SU 2023 - NATS 1505 - Unit 1 - Understanding ICTs.pptx

NATS 1505 UNIT 1: UNDERSTANDING COMPUTERS, INFORMATION AND SOCIETY(ICTs) DR. VERA PAVRI @ 2023 1 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  In today’s word, human activity is constantly described using computer (and machine) metaphors  Examples: “b...

NATS 1505 UNIT 1: UNDERSTANDING COMPUTERS, INFORMATION AND SOCIETY(ICTs) DR. VERA PAVRI @ 2023 1 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  In today’s word, human activity is constantly described using computer (and machine) metaphors  Examples: “brain is like a computer, people “multitask,” and scientists are searching for the human genetic “code”  Technology = computers in the eyes of many people  Yet ironically, computers were originally people – not machines 2 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  Computing was a kind of occupation – Oxford English Dictionary “one who computes; a calculator…specifically a person employed to make calculations in an observatory, in surveying, etc…”  Idea of using computers to store and manipulate information goes back to another profession – clerks, who in their time did activities such as write entries, keep accounts and copy documents  According to Campbell-Kelly et al. (2014), “the electronic computer can be said to combine the roles of the human computer and human clerk” 3 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  While computers are a kind of machine, there is one difference – machines are often designed to perform a particular task, while computers are a kind of universal machine thanks to applications software  This means that while the “hardware” of most computers is essentially the same, these devices can do many different things based on the software being used such as word processing, video gaming or communicating with family and friends 4 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  According to Ensmenger (2012), we cannot underestimate importance of software as this is what “defines our relationship to the computer” and is “what we experience when we interact with the machine”  The different technologies we will explore in this class are digital representations of “information and communications technologies” (as opposed to newspapers or books, for example) 5 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  The umbrella term information and communication technologies (ICTs) is used to describe any technology or technological system which is used to gather, retrieve, transmit, convey, manipulate, store, process or analyze information by electronic methods  These devices use binary code to store and communicate data – digital data is also a format that makes it easy to capture, analyze, manipulate and transform information 6 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  Generally, the major benefit of ICTs includes the ability to access information and communication over various platforms – overcome physical “boundaries” of time and space  This allows for a great deal of interconnectivity amongst different technologies that share this same “architecture” 7 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  Ensmenger (2012): “most modern digital devices contain their own tiny microprocessor computer and therefore share a collective family resemblance. Many of the same hardware and software technologies that can be found in the internals of your laptop computer can also be found in your cell phone, digital camera and high-definition LED television.” 8 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  This definition of ICTs often emphasizes the unification or convergence and integration of telecommunications with computing systems  Another idea to remember is that computers and modern-day ICTs represent a blending (convergence) of old and new technologies  Electronic digital computers: systematic operations, numerical calculating, data storage and retrieval, manage and control information 9 1. What are Computer and Information Technologies?  ICTs like internet and smartphones: computers, broadcasting (radio, TV), telecom (telegraphs, telephones), film, photography  Exploring the relationship between digitized information technologies and society is about understanding how individuals and institutions have been shaped by these systems and conversely, how these technologies have been shaped by people and organizations 10 2. How are modern ICTs different from traditional computing and communication systems? 1. Telecommunications 2. Broadcasting 3. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) 11 Computing Traditional Traditional Information and Technologies Telecom Broadcasting Communication Technologies (ICTs) Information Examples: Examples: Radio, Example: Internet, Processing (e.g. Telegraphs, TV Smartphones financial analysis, Telephones accounting using Point to Point, Point to Mass, spreadsheets) Point to Point Point to Mass Mass to Mass (multiple Systems (single System (single senders, multiple receivers) Managing, sender, single sender, multiple Controlling, Storage receiver) receivers) and Retrieval of Multiple methods of Information communication and (e.g. databases) Two-way One way information processing communications communication (Calling, Texting, IM, SNS, Document Twitter, Blogs, YouTube, Preparation Websites, Forums, Gaming, (e.g. word Watching/Listening to processing) Producers Programs) different from Mainframes -> receivers Minicomputers -> Less boundaries between Personal Computers producers and receivers -> Computer Networks Anonymous Less anonymity (digital receivers footprint) 12 2. How are modern ICTs different from traditional computing and communication systems?  Early computers were essentially “calculating machines” and information processors  The idea of using computers in areas like document preparation did not really occur until the advent of personal computers, and the idea of using computers for communicating with others was only a possibility with the rise of computer networks  communication technologies have historically been divided into two types: telecommunications and broadcasting 13 2. How are modern ICTs different from traditional computing and communication systems?  telecom: telegraphs, landlines and cell phones  features: communications are point to point – messages are sent from one sender to single recipient  broadcasting: radio and television 14 2. How are modern ICTs different from traditional computing and communication systems?  features: point to mass (many), messages are sent from known sender (think radio or television station) to multiple anonymous recipients; no interactivity between producer of message (sender) and message receiver  new communication platforms are different because they a) blur boundaries between technologies (think internet and cell phone usage) and b) open-up new ways of communicating such as many to many (online forums) 15 2. How are modern ICTs different from traditional computing and communication systems?  