Technology and the Production of Difference

By David E. Nye

20th Century determinists

• Dutch historian Johan Huizinga :

“The progress of technology compels the economic process to move toward concentration and general uniformity at an ever faster tempo.”

“…the American wants to be like his neighbor.”

Nye disagrees

• Levittown, NY

-Cookie cutter pre-fab homes that all looked the same.

-Critics suggested it would create “standardized soulless people”

-Instead people individualized with garages, pillars, dormers, fences, paint and gardens.

Nye disagrees cont:

• Henry Ford and the assembly line

-At first customers could get “any color they want, as long as it was black”

-To compete with GM ford had to offer a variety and new models every year

Nye disagrees cont:

• AT&T and the Telephone

- at first AT&T dominated the market, Americans only had big black desktop telephones as a choice

-eventually consumers demanded more variety and AT&T had to accommodate or lose market share

Nye Concludes:

• Many Americans fear the homogization of society from technological advancements but in reality we use technology to express, shape and defend our identity

Neil Hickey

Book Reviews

Columbia Journalism Review

Nov-Dec 1996

Hickey reviews:

• “International News SE Foreign Correspondents” by Stephen Hess

• “Lights Camera War, Is Media Technology Driving International Politics?” by Johanna Neuman

Hess Suggests:

• Americans are "increasingly ill-informed" about international affairs.

• Most newspapers, even in large cities, give miserly coverage to international news that doesn't involve Americans either as troops or hostages.

• Violent images mark 50 percent of television's foreign news stories.

• International news is too often reported by "parachutists," reporters who race crisis spots and don’t have knowledge of the culture.

Hickey agrees with Hess

• Hickey asked a TV correspondent why the coverage of the Vietnam war consisted only of battles and not a thoughtful examination of the underlying issues

• The answer was “New York wants John Wayne movies, not talking heads.”

Hickey points out:

• Most Americans aren’t interested in foreign news if it doesn’t have a large tie to the USA.

• Furthermore one editor from the Washington post said that foreign coverage “will not bring in a single page of advertising!”

Neuman suggests:

• Media technology has shaped international policy for centuries.

• Governments make quick and sometimes unwise decisions based on the emotional impact of reported violence and suffering

Neuman suggests cont:

• The US enters Somalia based on the televised suffering and the public opinion that we must “Do something! Anything!”

• The US left Somalia after televised suffering of US soldiers being “dragged through the streets of Mogadishu!”

The End