Mass Communication & Mass Society
What is Information Society? What is the role of information in human behavior, organization, and society? Sociology of the information society, in particular the social-cultural, political, and organizational aspects. We are beginning to live in an "information economy" and an "information society" - we are entering an "information age." - Tom Forester
"Information society is enslaved in its freedom." - vpr
The crucial point about a post-industrial society is that knowledge and information become the strategic and transforming resources of the information society. - Daniel Bell
"Human societies have seen four distinct revolutions in the character of social interchange: speech, writing, printing and now telecommunication. Each revolution is associated with a distinctive, technologically-based, way of life." - The Social Framework of the Information Society, (Bell 1989).
Now we have moved into a global information economy and identify societies that have bridged the digital divide, such as the United States, Japan, Germany, and other nations with an informed way of life as information societies.
In the study of information society we try to understand the complex relationship between technological change, its effect upon social divisions, its consequences for social action and the emerging strategies for social inclusion in the Information Age.
Definitions of the Information Society: Webster bundles definitions of the information society into five categories - Technological, Economic, Occupational, Spatial and Cultural.
Geographers stress the importance of the spatial features of an information society. John Goddard identifies 4 elements in the transition to an information society:
Acacia Initiative - The idea of Acacia emerged at the 1996 Information Society and Development Conference, the first event of its kind held in a developing country, South Africa, and was thus closely associated from the outset with efforts by developing countries, particularly in Africa, to ensure that their voices would help shape the Global Information Society.
End of Millennium : The Information Age, Economy,
Information Society and Culture
By Manuel Castells
Description: The final volume in Manuel Castells' trilogy is devoted to processes of
global social change induced by interaction between networks and identity. Castells
studies empirically the collapse of the Soviet Union, tracing it back to the incapacity of
industrial statism to manage the transition to the information age.
What Information Society?
by Frank Webster
Commentators increasingly talk about information as a defining feature of the modern
world. Much attention is now devoted to the informatization of social life: we are told
that we are entering an Information Age, that a new mode of information predominates, that
we have moved into a global information economy. Many writers even identify as information
societies the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, and other nations with a similar way
of life. Indeed, it appears that information has "become so important today as to
merit treatment as a symbol for the very age in which we live."
Theories of the Information Society (The International
Library of Sociology)
by Frank Webster - Theories of the Information Society provides commentaries on all the
postwar theories of the information society--Bell, Schiller, Baudrillard, Giddens and
Castells. Interest in "information" is growing in the wake of the modernity
post-modernity debate. The debate suggests that the Western economic base has shifted from
production/manufacturing to service and information, which has the changed the class
structure and political process.
The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1986.
Knowledge Workers in the Information Society Book by Vincent Mosco
Digital Information Culture: The Individual and Society in the Digital Age Book by Luke Tredinnick
Digital Literacy: Tools and Methodologies for Information Society by Pier Cesare Rivoltella
Social Information Technology: Connecting Society and Cultural Issues Terry Kidd and Irene Chen
The Information Society: Cyber Dreams and Digital Nightmares Book by Robert Hassan
Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age Book by Christian Fuchs
Cybercrime: The Transformation of Crime in the Information Age Book by David S. Wall
The Early Information Society Book by Alistair Black, Dave Muddiman, and Helen Plant
Information and Communication Technologies in Rural Society Book by Rusten/ Skerrat
Digital Nation: Toward an Inclusive Information Society Book by Anthony G. Wilhelm
The Future of Identity in the Information Society: FIDIS International Summer School, Karlstad University, Federation for Information Processing)
Past, Present and Future of Research in the Information Society Book by Wesley Shrum, Keith R. Benson, Wiebe E. Bijker, and Klaus Brunnstein
Communication Systems for the Mobile Information Society Book by Martin Sauter
Theories of the Information Society: (International Library of Sociology) Book by Frank Webster
The
Deepening Divide : Inequality in the Information Society
Book by Jan A G M van Dijk
The
Information Society: A Study Of Continuity And Change. 4th edition
Book by John Feather
Investigating
Information Society
Book by Hugh MacKay, Wendy Maples, Paul Reynolds
Theories
of the Information Society (The International Library of Sociology)
Book by Frank Webster
Mobilizing
the Information Society: Strategies for Growth and Opportunity
Book by Robin Mansell, W. Edward Steinmueller
The Information Society: A Skeptical View Book by Christopher May
Cyberspace
Divide: Equality, Agency and Policy in the Information Society
Book by Brian Loader (Editor)
How
the News Makes Us Dumb: The Death of Wisdom in an Information Society
Book by C. John Sommerville, John C. Sommerville
Science,
Technology, And Society: A Sociological Approach
Book by Wenda K. Bauchspies, Jennifer Croissant, Sal P. Restivo
The Information Society in an Enlarged Europe Book by Soumitra Dutta (Editor), Arnoud De Meyer (Editor), Amit Jain (Editor), Gérard Richter (Editor)
Information Society Book by Danniel Bell, Daniel Bell
The
Information Society Reader (Routledge Studentreaders)
Book by Frank Webster (Editor)
The
Information Society and the Welfare State: The Finnish Model
Book by Manuel Castells, Pekka Himanen
Digital
Nation : Toward an Inclusive Information Society
Book by Anthony G. Wilhelm
Cybercrime Vandalizing the Information Society Book by Steven Furnell
Ethical Global Information Society: Culture and Democracy Revisited (Ifip International Federation for Information Processing) Book by Jacques Berleur, Graham Whitehouse, Diane Whitehouse (Editors)
Regulating
the Global Information Society (Warwick Studies in Globalisation)
Book by Christopher T. Marsden (Editor)
Overload and Boredom: Essays on the Quality of Life in the Information Society (Contributions in Sociology) Book by Orrin E. Klapp
Towards the Information Society : The Case of Central and Eastern European Countries (Wissenschaftsethik und Technikfolgenbeurteilung) Book by D. Uhl, G. Banse (Editor), C.J. Langenbach (Editor), P. Machleidt (Editor)
The
European Information Society: A Reality Check (February, 2004)
Book by Jan Servaes (Editor)
Information Society Studies (Routledge Research in Information Technology and Society) Book by Alistair S. Duff.
Making
the Information Society: Experience, Consequences, and Possibilities
Book by James W. Cortada.