Module 1

Actant or actor- object

Actor-network theory- examines science and technology in a social
context, while questioning what it means for something to be considered
social, and attributing a degree of agency to all kinds of artifacts and
objects, even something as microscopic as bacteria or as inanimate as a cup
of coffee
-

Focuses on analyzing complex webs of interconnections among all

manners and levels of actors in order to explain why certain scientific
theories or technological developments achieve success or failure

Capitalism- an economic system based on private ownership and the

production of commodities for sale
Conflict theory and political economy

Conflict theory perspective- sees society as a battleground between

disputing factions competing over power and resources
-

Examines how power is distributed in society and how leading

institutions serve to perpetuate their dominance

Political

economy

perspective-

examines

the

interrelationship

between political decisions and economic factors

Political economy- the study of social relations, particularly power
relations, that mutually constitute the production, distribution, and
consumption of resources
-

The study of control and survival in social life

Dominant ideology- the totalizing and cumulative nature of shared social

beliefs

Canada: Liberalism
America: Meritocracy
Amish communities: only adopt new technologies after they conclude
that it will reinforce their outlooks, traditions, and way of life, which

values strong familial bonds over convenience, consumerism, and

individual freedom
Essentialism- attributes a degree of agency to non-human actors but does
not necessarily attribute intentionality to them (unconscious artifacts can
influence chains of events without necessarily intending to do so)
Etymology of technology
Technology was originally used to describe the study or systematic treatment
of the arts, and that it wasnt until the 19 th century that it took on the
connotation of the useful arts, and began to denote the practical
application of scientific knowledge. It wasnt until the 20th century that we
began to think of technology not merely as the study of industrial
mechanisms, but of the industrial mechanisms themselves.
Feminisms- interested in how the category of gender results in different
forms of inequality
Functionalism- views society as a complete unit and sees the social body
as somewhat comparable to a living organism
-

Primarily interested in examining how each element within society

contributes to the overall whole, and studies how social stability is
maintained and challenged

Manifest functions- the central, intended, or stated purpose of a

social entity
Latent functions- hidden or unintended functions that are not the
primary purpose of an institution or entity and are not explicitly stated,
but nevertheless exist

Information- by James Gleick, earlier meaning is molding the mind or the

act of communicating knowledge, modern meaning is a quantifiable and
measurable entity
Information theory- the study of the coding of information in the form of
bits and how rapidly such information can be transmitted through the
computer or telecommunications

Instrumentalist mindsets of the social determinist- sees technology as

a neutral tool for fulfilling specific tasks and fails to take into consideration
the ways in which technologies may indeed impact social relations and
contribute to significant changes in society
Interactionism-

microsociological

studies

of

everyday

behavior

and

examine how interactions between individuals or groups relate to wider

social norms, beliefs, and values that affect how people make sense of their
daily lives

Karl

Marx-

believed

that

the

fundamental

inequality

between

the

bourgeoisie (ruling class) and the proletariat (working class) would be

rectified over time if the proletariat overcame their false consciousness
(delusion or lack of awareness about their dire political and economic
situation) to understand their class position and revolt against their
oppressors to take control of the means of production which would result in
the private ownership being abolished and wealth being equally distributed
Liberalism- the shared belief the individuals are inherently free to govern
themselves, behave as they wish, and exist without too many structural
constraints or external impositions on their personal freedom
Meritocracy- the idea that people should be judged on the strength of their
character, efforts, and achievements and not have their ancestry or lineage
determine their economic and class positions
Mutually-constitutive- society shaped and society shaping
Postmodernism- particularly concerned with the way in which emerging
technologies of the 20th century have contributed to a rising complexity in
society those older theoretical approaches can insufficiently account for
-

Interested in how groups of people across the world are converging as a

result of digital technologies

Science and Technology Studies (STS)- particularly concerned with

negotiating the problem of determinism and understanding how society and
technology are mutually constitutive
Social construction of reality- men are the producers of their conceptions,
ideas, etc. as they are conditioned by a definite development of their
productive forces and of the intercourse corresponding to these, up to its
furthest forms. Consciousness can never be anything else than conscious
existence, and the existence of men is their actual life-process
Social construction of technology- technologies acquire meanings and
uses according to the social and cultural contexts in which they are adopted

Social determinism or symptomatic technology- assumes that

technological development is merely an effect of existing social forces
-

Belief that technology:

Is largely composed on neutral artifacts
Has little or no determinist effect on society or behaviour
Is ultimately in the hands of human actors
Is driven by economic, political, and social decisions that determine
how artifacts are developed, adopted, and implemented

Society- a large grouping of people who all share something n common

Sociology- the systematic study of social behavior and human groups and
focuses primarily on the influence of social relationships and peoples
attitudes and behaviours, and on how societies are established and change

Quantitative analysis- the collection of statistical information and use

of a deductive approach to explain human behaviour
- Researchers commonly test out hypotheses, sometimes by using

surveys or census data

Qualitative analysis- an inductive method that relies heavily on the
interpretations of researchers and discerns meaning from the responses
of participants

Researches use small sample groups to investigate subjective

explanations for human behaviour and may use in-depth interviews

to ground their studies

Microsociology- the study of small groups which can include daily

interactions between individuals

Macrosociology- concentrates on large-scale phenomena or entire
civilizations

Substantive

mindsets

of

the

technological

determinist-

sees

technology as disrupting, restructuring, and controlling social, political, and

cultural systems and relationships and fails to appreciate how power
structures, social groups, users of technologies, and political/economic forces
exert a strong influence on the direction of and possibilities for the
development of technologies
Technological determinism- new technologies are invented as it were in
an independent sphere, and then create new societies or new human
conditions
-

Belief that technology:

Is value-laden
Determines social outcomes
Has a strong effect on the cultures that adopt them
Has its own evolutionary impulse

Technological momentum- soft determinism

-

Acknowledges that technological systems can exert strong influences on

society while still being shaped by the social context in which they
emerge

Module 2
Bronze Age- the full adoption of bronze in many regions, though the place
and time of the introduction of bronze technology was not universally
synchronous
-

smelting copper, alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading

for bronze from production areas elsewhere

Canadian School of Communications- Harold Innis was from this school

Constellations of power- existing power structures that shape how
information technologies emerge
Constitutive choices- human actors make decisions that create future
possibilities for technological development and that those decisions have an
important bearing on the specific way that a technological system gets
incorporated into a given society
-

Technologies

are

shaped

by

political

decisions

and

pre-existing

institutional frameworks; however, once in place, can in turn shape

future technological developments and social relations
Harold Innis- explores the role of media in shaping the culture and
development of civilizations

History of the radio- Guglielmo Marconi

History of the telegraph- Guglielmo Marconi
History of the telephone- Alexander Graham Bell
Industrial Revolution- the transition to new manufacturing processes in
the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840

First Industrial Revolution- steel and steam

a series of technical innovations that changed the structure of Britains
major

industries

and

altered

the

nature

of

worker-employee

relationships, simultaneously enlarging Britains workforce while leaving

many highly skilled labourers unemployed

Second Industrial Revolution- telephone and the telegraph

Marshall McLuhan- argued that the printing press was the major catalyst in
the transformation from primarily oral cultures to primarily written cultures
Mechanization- the process of changing from working largely or exclusively
by hand or with animals to doing that work with machinery
Modes of production- different forms of survival human being have
created
Knowledge Monopoly- arise when ruling classes maintain their political
power through their control of key communication technologies
Neolithic technologies

Agricultural technology- not only the early tools that helped

streamline agricultural development but also the agricultural techniques

and processes
The ability to store food surpluses which was enabled by agriculture

and is understood to be an early precursor to wealth and economics.

