[Assignment 2] The Information Age

                         The Information Age

                                                        Media Production
                                                                         Moye Chen

This information age has never been a technological matter. It has always been a matter of social transformation, a process of social change in which technology is an element that is inseparable from social, economic, cultural and political trends.

Socialist revolution must be combined with the technological revolution, and learn nutrition and motivation. Modern world history occur twice technological revolution, which promote the concentration of production and capital, so that the capitalism developed from the free competition to the monopoly stage. The new technology revolution based on modern information technology, capitalism will lead to a series of profound changes in society. This includes changes in the mode of production, innovation of enterprise system, the change of economic growth pattern, and the change of relationships and ideas of people. Social revolution and the technological revolution in close connection with the present world, if divorced from the technological revolution, social revolution would be difficult to make a difference. Technology revolution is the power to promote modern western science and the social progress.

The Internet is a catalyst to accelerate the process of globalization. High-tech in particular the information technology was developed rapidly, which is direct promotion of international trade, international investment and the international finance sharply. In the process of information, countries around the world to break the monopoly, deregulation, open markets and achieve zero tariffs of global information technology products. Information technology revolution has provided a new organizational condition on the links of global social, economic and political. It was contribute to the greater coordination of the development of the world. On the other hand, technological globalization is an important form of globalization. Human have exploration of the great works of nature, such as the human genome, nuclear fusion, space stations, global climate change and so on. Meanwhile, human are doing the international cooperation in research and organizing as well. Accelerate the international flow of scientific technological and personnel, international patent applications and licensing the rapid development, and the world’s technology trade growing rapidly. Technological globalization use of global technology resources to strengthen or the corporate research and development work to make lower cost, higher efficiency, in order to get more powerful competitive.

The existence and development of the information age is not isolated, it is closely related to development of a certain stage of the political, economic, and cultural with the whole community. The development of socio-economic, political, and cultural makes the media’s position is prominent, more and more people started to pay attention to the media and information (The Rise of the Network Society (The Information Age)   Manuel Castells). As the development and changes of political and economic environment, people in the quantity demanded for increase rapidly for social information, so newspapers, radio, television, Internet, magazines and other media in information dissemination activities are highlighted. As the information transport, media is increasingly becoming indispensable in daily life.

Complete information media ecosystems, including two factors, media factors (newspapers, radio and television, film, publishing, music production, etc.) and environmental factors (political, economic, education, natural resources, technology, etc.). The basic elements of information media ecosystem are media systems, social systems and people, as well as the interrelationship between these three and interaction. Media is a living creature, living in the ecological environment which is appropriate for their survival, development and reproduction. Information media ecosystem is composed of multiple media environment, interaction between media and personal are constitute the living environment; the interaction between social systems and information media system are constitute the information system and policy environment for the media and so on. The power of the flow of capital and technological is progress globalization. It makes the isolation and unification of the information society changes to the global pluralism. This does not mean the cultural identity, but social relations in the world to strengthen their own independent culture, attitudes and perspectives.

Information media ecological balance, need to co-ordination among the political, economic, cultural and media audience. Melvin L. De Fleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach (Theories of Mass Communication 1982) said, if lay aside the environment, the mere observation in isolation in specific media, you can not understand any longer no matter how carefully you observed. Today, the society of mass communication system as a whole is because the history of media is greater than all parts, the production and development of any media are deeply rooted in a series of unique social, economic and political environment. Why the media of newspaper have been developing slowly in nearly a century? Why the film falling into the bottom after rapid development? Why is television, computers can quickly sweeping the globe? All of these characteristics are related with the environment characteristics and situation. The mass media has become the central part today of the institutional structure. The mass media is not only become a part of the political system, economic system, but also become a part of the cultural system, educational system and family system. Survival and development of the media environment has been unable to resist its full penetration. Therefore, the ecological balance is essential to maintain the media.

Today, the information media is seen as neutral, it is the mediation to transmission and regulation of human relations. In cultural communication and information age, the media art works are easier to reconstruct our varying world. In addition, we can also be found some idea express about media politics in the art works. For example, there was a video work, made in-depth study social and cultural anthropology about Iran, India, Turkey, and analysis in the global views and interpretation “Other” culture development status in the local angle – accepted and rejected, colonization and mixing, tradition and modernity, religion and the conflict between secular. Many artists in their performance were express the idea about “global local” space and the political issues of cultural relativism.

