Summary
Contents
Subject index
With a foreword by Norman Denzin Communication and the history of technology have invariably been examined in terms of artefacts and people. Gary Krug argues that communication technology must be studied as an integral part of culture and lived-experience. Rather than stand in awe of the apparent explosion of new technologies, this book links key moments and developments in communication technology with the social conditions of their time. It traces the evolution of technology, culture, and the self as mutually dependent and influential. This innovative approach will be welcomed by undergraduates and postgraduates needing to develop their understanding of the cultural effects of communication technology, and the history of key communication systems and techniques.
Chapter Seven: Information and Social Order: Pornography and the Public
Information and Social Order: Pornography and the Public
We are passing at present, despite certain appearances and presumptions, through an age of terrific un-culture. Never perhaps has the ordinary man been so far below his times and what they demand of him. Never has the civilized world so abounded in falsified, cheated lives. Almost nobody is poised squarely upon his proper and authentic place in life. (Ortega y Gasset 1966: 74)
The advent of computing technology as a ubiquitous part of everyday life – and this was an express aim of some early designers – fits well with the other tendencies of industrial society toward specific patterns of regularity routinization, and centralized control. Simultaneously and in various ways, it ...
- Loading...