Comparing Murphie And Potts

“In this chapter we survey influential theories of culture and technology,” states Murphie and Potts (p. 11). The authors analyze the relationship between culture and technology by introducing two positions: technological determinism and cultural materialism. The definitions of technology and culture have changed throughout history. As society changes, as do the meanings of the two terms.

For technology, Murphie and Potts mention two definitions that are currently accepted. The two authors define the word as, “technology has come to describe the overall system of machines and processes” and “technology is not a natural object but one made by humans” (p. 4).

Murphie and Potts write that culture is hard to define. However, they distinguish

11). This theory views technological change as autonomous. Supporters of the concept believe that technology has its own properties and its own development. Technological determinism states that technological innovations can change society. “This viewpoint holds that a successful technical innovation, if implemented on a sufficiently wide scale, will generate a new type of society,” explains the authors (p. 12). For example, the invention of the steam engine led to the steam age. Marshall McLuhan, a technological determinist, believes that “all technologies are extensions of human capacities” (p. 13). He considers technology as extensions of human sense perceptions. Murphie and Potts write, “In proposing that ‘the medium is the message’, McLuhan argues that the cultural significance of media lies not in their content, but in the way they alter our perception of the world” (p. 13).

Cultural

17). Raymond Williams, a cultural materialist, believes that a variety of factors have influenced cultural change so there should not be a narrow focus on technology. Additionally, Williams highlights the influence of social need and political intention on technological development. Another cultural determinist, Brian Winston, “gives the name ‘supervening social necessities’ to those diverse social forces that affect the process of innovation” (p. 20). Technological innovations may lead to the creation of related technologies due to the formation of a new need. For example, aircraft and radar. “Winston propose a “law” of the suppression of the radical potential of media technologies, a process most clearly seen with the emergence of new media forms,” writes Murphie and Potts (p. 20). New technologies may affect the economics of a particular sector, which can cause governments to attempt to limit the use of the innovation. Furthermore, Murphie and Potts state, “The characteristics of a society play a major part in deciding which technologies are adopted, and how they are implemented and controlled” (p. 20).

Is Technology