Strictly speaking, the information age and new media itself contains ideology, even though the information and new media art have become the products of globalization and technology, but it can not explain the power of technology can make the national and state boundaries disappear. However, it still stressed on the important of thinking about the cultural difference and cultural identity. Because the “difference” just reflects the questions and criticism of the word which involve prescriptive and order in the general principle. Therefore, technological innovation which based information development and new media art should remain independent and critical.

With the development of Internet technology, it gave rise to a new revolution in information dissemination.  Media, people and society are faced with unprecedented large amount of information, high time-sensitive and highly interactive. Dissemination of knowledge need “medium”, from the primitive society to modern Internet technology, the changing of means of communication is the results of the human desire to understand and keep promotion of the universe. Since Venice, Italy appeared the print media such as newspapers in 14-15 century, to nowadays, 21st century, the information revolution which are based on computer technology and information technology. The information age has brought mankind into a new information era: radio, television, etc., the media had given humanity sound such as the sound effect which the newspaper can not give. And the “Internet” known as the “fourth media” has made great strides forwards in people’s daily lives. Four kinds of media mutual penetration and formation of a multi-level information network based on their in the play to its own characteristics and advantages. In the information age, the information and mass media have permeated every aspect of people’s lives: from political elections to the ordinary life like the fuel, rice, oil, salt. It can be said that the information and modern media has become an indispensable part of life, no matter accept actively or choices passively, people today can not set off from the tangible and intangible network and information media outside.

An information economy is where the productivity and competitiveness of units or agents in the economy (be they firms, regions or nations) depend mainly on their capacity to generate, process, and apply efficiently knowledge-based information. It is also described as an economy where information is both the currency and the product. While we have always relied on information exchange to do our jobs and run our lives, the information economy is different in that it can collect more relevant information at the appropriate time. Consequently, production in the information economy can be fine tuned in ways heretofore undreamed of. What makes information plentiful in this economy is the pervasive use of information and communications technology.

The information economy is global. A historically new reality, the global economy has the capacity to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale. Corporations and firms now have a worldwide base for skilled labor to tap. Capital flows freely between countries, and countries can utilize this capital in real time.

Economic statistics do not adequately capture the movements of the new information economy, precisely because of the broad scope of transformation under the impact of information technology and related organizational change (The Power of Identity    Manuel Castells). There may be a diffusion from information technology, manufacturing, telecommunications, and financial services into manufacturing services at large, and then into business services.

Worldwide computer network will make more and more products in the field to replace the flow of data flow of the production evolved into a service, information will be turned into a work of industrial labor. New features include the information economy: Information products do not need to leave its original occupant can be traded and exchanged; the product through computer networks without the need for replication and distribution of additional costs; value added by knowledge rather than work achieved; knowledge into products, the main form of software.

Cite an instance; Hong Kong is the center of the garment outsourcing industry. Most of the companies located there own and run factories across Asia that weave, cut and sew garments. But there is an example: Li & Fung is a different kind of outsource. The 95-year-old trading house that once sold ceramics and fireworks overseas doesn’t own a stitch when it comes to making garments. No factories, no machines, no fabrics. Instead, Li & Fung deal only in information, relying on a far-flung network of more than 7,500 suppliers in 37 countries, from Madagascar to China to Guatemala. “There are no secrets in the actual manufacturing. A shirt is a shirt; we would rather build on something proprietary, like what information it takes to make that shirt faster or more efficiently.” Li & Fung uses personalized Web sites and e-mail to fine-tune specifications with the customer. It then takes those instructions and feeds them into its intranet to find the right supplier of raw materials and the right factory for assembling the clothes. (“Furiously Fast Fashions,” in The Software and Information Industry Association Trends Report    Joanne Lee-Young and Megan Barnett,)

With the continuous deepening of the process of information, industrial society, culture, the two basic pillars of labor – time and fixed posts – will be relegated to secondary status. The traditional success in life conditions, such as the importance of reducing the diplomas and degrees. Standardized and fixed modes of vocational training needs of the development has been behind the times. Work remains, but no longer has a stable “job.”

Revenue in the information economy and efficiency, as well as working hours is becoming increasingly loose. Increasingly it has nothing to do with the input of working hours, but first of all depends on skill, originality and the rapid discovery of new problems, using creative ways to solve its capacity. This will lead to increased gap in income distribution, social polarization increased.

Cyber Space is now available for “reconstruction” the mystery world that we have ever lost the romantic ideals and imagine. It not only changed the life of the space, but also changing our contemplation of history and imagination.

