[Air-L] Technology as ideologically neutral?

[Christopher J. Richter]

For historical perspectives documenting the case for development of some comm technologies, Carolyn Marvin's When Old Technologies Were New, Susan Douglas' Inventing American Broadcasting and Tom Streeter's Selling the Air: A Critique of the Policy of Commercial Broadcasting in the United States are insightful.  Marvin's and Douglas' are particularly accessible. 

Streeter's  The Net Effect: Romanticism, Capitalism, and the Internet  (2010) may also be relevant, but I can't say for sure as it's on my list of yet to be read.
  
Christopher J. Richter
Associate Professor
Communication Studies
Hollins University
PO Box 9652
Roanoke, VA 24020
540-362-6358
________________________________________
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Charles Ess [charles.ess at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2012 9:48 AM
To: Air list
Subject: [Air-L] Technology as ideologically neutral?

Dear AoIRists,
I'm trying to gather both accessible and, to some degree, "landmark" or
foundational literature that can be used to (gently) challenge a view I keep
encountering in certain circles lately - namely, that technology in general
and the Internet in particular is "ideologically neutral".

Such a view was around in the U.S. in the early days of the Internet - but
countered in at least two ways; those who took up Social Construction of
Technology and related theory from ST studies, including discussion of
"affordances", etc. - and then the very ideological claims (roughly:
California libertarian technological utopianism) that went from claims such
as "the internet interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it" to
claims that the Internet embedded and fostered specially U.S. (neoliberal)
values of individualism, freedom of expression, and free market capitalism.

For better and for worse, however, my impression is that in our communities,
at least, the recognition that the technologies embed and foster specific
cultural values and communicative preferences (as I like to put it on the
basis of the CATaC conferences) has been more or less a given for quite some
time.  Hence, having to re-visit and re-establish these understandings for
those for whom this recognition is apparently quite new is a bit of a
challenge.

Any suggestions for literature, etc., would be most appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,
- charles ess
--
Until August 31, 2012: Professor MSO
Media Studies, Institute for Aesthetics and Communication
Aarhus University
Helsingforsgade 14
8200 Aarhus
Denmark

>From 1. Sept. 2012: Associate Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
Forskningsparken II
Gaustadalléen 21
0349  Oslo  Norway

Lifetime member, AoIR

³At vove er at miste fodfæstet for en stund, ikke at vove er at miste
sig selv² [To dare is to lose your footing for an hour; not to dare is to
lose yourself] - Kierkegaard



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