Basic course objective:

To explore a variety of theoretical perspectives on how we understand the relationship between technology (specifically media and communications technologies) in shaping modern society.

Lecture 1.

The Medium is the Message I - Harold Innis and The Bias of Communication

Core Reading: Harold Innis "The Bias of Communication" in Daniel Drache (Ed.) - Staples, Markets and Cultural Change

The Medium is the Message II - Marshall McLuhan and the Global Village

Core Reading - Marshall McLuhan from "The Gutenberg Galaxy" in Essential McLuhan edited by Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone

Social Construction of Technology I - Society determines the medium?

Core Reading: Winston, Brian. - Media Technology and Society : a History : From the Telegraph to the Internet (Opening Chapter)

Social Construction of Technology II, case study - what's the difference between radio and broadcasting?

Core Reading: Chapter on Radio history in Winston, Brian. - Media Technology and Society : a History : From the Telegraph to the Internet

Critical Theory and mass communications technology I. From Frankfurt School to Frederick Jameson

Core Reading: David Held - Introduction to Critical Theory(Frankfurt School Chapter)

Jurgen Habermas - technocratic culture and the rise of science/technology-based decision-making

Core Reading: Frank Webster - Theories of the Information Society - Chapter 6 "Information Management and Manipulation: Jurgen Habermas and the Decline of the Public Sphere."

Michel Foucault - communications technologies as instruments of surveillance

Core Reading: Geoff Danaher, Tony Schirato and Jen Webb - Understanding Foucault. (Chapter on Disciple and Instruction.)

Manuel Castells - "communications technologies as JCBs", reshaping our spatial and temporal landscape

Core Reading: Frank Webster - Theories of the Information Society - Chapter 9 "Information and Urban Change: Manuel Castells."

The vision of a new ICT-based society: Technological Determinism revisited? From Bell, via Toffler to Negroponte.

Core Reading: Frank Webster - Theories of the Information Society - Chapter 3 "The Information Society as Post-Industrialism"

Donna Haraway and the human/information relation: cyborgs

Core Reading: Donna Haraway - "A Cyborg Manifesto" in "Simians, cyborgs, and women : the reinvention of nature".