MASS COMMUNICATION

INSIGHT INTO CASTELL’S DEFINITION ON INFORMATION SOCIETY

Do we live in an era of change or in a changing era? As society changes, the old name becomes non-operational. Agricultural society gave way to industrial society, which was followed by Post Industrial society, a name given by Daniel Bell of Harvard University and Alain Touraine of France almost at the same time (incidentally both of them are sociologists.). Agriculture is the main mode of production, employing the vast majority of the people in an agricultural society. In an industrial society, industrial activities dominate the economy. In a Post Industrial society, the majority of the population is employed neither in agriculture nor in the industrial sector but instead are pushers of papers. The service sector, or the tertiary sector, becomes predominant in this stage. This is a phase that Alvin Toffler called ‘the third wave”.
In recent years, a new name has been invented for the Post- Industrial society: is it Information Society or Knowledge Society. In today’s world there seems to be an oversupply of information. Most of the information we have is not useful. The other side of information society is where we have a lot information on what is going on , but not enough on what can be done or ought to be done, and much less on how to do it. We lack a moral compass to navigate through the tickets of information. In this society one has the right to information. There is abundance of creation of information. These societies value information and have created infrastructures for the collection, processing and dissemination of information. For example: I can find out by a flick of my computer mouse, the number of road accidents in America.
In this past decade, the expression “information society” has without a doubt been confirmed as the hegemonic term, not because it necessarily expresses a theoretical clarity, but rather due to its “baptism” by the official policies of the more developed countries and the “crowning” that meant having a World Summit dedicated in its honor.
The term’s antecedents, however, date back from previous decades. In 1973, United States sociologist Daniel Bell introduced the notion “information society” in his book The Coming of Post-Industrial Society [1], where he formulates that the main axis of this society will be theoretical knowledge and warns that knowledge-based services will be transformed into the central structure of the new economy and of an information-led society, where ideologies will end up being superfluous.
This expression reappears strongly in the 90s, within the context of the development of the World Wide Web and ICTs. As of 1995, it was included in the agenda of the G7 meetings (followed by G8, which joins heads of State and governments from the most powerful nations on the planet). It has been addressed in forums of the European Community and the OECD - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the thirty most developed countries in the World), and has been adopted by the United States government, as well as various UN agencies and the World Bank Group. All with great repercussions in the communication media. As of 1998, the term was first selected by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and then by the UN, as the name for the World Summit to be held in 2003 and 2005.
Within this context, the concept “information society” as a political and ideological construct has developed under the direction of neo-liberal globalization, whose main goal has been to accelerate the establishment of an open and “self-regulated” world market. This policy has counted on the close collaboration of multilateral organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank, in order for the weak countries to abandon national regulations or protectionist measures that “would discourage” the inversion; all with the known result of a scandalous widening of the gaps between the rich and the poor in the World.
Regardless of this reality and the key role that communication technologies have played in the acceleration of economic globalization, information society’s public image is more associated with the “friendlier” aspects of globalization, such as the World Wide Web, mobile and international phoning, TV via satellite, etc. Thus, the information society has assumed the role of the “good will ambassador” for globalization, whose “benefits” could be within the reach of all, if only the “digital divide” could be bridged.
Manuel Castells is a Professor of Sociology and Planning and Chair of the Center for Western European Studies at the University of California. He on the other hand has clearly define the information society. This definition is what I would like to discuss, taking into consideration, the key elements in the definition.
A term put forward by Castells (1993 1-2) to describe a society built on technologies of information storage, retrieval, and transmission, time-space compression, Post-Fordism, flexible accumulation, and the advance of finance capital, which is characterized by networking, globalization, and the flexibility, individuality, and instability of work.
1. Technology
Technology is the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants. Most people, however, think of technology in terms of its artifacts: computers and soft ware, air craft, pesticides , water treatment plants, birth-control pills and micro wave ovens to name a few. But technology is more than these tangible products. Technology in information communication refers to the rapid development of information. Think of ICT as the productive factor for the society that depends on information. Technology is the back bone of an information society. All the key points in Castell’s definition depends o technology. It can be seen as objects- tools, machines, instruments, weapons, and appliances-the physical devices of technical performance. As a knowledge: the know how behind technological innovations. As a process – begins with a need and ends with a solution. As socio- technical systems: the manufacture and use of objects involving people and other objects in combination. Change in the material environment is the explicit purpose of technology and not, as is the case with science. As time progress, so does technology. Technology has made things much simple for humans, and also added new ways for us to communicate.

