The Technology and the Society - Response

The article “The Technology and the Society” (1972) by Raymond Williams is a few decades old, right around the time that ushered in the new era of television, but he took a very philosophical approach to analyzing what the invention would bring us as a society. There were a lot of “cause and effect” relations touched on, and I resonated most with the idea that it brought social change with its power as a medium for news, social communication and reflections of reality and day-to-day living. I didn’t enjoy reading phrases like “technological determinism” (294), but the history leading up to televisions was talked about in-depth. The author made distinctions between the technology and the uses for that technology, focusing the former as one of intention and emphasis and the latter as one of mobility and social transformation (296). Control over the medium was also a big issue for government and the press, and it expanded into telegraphy before television started becoming a consumer product in the 1920s.

Certainly, television in its day changed how people communicated forever and how things were catered for the “masses” (298), and I used to have many times in my childhood that involved gathering around the television set for a movie, entertainment, news, etc. A lot of my own leisurely entertainment centers around the television, mainly with video games and certain drama or comedy series that I like. I still watch local news, however, and it was interesting to read at the end about the struggles of offering what’s happening in the world without a charge to its viewers. The model was new and there was an inherent production investment needed to bring it up to par in quality and conveyance of content with film and radio. I expect most local television to remain free like how it is over-the-air right now, and not so much like the production- and distribution-limited monopolies that exist with cable and satellite. The trend is again changing with the Internet, and I expect new change to come about in the same way that it did when television was first introduced into the mainstream.