The debate that surrounds the causes and effects of technological progress can generally be separated into two distinct sides: technological determinists and social constructivists. The former claim that new inventions, especially influential ones, lead to social changes and ultimately cause humanity’s progress. For example, the Industrial Revolution dramatically increased productivity and reduced the need for human labor, eliminating the need for serfs and bringing about the end of feudalism.
By contrast, the latter supports the idea that emerging social changes make it more likely for a new invention to appear because people are interested in the problem that it would solve. People began looking for cheaper alternatives to hard labor, and the combination of many different inventions eventually led to the phenomenon known as the Industrial Revolution. Both positions have valid arguments, and this paper will discuss the primary differences between their paradigms as they are applied to the media.
The first point of the technological determinists can be expressed in Marshall McLuhan’s phrase, “the medium is the message.” It is the claim that the content that is being transmitted using the media matters less than the medium itself (Griffin, Ledbetter, and Sparks, 2015). Each variety of platforms is associated with some specific factors that ultimately determine the nature of the works that appear on it and the reaction of the user.
McLuhan uses the example of print in his lecture available from mywebcowtube (2011a), noting that the effect of any printed work is negligible when compared to that of the invention of the printer. New varieties of media emerge and change society by enabling new possibilities. In this context, the specific ideas that are being expressed are easily replaceable because they ultimately reinforce the overarching paradigm regardless of their content.
The counterpoint from the social constructivist side would be that new media are invented to accommodate new types of a message as they become necessary. Wallace (2016) provides the example of radio, which was the result of a combination of the efforts of numerous engineers, most of whom are relatively unknown compared to Guglielmo Marconi. From a social constructivist standpoint, the radio was invented because humanity began increasingly needing a means of instant communication. As a result, more and more people would put their efforts into the creation of wireless communication until, eventually, one of them succeeded.
The same reasoning can be applied to many other technologies, though the relationship will not always be readily apparent. Effectively, the emergence of new types of content drives the creation of specialized media, hence the difference in their material and effects.
The second difference is in how technological determinists view the effects of media. Their opinion that progress drives social change effectively means that media has the power to shape society. As such, McLuhan expresses the idea that by understanding the media, people would be able to “program the whole environment” to achieve a specific purpose, which is the prevention of illiteracy in his case (mywebcowtube, 2011b).
However, the knowledge could also be used for other purposes, effectively manipulating society to the wishes of those who control the media. McLuhan provides an example of how, due to the media, the image of a politician has become more important than the policies they support (mywebcowtube, 2011c). The prevention of such ill-intentioned manipulation creates a dilemma, as anyone who understands media well enough to oversee it will also be able to control it to their advantage.
Social constructivists tend to disagree and claim that the media reflects the view of society. As a result, attempts at manipulating them will be mostly ineffective, as people will lose interest in media that goes against social norms, both normal and emerging ones. President Trump, who won the election despite continuous negative coverage by a large portion of various media and popularized the term ‘fake news,’ can serve as an example. He was able to recognize the growing frustration of a significant part of the electorate with the traditional media and see the potential of a social media presence. As a result, he was able to secure a dedicated voter base that would be reinforced and expanded by media attempts to decrease his popularity, eventually winning the presidency with a small, self-funded campaign.
With that said, Donald Trump’s victory can also be attributed to the power of the new medium that is social media. Overall, most social phenomena can be partially explained by combining technological determinism and social constructivism to identify the chain of cause and effect. As such, it is generally prudent to view both theories together, with society driving advances in technology, which, in turn, produces unexpected changes in the population.
New media phenomena, such as the Internet, have changed the social discourse. However, despite a relative lack of new creations after the emergence of social media, the discourse has shifted several times after their introduction. As such, both society and technology contribute to new trends, and each should be considered when one is trying to analyze the influence of various media.
References
Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks, G. (2015). A first look at communication theory (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
mywebcowtube. (2011a). Marshall Mcluhan full lecture: The medium is the message – 1977 part 1 v 3 [Video]. YouTube. Web.
mywebcowtube. (2011b). Marshall Mcluhan full lecture: The medium is the message – 1977 part 2 v 3 [Video]. YouTube. Web.
mywebcowtube. (2011c). Marshall Mcluhan full lecture: The medium is the message – 1977 part 3 v 3[Video]. YouTube. Web.
Wallace, P. (2016). The psychology of the Internet (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.