Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and Inside
In the process of continual change from the hand axe to the factory and now to industrial production 4.0, technology has had, and still has, two basically invariable functions: control and rationalisation. Each of these two terms is to be understood in a very comprehensive sense, in technical, engin...
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| Format: | Article |
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Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group
2015-09-01
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| Series: | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
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| Online Access: | https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/698 |
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| author | Jörg Becker |
| author_facet | Jörg Becker |
| author_sort | Jörg Becker |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the process of continual change from the hand axe to the factory and now to industrial production 4.0, technology has had, and still has, two basically invariable functions: control and rationalisation. Each of these two terms is to be understood in a very comprehensive sense, in technical, engineering, commercial, legal and also social terms. This tenet also applies to television and to information technology.
In my lecture, the terms “above” and “below” stand for a model of social stratification; they stand for capital and labour. The terms “outside” and “inside” stand for the external conditions of the class struggle from “above” and “below”. The external conditions mean the social and the inside conditions mean the psychological environment.
Both television and information technology rely on content and organisational forms that run from above to below (from top to bottom). Moreover, contrary to Gutenberg’s invention of moving letters, today innovations in the media and IT fields no longer run from the bottom up, but only from the top down. While television conditions the individual from outside, users of social media internalise that same conditioning as a liberation from constraints. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b9f4d2b4763e449bb9b0e907e8ac8fc8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1726-670X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2015-09-01 |
| publisher | Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
| spelling | doaj-art-b9f4d2b4763e449bb9b0e907e8ac8fc82025-08-20T03:39:18ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X2015-09-0113210.31269/triplec.v13i2.698698Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and InsideJörg BeckerIn the process of continual change from the hand axe to the factory and now to industrial production 4.0, technology has had, and still has, two basically invariable functions: control and rationalisation. Each of these two terms is to be understood in a very comprehensive sense, in technical, engineering, commercial, legal and also social terms. This tenet also applies to television and to information technology. In my lecture, the terms “above” and “below” stand for a model of social stratification; they stand for capital and labour. The terms “outside” and “inside” stand for the external conditions of the class struggle from “above” and “below”. The external conditions mean the social and the inside conditions mean the psychological environment. Both television and information technology rely on content and organisational forms that run from above to below (from top to bottom). Moreover, contrary to Gutenberg’s invention of moving letters, today innovations in the media and IT fields no longer run from the bottom up, but only from the top down. While television conditions the individual from outside, users of social media internalise that same conditioning as a liberation from constraints.https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/698information societycontrolmediainformation technology |
| spellingShingle | Jörg Becker Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and Inside tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique information society control media information technology |
| title | Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and Inside |
| title_full | Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and Inside |
| title_fullStr | Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and Inside |
| title_full_unstemmed | Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and Inside |
| title_short | Media and Information Technology in Ten Years’ Time: A Society of Control Both from Above and Below, and From Outside and Inside |
| title_sort | media and information technology in ten years time a society of control both from above and below and from outside and inside |
| topic | information society control media information technology |
| url | https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/698 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jorgbecker mediaandinformationtechnologyintenyearstimeasocietyofcontrolbothfromaboveandbelowandfromoutsideandinside |