English in the Information Society. S. Gramley, SS 2010 Introduction: What is the Information Society and what is the role of English in it?

Transcription

1 English in the Information Society S. Gramley, SS 2010 Introduction: What is the Information Society and what is the role of English in it?

2 English in the Information Society: Semester schedule Conceptual background April 14 April 21 April 28 Introduction: What is the Information Society and what is the role of English in it? How much of a change is the Information Society in comparison with its precursors? Intellectual property rights vs. freeware and internet piracy

3 English in the Information Society: Semester schedule Using English in the Information Society May 05 May 12 May 19 May 26 June 02 Writing in English or not? English advertising, instructions and directions, and in normed communication (e.g. Air Traffic Control) English in scholarly work English in the Internet (and other electronic communication) Informal communication (blogs, chats, twitters, text messages, etc.)

4 English in the Information Society: Semester schedule Features of English in the Information Society June 09 June 16 June 23 June 30 July 07 July 14 July 21 Standard or non standard: What kind of English and whose type? Grammar Vocabulary and word formation processes Communication strategies Text types Lingua franca English Open session

5 Participation reading: assigned weekly 3 4 essays: assigned monthly presentation of a topic description of the topic the central question involved illustrative examples written version of the presentation Who will take which topics?

6 What is the Information Society? Take the next five minutes to write down what you think are the most significant features of the Information Society. Now take a further five minutes to find an internet source to support the feature you consider to be the most important point. Be prepared to present and support what you have chosen.

7 An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity. The knowledge economy is its economic counterpart whereby wealth is created through the economic exploitation of understanding. People that have the means to partake in this form of society are sometimes called digital citizens. As Beniger [1] shows, this is one of many dozen labels that have been identified to suggest that we are entering a new phase of society.

8 The markers of this rapid change may be technological, economic, occupational, spatial, cultural, or some combination of all of these [2]. Information society is seen as the successor to industrial society [1]Beniger, James R. (1986). The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP. [2]Webster, Frank (2002). Theories of the Information Society. Cambridge: Routledge. (

9 The key factors globalization IT (informationalization) networking Communication is essential and is a product which increases (rather than diminishing) as it is used.

10 Knowledge Some see the Information Society as the highest stage in the evolution of society. How do you see this? Machlup (1962) introduced the concept of the knowledge industry. He distinguished five sectors of the knowledge sector: education research and development mass media information technologies information services

11 In line with this Lyotard (The Postmodern Condition, 1984) sees knowledge as a commodity. Furthermore, knowledge and information technologies diffuse into society and break up Grand Narratives of centralized structures and groups, which is essentially the postmodern condition or postmodern society. How do you stand on a point like this?

12 Digital citizens use IT (computers and cell phones) they create / participate in blogs and virtual networks The Information Society involves e commerce e government e democracy Toffler argues that knowledge is the central resource in the economy of the information society: In a Third Wave economy, the central resource a single word broadly encompassing data, information, images, symbols, culture, ideology, and values is actionable knowledge (Dyson/Gilder/Keyworth/Toffler 1994).

13 Knowledge, which encompasses skills, awareness, and information, may be a product or a tool. Both involve economists, computer scientists, software engineers, mathematicians, chemists, physicists, as well as cognitive scientists, psychologists and sociologists. In either case knowledge, including technological knowhow, (information, signals, symbols, and images) is as important as economic resources (matter and energy). Knowledge and education are also referred to as human capital.

14 Criticism The Information Society is only gradually different from society before its advent. It does not represent a radically different kind of society. Isn t it just a case of more information? The forces behind it are not sui generis, but capitalism in a new guise. The emphasis is still of accumulation of capital (political, economic, cultural intellectual). The whole global project is based on the unequal distribution of economic, political, and cultural capital.

15 Critcism The labor involved is immaterial labor such as knowledge, information, communication, a relationship, or an emotional response (Hardt/Negri 2005: 108), but nonetheless labor. New knowledge still has to be acquired; it is not enough to reshuffle what is already there (even tho this may stimulate new perspectives). The new technologies are being used to blind us to social antagonisms such as structural unemployment, increasing poverty, loss of traditional welfare benefits and labor rights, and the acerbation of the effects of the digital divide.

16 References Esther, G.G., G. Keyworth, and A. Toffler (1994) Cyberspace and the American Dream: A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age, In: Future Insight 1.2. The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Hardt, M. and A. Negri (2005) Multitude. War and Democracy in the Age of the Empire. New York: Hamish Hamilton. Webster, F. (2006) Theories of the Information Society. 3 rd ed. London: Routledge.

17 Homework 1.Write an extended definition (about words) of the Information Society giving both what you consider positive and what you would criticize. 2.Read the selection by Phillipson. Be prepared to discuss how the subject matter of this excerpt touches on the Information Society.