Brave New Wireless World: Mapping the Rise of Ubiquitous Connectivity from Myth to Market

This dissertation offers a critical and historical analysis of the myth of ubiquitous connectivity—a myth widely associated with the technological capabilities offered by “always on” Internet-enabled mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. This myth proclaims that work and social life are optimized, made more flexible, manageable, and productive, through the use of these devices and their related services. The prevalence of this myth—whether articulated as commercial strategy, organizational goal, or mode of social mediation—offers repeated claims that the experience and organization of daily life has passed a technological threshold. Its proponents champion the virtues of the invisible “last mile” tethering individuals (through their devices) primarily to commercial networks. The purpose of this dissertation is to uncover the interaction between the proliferation of media artifacts and the political economic forces and relations occluded by this myth. To do this, herein the development of the BlackBerry, as a specific brand of devices and services, is shown to be intimately interrelated with the myth of ubiquitous connectivity. It demonstrates that the BlackBerry is a technical artifact whose history sheds light on key characteristics of our media environment and the political economic dynamics shaping the development of other technologies, workforce composition and management, and more general consumption proclivities. By pointing to the analytic significance of the BlackBerry, this work does not intend to simply praise its creators for their technical and commercial achievements. Instead, it aims to show how these achievements express a synthesis that represents the motivations of economic actors and prevailing modes of thought most particularly as they are drawn together in and through the myth of ubiquitous connectivity. The narrative arc of this dissertation is anchored by moments of harmonization among political economic interests as these shape (and are shaped by) prevailing modes of producing and relating through ubiquitous connectivity

The consumer society and the (false) myth of mass democratisation

About fifty years from its first publication in 1970, La société de consommation. Ses mythes ses structures (Paris Denoël) confirms itself as a lucid analysis of the meanings at the basis of the consumption dynamics within contemporary society. In what he calls the ‘mystique of equality’, the concept of needs is linked to that of well-being, triggering the illusion that the increase in total amount of goods an individual can possess automatically translates into a levelling of society and in total well-being for all. According to Baudrillard, this approach does not take due account of the social logic of consumption, at which level the differentiation process for the retention of social distances is reiterated. Thus, according to Baudrillard, a mechanism that powers social differences survives through a consumerist ideology disguised as egalitarianism. Hence, Baudrillard distances himself from Marx and from the concept of value in use, understanding that at the base of mature capitalism does not lie production (and thus the dialectic of capital/labour force), but consumption. Years later, the system of consumption presents itself unchanged, to the extent that in some respects the postmodern aesthetics has actually exasperated its characteristics, blending the needs of production with an individual differentiation process that seems incapable of finding other ways of expression

Social networking and transnational capitalism

Social Networking Sites (SNS) have become a key component of users’ experience of the internet. Whilst much has been made of the social dynamics of online SNS, the influence of the structures and operations of these sites – and the business models behind them – on users is rarely accounted for. This paper argues that behind the social behaviours sup- ported by SNS, there is a growing shift towards viewing online communities as commodities, and SNS as an extension of mainstream capitalist ideologies fostered by existing patterns of commercialization and consumption. Using the works of Gramsci, Gill and Hardt & Negri to provide a critical grounding, this paper explores the popular SNS site ‘Facebook’ and suggests that SNS may feel to the users to be free, social, personal, but in fact SNS are business as usual

Rethinking the participatory web: A history of HotWired’s “new publishing paradigm,” 1994–1997

This article critically interrogates key assumptions in popular web discourse by revisiting an early example of web ‘participation.’ Against the claim that Web 2.0 technologies ushered in a new paradigm of participatory media, I turn to the history of HotWired, Wired magazine’s ambitious web-only publication launched in 1994. The case shows how debates about the value of amateur participation vis-à-vis editorial control have long been fundamental to the imagination of the web’s difference from existing media. It also demonstrates how participation may be conceptualized and designed in ways that extend (rather than oppose) 'old media' values like branding and a distinctive editorial voice. In this way, HotWired's history challenges the technology-centric change narrative underlying Web 2.0 in two ways: first, by revealing historical continuity in place of rupture, and, second, showing that 'participation' is not a uniform effect of technology, but rather something constructed within specific social, cultural and economic contexts

