CCGL9011 Media in the Age of

Globalization

Technology, media, and society

Dr. King-wa FU
Journalism and Media Studies Centre
Site: https://sites.google.com/site/fukingwa/
Is Social Media a Fad?
Social Dilemma
 In-class Exercise

What do these videos really tell us

about the role of
media/technology in the society?
Person of the Year - YOU
 Person of the Year - YOU
• “It's a tool for bringing together the small
contributions of millions of people and
making them matter. Silicon Valley
consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a
new version of some old software. But it's
really a revolution.

TIME magazine (2007)

 Characteristics of Digital Technologies

• Huge data storage

• High speed transmission
• Networked
• Mobility
• Individualized and non-hierarchical structure
• Decentralized and distributed network
• Exchange and sharing
• Personalized and non-linear
• Visual, graphical, and game-based
• Collaborative
 Web 2.0 and Social Media
• Web 2.0 – using web as a platform whereby content and
applications are no longer created and published by
individuals, but instead are continuously modified by all
users in a participatory and collaborative fashion.

• Social Media - a set of “web-services that allow individuals,

communities, and organizations to collaborate, connect,
interact, and build community by enabling them to create,
co-create, modify, share, and engage with user-generated
content that is easily accessible.”

Kaplan, Andreas M., & Haenlein, Michael. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social
Media. Business Horizons
McCay-Peet L. and Quan-Haase A., "What is Social Media and What Questions Can Social Media Research Help Us
Answer?," in The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods, L. McCay-Peet and A. Quan-Haase, Eds. London:
SAGE reference, 2017, pp. 13-26.
 Web3
• “Instead of a Web monopolized by large
technology companies, Web3 embraces
decentralization and is being built,
operated, and owned by its users. Web3
puts power in the hands of individuals
rather than corporations.”

ethereum.org
 Technological Determinism
“A technological deterministic viewpoint would
suggest that such technologies have tremendous
and direct effects on the society that adopts them.
Technological determinism is a perspective that
argues the primary agent of change in the world is
technology. Technology dominates society. The
cause-and-effect relationship is central to
understanding technological determinism.”

Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication

 Model of Communication

Lasswell, H. D. (1948). The structure and function of communication in society. The communication of
ideas, 37(1), 136-39.
 Marshall Mcluhan
“Medium is the Message”
Each medium, independent of the
content it mediates, has its own
intrinsic effects which are its unique
message.

The message of any medium or

technology is the change of scale or
pace or pattern that it introduces into
human affairs – extensions of
CC by a t r i u m human being

“The new electronic interdependence

recreates the world in the image of a
global village.”
 Question:
Will you
marry me?

Do these two ways to propose

carry the same “message”?
 The Medium is the Message (Mcluhan, 1964)

Introduction of
Effect
New Technology

Accelerated and enlarged the

The Railroad scale of previous human function
Created new cities, works,
and leisure activities

Transformed the structure

The Electric Light of time, space, and work

Internet Created “community”

Built trust
 Question:

What would have happened if “Gang Nam Style”

(Message) was NOT on Youtube (Medium)?
Original Message of “Gang Nam Style”

• “The video is "a satire about Gangnam itself but also it's
about how people outside Gangnam pursue their dream
to be one of those Gangnam residents without even
realizing what it really means," …….. Koreans "really
wanted to be one of them," but that feeling is changing,
and "Gangnam Style" captures people's ambivalence.”

Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation
“Gangnam Style” Parodies
 Social Construction of Technology
• Society is an autonomous force that changes
technology;
• Social context is important when describing the
development of science and technology;
• Various groups shape the meaning associated
with a given technological artifact and influence
how the technology is used
• In a radical form, the content of science and
technology is socially constructed;

Bijker, Wiebe E. "Technology, Social Construction of." The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Donsbach,
Wolfgang (ed). Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Blackwell Reference Online. 13 July 2017
 Digital utopianism
• “They are easily spotted by the common, often
unexamined, assertion that computing technologies are
the single most important vehicles for moving us out of
the “dark ages” and into the twenty-first century. Such
utopian accounts are bloodless, portraying social
change without reference to the battles staged and the
consequent winners and losers”

• Computerization movements and tales of technological utopianism (Lacono & Kling, 1996)
Digital Natives
Generational Gap
 Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

• “It is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous

environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with
it (technology), today’s students think and process
information fundamentally differently from their
predecessors.”

• “Those of us who were not born into the digital world but
have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated
by and adopted many or most aspects of the new
technology are… Digital Immigrants.”

Marc Prensky (2001)

 Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

“Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an

outdated language (that of the pre-digital age),
are struggling to teach a population that
speaks an entirely new language.”

Marc Prensky (2001)

 Critique
• Societal influence of technology per se is
excessively emphasized
• Is technology itself the only driving force of the
social change regardless of circumstance or
context?
• Young people’s engagements with digital
technologies varied and are often unspectacular.
• Digital divide – socio-economic status, gender,
class, and geography
Neil Selwyn, (2009),"The digital native - myth and reality"
The Power of the Internet in China
A tool of democracy?
Internet Penetration in China (Urban/Rural)

Urban Rural
 Government Control and
Censorship

“According to relevant laws,

regulations and policies, the
search results were not shown.”
Example: Search Engine
 Example: AI
• Broader used in
crime investigation
and security
• Racial bias, i.e.
error rate varies
with respect to skin
color or gender
Public Policy: Internet Learning Service
 Does it work?
Government’s target Reality
(2010) (as of Mar 31, 2013)

• About 410 000 primary • No. of families served:

and secondary 17,652
students from some • No. of computers sold:
300 000 low-income 6,422
families can benefit
from the programme. • No. of Internet access
packages sold: 3,370
 Summary
• Rethink the role of digital media in social
change
– Media hypes like “digital whatsoever”,
“Generation XYZ”, “Web X.0”
• No single cause for social change – the role
of social context
• Reexamine the social impact carefully in
consideration of context and circumstance
In-class Quiz
 In-class Activity
Instructions
• Your grade is assessed on the basis of your
arguments/suggestions, not your position.
• Grade Descriptors
– 5 - Sophisticated understanding of the issues about media freedom
– 4 - Clear understanding of the issues about media freedom
– 3 - Understanding of the issues about media freedom
– 2 - Bare minimum understanding of the issues about media freedom
– 1 - Little or no understanding of the issues about media freedom

• Your grade is assessed on the basis of quality not

quantity.
• Max length per point: 500 characters
 Week 5 In-class Activity: Technology, media, and society

• XYZ Daily run a news story headlined “Smartphone turns you to be an

addict.” The main body of story reads,
• “Many people were found to suffer from a form of smartphone addictive
symptoms, including inability to stop using the device and losing interest in
physical social contact;”
• “Most of these addicts spent long time on smartphone everyday and felt upset
when receiving no message from their friends. Severe addicts can die by suicide;”
• “A psychologist described this as “smartphone addiction” and explained the digital
device can cause a healthy person to become addicted to the technology.”

• You have 30 minutes to prepare a 5 bullet-point letter-to-editor

response to XYZ Daily.
• Your response is expected to:
• Indicate whether you agree or disagree with the main message of the story:
Smartphone (as a technology) causes people to become addict;
• Explain your position;
• Make suggestions

• Your grade is assessed on the basis of your arguments/suggestions, not

your position.