Reshaping Communications: Technology, IInformation and Social Change
London et al.: Sage (2001), 302 pp.
Contains bibliogr. pp. 277-292, index
ISBN 978-1-84787-666-9 (ebook); 978-0-8039-8563-6 (print)
"Thirty years ago, one writer complained that 'to admire technology is all out of fashion'. Today excited claims are made for the impact that these technologies are having on social, political and economic life. But how are we to assess these claims? This book critically interrogates many of the prevailing ideas offers a fresh perspective on this new 'digital age'. Reshaping Communications provides an alternative and more grounded account of the complex interplay between new technology and information structures and changes in society; illuminates the fundamental continuities as well as changes in socioeconomic and political processes; draws on an interdisciplinary perspective." (Publisher description)
PART I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
1 Information Superhighways or Superhypeways: Image of a New Social and Media Order, 1
PART II. COMPETING THEORIES OF THE CONTEMPORARY
2 Third-Wave Visions: Technology as Social Transformer, 23
3 An Archaeology of Information (Sector) Matters, 43
4 'Information Society' Theories, 63
5 Culture and Information: Postmodernisms and the Public Sphere, 78
PART III. MAPPING A NEW MILLENNIUM AND MULTIMEDIA ORDER
6 Changes, Continuities and Cycles: Towards a more Realist(ic) Theory, 107
7 The 'Atoms and Bits' of Informational Capitalism, 135
8 Polarities: New Modes of Work, Consumption and State Regimes, 161
9 'Content is King'?: New Media Innovations and 'Mature' Media, 188
10 Information as a New Frontier: Commodification and Consumption Stakes, 228
PART IV. ALTERNATIVE PROSPECTS AND POSSIBILITIES
11 Beyond Technological Fetishism: Towards a New Social and Media Order @Y2K+, 259
1 Information Superhighways or Superhypeways: Image of a New Social and Media Order, 1
PART II. COMPETING THEORIES OF THE CONTEMPORARY
2 Third-Wave Visions: Technology as Social Transformer, 23
3 An Archaeology of Information (Sector) Matters, 43
4 'Information Society' Theories, 63
5 Culture and Information: Postmodernisms and the Public Sphere, 78
PART III. MAPPING A NEW MILLENNIUM AND MULTIMEDIA ORDER
6 Changes, Continuities and Cycles: Towards a more Realist(ic) Theory, 107
7 The 'Atoms and Bits' of Informational Capitalism, 135
8 Polarities: New Modes of Work, Consumption and State Regimes, 161
9 'Content is King'?: New Media Innovations and 'Mature' Media, 188
10 Information as a New Frontier: Commodification and Consumption Stakes, 228
PART IV. ALTERNATIVE PROSPECTS AND POSSIBILITIES
11 Beyond Technological Fetishism: Towards a New Social and Media Order @Y2K+, 259