It as human curiosity for knowledge and information, contribute to provide continuous updates of the original Power for the modern means of communication. From the earliest newspapers to today’s burgeoning Internet, the capacity and rate of the modern knowledge and information dissemination are higher than ever before. With the increasingly of the diversification of media and information transmission means, the cognitive demand of audiences was unprecedented increase.

Update the media means not only greatly expands the living space and modern information space; it is also constantly creating new cognitive demands while to meet the traditional media can not meet the desire for knowledge. The expansion of the space about subject of imagine, is building a certain of relationship with frequency and types of external information to stimulate and proliferation of cognitive structure in the subject. This kind of relationship is to be positive relationship between the depth and breadth of outside world information and the quantity and quality are. Audience is often have a wide range of the demands of the media (political, economic, cultural, educational, aesthetic, shopping, entertainment, etc.), and this demand is often considerable space to develop.

Move to the relationship among the political, economic factors and the media. Marx have ever said, as the mission of the newspaper is to defend the community, who is tireless for those in power to expose who is the eyes and ears everywhere, is the mouthpiece to protect their freedom of the spirit of thousands of people with the passion. In the Political, digital democracy giving people directly use their democratic right. It is break stretch for hundreds of years of capitalist representative democracy, people’s democracy to replace the elite of democracy; in the economy, the high-tech gift economy is characterized by dedication and cooperation to replace the selfishness and profit of the capitalist market economic. The future information society is a new message communism (Culture and Politics in the Information Age Frank Webster).

For example, on Nov. 5, 2008 is U.S. presidential election. The eve of Election Day, people were with great interest about who eventually was elected, because the successful candidate will directly determine the mainland policy toward future. In the final release candidate, people continue to focus on elected policy trend. So even after the election in U.S., people-related issues still remain very high interest. At this time for the media, the audience is constantly mobilizing cognitive demand, should be mobilized to meet this need for cognition. It is expression of the political is extremely connected with information. It is the new expression in the information age.

Obviously, the development of information technology and modern historical process includes such four kinds of complex interactions relationship, the political, economic, social and cultural. The specific characteristics of these fields expression of the establishment of secular political power, the establishment of the modern nation-state, the formation of a free market economy, the decline of traditional social order and social differentiation and division of labor, the decline of religion and the rise of secular culture.

Information space today is constituted by the overlapping of two worlds: a state-centered world, the state is the main actor; one is a multi-centered world, act as multinational corporations, international organizations, and race and so on, which are expression of the expansion and mobility. The relationship between them is connect with each others as well as is an independent form. Therefore, in this relationship, we also found a phenomenon of the middle ground, this community cultural space were composed by immigrants, migrants, exiles, refugees and migration information. In these kinds of information pace, when interacting between people from different cultural backgrounds and language, it will generate the conceptualization of the results. For example, the concept of mixed race, language also generated fusion. Of course, an anthropologist Arjun Appadurai emphasized that the interaction in global cultural trends and summarizes the five levels: racial level, media level, technology level, financial level, the ideological level. The information age have the meaning of inspire and instructive of our knowledge and understanding of the world (Globalization Arjun Appadurai).  

Today, the post-modern culture reflects the complexity and diversity of social characteristics. TV, fashion, advertising, film and visual arts, introduction of the new technology and expansion of the media is not only changing the content and form of visual culture, but also to promote human cognitive style, the media is the message, the media is a hub to connect with modern society differences. Therefore, the media arts and information not only reproduce the reality of our world, but also produce or replacement of another real world.

Information age is the age of globalization as well. Broad global included technological, economic, political, cultural and many other fields. Globalization is a historical process and to be a leap in the late 20th century. Representative of the information into the new technological revolution and globalization are intrinsically linked profound. On the one hand, the new scientific revolution is based on global technology. Ancient times because of technical limitations, the world can not constitute the modern sense of the international trade system; it primarily is a relationship between political and cultural. Information technology revolution has set the techniques and materials stage of the realization of economic globalization.

List of reference:

The Rise of the Network Society (The Information Age)   Manuel Castells

Press: Wiley-Blackwell   2000-01-05 

Theories of Mass Communication   Melvin L. DeFleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach 

Press: New York : Longman   1982.

The Power of Identity   The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture Volume II (Information Age Series)

Manuel Castells   

Press: Wiley-Blackwell   2004

Culture and Politics in the Information Age   A new politics?   Frank Webster     Press: Routledge   2001

Globalization   Arjun Appadurai 

Press: Duke University Pre   2001-10-01

“Furiously Fast Fashions,” in The Software and Information Industry Association Trends Report    Joanne Lee-Young and Megan Barnett