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Outline Some Of The Technological Developments Responsible For What Some Call The Information Society. Explain What Is Meant By The Phrase, And Discuss The Arguments About Whether Such A Society Can Be Said To Exist.

I'm sure for many of you, it will not have gone unnoticed that there are a large number of individuals who believe we have surpassed post-industrialism and entered a new era directed by a new societal model. This new ‘paradigm,' surprisingly claims that material goods will no longer be the basis for which society and its economic relations are organised. Rather that, information and knowledge is or soon will be the basis for which everything is structured. This is known as the ‘information society,' and is the age many believe we are living in – an age in which the creation, manipulation and rapid distribution of information is economically and culturally significant. Now in my opinion I have already answered the second part of the titles question. However, since I need to write two thousand words I am going to go a little deeper. It's always interesting to look at the history behind a topic, so I am going to begin by briefly mentioning the roots of the Information society model. Following which, I will use the help of Christopher May, author of The Information Society – a Sceptical View, and his ‘four claims' to deduce whether an information society can or does exist. Next, I will return to the beginning of the question and delve into important technologies behind the information. Finally, I will conclude by illuminating the possible future and lastly, giving my personal view on the validity of the information society as a model.

According to May, the idea of an information or ‘new network' society started to appear in accounts of modern society in the early 1960's. However, due to the complexity of the models development it takes some work to dissect its parts, as David Lyon (1988) explains:

"The roots of the information society idea are intertwined in a complex manner. It is hard to disentangle the diverse strands of attempted social prediction, government policy, futuristic speculation and empirical social analysis."

Lyon uses the phrase...