The sixth estate : the rule of algorithms

W artykule, na podstawie przeprowadzonych hermeneutyczną metodą analiz tekstów i fenomenów społecznych, przedstawiamy rodzące się zjawisko w nowych mediach, a mianowicie coś, co nazwaliśmy The Sixth Estate - władzę algorytmów. Stosowane dzisiaj cyfrowe mechanizmy doboru treści, sterowania zachowania konsumpcyjnymi i politycznymi ludzi przekraczają granicę zjawiska marginalnego i wchodzą do mainstreamu. Równocześnie rodzeniu się The Sixth Estate towarzyszą takie zjawiska, jak mitologizowanie niezrozumiałych mechanizmów cyfrowych, które wchodzą w interakcje z człowiekiem, a także cyborgizacji sieci. "Władza algorytmów", podkreśla rolę, a lepiej by powiedzieć coraz większą hegemonię organizacji nowomedialnej i pracujących dla niej programistów, a także chęć zawłaszczania coraz to nowych obszarów, do niedawna wydawać się mogło, bastionów ludzkiej aktywności, jak ma to miejsce w przypadku rodzącego się właśnie "robo recruiting'u".On the basis of the analysis of numerous texts and social phenomena in which the hermeneutical method is applied, we would like to present the following article on a phenomenon that can be observed in new media. We have referred to the phenomenon as the Sixth Estate, the rule of algorithms. Nowadays, digital mechanisms applied for selecting contents, controlling consumer and political behaviour reach far beyond the limit of a marginal phenomenon, and they readily join the mainstream. With the appearance of the Sixth Estate, some other phenomena can be observed, such as mythologisation of abstruse digital mechanisms which interact with a human being, and network cyborgisation. "The rule of algorithms" emphasises the role, or to put it more precisely, the growing hegemony of new media organisations and software developers who work for them, and the will to conquer new fields which have so far seemed to be the bastions of human activities, as it is in the case of the "robo-recruiting" that has just appeared. Keywords: the rule of algorithms, new media organisations, digital humanities in management

History in the Making: The Impact of Ideology in Lynne Cheney\u27s Children\u27s Books

This analysis of children’s literature attempts to understand the relationship between social reproduction and ideology. This thesis argues that children’s literature written by Lynne Cheney is a cultural artifact that constitutes an ideological history. In addition, it argues that her books can be used by ideological institutions to strengthen socially accepted practices through the theory of social reproduction. Since there is a lack of theory regarding cultural artifacts in literary studies, an adoption from the field of pedagogy called the theory of hidden curriculum is used to explain social reproduction. The process of social reproduction reinforces socioeconomic structures put in place in order to reinforce social norms

Glocalization in China: An Analysis of Coca-Cola’s Brand Co-Creation Process with Consumers in China

In contemporary marketing, corporations often work to induce consumers to participate in co-creating their brand value. Consumers, therefore, can be considered marketers, who are then used by marketing managers to create competitive advantage and market opportunities. Through processes of co-creation, companies also obtain valuable information about consumer preferences and values, which, in turn, can lower production costs. This thesis uses Coca-Cola as a case study to explore the ways international companies work to incorporate elements of Chinese culture and employ Chinese social media platforms in their promotional messages and activities in order to encourage Chinese consumers to co-create their brand value. The thesis contends that the brand value co-creation process has many implications for Chinese society, including accelerating transformations in Chinese consumers’ cultural values and identities

The myth of cyberdemocracy in China\u27s information society

The explosive development of the Internet in China has catalyzed the emergence of the information society. It is a commonly held view that the Internet provides an online public sphere which provides citizens real opportunities for the democratization of public life. This common sense creates a myth of cyberdemocracy. My thesis tests whether this myth can be justified with respect to China\u27s information society. First, the nature of the myth is analyzed. I examine how the Chinese people understand and interpret the myth . Second, I focus on whether the myth of cyberdemocracy can be justified, especially in the context of China\u27s information society. Based on the analysis of China\u27s information society background, I also explore how the myth works to eliminate social contradictions and to obscure the power relations underlying the discourse. I hypothesize that the contradiction between the market-oriented economy and political control impairs the Internet\u27s democratic potential, and power relations in China\u27s information society have not been changed