Culture and Technology

Culture & Technology, Andrew Murphy and John Potts, 2003, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire

Subcultures are the indicators of the conflicting forces within the culture at large. They are resisting the dominant forms of culture, indicating how these dominant values may be opposed. Like any fanzines or blogs, they are aimed at a certain subculture that share the same beliefs/interests. 

One of the main advantages of digital publications instead of print, is the speed in which huge volumes of digital information may be processed and manipulated and the speed and flexibility with which this data may be compressed and distributed through information networks. 

Reality is reproduced so many times that it produces a 'hyperreal' condition. This is what Baudrillard means by 'the precesion of simulacra': the representation of the real comes before the real e.g. advertising. In this maelstrom of simulation the real disappears. No meaning, just media-produced simulations. No coherent society - just a whirl of signs through a now inconsequential ground of bodies. The Internet.

This paragraph describes the internet as being the 'hyperreal' and it is all made up of signs. A great example of this is avdertising. A lot of magazines display so much advertsing that there is not a lot to read about. However, with fanzines, they are merely aimed at a subculutre of people only interested in reading about that certain subject. Now, with blogs and online fanzines, this goes against this ideology and plays a part in what Baudrillard calls 'Simulcra.' 

Technologies have exerted a profound effect on culture which was largely beyond social control. 

Neil Postman thinks there has been a cultural decline furthered by an irresistible technical apparatus. The growth of technology and the Internet have definitely created a world where people rely on them for everything. Postman contrasts electronic media unfavourably with the print culture. For Postman, the enormous volume of information unleashed by mass media has had negative consequences. 

Some theorists have been encouraged by the spread of the internet and the potential of new technologies. The uncontrollable nature of the internet and the ease of access to much digital information have been seen as enabling rather than restricting in their potential. Sadie Plant believes that,  regarding access to technology, it has historically included women. The structured political hierarchies of gender, race and class are much less oppressive in the emergent technosphere. 

A technological development of computers and communications produced an extraordinary volume of cultural expression. 

Machine systems are so fast and so complex that they operate beyond human capacity. This shows how creating publications online is far less time consuming and can hold a lot more information. 

The Internet is changing all the time, it is never the same from day to day. This could be a good thing or a bad thing more online publications. It means that it can be updated all of the time, it will never be out of date. However, you are always going to have to fit in with what is the best at the time. You will always be striving to be better. 

New technologies affect both the production and transmission of knowledge. All knowledge must be able to be translated into languages that can be read and written by computers. There is no need to remember things if everything is archived on your computer or on the Internet. 

This idea of the computer and internet storing all knowledge for you is very relevant when it comes to online publications. You can bookmark pages, copy and paste bits you find interesting, save images etc. These are all things you are unable to do in print publications. 

The Death of Photography? The availability in the 1980s of digital technology e.g. scanners, software etc enabled the easy manipulation of digitalised images. This removed the guarantee of truth held in the photographic negative. Many magazines and newspapers were caught manipulating photos for a sensationalised effect.