Lecture 1: Introduction, Utopian and Dystopian views on media infiltration (Martin Tanis)

Question 1

What are the changes that we have seen happening the last decade?

Answer 1

How we entertain and inform ourselves, how we interact and how we buy / consume.

Question 2

How do we inform ourselves? (New consumption landscape)

Answer 2

(More) online news and use of social media (and a decrease in print media (old media) and in (broadcast television)

Question 3

What is a utopian perspective?

Answer 3

A community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities (for its citizen)

Question 4

What is a dystopian perspective?

Answer 4

A community or society that is undesirable of frightening (more negative)

Question 5

What are the functions of a utopian worldview?

Answer 5

• Optimism about the future
• Strong belief in technological development
• Push to invest in technological development
• Cultural change toward individual empowerment

Question 6

What is the definition of a Industrial Revolution?

Answer 6

A rapid major change in an economy marked by the general introduction of power-driven machinery or by an important change in the prevailing types and methods of use of such machines.

Question 7

How many Industrial Revolutions? What characterizes these revolutions?

Answer 7

• First (1784): Mechanical production, railroads, steam power
• Second (1870): Mass production, electrical power, assembly line
• Third (1969): Automated production, electronics, computers
• Fourth (now): AI, Big Data, Robotics (and more to come)