What is information? Who are the information rich and who are the information poor? How can there be equality of access for users in the light of the political, economic and cultural pressures that are placed upon information creators, gatherers and keepers? Set against a broad historical backdrop, The Information Society explores the information revolution that continues to gather pace, as the understanding and management of information becomes even more important in a world where data can be transmitted in a split second. This latest edition of this standard work has been fully updated to take account of the changing landscape and technological developments since 2008. The social Web, or Web 2.0, is now embedded in daily life, and some of its applications have become the most popular forms of communication system. Even the predominance of email - one of the most familiar manifestations of the information revolution - is now threatened by texting and the use of such applications as Twitter. The ways in which we expect to interact with information - and how much we are willing to pay for access to it - are throwing up new opportunities and debates. At a societal level, as the quantity of personal digitized information continues to grow exponentially, so do both the benefits of exploiting it and the dangers of misusing it. The use of ICT to make government more accessible has to be balanced against the use of technologies that enable the state to be more vigilant or more intrusive, according to one's point of view. Behind all of this lies further technical change: the massive expansion of connectivity to high-speed broadband networks; the phased abandonment of analogue broadcasting; and above all the widespread availability and use of sophisticated multi-functional mobile devices which carry voice, video and data and which can themselves be carried anywhere. The implications for daily life, for education, for work and for social and political relationships are massive. Readership: All information professionals and students on courses on information, librarianship and communications studies, where an understanding of the nature of the information society is an essential underpinning of more advanced work.
Introduction. The information society: myth and reality
PART 1: THE HISTORICAL DIMENSION
1. From script to print
The origins of writing
The alphabet
Images, sounds and numbers
The first media
The development of the book
Printing: the first communications revolution
The trade in books
2. Mass media and new technology
The pictorial image
The recording and transmission of sound
Mass media: radio and cinema
Television
Computers: the second communications revolution
PART 2: THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION
3. The information market-place
The publishing industry: a paradigm of information transfer
Authors and publishers
The diversity of publishing
New directions in publishing
The evolution of the e-book
The interdependent media: convergence and change
The market: definition and size
Fragmentation or competition?
4. Access to information
The price of books and the cost of broadcasts
The cost of libraries
Public good or private profit?
Electronic communications: access and costs
The world wide web
Networks: an electronic democracy?
Electronic publishing: towards a new paradigm?
The cost of access: issues and problems
PART 3: THE POLITICAL DIMENSION 5. Information rich and information poor
The value of information
Information in developing countries: an issue defined
Wealth and poverty: information and economic development
Information delivery systems: some contrasts
North and South: the world publishing industry
Eastern Europe: a different poverty?
The limits of wealth: information poverty in the West
6. Information, the state and the citizen
The role of the state: an introduction
The role of the state: the protection of intellectual property
The role of the state: data protection and personal privacy
The role of the state: freedom of information
The role of the state: censorship
Contemporary dilemmas: the issues redefined
PART 4 THE INFORMATION PROFESSION 7. The information profession: a domain delineated
The role of the information professional
The work of the information professional
Librarians and libraries: archetypes in transition
From archivist to records manager
Information managers
Managing knowledge
Afterword. An information society?
Studying the information society
