Information And Communication Technologies And The Present Media Background

With the advent of information technology, the ways different aspects of life work and operate have changed a great deal. Media has always had a great influence in molding the culture of a society. There was a point of time when television and radio were invented and when computer was invented and there was little connection between the two. Time then travelled fast then through the age of cassettes, records, VCDs, DVDs, flash drive and then the internet. Media also started to go satellite on a massive scale and there came a point of time when media and digital communication systems became closely integrated with one another, opening the dimensions to digital media.

The use of technologies in the younger generation is very outrageous. “Raising Generation Tech,” “Kaiser Foundation,” (37) talked about the study, that shows how adolescents are wasting their time on the technology. He explained that, they are using technology for about more than “five and half” hours a day without including their school programs. And those whom spent their time on technology are the age of “eight – eighteen.” It seems difficult for children’s to have a good relationship between their families anymore; because they are more into spending time on technologies and not giving attention. Gary Chapman, the author of “Growing up Social,” also talked about one particular family’s who has three kids under the ages of ten years

This text is published by a media company called Mic. Their target audience is young people and they cover a wide variety of subjects such as News, Arts, and Technology (Mic /about). The author of this article is Sophie Kleeman, who, according to her profile on Mic.com, covers the “intersection of tech and culture” (Mic /profiles/152573/sophie-kleeman)

This will lead to the mass media homogeneity that will dissolve cultural differences. Cultural imperialism started right after decolonization when political or military control of another country could not be practiced. Psychological forms of control began to be used and were facilitated through the rapid integration of global telecommunications systems. They pushed American culture that promoted the ideas of consumption and instant gratification that would spread global capitalism and increase profits. The cultural imperialism argument has several strengths as well as weaknesses. It’s main strength is based on the idea that mass media from larger nations negatively affects the smaller nations because the national identity of smaller nations is lessened or lost due to media homogeneity inherent in mass media from the larger countries. Sometimes local interpreters keep some cultural diversification by transforming the imported media to meet local demand. The media is still influenced by the core but is also still unique and successful. Examples of this include the success of Korean pop music and Bollywood cinema in their respective “geolinguistic region.” The media imperialism theory fails to fully understand the internal historical and social dynamics within periphery countries. The West may have implanted the model of television consumerism, but the West is not required to sustain it and today many US programs lead the world in their transportability across cultural boundaries but are rarely the most popular when viewers have reasonable local options. (L&B p340-342)(Peripheral Vision) The social construction of reality theory attempts to explain how and why individuals view the world in a certain way and what role the media plays in shaping that view. It suggests that the media actually

The era that the world is currently experiencing is characterized by a technology literate youth and an age of information technology. The result of this is individuals around the globe are becoming increasingly aware of the critical social issues that exist within the world today. Media plays an integral role in how individuals around the world perceive the pressing crises of the 21st century. Currently, Disney holds the number one position for the most globally viewed family-based movies in the world. Children are constantly learning from and piecing together the stimuli that they are subject to, and the movies they watch play a key role in shaping how they view their reality .

In his article, The Mediatisation of Society Theory, Hjarvard (2008) deduces that media simultaneously become an integrated part of society, not to mention the existence of new media like the Internet. In fact, this integration of Internet into our daily life has made us live in the digital age where information is shared in real time and in global context. Castells (2007) even argues that in this digital age, people are able to expand their local communication activities to

The film “ Digital Nation” is an exploration of diverse people's views on digital media, in today's world. Some of the most important topics were on the virtual world, and the pros and cons of technology within different groups like gamers, students, families, teachers, administrators, children, military and businesses, as well as the experience of general people. In the movie, Prof. Sherry Turkle said, “Technology challenges us to assert our human values. Technology is not good or bad, is powerful, and it is complicated which means first we have to figure out what they are”. Currently, technology has taken over, wherever one, goes one will find it. Over the past years, social media in particular have spread worldwide; from Facebook to Instagram. There is constantly something new, extra advanced and creative. Overall, the technology has evolved the way humans interact with each other. In particular, technology influences by motivating students towards learning, saving time, building literacy and communication skills.

