INFORMATION SOCIETY THEORY

Wednesday, March 12, 2014


Since the end of the Cold War, a new world order has begun to emerge. It is based on international capitalism and the unrestricted cross-border flow of capital and information. This flow is not only essential to the successful operation of multinational companies, but it also permits development of many other multinational organizations. This new order is being imposed through a quiet revolution that is widely referred to as Globalization.

Marshall McLuhan’s observations concerning the Global Village and the role of electronic media in it proved to be prophetic. As per his envision, the significant developments made in Information Technology is now offering every individual the access to immense stores of information. The Global Village isn’t situated in space or time. It is all encompassing universal social structure of which each citizen of this world regardless of his gender, race, creed, age, nationality, religion, and culture is a member.  

W.H. Melody described Information Society as simply a society that has become dependent upon complex electronic information networks and which allocates a major portion of its resources to information and communication activities.

But Van Dijk, a prominent author prefers to use the term ’Network Society’ instead of ‘Information Society”. He suggests that modern society is in a process of becoming a ‘Network Society’ ; a form of society increasingly organizing its relationships in media networks which are gradually replacing or complementing the social networks of face to face communication.

New Media Technology leads to an Information Society, which is characterized by:

·                     Accelerating flow of high volume of Information
·                     High growth in communication networking
·                     Dependence on complex information/electronic systems
·                     Depoliticization
·                     High Rate of Globalization
·                     Privacy Violation
·                     Information Overloads
·                     Predominance of Information Work
·                     Integration and Convergence of Activities

·                     Reduced Constraints of Time and Space

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