Caused drastic changes to the dominant social formation: resulted

in the creation of classes and the emergence of slavery

The beginning of social inequality: the emergence of surpluses and
wealth lead to the first instances of leadership and power based on
inheritance or force

New developments in communications technologies: the use of tally

sticks to measure quantities as well as clay tokens to keep records of
farm produce for storage

Quantification- express quantity of

Railway time- standard time required by railroad companies for railroad
schedules to function efficiently and to eliminate accidents on the railways
Technology and foraging societies

Foraging societies subsisted entirely off of wild foods, with diets based
on hunting, scavenging, fishing, and gathering of fruits, nuts, roots, and
leaves. As wild food diets enabled little to no storage of surplus foods,
foragers lead nomadic lives, living in small bands based on close family
ties and remaining in one area until resources were depleted, before

moving on to another area with new resources.

The technologies used by these societies were simple and suited to the
cultural formation of both the nomadic and the communal lifestyle; they

related to hunting, gathering, clothing, and shelter.

Even the manipulation of fire can be considered a technology, or even
an information technology, as it not only provided heat and helped
defend against predators and defrost frozen meat, but it also served as
a form of visual communication across long distance through smoke
signals.

The Print Revolution- Johannes Gutenberg

Increased the capacity for the reproduction of written materials

Elizabeth Einstein argues that the invention of the printing press was
socially transformative and even constituted an unacknowledged
revolution because it opened up radical, new possibilities for large
social transformations.
Social impacts of the printing press:
Disseminationwidespread

production,

availability,

distribution of written texts

Standardization- less amount of errors and distorted lettering

and

Development of uniform standards of spelling as well as a

decrease in local vernaculars and a move toward the

standardization of the spoken word

Preservation- helped to preserve information
Major cultural revolutions:
Protestant Reformation- Rising literacy rates among nonclergymen allowed for a greater number of people who were able to

read the Bible, limiting the authority of the Catholic church

The Renaissance- Increasing the availability of Ancient Roman
and Greek texts to the general public contributed to a renewed

interest in their ideas and philosophies

The Scientific Revolution- The increased publication of texts
contributed to the notion of a Western canon, or body of
knowledge, from which further knowledge could develop and build

Time and space-based media

Time-based media- better at disseminating messages that persist

throughout history
- designed to last throughout long periods of time and transmit
-

information across many generations- but over a limited space

encouraged social stability by strengthening community ties,
preserving cultural traditions and religious practices, decentralizing

power, and establishing greater social hierarchies

Space-based media- better art disseminating widespread messages
quickly over vast distances
- Able to transmit information across great distance- but ware
-

ephemeral and transient

Encouraged rapid social

change

by

promoting

secularism,

materialism, trade, bureaucracy, administration, the centralization

of power, the establishment of fewer hierarchical social structures,

and the creation of empires

Module 3
Assembly-line production- designed to perpetuate a cycle of production
and consumption by quickly churning out low-cost, low-quality products,
while offering higher wages so that workers could be consumers of the
products they assemble
Automation- replacing the human workforce entirely with machinery that
can perform the same tasks, implementing more sophisticated machines into
the labour force
Cognitive surplus- the phenomenon of hobbyists using IT to produce
knowledge and services during their leisure time and without pay
Creative Commons License- enables consumer-producers to define how
their work can be distributed and modified by others

Creative destruction- periodic social and economic upheavals when new

forms of development disrupt or replace existing industries
-

The notion that those who control the development and implementation
of a given technology always shape any discussions of technological
progress

Deskilling- tasks that had traditionally been performed in whole by skilled

artisans and craftspeople were divided up into parts and redistributed along
a chain of workers who performed only repetitive, routine, and singular tasks
Dystopianism- the perspective that sees technologies as regressive forces
that limit agency and threaten established ways of life
Fordism- the political and economic changes to industry following the
widespread adoption of Fords methods
-

The use of specialized machinery that allowed for entirely standardized

and machine-made goods, in which workers would use simple tools to
perform singular, repetitive, and simple tasks

Information Society

Firms moved from economies of scale to economies of scope

(producing a wide variety of specialized goods in order to capitalize on

consumer desire).
The increased use of the computer opened up new possibilities for
flexible specialization which meant that companies could diversify
their product lines and analyze data to engage more intelligently with

the cycle of supply and demand

The goal of the Post-Fordism was to create a product for the
consumer.

Knowledge worker- those employed in any of the diverse, new careers

of the information society, from university professors and software

engineers to call centre workers to United Parcel Service truck drivers

Immaterial labour- the shift made possible by data-processing
machines

Luddites- frustrated factory workers who protested against the deskilling of

textile labour by smashing the machines that they felt were replacing them
-

Engaged in a counter-movement against a specific instance of

technological change that they perceived as

a threat to their

professional integrity and quality of life

Network Effects- the more users who adopt an Internet platform for
business or socializing, the more popular it will become and more difficult it
will be for new entrants to displace the existing monoliths
Numerical

controlled

(N/C)

technology-

operated

by

mechanical-

program commands
Ownership concentration- the amount of stock owned by individual
investors and large-block shareholders
Peer-production- mass collaboration
-

A way of producing goods and services that relies of self-organizing

communities of individuals
Knowledge produced by crowds

Post-Fordism- Information Society

-

A shift from the manufacturing of goods and industries based on

services, the emergence of new elites and new forms of stratification,
and the major role of research, development, and science-based
industries as major contributors to the economy

Record-playback (R/P) technology- recorded the movements of skilled

machinists for machines to later replicate
Scientific Management- sought to streamline and improve work flows by
making human labour more machine-like

Taylorism- turning human labour work into quantifiable tasks, using

technological studies to numerically determine the optimal way to perform at
work
User-generated content- any form of media that was created by users of
an online system or service
Utopianism- the perspective that only looks at the perceived positive
elements

of

technological

change

without

considering

the

potential

downsides
-

Emphasizes

emerging

technologies

as

instruments

of

civilization

capable of dominating the natural world and the chaos sometimes

associated with it
3D printing- various processes used to synthesize a 3D objects

Module 4

Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)- designed to

connect a small number of computers in order to share information,
processing power, and withstand possible attacks
Biopiracy- the process in which traditional knowledge is used by others for
profit, without permission from and with little or no compensation or
recognition to the indigenous people themselves
Bioprospecting- the process in which scientists perform tests to isolate the
active compounds from traditional remedies, and patent that information for
commercial pharmaceutical or agricultural applications
Charles Babbage- difference engine; could mechanically tabulate error-free
mathematical calculations
-

