Media, Technology and Every Day Life in Europe: From Information to Communication

Citation

Haider, J. (2006), "Media, Technology and Every Day Life in Europe: From Information to Communication", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 62 No. 4, pp. 544-546. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410610673936

This anthology comprises 13 individual chapters by different authors, all roughly situated within the wider area of media and communication studies. More specifically, in the words of Roger Silverstone, they address:

The concern with the dynamics of everyday life in the confrontation with new technologies and new media, and the implications of that confrontation for a further understanding of socio‐technical change and for its management (p. xv).

All focus on social constructions and cultural aspects of ICTs and the “information society” and steer firmly clear of the temptations of technological determinism and simplistic economic causalities. They are the result of a collective research effort that took place within the framework of a EU funded project, under the name “the European Media Technology and Everyday Life Network” (EMTEL).

The book is thematically divided into three parts: inclusion and exclusion, consumption and the quality of life, and methodology and policy. Each part is preceded by a general introduction to the topic, which considers the relevant factors and briefly outlines the subsequent chapters.

The first part, which is concerned with the issue of inclusion and exclusion, is introduced by Kees Brants and Valerie Frissen. Under the title “Inclusion and exclusion in the information society” they investigate academic debates as well as policy discourses on inclusion/exclusion and on the digital divide. They highlight that both are riddled with ambiguities. Specifically, the digital divide debate, they argue, is underpinned by discourses that are empirically unwarranted and start from normative assumptions. They call for an alternative approach, which reflects the complexity of the inclusion/exclusion concept more adequately by considering its various dimensions, including in particular a subjective or experiential dimension.

In “Mapping diasporic media cultures: a transnational cultural approach to exclusion” Myria Georgiou investigates inclusion and exclusion in mediated communication of diasporic communities across Europe. Different forms of mediated communication are studied with regards to their role for identity constructions of diasporic communities. She shows how multifarious diasporic media cultures challenge dominant exclusionary and homogenising tendencies in mainstream culture and discourse.

Bart Cammaerts investigates “ICT‐usage among transnational social movements in the networked society”. He presents four case studies and shows how and to which extent transnational social movements use ICTs to organise themselves and their members, to lobby formal politics, and to interact with the public.

Starting from political assumptions and discourses Dorothée Durieux studies “ICT and the everyday experiences of less‐abled people”. She attempts to look beyond deterministic and utopian beliefs in ICTs. Rooted in a constructivist approach, her focus is on individual stories and collective experiences. This leads her to challenge the realism of some ICT inclusion projects for the less‐abled.

The book's second part – consumption and the quality of life – is prefaced by a chapter on “Consumption and quality of life in a digital world”, in which the dynamic, ambivalent and sometimes problematic relationships of the notions of ICTs, consumptions, and quality of life are discussed. In particular, the authors challenge views that perceive of quality of life as accumulation of material possessions and they highlight the discrepancy in ICT use between being in control and being controlled.

In “Internet consumption in Ireland – Towards a ‘connected’ domestic life” Katie Ward takes an ethnographic approach to examining how internet use is integrated into everyday and domestic family life, and how meaning surrounding internet use is constructed. She uses the concept of “second generation internet use” to describe the practices she finds. By this she means a structured and targeted use of the internet that is “embedded within offline communication patterns” (p. 107) and integrated with the use of older media.

Under the title “The everyday of extreme flexibility” Thomas Berker presents a particularly interesting analysis of academic migrant researcher's use of new information and communication technologies. Taking his cue from Gidden's concept of time‐space distantiation as well as from Haraway's notion of the cyborg, he investigates the increasingly blurry boundaries between work and non‐work and discusses the problematic of extreme flexibility in these researchers' lives.

Maren Hartman's study of “The discourses of the perfect future” is an attempt to provide a more differentiated picture of young people's use of and attitude towards new media. Hartman shows that, while use of various forms of new media by young people is wide spread and commonplace, their popular image as “early adopters” needs to be re‐assessed. In particular, she points to the strong influence “moral panics”, often associated with new media, have on their perceptions and use.

“The future of ambient intelligence in Europe” is examined by Yves Punie. With ambient intelligence (AmI) he refers to an intelligent environment, in which people and devices interact with each other thanks to “the convergence and seamless inter‐operability of three key technologies: ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous communication, and intelligent user interfaces” (pp. 159‐160). Punie presents various concepts of AmI and introduces the visions that are tied up with it. In addition, he discusses a number of problematic factors that could hinder AmI's societal acceptance. In particular, he addresses the invasion of privacy, which is a necessary part of this type of “invisible” yet ubiquitous computing.

The book's final part deals with issues of methodology and policy. After an introduction, outlining the EMTEL project's methodological approaches, data collection methods, and mention of some implications, Paschal Preston discusses the public policy implications of the project's findings for “Europe's way to the information society” in more detail. In particular he emphasises the need for policy makers to take a less technology driven view of inclusion and exclusion, but also to re‐consider their often purely economical and instrumental perceptions of ICT use.

Finally, in the last chapter, entitled “Towards the ‘communication society’”, Roger Silverstone and Knut H. Sørensen propose that “information society is too imperial a notion” (p. 213) and suggest that shifting the focus towards communication might provide a framework, which is more apt for thinking about the socio‐technical changes that are related to ICTs. In this context, they also insist on the “need to explore further the social and moral foundations of such communication” (p. 216).

In conclusion, the book presents the results of a number of well‐founded qualitative empirical studies that attempt to look beyond common assumptions about ICTs and the information society. Most present interesting, occasionally unexpected and at times challenging results. The anthology is certainly a worthwhile read, in terms of the issues and findings presented, but also with regards to the methodologies and approaches introduced. Yet, specifically in this regard, one major shortcoming needs to be mentioned. The book is interspersed with talk about discourse. Most studies are based on some form of analysis of discourse or at least they state their intent of taking certain discourses as their starting points. Yet, none of those who employ the term outline which understanding of discourse the research is based on or provide clues as to the theoretical foundations for their use of the notion in the given context.