Technoculture: From alphabet to cybersex

288 Pages·2002·1.08 MB·English

by  Lelia Green

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Technoculture
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Other books by this author
Framing Technology
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Technoculture
from alphabet to cybersex
Lelia Green
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For my mother,Paddy Green,and in memory of my father,Jimmy.
First published in 2002
Copyright © Lelia Green 2001
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means,electronic or mechanical,including photocopying,recording or by
any information storage and retrieval system,without prior permission in writing from
the publisher.The Australian Copyright Act 1968(the Act) allows a maximum of one
chapter or 10 per cent of this book,whichever is the greater,to be photocopied by any
educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational
institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright
Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
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National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Green,Lelia
Technoculture:from alphabet to cybersex.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 1 86508 048 9.
1.Technological innovations—Social aspects.
2.Diffusion of innovations.I.Title.
303.483
Set in Bembo 11.5/13 pt by Midland Typesetters,Maryborough,Victoria
Printed by South Wind Productions,Singapore
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
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C
ONTENTS
Figures and tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Glossary and abbreviations xiv
Introduction xxv
1 What fuels technology change? 1
The mythology of technology • Is technology neutral?
Mythology and gun control • Technology’s relationship to
power and privilege • The method and the mythology of the
electric light bulb • The ABC of technological advantage
• Progress—for whom? • Being postmodern • The challenge
of change • Conclusion
2 Technology adoption and diffusion 21
Piecing together an understanding of technoculture • The
social control of the telephone • Discourse analysis and
the social biography of things • The expectation and experi-
ence of technology use • The theories of adoption and
diffusion • High and low involvement in technology adoption
• Adopter characteristics • Factors which affect product
diffusion • Interpersonal influence • Opinion leaders
• VALS (Values and lifestyles segmentation) • Conclusion
3 Domestication of technologies 43
What is a ‘domesticated technology’? • Integrating
technology into the household • Imagining community
• Boundary markers • Technology as a boundary-breaker
• Power and consumption • Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Applying Maslow’s theory to online behaviour • Household
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vi(cid:1) Contents
validation and the exploration of experience • Researching
the dream • Conclusion
4 Fragmenting mass media in the postmodern
information society 61
The massification of media and information • Time,space
and communication • Media effects? • The objectivity of
the media • The media and globalisation • The local in the
global • Postmodernism and the information society
• Postmodernism,peasants and the proletariat • The
information economy • Commodification in the postmodern
• Conclusion
5 Information policy in the information society 78
The nature of information • From chaos to wisdom • The
technologically convergent society • Filling the blank area in
mediated communications • The information workforce
• Information and education • Bureaucracy and information
• The central data bank • Privacy,information security and
freedom of information • Copyright and intellectual property
rights • Conclusion
6 The public interest and the information divide 99
The public interest • Justifying the public interest
• Redefining the public interest • Information poverty
• Information access • Transition,stress and information
poverty • The information divide • The thoroughly modern
First,Second and Third Worlds • Building information wealth:
Malaysia • Conclusion
7 Mass media and the public sphere 116
The public sphere • Habermas’ideal of a public sphere
• Government,citizenship,information and the public sphere
• Cyberspace and the public sphere • The public sphere and
national identity • Technology in an Indigenous public sphere
• The social sphere and imagined community • Particularistic
media and the micro public sphere • Conclusion
8 Communication policy and regulation 133
Regulation as a contest of interests • Regulating
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telecommunications:the language of debate • A global
information infrastructure • Regulation and national identity
• Regulating freedoms of speech and communication
• Undermining government:media and communications
underground • Regulating the access and dissemination of
information • Moral panics • Conclusion
9 Popular culture in technoculture 153
Popular culture and the public sphere • Constructing popular
culture • Television in popular culture:The Young and the
Restless • Popular culture on the Internet • Interactivity and
technoculture • The importance of popular culture
broadcasting in people’s lives • Internet community and
popular culture • Cyborgs and science fiction • Conclusion
10 Gender, power and technology 171
Gendered competence with technology • Gendering
technology • Fear of technology • The masculine world of
the hacker • Power and compulsion on the Internet • What
about cybersex? • Gender and harassment on the Internet
• Gender in Internet culture • Gendering postmodern media
consumption • Conclusion
11 Making sense of being in cyberspace 192
Getting connected to cyberspace • Some Internet definitions
• A taxonomy of cyberspace? • Screening the senses in
cyberspace • Feeling your way on the Internet • Hate on the
Net • Panicking about morality • Is cyberspace brain-
changing? • Conclusion
12 Technoculture and social organisation 211
Work and gender in the information society • Is the
postmodern female? • The full-time part-time woman
• The modern man • Metaphor • Technocultural
technology • Technocultural policy • Technocultural culture
• Technocultural society
References 231
Index 243
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F
IGURES AND TABLES
FIGURES
11.1 Wise old woman:‘the crone’,and/or young woman 16
with feathered cap and choker
11.2 Mystery image 17
12.1 Relative take-up rates of different communications 28
media in the United States
12.2 Diffusion rate of innovation over time 29
12.3 Adoption categories for the diffusion of an innovation 33
over time
12.4 Social dynamics of opinion leadership and opinion 38
seeking
12.5 Involvement and product knowledge related to the 38
seeking of advice from an opinion leader
12.6 The VALS2 classification system 40
13.1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 55
15.1 Screen grab from an online session 81
15.2 Chaos–wisdom continuum 82
15.3 New electronic media ‘blank area’ 86
15.4 Australian labour force in paid employment,four-sector 86
analysis,1891–2000
15.5 Percentage of the workforce engaged in different 87
industry sectors:United States (1820–1995)
15.6 Percentage of the workforce engaged in different 88
industry sectors:United Kingdom (1801–1995)
18.1 The western regulatory cycle 135
10.1 Internet users by females and males,according to skill 176
level
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x(cid:1) Figures and Tables
12.1 Male/female participation in paid employment in 214
Australia 1947–2000
12.2 Part-time employment as a percentage of total 215
employed,by gender,in Australia,New Zealand and
Canada 1995
TABLES
12.1 Factors affecting product diffusion 33
14.1 A comparison of modern and postmodern characteristics 71
14.2 A comparison of information society with agricultural 74
and industrial society
15.1 Worldwide online users by geographical area 88
16.1 Discourses relating to the First World/Third World 111
divide
19.1 Communities of broadcast versus communities of 161
interactivity
11.1 Some common emoticons 195