MARTIN MCLUHAN

Technological Determinism – The belief that technological development determines cultural and social change.

McLuhan coined the expression “the medium is the message” and the term global village, and predicted the World Wide Web almost 30 years before it was invented

Teen Vogue personalise their website with the stories they want to post. Stories can be shared and distributed to audiences that may not see it before new technology was introduced. A conversation can emerge on Teen Vogues other social medias. Teen Vogue creates an endless stream of content to be consumed by the audience.

What is the network effect (Theodore Vale)?

Whereby increased numbers of people or participants improve the value of a good or service such as having one telephone is useless whereas having multiple phones gives the phones value

What is ‘loop theory’? (Norbert Weiner)

The viral expansion loop is a marketing theory where users of a product are its primary marketers

What is the Dunbar number? (Robin Dunbar)

Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships – 150

Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’

Q: How does big business benefit? What commodity do they trade in? Answer: predictive human behaviour. Write out an answer in your own words.

Big Businesses benefit due to loop theory as they gather data on individuals predictability and so can predict what the individual wants to satisfy the consumer. However they don’t only monitor behaviour but control it to some extent. It also benefits individuals as it predicts what they consumer want and so consumes more media of what product and info they want.