[Air-L] Technology as ideologically neutral?

Peter Gloviczki glovi002 at umn.edu
Thu Jul 5 07:10:31 PDT 2012


Hi Charles,

I'd also suggest Postman's 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. He
focuses on television, but I'd say it's still applicable.

Peter

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 9:04 AM, Janet Sternberg <janet.sternberg at nyu.edu> wrote:
> Greetings, and thank you for reminding us of this important issue.
>
> Regarding the notion that technology in general is not ideologically
> neutral, the late Neil Postman immediately comes to mind, as well as other
> scholars such as Jacques Ellul, who have been identified with the
> intellectual tradition Postman led, media ecology. Two relevant classics
> which have stood the test of time, although they don't mention the Internet
> specifically:
>
> Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New
> York: Alfred A. Knopf.
>
> Ellul, J. (1964). The technological society (J. Wilkinson, Trans.). New
> York: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1954)
>
> Regards to all,
> Janet
>
> Janet Sternberg, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> Communication and Media Studies
> Latin American and Latino Studies
> Fordham University
> Bronx, NY 10458-9993 USA
> 718-817-4855 voice | 718-817-4868 fax
> jsternberg at fordham.edu | janet.sternberg at nyu.edu
> http://www.media-ecology.org/
>
>
>
>
> Charles Ess wrote:
>>
>> 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
>
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-- 
Peter Joseph Gloviczki, Ph.D.
http://petergloviczki.com



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