Technoculture: Another Term that Means Nothing and Gets us Nowhere?
Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
The Australian Key Centre for Cutural & Media Policy
Faculty
Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences
School
School of Communications and Multimedia
RAS ID
792
Abstract
This article argues that the term 'technoculture' is frequently used in a woolly manner to refer in a general way to technologies implicated in Western cultures, and to constructions of culture that incorporate technological aspects. The opportunity for the term to convey a specific meaning is lost in the generality of this everyday usage. Arguing from first principles about the nature of technology and culture, the paper suggests that technoculture as a term should be applied to communications technologies that are used in the mediated construction of culture. To be technocultural, the technology concerned must facilitate cultural communication across space and/or time and should, in some way, raise issues of place. Since culture is a construction involving communication and more than one person, technoculture involves the communication of cultural material in technological contexts - which is to say, other than the face-to-face. If this definition were to be adopted, future discussions of technoculture would indicate reference to a technology that allows the construction of culture across space and time.
DOI
10.1177/1329878X0109800105
Comments
Green, L. R. (2001). Technoculture: another term that means nothing and gets us nowhere?. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, 98(Feb), 11-25. Available here.