Analytical engine; contained a set of input devices, a processor, a

control unit, a memory storage, and an output mechanism

Commercialization of the Internet- With commercialization, Internet was

opened to the public
Concentration- the expansion of the global free market, advocating the
removal of barriers to investment in foreign companies
-

One company will join with or buy out another in order to obtain the
economies of scale needed to turn a profit in the digital communications
industry

Convergence- ICTs such as telecommunications, broadcasting, information

technologies, and entertainment sectors are evolving toward a single allencompassing market
-

The digitization of the communications industry and encompasses both

technical and cultural process

Cultural convergence- describes cooperation between different forms
of media and the consumer practice of accessing different forms of
media through a singular device
- the way in which ICTs have facilitated a growing interaction
between national cultures and complicated older notions of locality

Technological convergence- the trend toward different types of

information

becoming

distributed

across

different

infrastructural

channels
- Requires firms to branch out into other mediums in order to stay
competitive
Corporate colonialism- the widespread, one-way export of Western massconsumer

culture

that

is

pushed

upon

other

cultures,

creating

an

Americanization or McDonaldization of the world

Dependency theory- the global economic system is organized in such a
way that developed nations profit off of, and rely upon, maintaining the
poverty of developing nations
Developing countries- nations with a less developed industrial base, and a
low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries
Digital divide- the power imbalances that arise from differential access to
technology
Distributed Communications- infrastructures which would survive nuclear
attacks or military disasters
Electronic Fund Transfer- involves the use of computer networks to
transfer money
Global

Intellectual

Property

Law-

an

essential

element

in

the

globalization of information technology

-

Shaped by the ideas and policies of neoliberalism

Globalization- refers to both the compression of the world and the

intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole
INTELSAT, INTELSPUTNIK, and EUTELSAT- allowed for the regulation of
satellites and satellite resources, improving communications between
countries
Intellectual

Property

Rights- patents, copyrights, trademarks, and

industrial designs
-

Temporary monopolies bestowed upon an inventor or an artist in

exchange for making their invention public

Least Developed Countries- countries that exhibit the lowest indicators of

socioeconomic development, with the lowest HDI ratings of all countries in
the world

Military Origins of the Internet

Differential Analyzer- Vannevar Bush

Analog computer consisting of gears, pulleys, and shafts that tabulated

equations
Colossus- electronic digital computer used for code breaking that could
perform complex calculations but could not reprogrammed to perform

any other function

Human computers- hired by the United States government to
perform complicated mathematical equations that would help determine
the trajectories of missiles and rockets and improve the accuracy of

their guns
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)- the first

fully programmable electronic computer for ballistic calculations

UNIVAC I Mainframe Computer
Whirlwind- an air-defence computer system that was designed to
handle real-time data processing for flight simulations and coordinate

defenses against possible Soviet threats

Military-industrial complex- a system of financial and political
relationships between the military, government, and industry

Modernization

theory-

all

countries

go

through

similar

stages

of

development, and that improved investment and trade flows between

developed and developing countries will help poorer countries modernize
-

Envisions a uniform development process in which poorer countries

become modernize and economically advanced by mirroring the
successes of developed countries

Neoliberalism- a set of fundamental ideas about the rationalization of social

organization that emerged in the 1970s which influenced the reshaping of
the global economy
Offshoring- the process of relocating manufacturing and production centres
overseas where land and labour are cheaper or where there are fewer taxes
to pay
Outsourcing- companies contract a separate overseas company to perform
duties and tasks that used to be performed in-house or on site
Packet-switching- a type of communications network which is fully
distributed, with nodes and computerized switches that can determine the
routes of messages
Political

Origins

of

Computer-

from

its

outset,

the

technical

administration of the Internet had been managed and organized by the US

government, but the globalization of the Net made it a political necessity to
divorce the technology from US government administration
Research & Development (R&D) laboratories- have played a crucial role
in the knowledge economy of the 20th century
Tim Berners-Lee- developed the World Wide Web
Traditional Knowledge- knowledge that is held by people in traditional,
often agrarian and non-technological communities
Transatlantic cables- an undersea cable running under the Atlantic Ocean
used for telegraph communications
Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)mandated that all countries who are signatory to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) must defend and protect each others intellectual
property rights
-

Established a uniform standard for intellectual property protection in the

form of a reciprocal agreement that all signatory countries would
mutually respect patented and copyrighted knowledge

World Wide Web- allowed users to navigate INTERNET sites outside of the
so-called walled gardens of the Internet access

Module 5
Appliancization-

the

move

towards

user-friendly

but

closed

and

centralized network and computer systems

Arab Spring- Manuel Castells
-

Gives a detailed account of the precise role that digital communications

technologies played in the grouping of distinct civil uprisings between
2010 and 2012 through a number of countries

The Culture Industry- Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer

-

Argued that the mass media has a homogenizing effect on culture

Echo Chamber Effect- discussion among like-minded people tend to get

their views reinforced more than they get their views challenged
eParticipation, ePolitics

eParticipation-

actors

joining

in

to

the

process

of

political

deliberation or decision making

- Technology-mediated interaction between the civil society sphere
and the formal political sphere and between the civil society sphere

and the administration sphere

ePolitics

Filter Bubble Politics- politicians use micro-targeted media and consumer

data as a prediction of voter behaviour
Gatekeepers- those who make decisions about what kind of informational
and cultural content gets included within the public conversation
Generativity- the freedom that web users have to create and reshape web
content and software
Jurgen Habermas- argued that communications mediums influenced the
quality of public debate that occurred in society which in turn had a bearing
on the successful functioning of democracy

Latent Functions of Mass Communications

Status conferral- to bring certain public issues, political topics, groups,

or individuals into the spotlight

Enforcement of social norms-

provides

reflection

and

encouragement of social norms by constantly presenting models of both

idealized and aberrant behaviour

Narcotizing dysfunction- the more exposure citizens have to news,
the less likely they may be to contest the dominant forms of social
organization through organized action

Occupy Wall Street (OWS)-a grassroots movement to protest rising social

stratification and income inequality, and resulted in thousands of protesters
organizing transnational linkages
Power and Counter Power- Manuel Castells

Power- the ability to exert ones will over another

Counter Power- the political engagement of citizens who are either
actively or passively challenging the dominant order in some way

Propaganda Model- the way in which the media engages in self-censorship

and filters its own content to meet the interests of owners and advertisers
-

News stories that reflect the ideological slants of the owners and
advertisers will be given much greater attention and thus will help set
the political agenda for that time

Public Sphere- an ideal space of free communication and debate (Jurgen

Habermas)
-

An unrestrained environment in which educated people are able to

freely discuss political ideas without fear of censorship

the way that information, media, technologies, and free discussion
intersect to form conditions for a successful democracy in any historical
or contemporary context

Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer- The Culture Industry

-

Argued that the profit-seeking industries that produced commercial art

and culture rendered all popular art standardized and uniform and made
it impossible for art to serve its duty which was to introduce challenging
ideas and encourage people to think critically and reflexively

