Digital Media - Critical Perspectives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words - 1

Digital Media - Critical Perspectives - Essay Example What then is information society? The most common definition of information society emphasizes on technological innovation. The term refers to society where the creation, distribution and use of information are the most important aspects of economic, cultural, technological, occupational and spatial activities. An information society idea can be contrasted in societies where economic strengths lie in industrial or agrarian base. The tools of information society are computers and telecommunications as opposed to ploughs showing that information societies represent highly industrialized societies (Webster, 2005:10). The concept of information society originated from the Japanese social sciences in the early 1960s. the Japanese version of the term (joho shakai or johoka shakai) came from a conversation between Kisho Kurokawa, a famous architect and Tudao Umesao, a renowned historian and anthropologist. The first debut of the term in a written text was in a study published in 1964 by Jiro Kamishima. Since then, the term has been widely used throughout the world. Therefore, it is important to understand the term information society from the five definitions including technological, economic, occupational, spatial and cultural aspects (Lyon, 1998:3). The technological definition of information society focuses on technological innovations and the effects that the innovations have on information technologies in different sectors of society. The major aspect here is that the cost of using computers has become cheap and helped in their application in different fields. This definition provides one important aspect of information society. Technological innovations are among the most visible indicators of new times and considered as an aspect representing the concept of information society. The technological innovations include personal computers,