The concept of mediatization is more often used than it is properly defined. Mediatization does not encompass all societies, but primarily developed, industrialised Western societies, such as Europe, Australia, USA etc. As globalization spreads, so too will mediatization, but with varying degrees depending on the society and their access to technology. It is only since the last years of the twentieth century that the process of mediatization has heightened due to the emergence of new technologies. In recent years media scholars such as Krotz (2007) and Schulz (2004) have underpinned mediatization as a social and cultural process. Mediatization encompasses the process by which society becomes subjected to or dependent on the media and their logic. Media logic affects and influences the nature and function of social relations, regarding the sender, receiver and content of the communication. The effect of mediatization may be conceived as direct or indirect (Hjarvard, 2004).

Technology has been involved in people’s lives forever, especially in the Millennial Generation. This generation consists of individuals born between the years of 1982-2004. The articles “The Flight From Conversation,” “Teens and Technology 2013,” and “Leading The Charge For Change” deals with teens interacting with technology today.Each article has different topics, but they connect through the over dependence of teens to technology. The Millennial Generation becomes less and less in touch with the real world and morphs into a quasi-reality.

Throughout the 21st first century information and communication technology have become a part of everyday life. Many rely on it for simple task such as weather forecast, communication and alarms and more advance tasks such as gathering information and managing bank accounts. However not everyone has access to information and communication technology and the gap between those who have access and those who do not can be described as the digital divide. The aim of this research paper will be to analyse the many types of digital divide and issues they cause. The research will then discuss three solutions that have been used in attempt to close the digital divide with varying success.

Throughout history, from as early as the ancient Greek era, to the current 21st century, power has been a tactic used by many groups and individuals. Power is a form of control that has been used to compromise anything that establishes and sustains control of man over man. The idea of power over man has been used in many forms, these forms of power include: legitimate, expert, referent, reward and coercive power. Throughout the last decade, coercive power has been used by terrorist and extremist groups in order to create fear among groups or nations. Through the use of modern day media and technology, information has been made easier to access for these such groups. A major terrorist group that have largely used power in the form of coercion is the group Al-Qaeda. Meaning "the base" in Arabic, Al-Qaeda is an extremist group organised in 1989. The group was created as Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden and his colleagues began looking for new Jihads. By investigating what coercive power is, what terrorism is, focusing on Al-Qaeda and the groups former leader,Osama Bin Laden, how the extremist group manipulated power and fear to their advantage, as well as looking at one of Al-Qaeda’s most horrific acts of terrorism; 9/11, it will be easier to understand how Al-Qaeda have used coercive power to instigate fear among groups or nations.

The new generation of students entering and already enrolled in university are members of a digital age- growing up surrounded by many forms of digital technology as they are the first generation of youth to have internet technology easily available at their disposal. This current generation have already been labelled by sociologist as “‘digital natives’ (Prensky 2001a) and the ‘net generation’ (Tapscott 1998)” (Prensky 2001a; Tapscott 1998 as cited in Murphy 2010). Technology is not something new to these students as its presence in their life have made them quite comfortable to the idea, as they perceive “technology as a way of life and express a need to feel connected at all times” (Russo et al. 2014). Although what is new are the

The term “digital media” describes the modern method of global exposure and communication rather than the actual technologies themselves (such as the internet or mobile phones). When you look closely at the differences between “new” and “old” technologies, you will be surprised that it is a very short list. The use of radio, television, telephone, and picture-taking technologies display images, words, and sounds in relatively the same way as digital media does, only with improvement as to quality. Old and new media are orientation around the same uses, institutions, and support. I believe that people understand digital technology to be “revolutionary” not because of what they do, necessarily, but because of the new method of making

The new media announces a new period of media development in the world over, it is the one that preaches the significance of new communications technologies. The new media is not just a kind of information technology but also part and parcel of the social being of man in this modern society.

The word “media” is derived from the word “medium” which means a carrier of information through a large number of people. Since media is the screen through which a large number of messages pass through it plays an integral role in the shaping of thoughts, ideologies and mind sets within a society. Throughout history it has played a significant role in the shaping and evolution of societies and cultures all over the globe. Hence, we have a vast variety of cultures and societies in the world all unique in themselves in terms of norms, values, ideologies etc.