in addition, sender of message no longer a known entity – anonymity is possible  biggest change may be possibility of interactivity between producers and recipients (YouTube, Wikipedia, blogs) 16  3. What are popular theories that attempt to explain the relationship between ICTs and Society? One popular (yet problematic) theory is Technological Determinism 17 I. Defining Technological Determinism  Technological determinism is a viewpoint that regards technology as the prime agent of social and organizational change  Technology is seen as an independent entity that changes and shapes society. It is an “autonomous force” that once invented, appears to have a “life of its own” 18 I. Defining Technological Determinism  Idea that technology is “cause” of social, political, economic and cultural change is the central element in determinist theories of technological change  Technology is the “driving force of history” that has revolutionary impact on relatively passive societies  With determinism, the relationship between technology and society is a ONE-WAY STREET 19 I. Defining Technological Determinism  According to Claude Fischer, the most popular form of determinism is a “billiard ball” approach which sees technology (the white billiard ball) as exerting a force upon society (the colored balls) which produces a series of chain or ricochet events  Once an object is invented, artifact then transforms society and the way humans interact with one another; central to this idea is that humans have almost no control over a tech once it has been built 20 I. Defining Technological Determinism  theorists often labelled as “soft” or “hard determinists”  McLuhan and determinism - Croteau et. al: “each medium was seen to shape our senses in such a way that certain social outcomes would be almost inevitable” 21  II. Problems with Technological Determinism - Simplicity  Ideas of technological determinism are most pervasive in popular discourse (especially about ICTs), and one reason is because the theory offers people simple, easy to understand ideas about very complex events in society  In each case a complex event is made to seem the “inescapable yet strikingly plausible result of a technological innovation” 22  II. Problems with Technological Determinism - Simplicity  Example: the internet “caused” the rise of Arab spring  Technological determinists have been criticized for simplifying what is a far more complex relationship between society and technological change 23  II. Problems with Technological Determinism – Humans can’t “control” technology  What makes determinist accounts of technological change frightening is also what makes them appealing: while technologies may appear to be out of control, humans are in turn absolved of their own responsibilities regarding the impact of technological development  Determinists thus fail to see technologies as part of a pattern of social and cultural use 24  II. Problems with Technological Determinism – Humans can’t “control” technology  Example: the introduction of new information technologies caused the company to lay off 100 employees  In this sentence, who is being blamed for the lay offs? Which group is missing from the discussion? 25 III. Alternate Theories to Technological Determinism  Theories such as the social construction of technology (SCOT) and the social shaping of technology (SST) have been developed to refute the notion of technological determinism  With these theories, human agency determines the shape of new technologies 26 III. Alternate Theories to Technological Determinism  Generally, these theorists argue that determinists place technology outside society, and neglect to account for the human factor in technological innovation  These theorists criticize technological determinism as universalistic; it does not account for the fact that technological development, innovation and use varies within different groups and cultures 27 III. Alternate Theories to Technological Determinism  According to historians Williams and Edge, “choices are inherent in both the design of individual artifacts and systems and in the direction or trajectory of innovation programs”  These choices may be related to technology architecture or design, laws, social norms and market forces 28 III. Alternate Theories to Technological Determinism  While these theories have sometimes been criticized for ignoring the impact of technology altogether, they do acknowledge that the relationship between technology and society is more of a TWO- WAY street than determinism does  Merritt Roe Smith (1985): technologies have a social impact, but they are also a social “product” 29  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes) A. Users Shaping New Technology  One of the biggest misconceptions about technological development is that inventors know what their technology will be used for  In reality, inventors of a technology may not always know how users will respond to their technology – uses are not fixed or predictable 30  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes)  Pfaffenberger (1998): “Economists think that technological innovation is a response to a need… (yet) studies of actual innovations often show that inventors must construct a meaning framework for their artifact to create a need that did not previously exist”  Cara Wallis (2006): “users also determine how a technology is deployed according to how they decode and appropriate the actual technological device” 31  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes)  instead of inventors, it is often users themselves that often determine how a technology will be used and what shape it will take  unintended consequences of using new technologies  social, cultural factors play large role in success or failure of new techs  Examples: telephone, radio, personal computer, internet 32  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes) B. Managing and Controlling ICTs  Although most people know how to use information and communication technologies, they rarely think about the corporations that control these systems  Who controls these technologies and how do they do so?  Examples: corporations use patents, standards, monopolies while governments often use laws, regulations and policy to regulate technology 33  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes) C. Technology and Issues of Race, Class, Culture and Gender  If technologies do not have a universal impact, then how have they been shaped or impacted by different groups in society?  How does gender, race, culture or socioeconomic status influence how someone responds to ICTs?  Examples: early female “computers”, gender and gaming, the digital divide 34  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes) D. The relationship between old and new technologies  a common misconception with the introduction of new technologies (especially media systems) is that a new technology immediately supplants the older one and that there is little connection between these systems  this is often connected to thinking of technologies as having a revolutionary impact on society (think determinism) 35  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes)  in fact, examining the history of ICTs shows us that there is a very strong correlation between old and new systems  in many cases, new technologies are often used similarly to existing ones, and it will take time before different uses are determined for the system  in addition, major corporations which own one system will often play a major role when the next technology comes around 36  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes)  as such, we need to start thinking of the relationship as evolutionary – not revolutionary  Examples: radio and television vs. Web 2.0 in terms of content creation and interactivity (1% and 90-9-1 rules)  Cara Wallis (2006) – relationship between old and new technologies can be understood via “amplification” 37  4. Understanding ICTs and Society (Course Themes)  Amplification – uses of a newer technology might not necessarily be different from an older one but is “amplified” because of technological differences (think landlines versus cell phones) 38