Media and Technology – Comprehensive Exam Notes

Introduction

• Bullet points:
  • When celebrities quit social media, it becomes a major news story.
  • Reasons include stress, trolling, and mental-health concerns; examples: Lizzo, Lorde, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Adele, Coldplay.
  • Fans experience a shift from secondary to primary group dynamics through social media (e.g., Reddit fan threads behave like close-knit families).
  • Selena Gomez case study: felt “addicted,” posted from friends’ phones, reflected on harmful content.
  • Chapter explores media/tech relationships, group dynamics, culture, socialization, stratification.

8.1 Technology Today

• Definition & Evolution
  • Technology = application of science to everyday problems; spans from stone tools to VR.
  • Continuous iterative process: calculator $2400\,\text{BCE}$ → Babbage’s analytic engine $1882$ → modern computers.
• Planned Obsolescence
  • Firms intentionally design products to fail or become outdated.
  • Examples: nylon stockings, Windows upward-compatibility, Apple iPhone battery throttling ($\$500\,\text{million}$ settlement).
• Technological Inequality
  • Digital Divide = unequal access based on race, class, geography.
  • Knowledge Gap = widening info gap caused by digital divide.
  • $1991$ PC users $=3\times10^5$ → $1996$ $=1\times10^7$ (Al Gore speech popularized term).
  • Pew $2019$: $\approx80\%$ White households own computers vs $\approx60\%$ Black/Hispanic; $\approx25\%$ Black/Hispanic are smartphone-only.
  • Rural divide: “completely rural” counties $\approx60\%$ Internet vs national $78\%$.
  • Pandemic exposed e-readiness gaps (hardware, connectivity, self-help skills).
• Constant Contact & Relationship Effects
  • Average phone checks often claimed $>100$ times/day; $66{-}71\%$ sleep with phone.
  • Benefits: coordination, productivity; Downsides: distraction, work-life bleed.
  • Hashtag activism (#MeToo, #BLM, TikTok rally seats).
  • Communication shift: voice → text/apps; attachment ↑ but perceived quality ↓ (Luo $2014$). Entrapment & guilt in mobile-dependent friendships (Hall $2012$).
• Privacy, Security, Control
  • Pew $2019$: $81\%$ feel little control over corporate data use, $84\%$ vs government.
  • COPPA dictates under $13$ privacy; platforms impose age gates (YouTube disables comments, TikTok fines $2021$).
  • Parent spectrum: “no-share” vs “sharents”; toddler influencers & monetization.
• Net Neutrality Debate
  • Principle: all data equal.
  • Conflict lens: without neutrality, big firms buy fast lanes, small firms squeezed.
  • Functional lens: heavy regulation may curb profit, stifle investment.

8.2 Media and Technology in Society

• Media = all print, digital, electronic communication.
• Device-to-brain concept (Facebook VP Regina Dugan) raises privacy/ethical stakes.
• Categorizing Technology (US Patent Office)
  • Utility patents (process/machine), Design patents (appearance), Plant patents (new hybrids, GMO).
• Evolutionary Model (Anderson & Tushman)
  • Breakthrough → variation → prototype → incremental tweaks → new breakthrough.
  • Portable storage lineage: floppy $1.4\,\text{MB}$ → Zip → flash → cloud.
• Disruptive Technology
  • Creates/destroys industries quickly: digital photography vs film; rideshare vs taxi; 3D printing vs shipping.
• Types of Media
  • Newspapers: printing press → telegraph → Hearst/Pulitzer yellow journalism; circulation decline $\approx10.6\%$ in $2009$.
  • Fragmentation: tailored news feeds → digital tribalism; homogeneous mainstream coverage (McManus).
  • Television/Radio: $98\%$ U.S. homes late $1990s$; ABC/CBS/NBC oligopoly; PBS/BBC/CBC as public alternatives.
  • Film: Hollywood vs Bollywood; COVID-19 shifts to streaming.
  • New Media: social networking, blogs, wikis, podcasts, virtual worlds; low oversight demands skepticism.
• Violence in Media/Games
  • ESRB ratings $1994$; Supreme Court $2011$ overturned CA sales ban.
  • Meta-analyses: links to aggression thoughts/affect, but scant evidence of causal criminal violence.
• Advertising & Attention Economy
  • Synergistic, omnichannel branding (e.g., Miller at stadium).
  • Ad revenue shift: TV remote, DVR, ad blockers; influencer & ambassador marketing on campuses.
  • Ambassador-referred customers worth $+16\%$; $>90\%$ trust friend referrals.
  • Ethical transparency: online disclosures easier than in-person.
• Planned Obsolescence revisit: expectation to replace within $\approx2$ years; impacts sustainability.

