communication:

communication


  • what -- content
  • who -- control
  • whom -- audience (how many)
That is, simply, who says what to whom in what channel with what effect?! The remainder of the book will, however, will treat these issues mainly from a technological perspective. In the chapters that follow, we will enquire after the technological assumptions that make an information society possible.
[] readme course(s) preface I 1 2 II 3 4 III 5 6 7 IV 8 9 10 V 11 12 afterthought(s) appendix reference(s) example(s) resource(s) _

(C) Æliens 04/09/2009

You may not copy or print any of this material without explicit permission of the author or the publisher. In case of other copyright issues, contact the author.