Media, Information and Technoculture 2153A/B Chapter 3: David Hesmondhalgh: The Cultural Industries- Chapter 3

• School: Western University
• Department: Media, Information and Technoculture
• Course: Media, Information and Technoculture 2153A/B
• Professor: Paul Aitken

Document Summary

How not to explain change: three forms of reduction. Need to achieve coherence and directness often drags such accounts into an overemphasis on one particular factor at the expense of others. Technological determinism: the factor of being given too much weight at the expense of others is the role of technology. Reductionism: determining role is over-emphasized, reducing complexity to simplicity. Technologies have effects: e. g. , the introduction of the telephone to the way we communicate, these statements are not controversial. Redu(cid:272)tio(cid:374) (cid:449)ould (cid:271)e used if (cid:449)e asked (cid:862)what has (cid:272)aused the tra(cid:374)sfor(cid:373)atio(cid:374)s i(cid:374) the (cid:449)a(cid:455) (cid:449)e e(cid:454)perie(cid:374)(cid:272)e the telepho(cid:374)e o(cid:448)er the last 30 (cid:455)ears(cid:863) (cid:449)ith a (cid:271)road response. Cultural determinism: the view that systems of values and beliefs have causal primacy, media give people what they want, determined by how audience is shaped and their expectations. Culture: signifying system through which a social order is communicated, reproduced, experienced and explored. Contexts for change and continuity in the cultural industries.