Week 6: Technological determinism

Question 1

Society and technology

Answer 1

To state the obvious:
Technology has transformed history
Technology has transformed society
Television, radio, etc

Question 2

Society and technology

Answer 2

Technological determinism
R&D new technologies social change and progress
Counterargument: intention in R&D
Symptomatic technologies
Technologies as symptoms of change
Counterargument: intention in R&D is direct: where social needs, purposes and practices are central

Question 3

Telegraph radio

Answer 3

Early telegraphy: used beacons to create signals – eg: beacons at sea, flags for navigation and naval warfare
Electrical telegraphy as a system was suggested in 1753, but the Admiralty was uninterested.
Railways, industrial system and cities need for improved telegraphy
Radio was conceived as an advanced form of telegraphy: within already effective social systems

Question 4

Social history of technology

Answer 4

The development of the telegraph and radio is not representative, as technologies are not always readily available.
Many needs are beyond the scope of existing technologies. (think of needed cures for deadly diseases, and teleporting from your bed to class)
Such needs must correspond with the priorities of decision-makers to attract R&D, political will and funding

Question 5

Social history of technology

Answer 5

The ensuing communications technologies arising therefore are based on social teaching and control
The institutions (church, schools, assemblies, proclamation, work) conducting social teaching and control interact with family communications (most obviously – looking at how religious teachings and institutional controls, interact with family communications)

Question 6

Social history of technology

Answer 6

Britain – communications systems for transmitting simple orders pre-existed the following crises:
Civil War and Commonwealth – which defined the newspaper form
Industrial Revolution – which established new forms of popular journalism
20th century wars – which established newspapers as a universal social form

Question 7

Social history of technology

Answer 7

Need for new form beyond church and school, incorporating the following processes:
Orienting
Predicting
Updating
Press became not only a new communications system, but an entire social institution in itself.

Question 8

Press developments

Answer 8

Industrial Revolution gave rise to the following anxieties:
New class relations
Less priority placed on church, school, family teachings and societal opinions (still important, but changing)
Increased mobility and change – no longer mere ideas, but becoming lived experiences

Need for new informations and orientations
Need for photography to maintain close connections (think of Skype)
A different relationship to places and things because of photography

Question 9

Broadcasting developments

Answer 9

Modern industrialisation, urbanisation and capitalism gave rise to the paradox of mobility and self-sufficiency in the home.
The radio is an expression of the two:
Mobility – the ability to go out and satisfy one’s curiosity
Mobile privatisation – mobile yet home-centred, reflecting the need for new forms of contact and ways of obtaining information

Question 10

Broadcasting developments

Answer 10

Raymond Williams argues that broadcasting is a new and powerful form of social control: socially, commercially and politically manipulative
Nazi Germany: people were assembled to listen to radio broadcasts, similar plans were made for TV broadcasts
‘Broadcasting’ was replaced by ‘mass communications’ significant because we came to associate the listeners (ie: the mass) with mobs