Social Communicative Contexts between Technological Determinism and the New Media

Abstract

The advent of the new media is a major paradigm shift in human communication and the traditional media that sustained communication from the earliest times till today. Human social progress is almost entirely dependent on the nature of communication that exists in the society. No society survives without a good system of managing information within it as no meaningful encounter and engagement that can drive growth and development can occur without the media. The 21st century brought in its wake several innovations in the information and communication technologies that totally changed the nature of communication, its processes, practice and management. This paradigm shift has given birth to new orientations and attitudes which have combined to create the notion of technological determinism which is the belief that technology is the principal initiator of the society’s transformation. This view of the society is usually attributed to the American sociologist, Thorstein Veblen, who argued that there is a causal link between technology and the society. He opines therefore that all social transformations in the society are controlled by technology and the new media orientation it has birthed. Using content analysis as its main methodological tool, this paper examines the nature of communication, its role in the human society and the interaction between it, its media and the society which is its theatre of action. It argues that the new media technologies and the society have a symbiotic relationship that has altered, redefined, refashioned and redirected social communicative contexts in such a way that has changed the way the human society and individuals act and react leading to a total overhaul of the ways everything is done-trading, teaching, learning, paying taxes, interacting and negotiating. It concludes that social communicative contexts are not distorted by the new media but are rather recontextualised by affirming existing identities and creating new roles in stimulating specialised communication.