Twitter Revolutions- different revolutions and protests, all of which were

coordinated using Twitter to plan the protests, mobilize the demonstrators
and update news to all around the world
Walled Gardens- a restricted range of information to which subscribers to a
particular service are limited
Web Personalization- the economic model of the Internet means that the
information any web surfer sees online is increasingly tailored to individual
tasted

Module 6
Biopolitics and biopower- the way in which biological information came
under state control

Biopolitcs- a complicated concept to examine the strategies and

mechanisms through which human life processes are managed under

regimes of authority over knowledge and power

Biopower- societies turn toward controlling man-as-species (whole
group) instead of man-as-body (individual) and the fact that statistics
come into play when exercising control over populations
- the use and manipulation of population statistics as a means of
controlling entire groups of people

Cloud computing and surveillance- the practice of using a network of

remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data,
rather than a local server or a personal computer
Cryptopticon- Siva Vaidhyanathan
-

The eye of authority is omnipresent, but citizens are unaware of its

existence
Encourages citizens to behave as if they were not being watched,
indulging freely in discussion and behaviour, and revealing their most
private habits, thoughts, impulses, fantasies, and political beliefs, which
are all recorded, stored, analyzed, and sorted, along with whatever
social consequences may arise

Digital footprints- a trail of personally identifiable data that can be traced

back to you later in life
ECHELON- a computer system that scans Internet and telecommunications
traffic

for

certain

sensitive

keywords

relating

to

military

activities,

international drug trafficking, and major crimes

Edward Snowden- a former CIA employee who was responsible for leaking
National Security Agency (NSA) documents which revealed the existence of a
secret program that collects and analyzes all foreign communications data
that

passes

through

American

communications

line

and

monitors

communications from all American citizens

IBM Hollerith Machines- Herman Hollerith
-

Used a hand punch to record the data as holes in dollar-bill sized punch
cards and a tabulating machine to count them

Michel Foucault- wrote about the ways in which social institutions like the
workplace, the hospital, the school, the military barrack, and the prison used
surveillance as disciplinary mechanism to ensure behavioural conformity in
all citizens
National Security Agency (NSA)- intelligence organization program of the
United States government, responsible for global monitoring, collection, and
processing

of

information

and

data

for

foreign

intelligence

and

counterintelligence purposes- a discipline known as signals intelligence

(SIGINT)
PRISM- massive surveillance program operated by the United States
National Security Agency
-

Analyzes data for patterns of terrorist or other potential criminal activity

RFID

(Radio-frequency

identification)

chips-

wirelessly

transfer

information about an object to a database for the purpose of identification

and tracking
Surveillance Society- non-democratic society, in which we are all
constantly monitored, with our personal information tracked, collected, and
stored by unknown agencies, and where we can neither be sure how this
information is being used nor what impacts it may have on us
The Panopticon- encourages citizens to behave as if they were being
watched, modifying their behaviour and doing their best conform to societal
norms

Jeremy Bentham
- a circular prison with a cylindrical observation tower at the middle,
-

with prisoner cells placed alongside the walls of the circumference

a system in which the prisoners would effectively watch
themselves, internalizing the gaze of the omnipresent but invisible
guard,

and

modify

their

behaviour

accordingly

under

the

assumption that they were being monitored

Michel Foucault
- The Panopticon helped explain the existence of hegemonic social
control, which is the process through which small elite groups were
able to successfully control large masses of people and ensure
-

conformity to their ideological programs

The Panopticon is a metaphor for social surveillance, wherein
citizens would internalize the gaze of the omnipresent authority
figures

Module 7

Big data- vast volume of digital information available

Citizen Science- indicate that crowd sourcing can be better suited to
certain forms of knowledge production than traditional methods
Crowd-sourced knowledge- offer the potential for enormous big-data
projects that can deal with problems too large for humans to solve
Googlization of knowledge- a project by Google to digitize all published
knowledge
-

Digitizing reading materials will provide benefits for readers and libraries
by lowering storage costs and facilitating easier access to materials

Information overload- an increased volume of information made possible

by new technologies would cause a traumatic shock to citizens who lacked
the mental capacities to process and make sense of it
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)- using new technologies as a
means of addressing the problem of diminishing returns from the university
system
Multitasking- originally referred to a computers ability to carry out several
tasks simultaneously
-

A condition wherein people juggle multiple tasks at once, as opposed to

completing one task before moving onto another in a linear fashion

Networked knowledge- David Weinberger

-

The hugeness of available data that exists

Neuroplasticity- the notion that our brains are malleable

-

Repeated activities physically shape and reshape our brains, which can
make us better at some activities and worse than others

Sleeper curve- Flynn effect

-

Mounting narrative complexity in television and video games have

contributed to a steady rise in overall scores over generations

The Academic Spring- Timothy Gowers

-

a reaction against the privatization of research in order to make

knowledge freely available

Walter J. Ong- speculated on the ways in which different forms of

communications technologies shaped knowledge environments and ways of
knowing
-

Argued that the adoption of writing as a dominant mechanism for

information transmission fundamentally alters the ways that societies

think
Argued that the technology of writing restructures consciousness by
outsourcing memory to paper and separating human thought from its
origins in speech

Wikipedia- an open-source, free software license, which enables users to

use, modify, copy, and distribute software

Module 8
Communities of choice- individuals network and develop meaningful
connections outside of their physical environments based on shared interests
and values
Community-gained view of technology- sees emerging technologies as
having a liberating impact on communities and offering new capabilities for
social interaction and new platforms for community formation
-

Sees technology as facilitating closer connections between individuals

both online and offline

Community-lost view of technology- sees technologies as weakening

community ties in modern life, contrasted with a perhaps idealized, preindustrial, pastoral view of homogeneous, geographically linked communities
based on shared identities
Digital natives- the first generation of people who have grown up with
digital communications technologies at their disposal
Disconnect anxiety- elevated feelings of nervousness and disorientation
when away from mobile devices or computers
Frictionless sharing- encourages users to share more information about
themselves to each other and facilitates the sharing of that data to thirdparty applications
Gemeinschaft- a smaller scale community in which members are motivated
by a shared sense of purpose and identity
Gesellschaft- an association or wider civil society, in which disparate
members come together as a group but are motivated by principles of selfinterest
Grief tourism- the act of strangers participating as spectators to or
commenters on an online death
Internet addiction- net compulsion

Individuals who have trouble controlling their impulse to engage in

activities like online gambling, viewing pornography, playing video
games, or even just checking their email or frequenting social
networking sites

Lifelogging- the process of tracking personal data generated by our own

behavioural activities
Mediated communication- interpersonal communication that occurs using
a technological medium, such as social networking and instant messaging
services, email, text messages, telephones, voice-over-IP telephone, and
voicemail
Multiphrenia- the splitting of the individual into a multiplicity of selfinvestments
Networked individualism- a shift from a society where people spend time
in closely connected groups to loosely connected networks where people are
disinclined to maintain strong commitments and more inclined to expand
their personal networks, giving equal status to close friends, family, distant
acquaintances, and networked strangers
Online dating- the act of turning to the Internet to pursue romantic
relationships