8.3 Global Implications

• Media Globalization
  • Integration via idea exchange; core-firm conglomerates dominate.
  • $1983$: $50$ firms controlled U.S. media; today $5$ control $90\%$ (Comcast, Disney, Time Warner, CBS, Viacom).
  • Risks: cultural imperialism, loss of local culture, censorship (China’s Great Firewall; Myanmar $2021$ coup social-media bans), illicit content flow.
• Technological Globalization / Diffusion
  • World Bank $2008$: tech progress correlated with poverty reduction; yet internal digital divides persist.
  • Rural clustering; lack of skills/infrastructure.
  • Mobile phones in Sub-Saharan Africa: shared “village phones,” mobile banking; business vs NGO roles; caution of corporate agendas.
  • Flattening vs spiky world (Friedman vs critics): innovation still clusters in economic hubs.

8.4 Theoretical Perspectives

• Functionalism
  • Manifest functions: entertainment, commercial (targeted ads), socialization of norms, productivity.
  • Latent functions: obesity via sedentary tech use, narcotizing dysfunction (awareness ≠ action).
• Conflict Theory
  • Focus on inequality, gatekeeping (Shoemaker & Vos); wealthy control narratives.
  • Citizens United $2010$ enables SuperPAC media dominance.
  • Digital divide reproduces class/race gaps.
  • Panoptic surveillance: decentralized monitoring (Foucault)—CCTV, GPS, facial recognition.
• Feminist Perspective / Cyberfeminism
  • Media portray women as thin, young, light-skinned; reinforces stereotypes.
  • STEM gender gap; coverage emphasizes looks > skills; new media both challenge & perpetuate bias.
• Symbolic Interactionism
  • Technology as status symbol (latest iPhone vs “dumb” phone).
  • Neo-Luddites vs Technophiles symbolism.
  • Media constructs reality: reference groups, parasocial primary groups.
  • Social networking monetizes identity (Pampers “friend”).

Key Terms (select)

• Digital Divide, Knowledge Gap, E-Readiness, Gatekeeping, Planned Obsolescence, Disruptive Technology, Net Neutrality, Media Consolidation, Panoptic Surveillance, Cyberfeminism.

Numerical & Statistical Highlights

• PC users: $3\times10^5 \rightarrow 1\times10^7$ (1991–1996).
• Rural Internet $60\%$ vs national $78\%$.
• Smartphone-only: $\approx25\%$ Black/Hispanic.
• $81\%$ feel no corporate data control; $84\%$ vs government.
• TV reach late $1990s$: $98\%$ homes; humans watch $2.5{-}5$ hrs/day ($250\,\text{billion}$ hrs/yr).
• Media oligopoly: $5$ firms hold $90\%$ U.S. market.
• Ambassador referral value $+16\%$, trust referrals $>90\%$.
• Apple class-action $\$500\,\text{million}$ settlement.

Connections & Implications

• Education: device disparity affects AP CS participation; orgs (Code.org, Black Girls Code) improve equity.
• Ethics: influencer transparency, children’s online labor, privacy vs business data hunger.
• Policy: FCC net-neutrality tug-of-war; broadband as utility vs commodity.
• Environment: rapid device turnover accelerates e-waste.
• Sociology: tribe formation online (digital tribalism) reshapes collective identity; homogenized mainstream + hyper-fragmented niches challenge civic dialogue.