Dr.

Ken Chu Assistant Professor

thchu@hksyu.edu 1
• What are the new features of information society?

• What is new about social media?

• What is new about new media?

• Generative AI and Useful AI Tools

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• Today’s buzzword is “social media”, but the past
buzzword is “information society”

• We have been living in an “information society” (資訊社

會) in the past few decades

• With the rise of the internet in the 1990s, Information

has become more central to our lives
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WHAT IS INFORMATION SOCIETY?

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§ Informationsociety is not only about the abundance of information, but also
about the transformation of social structure
§ Five aspects of information society:
1. Technological
2. Economic
3. Occupational
4. Spatial
5. Cultural
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(1) Technological

• Information society is characterized by the dominance of

information communication technologies (ICTs)

• Agricultural Society→ Industrial Society → Information Society

Different dominant technologies in different eras

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Agricultural society (農業社會):
• Sickle (鐮刀), plough (犁)

Industrial society (工業社會):

• Steam power, internal
combustion engine,
electricity, assembly line

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Information society

• Computer
• Mobile/Smart phone
• Tablet
• Internet/Wi-Fi/5G
• Router
• USB Flash drive
• Cloud Computing …
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(2) Economic
• Information society is supported by an
“information economy”
• E.g., IT industry Silicon Valley
• E.g., Professional services

• Information has become the “economic

currency”

• Who owns the information (the

technologies of producing and distributing 10
information) will be the richest
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Is Hong Kong
an “information
society” from
an economic
perspective?

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(3) Occupational

• With the rise of information economy, we now have more

information-related jobs and less manufacturing jobs
• What kinds of jobs are information-related jobs?
E.g., Data analyst
E.g., Information security officer
E.g., Network engineer
E.g., Computer graphic designer
E.g., VR/ AR developers
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From factory girls to IT
workers, we see the
transformation of Hong
Kong from an industrial
society to an information
society

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• Information/ Tech-related jobs are not necessarily good-
paying jobs
• There are hierarchies among the information/ tech workers

High-end work
• Data analyst
• Engineers

Low-end work
• Call center workers
• Social media content reviewers
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(4) Spatial

• Centrality of information networks in

linking different locations

• Easier information access and

acceleration of information
exchange across long distances

• People are living in a so-called

“global village”

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(5) Cultural

• Information society refers

to the media-
laden/saturated society

• Explosion of information
and cultural products in
our daily
lives(advertisements,
online drama series, etc.) 23
WHAT IS INFORMATION
SOCIETY?
Professional contents
E.g. legacy media organizations
User-generated/ Amateurish
contents
E.g., YouTube channels
E.g., Discord, Twitch
E.g., Telegram
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The information society and the internet itself is a
“techno-social system”

• Understanding the internet and its impacts requires

us to look beyond the technological
• It also requires us to look at other social aspects
which are all affected by technologies
Economic
Occupational
Spatial
Cultural 25
• From information society to platform society
• Prevalence and growing importance of digital platforms

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Most of the things we do nowadays are mediated
through computer/digital platforms/social media

• E.g., News consumption

• E.g., Shopping
• E.g., Food delivery
• E.g., Transport
• E.g., Finance and wealth management
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WHAT ARE SOCIAL MEDIA?
• What is “social” about social media?
• Are these media “social media”?

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The different meanings of “social”/ “online sociality”
afforded by social media: The Five Cs

(1) Communication
• Easy communication
• Could communicate with many people at the same time
• Many modes of communication are available
Text, photo, GIF, video, voice messages, emojis…
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(2) Collective action
• Organizing social movements
• Or voice out together, such as
signing online petitions

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(3) Communities
• Forming online communities
• Assuming a collective identity
based on shared interests
• E.g., LIHKG
• E.g., Fan clubs on Telegram/
IG

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND
SOCIALITY
(4) Collaboration/ Cooperation
• Do something together online for a common
goal
• E.g., Wikipedia – an open collaborative
platform

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(5) Creative work
• Making and
sharing of user-
generated content
• Creating a
creative online
culture together
E.g., Memes

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What makes social media so different from traditional
media?

1) Visibility: the potential audience who can bear witness

2) Spreadability: the ease with which content can be shared

3) Persistence: the durability of online expressions and content

4) Searchability: the ability to search specific content 34

Social Media Affordances
§ theperceived actual or imagined properties of social media, emerging
through the relation of technological, social, and contextual, that
enable and constrain specific uses of the platforms

§ Different types of social media affordances:

anonymity/pseudonymity, editability, persistence, searchability, etc.

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Social Media Affordances
§ The degree of different affordances could be differed across
platforms:
§ E.g., searchability difference between Facebook and Snapchat
§ E.g., anonymity/pseudonymity difference between X and Reddit

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Another distinctive feature is that social media are an
integrated platform

Convergence of everything on social media

a) Integrated communication
b) Integrated sociality
c) Integrated social roles

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“Integrated communication”

Many forms of communication

• Texting • Sharing
• Posting • Liking
• Commenting • Tagging
• Tweeting • Following
• Voting • Subscription
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“Integrated sociality”

• Many social functions

Communication
Community building
Collective action
Collaboration
Creative work

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“Integrated social roles”

Blurring of private and public life and convergence of different

roles
As friend
As son/ daughter
As husband/ wife
As colleague
As teacher/ student

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 Commun-
Devices ication
activities

Social
arrangements
or
organizations
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To examine the newness of a technology, we pay attention
to

1) The artifacts or devices that enable and extend our

abilities to communicate;
2) The communication activities or practices we
engage in to develop and use these devices; and
3) The social arrangements or organizations that form
around the devices and practices 42
E.g., What is new about “Zoom”?

◦ Device
◦ The Zoom platform itself

◦ Communication activities
◦ It has popularized video conferencing for work and
teaching

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Social arrangement
◦ Re-organization of time
◦ Blurring between private time and work/ study time
◦ Re-organization of place
◦ Home turns from a leisure place to a work and study
place
◦ Social roles
◦ A collusion of roles (as sons/daughters
and students/employees at the same
time)
◦ Social relations
◦ Less intimacy among the students/ employees
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E.g., What is new about “smart wearable
technology”?

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Devices
• Smart watches; Smart bracelets…

Communication activities
• Constant tracking of our body situation
• Self-monitoring vs. External monitoring
• Intrapersonal relationship
• Interpersonal relationship

Social arrangement???
• Work-life balance policies?
• More flexible work arrangement?
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WHAT IS NEW ABOUT NEW
MEDIA?
E.g. What is new about “mobile technologies”?

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Devices
Text, Messaging…

Communication activities
Instant communication
Communication anytime and anywhere
Social arrangement
More ad hoc activities? Our lives
Less planning? become more
Less responsibility? mobile, fluid
More security? and uncertain 48
§ There are so many social media platforms, so which
one to use and when?
Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT)
§ People use media because they derive specific
gratifications (滿足感) from media consumption
§ UGT argues that audiences seek diverse
gratifications by selecting media and its content,
particularly satisfaction of information needs, social
interaction, and entertainment (Katz, Haas, &
Gurevitch, 1973)
§ WE deliberately choose media that will satisfy
given needs

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• Different aspects of information society

• From information society to platform society

• What is new about social media vs. Traditional

media?

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