Mediated romances help those who are too busy or too introverted to

pursue traditional dating methods and find compatible people

Stored digital information in the form of photographs, emails, IMs, and
other conversations can trigger painful memories for those undergoing

recent breakups
An increase in online dating leads to a decrease in serious commitments
among partners, since the availability of countless profiles to surf
through that transformed the most pressing problem of singlehood- that
is, thinking you will never find anyone else to thinking you will always
find someone else

Quantification of the self- a trend towards looking at oneself and ones

self-worth as a series of numbers that can be changed

Synchronous and asynchronous communication

Synchronous communication- a type of communication that occurs in

real time
Asynchronous communication- a type of communication that does
not occur in immediate real time

Social atomization- a decline in meaningful communities by drawing

people out of their immediate communities and increasing a communitys
dependence on machines for interaction

Social capital- the accumulated access to resources an individual obtains

through social networks
-

The types of social relationships that an individual holds, which can

directly or indirectly benefit them

Bonding (exclusive) social capital- tightly knit connections that
affirm a members sense of identity (such as a family or gang) and can

have the effect of narrowing ones wider social circle

Bridging social capital- looser connections that link people outward,
opening up individuals to new ideas and experiences outside of their
immediate social millieu

Technology and family dynamics

Faustian bargain- the trade-off between the quantity of time spent

together and quality of connection between family members

Digital technologies have made us pausible, meaning that it is
becoming rarer for physical interpersonal communication between two

individuals not to be interrupted by messages from virtual space

Transnational families who may be separated by continents often use
Skype and social media to maintain close familial ties and bonds with
their loved ones.

The WELL (Whole Earth Lectronic Link)- provided the infrastructure to

allow users to communicate with one another and come up with their own
content and contributions
-

Influenced many of popular myths about the Internets potential to be

an ideal platform for alternative, non-hierarchical, and non-authoritarian

communities
Essentially a teleconferencing system divided into conferences (forms
classified by subject) supervised by conference hosts (proto-moderators
with the task of enforcing community rules and guiding conversations)

Module 9
Ballistic calculations and the first computers
During World War II, thousands of women were employed as ballistics
calculators, performing mathematical calculations that were given to soldiers
and generals in combat to determine the trajectory of missiles.
Controversies over Assisted Reproduction Technologies

Contraceptives, birth control, and assisted reproduction would eliminate

many of the dangerous aspects of childbirth and give women greater

control over their own bodies

Birth control technologies, abortion, and contraception increased
personal power by severing the connection between motherhood and
womens identities, whereas IVF and assisted conception technologies

assisted women to fulfil the maternal role

FINRRAGE saw genetic technologies as a further assertion of patriarchal
dominance over women that, in turn, threatened womens self-

determination over their own bodies and transferred the act of giving
birth into the hands of men and science
Cyber-bullying and gender- the act of harming or harassing in a repeated
and deliberate manner via information technology
Cyber-feminism- Believes that cyberspace would offer an avenue for
shedding old identities and reconstituting new ones, a place where those
who were born into subordinated bodies could reclaim authority through
textual connections and identity play
-

Believes that the World Wide Web and its system of dispersed links pose

a powerful symbolic challenge to the material, patriarchal world

Believes that the web can be a place of gender bending and
pansexuality, which could liberate women from biological oppression

Feminization of the workforce- tends to involve creating new, lower-paid

positions that require a different (and typically less respected) set of skills
-

may have augmented the status of women workers, but it also devalued
the work of men in that sector, as post-industrial office work came to be
seen as de-masculinized and feminine

Gender and the medicalization of healthcare- the professionalization of

medicine displaced women, devalued their roles as caregivers, and led to the
creation of distinct categories of doctor, nurse, and midwife that were
highly stratified in terms of income and status
-

The application of technology to the medical field has improved the

quality of life for many sick individuals, but there has also been
disproportionate credit given to the impacts of new technologies and a
comparative neglect of the wider transformations in social relations
described above that also impact health in society

Gender, technology, and labour automation- the new labour-saving

machines often go hand-in-hand with a feminization of the workplace.
Labour-saving technologies assume that machines can do the work of men,
reducing the labourers role to mere puller or button pusher, a task that
even women can perform.

Great Man Theory of History- looks at major historical developments as

the creation of a select few, noteworthy individuals whose ingenuity, ability,
and wisdom drive historical change
-

Takes into account neither the complex weaving of social forces that
drive technological change nor the fact that women have long held
important positions as producers and innovators of new technologies

Honeywells kitchen computer- a home computer marketed to

housewives that could only be used for managing and storing recipes
In-vitro fertilization- the process of mixing sperm and eggs in a petri dish,
where it is cultured into an embryo and then transplanted into a uterus
-

This technology created new possibilities for same-sex couples and new
configurations of the family, de-emphasizing parenthood as a biological
link and emphasizing parenthood as a social role

Institutional discrimination- historical policies that have legally encoded

male supremacy

Masculine bias of science and technology

Science and technology are construed as male realms, which over time
reproduced and reconstituted as inherently masculine, perpetuating a
system in which women are excluded from contributing to its production

and direction.
The historical development of science and technology has not only
helped to solidify gender binaries (male as rational, female as
emotional) but it has also consistently devalued that which it has
dubbed as feminine characteristics. Since science is thought to be the
definitively rational pursuit, men argue that their biologically rational

brains make them better suited to conducting scientific research and

shaping technological development.
Matilda effect- the tendency for womens contributions to technological
development to be attributed to husbands or male co-workers
Multiple feminist perspectives

Liberal feminists- concerned with increasing access to scientific

institutions and is critical of the way in which men have traditionally
dominated scientific research and technological development, barring
access to women
- Focus on way that structural barriers within science and technology
could be removed and argue that scientific research, engineering,
-

and technological development should be opened up to women

Try to increase womens participation in science and technology but
is not focused on critiquing or changing the underlying patriarchal

structure and masculine gendering of technology

Marxist feminists- see technology as a tool of capitalist oppression
that produces a gendered division of labour and has asymmetric

impacts on men and women

Radical feminists- concerned with how scientific knowledge reinforces
patriarchal oppression and how scientific and technological production
has encoded certain ideas as neutral, non-ideological, and natural when,

in fact, those ideas actually reinforce patriarchal authority

Feminist sociologists- explore the ways in which patriarchal and male
dominance was related to environmental destruction
- Argue that men tend to exhibit a disrespectful attitude toward

others, which influences their outlook on the earth and natural life
Eco-feminists- argue that women should be the stewards of
technological development because women are naturally more inclined

toward nurturing, reciprocity, and love

Psychoanalytic feminists- argue that technological development is
the result of repressed male anxiety over an inability to give birth, a
womb envy that compels them to give birth to destructive
technologies that reinforce their patriarchal authority

Patriarchy- the social, cultural, and familial authority of men

Pro-ana (pro-anorexia) and pro-mia (pro-bulimia) websites- blogs and
social media sites consisting of young girls who share pictures and stories
that actively encourage conforming to harmful media stereotypes about how
womens bodies should look by promoting eating disorders and self-harm
-

Can also be empowering self-help tools, providing support and avenues

toward treatment and recovery

QWERTY keyboard- an example of how technological development is

shaped by political and ideological decisions about what kind of labour is
most desirable for managers and how gendered labour stratification can
become embedded in technological designs

Module 10
Biopolitics and Michel Foucaults concept of biopower- Foucault
believed that state policies focused on birth rates, death rates, and life
extension policies on the 20th century would encourage a form of statisticsbased racism that operated at the level of national institutions such as
hospitals, clinics, and insurance policies
-

States could control the vitality of their population groups, allowing

certain population groups access to better healthcare and food

resources, while denying other population groups easy access to these

same important resources
Cloaked websites- white supremacist authors will hide their affiliations in
order to promote the more mainstream aspects of their political agendas
while concealing their more fringe beliefs
Digital divide and Community Technology Centers (CTCs)

Globalization promised to remove spatial barriers for greater mobility of

capital and financial investments, but this process also reasserted
borders and barriers for people, exacerbating differences within and

between among groups.

