Abstract
To create a better understanding of the fundamental effects of new information and communication technologies, like the computer and the Internet, the following chapter describes the emergence of digital media as the most recent step in the long history of the evolution of information and communication technologies. The comparison with other communication technologies, like language, script, print, and broadcasting, makes it obvious that each of these epochal steps created new symbolic layers and specific levels of reality with distinct communicative opportunities. Each of these technologies expands the options for communication and effects the structures of society.
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Notes
- 1.
This summary on Luhmann’s systems theory, with special focus on distribution media, largely draws from the excellent introduction by Berghaus (2004).
- 2.
This understanding sharply contrasts with traditional concepts of communication. “The common perception thinks just the oposite, since it teleologically interprets communication as being aimed at consensus. From this point of view, oral exchange (dialoge, discourse) naturally appears to be the ideal form, while every technisation of communication by writing or print is regarded as a sign of decline or as a weak compromise” (Luhmann 1984, p. 224, footnote 48, own translation). The long-lasting resentment against the technisation of communication dates (at least) back to Socrates. However, nobody would know about Socrates’ concerns today, had not Platon documented them in writing and thereby held Socrates’ argument available for scholarly debate.
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Pfeffer, T. (2012). The Evolution of Information and Communication Technologies. In: Virtualization of Universities. Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2065-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2065-1_2
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