2. Information storage.
What is information and how can it be stored? Information refers to data that has been assigned a meaning. Beer (1985 p. 28) describes information as “that which changes us”- data becomes information when it can be acted upon. In so far as information can be considered in the abstract, it is always linked to specific situation and has only limited validity (Vander Spek & Spijkervet, 1997). In an information society, information becomes a commodity which must be created. After creation, the commodity must be kept until it is needed. Therefore, information storage refers to the way information is stored, retrieved and displayed. People who store information can make money. Example: Library, Archives, Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo.

3. Retrieval
The process of getting something back. The process of getting back information stored on a computer. In an information society, information retrieval is key. That is, after creating and storing, it is able to get back or retrieve the information when needed.

4. Transmission
The act or process of passing something from one place, person, thing to another. It talks about distribution. Technology has made transmission so easy. In such a society, distribution of information is a means in itself. Distribution is a money making means or machine in an information society.



5. Time space compression
Time has been a big problem in the social and economic/ cultural environment. With the evolvement of technology it has compressed time, space and distant. Spatial meanings are changed by electronic communications. In Castells definition, he proposes that technology with its instantaneous processing of financial transactions and the speeding up of actions takes us into an era of timeless time. Time- space compression is evident when you look at human communication in the ancient days as compared to recent days.

6. Post Fordism
It is the name given to the dominant system of economic production, consumption and associated socio-economic phenomena, in most industrialized countries since the late 20th century. Definitions of the nature and scope of post fordism vary considerably and a matter of debate among shoulders. Post fordism is characterized by the following attributes
• New information technologies
• Small batch production
• Economies of scope
• Specialized products and jobs
• Emphasis on types of consumers in contrast to previous emphasis on social class
• The rise of the service and the white collar worker
• Feminization of the work force.
Post Fordism can be applied in a wider context to describe a whole system of modern social processes because Post Fordism describes the world as it is today. It brought new ways of looking at consumption and production.

7. Flexible Accumulation / Finance Capital
Those who create information and for a matter of fact in the information society the creators easily accumulates capital. For example the creators of Microsoft still accumulate wealth. This is what happens in an information society. There is a widespread trend toward capital mobility. The process is linked to the emergence of global cities increasingly more, connected to each other then the immediate regional environment (Sassen 1991) Lamberton identifies one important strand of the process, noting that information creates economies of scale in a way that allows the rich to get richer. According to him, it pays business planning large scale operations to buy better information than smaller firms (lamberton 2002 p. 337)

8. Net working
It is key in an information society. The networking that Castells identifies occurs at a number of levels and for a range of different purposes. What they appear to have in common is that they provide a structure that is both temporary an flexible enabling organisations to work together and co- operate when it benefits them but not constraining them after their usefulness has passed. Networking was integral to the development of technology. However, the development of productive and powerful global networks does have implication for individuals, communities and countries throughout the world. There are countries that are at the core of these network, notably in north America, Europe and far east, while others in Asia and south and central America fulfill supportive roles based on their cheaper labour costs. For those who are included within the network society, work patterns are changing. As technology has made it possible for large corporations to shift and distribute their production around the world.

9. Globalization.
Describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies and cultures have become integrated through a globe – spanning network of communication and exchange. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: integration of national economies in to the international economy through trade, foreign direct investments, capital flows, migration and the spread of technology. However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, socio cultural, political, and biological factors.

CRITIQUES OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY.
As with any zeitgeist there is a criticism. Two of the most notable critique has been Frank Webster’s Survey of theories of the Information Society (Webster 2002) and Christopher May’s (2000). Aside this critique there is a disadvantage of an information society that cannot be overlooked. It has brought global and local digital divide. Globally, there has been a divide. Some countries are at the core of networking whiles other lags behind. Also, whiles some countries have experienced information society, some countries have not started experiencing it. Locally, there has been a digital divide between the citizens of a country. This divide exists locally due to several factors such as age, urban –rural settings, gender, education and so on.
Age
According to experts, age is a problem in the information society. At the initial stages of information society, some age classes were excluded and this has been the problem. However, the digital gap is now narrowing but in our local market it is a a big problem.

Urban – rural setting
The urban setting (cities, towns) are exposed greatly to ICT as compared to the rural setting(villages).NB: you cannot have an information society without ICT.
Gender (male and female) it has been researched that women are late adapters to technology and as such are affected by the digital divide. But an information society does not seek to bring disparity but equality. However, technology is male dominated.

Education
Literacy and illiteracy. Those who are literate are able to get access to ICT. Even with the literate there are ICT illiterate and all this is due to the rapid development of ICT.