Community Technology Centers (CTCs) will provide free or low-cost
computer use and Internet access in public libraries and schools.

Eugenics and the history of scientific racialization

Eugenics- the belief that state politics could control human evolution,
improving the genetic makeup of their population by weeding out
weaker or undesirable elements of a given population through
forced sterilization, forced abortions, segregation of racial groups,
marriage restrictions, and birth control policies

The history of scientific racialization

Throughout the 1930s, Adolf Hitlers National Socialist (Nazi) Party
in Germany implemented the most extreme national policy of
forced sterilization and murder that targeted non-Aryan races,
criminals, homosexuals, the mentally-ill, the physically weak, and

all others who they believed would taint the genes of the German

population.
Canada and the United States also adopted forced sterilization
programs in the early 20th century.

Eurocentric bias of science and technology- historians of science tend

to neglect the technological and scientific contributions made by NonEuropean pre-colonial societies. The agricultural achievements of indigenous
pre-Columbian Americans, including the cultivation of corn, potato, squash,
and fruits, contributed significantly to the Western understanding of crop
science and technology. However, this knowledge was only considered
science, and these practices were only considered technologies once
they became incorporated into the Western knowledge system.
Latent racism- a type of racism that is hidden or concealed

White middle-class users migrated to Facebook as more African

American and Latino users began joining MySpace because Myspace
was perceived to be ghetto, trashy, unsafe, tacky, and
cluttered while Facebook was elite, exclusive, educated, and
safe

Default identities online- web users of colour were presumed to be

white by other users unless they explicitly identifies themselves as non-white
Online racism or cyber-racism- the growing popularity of white
supremacist communities using email, message boards, and websites to
recruit new members
Robert Moses and the politics of city planning- serves as an example of
how racial segregation can be embedded in technological design
-

Moses designed low-hanging overpasses in order to prevent the flow of

buses between Long Island, New York, and the rest of the city. By
restricting the potential for public transit, he could thereby restrict the
movement of ethnic and class groups, since only those who could afford
automobiles could access the island

The Human Genome, the HapMap project, and the technological

solutions in healthcare

The Human Genome Project is an international scientific venture with

the goal of mapping the billions of nucleotides contained in the human
genome in order to understand the complete genetic makeup of the
human species. The project found that human beings were genetically
99.9% the same and concluded that DNA studies do not indicate that

separate classifiable subspecies (races) exist within modern humans

The International HapMap Project was launched to map the
haplotypes of human genomes, the portion of human genetic makeup
that had more variation. Identifying the location of the variants, called
single

nucleotide

polymorphisms,

can

facilitate

and

speed

up

subsequent research into the genetic origins of disease. The project was
made possible by developments in big data information technology,
where computer databases and wireless telecommunication made
possible uploading data from collection sites, archiving, management,
and distribution of data both in local labs and on a global scale.
Peter

Chow-White

and

the

Informationalization

of

Race-

the

intersection between digital communications technologies, data mining, and

genome databases
-

A departure from earlier forms of measurement, classification, and

biological reductionism, in that it is driven by data and reduces race to
code, using algorithmic techniques to discover hidden patterns and
unknown relationships among many variables in masses of observed
data to produce understandable, meaningful, and potentially useful info
for knowledge building and decision-making

The myth of meritocracy- in spite of the continued underrepresentation of

African American, Hispanic, and Native American employees in Silicon Valley,
many continue to argue that success in the computer programming world is
believed to be based on coding skill alone

The question of access to technology- a multi-tiered problem that is

entangled in socio-cultural norms that must also be addressed if the digital
divide is to be closed
Narrowing discussions of the digital divide to simple questions of physical
connectivity fails to integrate understandings of how knowledge, education,
and practice figure into the definition of access. Certainly, the lack of
significant obstacle, but increasing the availability of machines can only do
so much if problems related to experience, know-how, community-enforced
values, and appropriate content are not also taken into consideration.
Treating the digital divide exclusively as a problem of access will do little to
address inequalities between social groups. Even as more previously
disadvantaged ethnic groups gain access to computers and the web, affluent
communities will continue to have increased levels of connectivity and
engagement with devices.

Module 11
Anthropocene- a shift toward an era where human activity permeates
every corner of the planet, from the ocean depths to the stratosphere
Carrying capacity- a maximum total population, which once exceeded,
would lead to resource depletion, famine, and subsequent population
crashes
Cyborg technologies- wearable technologies, which can range from simple
devices

to

more

sophisticated

technologies

that

integrate

Internet

connectivity directly into the experience of physical reality

Depletion- a decline in the available natural resources on the planet,
including deforestation, loss of arable land, loss of freshwater, the extinction
of plant and animal species, and the depletion of fossil fuel reserves
E-waste- scrapped material produced by ICTs
Green IT- scientists and businesses have begun to develop hardware and
software to use IT and ICTs to help systems reduce their negative
environment outputs, such as pollution, depletion, and waste or inefficiency
Jean Baudrillard and hyperreality

Jean

eventually lead to a stage of pure simulation

Hyperreality- the inability to distinguish

Baudrillard-

believed

that

electronic

technologies
between

would

reality

and

simulation and the impact of various social forces on consciousness

John Todds vision biotech- designs ecological sound, living ecomachines that use plants, fish, fungal organisms, and beneficial microorganisms to treat wastewater in a process called phytoremediation

Has

also

involved

implemented

innovative

ecosystems

for

food

production and energy conservation in his designs

Marshal McLuhan and technology as extensions of man- argues

that media technologies are not external objects or devices but rather
extensions of the biological senses. Tools and machines have a symbiotic
relationship with the human body, almost to the extent that they become
part of the body itself. McLuhan believed that electronic technologies would
eventually extend beyond the senses and simulate human consciousness
Mind-controlled technologies- wireless headsets developed to navigate
computer interfaces using brainwaves
Neil Postmans view of medical technologies- the technologification
of medicine changes the nature of medicine and the relationship between
doctors and patients
Peak oil- we are approaching the limit of available oil reserves, which will
result in a drastic increase in the price of petroleum
Perspectives on genetic engineering

