Information Technologies and Social Orders
eBook - ePub

Information Technologies and Social Orders

  1. 312 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Information Technologies and Social Orders

About this book

According to Carl J. Couch, the history of human society is one of successive, sometimes overlapping, information technologies used to process the various symbolic representations that inform social contexts. Unlike earlier "media" theorists who ignored social context in order to concentrate on the information technologies themselves, Couch implements a consistent theory of interpersonal and intergroup relations to describe the essential interface between information technologies and the social contexts in which they are used.

Couch emphasizes the formative capacities of information technologies across historical epochs and cultures, and places them within the major institutional relations of various societies. He views social orders as reflexively shaped by the information technologies that participants use, and as susceptible to mass brutality and oppression due to oligarchic control though he hopes technology will remain humane.

The original edition of this manuscript was nearly complete at the time of Couch's death and was brought to completion by two of his closest associates. Now after two decades, during which its impact is indisputable, it has been updated for a new generation of students and scholars. Additions include discussions on books in the digital age, social media, mobile telephones, recordings, participatory culture, and more.

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Yes, you can access Information Technologies and Social Orders by Carl J. Couch, Mark D. Johns in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Communication Studies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Table of Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Information and Action: An Introduction to Carl Couch’s Analysis of Information Technologies
  9. 1 Introduction
  10. 2 Orality
  11. 3 Decorations and Depictions
  12. 4 Extending Temporal Structures
  13. 5 Numeric and Spatial Concepts
  14. 6 Bureaucratic Structures
  15. 7 Written Languages
  16. 8 Printing Books
  17. 9 Newspapers and State Structures
  18. 10 Telecommunications: Overcoming Space
  19. 11 Recorded Sounds and Sights
  20. 12 Broadcasting Sounds and Sights
  21. 13 Information-Processing Machines
  22. 14 Knowledge Centers
  23. 15 Oh, What Webs Those Phantoms Spin
  24. References
  25. About the Author
  26. About the Editor
  27. Index