Table Of ContentThe Information Society
Digital Media and Society Series
Mark Deuze, Media Work
Alexander Halavais, Search Engine Society
Robert Hassan, The Information Society
Tim Jordan, Hacking
Jill Walker Rettberg, Blogging
The Information
Society
Robert Hassan
polity
Copyright ©Robert Hassan 2008
The right of Robert Hassan to be identified as Author of this Work has been
asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2008 by Polity Press
Polity Press
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Cambridge cb2 1ur, UK
Polity Press
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Malden, MA 02148, USA
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4179-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4180-5 (pb)
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Contents
Preface vii
1 The Information Society Today: The
Acceleration of Just About Everything 1
2 The Coming of the Information Society 32
3 Information Takes Over 75
4 A Shrinking Planet 109
5 Commodification and Culture in the
Information Society 135
6 Faster and Faster 159
7 Who Rules?: Politics and Control in the
Information Society 190
Glossary 224
References 237
Index 253
v
Preface
We live in an information society. This much is clear; indeed,
this much is acutely palpable. It surrounds us and we are a part
of it. We ‘know’ this society insofar as it constitutes a growing
reality that is reshaping the world and what it means to be an
individual, a worker, and a member of the public within it.
Information technologies based upon computer logic have
networked our world, shrinking it to the point where it is pos-
sible to be constantly in touch with others, no matter where
they are or what the time is. The extent of this connectivity is
historically unprecedented and it is something that is growing
in complexity and utility every minute of every day. How do we
make sense of it?
Most of us are by now pretty comfortable with the Internet,
for example. We use it to shop, to be entertained and to find out
information on the widest possible range of subjects. But why
is it ‘there’? And what made it technologically (and politically)
possible? Mobile phones, similarly, are a ubiquitous device
used by seemingly everyone and are evident when walking on
a city street, or travelling on public transport, from New Delhi
to Sydney and from Montevideo to London. Mobile phones
were first developed in the 1940s, but what caused the tech-
nology to lie undeveloped and uncommercialized until the
1990s when they exploded as a social and cultural phenome-
non, to the point where half of humanity now owns or has
access to one?
The information society (and the networkable applications
and gadgets that comprise it) is also now a central component
of how we earn a living. From the florist’s shop on the street
vii
viii Preface
corner to the executive oªce on the top floor, being a part of
the network society is becoming more and more a necessity
instead of a flight of fancy. The florists will use it to find the
best prices from wholesalers and to advertise their wares; and
the executives of the multinational will use digital connectivity
for more or less the same reasons. We take all this for granted
now, with barely a thought given to the process. Moreover,
through practice and through trial and error we are becoming
competent and often expert with these growing arrays of tech-
nical applications and gadgets, and through this learning
process we simultaneously stitch ourselves deeper into the
fabric of the information society. It becomes part of us and vice
versa.
But what does it all mean? What has been gained, and has
anything been lost? Is the world a more eªcient, smarter and
better-organized place? Perhaps most centrally, much of the
rhetoric of the information society is oriented towards placing
an emphasis upon the notion that information technologies
‘empower’ the individual. As Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft,
put it, computers are ‘the most empowering tool we’ve
evercreated’ (Grossman, 2004). How true is this? Do you feel
‘empowered’ by the acquisition of a new computer upgrade, or
a faster processor, or a more multifunctional mobile phone?
These questions and more are becoming increasingly salient,
and so this book is intended as an introductory guide to this new
and radical society. We can begin by agreeing that it is impossi-
ble to look at the information society as some kind of punctual
event – as if it is something that simply ‘happened’ in conjunc-
tion with sudden and unexpected advances in computer tech-
nology. The reality is, to employ a phrase by Fredric Jameson,
that our technological present has ‘a before and after time that
only gradually reveal themselves’ (2001). It has a history (or his-
tories) that are traceable through an interpretive framework of
political economy that makes connections to the relevant social,
political, economic and technological structures and institu-
tions. The strands of history stretch back to the beginnings of