Genetic engineering (GE) uses biotechnology to breed crops for

specific purposes, such as pesticide or herbicide resistance, drought
tolerance, shelf life, or nutritional content
Those engaged in genetic engineering of crops argue that GE
improves yields while reducing carbon emissions, limits the amount
of pesticides and herbicides used, and will be essential to
successfully producing crops in the face of the hostile climate

changes arising from global warming

Critics believe that GE is a commercially-driven enterprise that
threatens

biodiversity,

increases

pesticide

use,

facilitates

dependence on large-scale agribusiness, and will result in a Jurassic

Park type scenario where technologically-enhanced nature outstrips
our ability to control it

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are crops which have had

the genes of another organism inserted into them in order to enhance
certain behavioural traits that are considered to be desired by farmers
Advocates, industry officials, and policy-makers often claim that
genetic engineering is the only way out of the intense strains that
overpopulation places on the Earths carrying capacity

Critics:
Barry Commoner has argued that genetic engineering of crops
is the result of faulty science based on a genetic determinist

outlook
Ecofeminists have argued that these biotechnologies are part
of a larger patriarchal process that excludes women from

agriculture and sabotages traditional farming methods

Marxist opponents argue that these forms of agricultural
biotechnology are a manifestation of capitalist relations that
extend social inequalities between class groups

Planned obsolescence- the constant stream of new inventions or

modifications is designed to make older models obsolete as soon as new
ones hit the market
Pollution- the introduction of harmful substances or materials into the
natural environment
Technological fixes- new technologies may encourage the adoption of
clean-energy alternatives to petroleum and natural gas, allowing further
economic growth while limiting negative environmental impacts
The singularity hypothesis- the moment at which humans and computers
become indistinguishable
-

an extreme extension of two socially held beliefs about the power of IT:
a faith that more data will solve societys problems and the belief that
the peer-to-peer, decentralized structures of computer networks will
serve as democratizing agents

1) The Greek word tekne, the root of the word technology, reveals that
technology:
a. Is connected to the act of shaping
b. Is of Greek origin
c. Is a natural development
d. Was more important in ancient times than it is today
2) The dominant ideology in North American society is:
a. Libertarianism
b. Liberalism
c. Marxism
d. Social construction
3) Technological determinists believe that technology:
a. Has a strong effect on the cultures that adopt them
b. Acquires meaning and uses according to social and cultural
contexts
c. Is driven by economic, political, and social decisions that determine
how it is developed, adopted, and implemented
d. Is regressive, limits agency, and threatens established ways of life
4) Agriculture is considered an important technology because it enabled:
a. Foraging societies
b. Food surpluses
c. Nomadic societies
d. Temporary settlements
5) Lewis Mumford argued that the popularization of the mechanical clock
corresponded with:
a. The disruption of established class boundaries
b. More equitable forms of social organization
c. The commodification of labour
d. Population increases and the global village

6) According to David Noble, an early form of automation that recorded the

movements of skilled machinists for machines to later replicate was
called:
a. Mechanical-control technology
b. Taylorism
c. Record-playback technology
d. The assembly line
7) Which is not a characteristic of insourcing?
a. Monitoring electronic communications for quality assurance
b. Keystroke monitoring
c. Subcontracting to external workers
d. Recording in-office telephone calls
8) Which of the following studies on social media would best fit the
category of qualitative analysis?
a. A study of privacy and data management, which aggregates results
from a survey consisting of responses to five yes or no
questions about whether privacy settings influence users decisions
to install certain applications
b. A study of teen attitudes toward social media, which gathered its
evidence from a brief survey of 1200 youth in Wisconsin to
determine how many teens use Facebook
c. A study of teen attitudes toward social media, which
gathered

its

evidence

from

90-minute

semi-structured

interviews with teens

d. Neither A, B, nor C
e. A and C
9) Which of the following was one of Samuel Taylors four principles of
scientific management?
a. Replace
rule-of-thumb

methods

with

quantifiable

methods
b. Allow workers to choose their trades and develop their own habits
according to what the workers thought worked best scientifically
c. Absolve management of all responsibility for the efficiency of
production
d. A and C
10) According to Harold Innis, which of the following was not a
characteristic of time-biased mediums?
a. Encouraging trade, bureaucracy, and administration

b. Strengthening community ties

c. Preserving cultural traditions
d. Establishing more social hierarchies
e. Preserving religious traditions
11) Which of the following items was not identified by Elizabeth Eisenstein
as a major social impact of the invention of the Gutenberg press?
a. The scientific revolution
b. The standardization of language
c. The dissemination of knowledge
d. The Protestant Reformation
e. The reduced literacy of the lower classes
12) Which four information technologies were identified in the module
content as significant contributors to the expansion of the global
economy in the 1970s and 1980s?
a. TRIPS, new technical capabilities for networks, improvements to
satellite technology, and cheaper and better hardware
b. Numerical control, new technical capabilities for networks, better
satellite technology, and cheaper and better hardware
c. Electronic fund transfers, better satellite technology,
cheaper

and

better

hardware,

capabilities for networks

d. Numerical control, electronic

fund

and

transfers,

new

technical

better

satellite

technology, and new technical capabilities for networks

e. Electronic fund transfers, GATT, WTO, and TRIPS
13) What was one of the drawbacks in application suffered by the first fully
programmable electronic computer, the ENIAC machine?
a. Massive public protests from mathematicians whose jobs would be
lost to deskilling
b. The military insisted its design remain in the black box of
development
c. It was not as efficient as its early programmers, whom were mostly
women
d. Its earliest designs were destroyed in the Second World War
e. Weight, size, and the timing of its development
14) Many historians trace the earliest origins of the modern computer to
the designs of the British mathematician Charles Babbage. What was his
invention called?
a. Difference Engine
b. Flying Shuttle

c. Jacquard Loom
d. Tabulation Machine
e. None of these options
15) Which of the following statements best characterizes The New
Surveillance?
a. Surveillance of entire societies through data
b. Selective monitoring of suspicious groups through data
c. The use of extensive spy and informant networks
d. Heightened levels of violence and state terror
e. A and D
16) What is the term used by critics to describe the patenting of genes
related to the neem tree, the acai berry, and the Hawaiian taro plant by
Western pharmaceutical firms?
a. The tragedy of the commons
b. Traditional knowledge monopoly
c. Biopiracy
d. The informationalization of ecosystems
e. Terminator genes
17) Over the past ten years, information technology theorists have
described an overall trend toward convergence. In the context of
communications studies, what does convergence refer to?
a. Telecommunications, broadcasting, and IT evolving toward a single
encompassing market
b. The digitization of the communications industry
c. The consumer practice of accessing different forms of media
through a single device
d. The technical trend of different types of information becoming
distributed across different infrastructure channels
e. All of the above
18) The sociologists Paul Lazarsfeld and Richard K. Merton identified
narcotizing dysfunction as one of the three primary functions of mass
communication. What does narcotizing dysfunction mean?
a. Mass media confers status onto events and celebrities
b. Mass media enforces social norms
c. Mass media focuses mostly on celebrities and does not cover real
politics
d. People fail to engage in political activity when the news does not
have enough genuine political coverage
e. Overexposure to news breeds political complacency

19)

Which of the following did Cass Sustein not identify as a feature

of the echo chamber?

a. The risk that discussion among like-minded people will breed
extremism
b. The potential for true information to spread like wildfire
c. Slowing down the pace of the consumptive treadmill
d. The potentially destructive effects of intense
pressures on both culture and government
e. B and D
20) Which of the following social spaces influenced

market

Jurgen

Habermass arguments about the ideal democratic public sphere?

a. The pre-web Internet
b. The WELL
c. Social media
d. The town hall
e. Bourgeois coffee culture
21) What does Janet Abbate pinpoint as the origin of the initial
development of TC/IP network in Inventing the Internet (2000)?
a. Globalization of satellite technology and digital-banking systems
b. Cold War-era search for a distributed communication
system that could withstand nuclear attack
c. The search for a non-physical communication space in which
gender identities disappear
d. Bulletin board systems such as the WELL
e. The social history of the telephone
22) The expansion of global-intellectual property regulations and the
idea that new technologies can help countries transition from
agrarian to industrial economies are indebted to a theory that
states that all countries go through similar stages of development
and that improved capital investment and technology transfer will
benefit poorer countries. What is the name of this theory?
a. Dependency theory
b. Technology-transfer theory
c. Globalization theory
d. Critical political economy theory
e. Modernization theory
23) The global expansion of the telecommunications industry was in
part influenced by neoliberalism. What does neoliberalism refer
to?

a. Growth of offshoring and outsourcing

b. Increase in mergers and acquisitions and ownership concentration
c. Expansion of intellectual-property laws
d. Deregulation of industries
e. All of the above
24) Which of the following statements most accurately reflects a
SCOT approach to gender to technology?
a. Technology has always essentially been a male domain
b. Technology is a source, but not a consequence, of gender relations
c. Women should be the stewards of technological development
because they are inherently less destructive
d. Biological differences between genders may explain why it is
statistically more common for men to become engineers
e. None of the above
25) The former editor-in-chief for Encyclopedia Britannica

has

criticized Wikipedia for being a faith-based encyclopedia. What

were the findings of the comparative study in Nature on the
reliability of both encyclopedias?
a. Encyclopedia Britannica was far more reliable than Wikipedia
b. Encyclopedia Britannica was only slightly more reliable than
Wikipedia
c. Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica were exactly on par with
each other
d. Wikipedia was far more reliable that Encyclopedia Britannica
e. Wikipedia was only slightly more reliable than Encyclopedia
Britannica
26) Which feminist perspective would

most likely

argue

that

technological development is a form of subconscious compensation

for mens inability to give birth?
a. Liberal feminist
b. Marxist feminist
c. Ecofeminist
d. Psychoanalytic feminist
e. All of the above
27) Which of the following best matches the definition for the phrase
paradox of meritocracy, as found in the module content?
a. It is impossible to achieve a true meritocracy without offering jobs
to less skilled individuals

b. Organizations that outwardly promote policies of meritbased achievement disproportionately give higher salaries
to white males
c. Organizations that

offer

lower

salaries

to

white

males

disproportionately perform worse in a competitive environment

d. In Silicon Valley, good code writing determines success, and racial
identities, familial ties, and wealth and assets are meaningless
e. Studies have shown that people from marginalized communities are
actually

statistically

better

at

programming

but

get

fewer

promotions
28) Which of the following terms could be used to describe the act of
anonymously and collectively posting information on Clay Shirkys
Wikipedia page?
a. No-wage, immaterial labour
b. Cognitive surplus
c. User-generated content
d. None of the above
e. All of the above
29) Because of a long tradition of scientific racism, many critics and
commentators are wary of new technologies that seek to identify
and classify alleged racial differences. What is the relationship of
new genetic technologies to older examples of eugenics?
a. In essence, the new genetics movement is the same as the earlier
eugenics movement
b. The technologies that is uses are different, but the same agenda
exists
c. The informationalization of race is just another way of saying
scientific racism
d. The classifications conducted during the early 20 th century became
known as positive eugenics, whereas new genetics technologies
create the possibility for negative eugenics
e. Those involved in the new genetics movement do not
appear to have any clearly racist agenda
30) Technological developments in the 20th and 21st centuries have
opened up new possibilities for asynchronous communication.
Which of the following technologies best fits as an example of this?

a. Live radio
b. Telephone
c. Email
d. Instant messaging
e. All of the above
31) Following a 1995 report on the digital divide, the Clinton
administration took steps to close the technological disparities
between population groups within the country. According to the
commentators we studied this semester, why has the digital divide
persisted for so long?
a. There were not enough computers placed in schools
b. The computers placed in Community Technology Centers did not
have Internet
c. It focused mainly on education and not enough on access
d. It focused mainly on access and not enough of education
e. Both B and C
32) What is the name for the phenomenon of elevated feelings of
nervousness when away from mobile devices or computers?
a. Mediated co-presence
b. Disconnect anxiety
c. Online mourning
d. Thanatechnology
e. Multiphrenia
33) It has been argued that one reason for the lack of historical
coverage of womens involvement in technological design has been
due

to

institutional

discrimination,

which

legally

ascribed

intellectual property rights to men. What is the term used to

describe the tendency for a womans contribution to science and
technology to be attributed to male co-workers or colleagues?
a. Masculine bias of technology
b. Second shift
c. Matilda effect
d. Patent bias
e. Great man theory
34) In-vitro fertilization (IVF) was praised by early feminists because
it was thought to free women for the tyranny of reproduction.
Why were subsequent generations of feminists more critical of IVF?
a. IVF reinforced the idea that biology was the primary component of
parenthood

b. IVF medicalized infertility into a condition to be treated

c. IVF encouraged women to fulfill the maternal role
d. A and C
e. All of the above
35) What does the term molecular gaze refer to?
a. Overt racism in genetics
b. The continued search for biological differences between
population groups at a very small scale
c. A term used by cyber-feminists to describe the way that online
communication resists gender binaries
d. Both A and B
e. All of the above
36) Which of the following would best serve as an example of the
latent or polite racist behaviour that exists online?
a. Cloaked websites such as [Link]
b. The white flight from MySpace to Facebook in 2006-2007
c. Racial bias in Googles AdSense service
d. Naming the DOS prompt a Master/Slave configuration
e. White supremacist message boards
37) One of the major discussions about knowledge in the digital age
related to how digital technologies might enable what Michael
Nielsen calls a new era of networked science. What does Nielsen
identify as the main obstacle to the normalization of crowd-sourced
research?
a. There is no interest from scientists to collaborate with nonscientists
b. There is no interest among online citizens to participate in these
projects
c. The academic culture around publishing acts as a barrier
d. Online behaviour cannot be trusted
e. Crowd-sourced research is not effective for large-scale projects
38) According to Cynthia Cockburns Machinery of Dominance, the
decision to implement the QWERTY model for the electronic
keyboard had socio-political intentions and implications. What was
the primary reason?
a. To bring computer work into accordance with Samuel Taylors
principles of scientific management
b. To move toward numerical-control technology (N/C)

c. To

replace

unskilled

secretaries

with

highly

operators
d. To feminize the workplace
e. To prevent women from entering the workforce

skilled

linotype