Technological and cultural determinism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Technological and cultural determinism - Essay Example 2. Apply these theories to recent discourse about new forms of television, whether high definition TV, 3-D TV, online TV, etc. The discourse may come from a website, an advertisement, a TV program, a newspaper/magazine article, a blog, etc.   Just like other deterministic theories, technological determinism, and cultural determinisms seeks out to explain the historical and social phenomena in terms of one determining factor. It is considered to be a doctrine of casual or historical primacy. In other words, technological determinism is used to describe ways in which technology has influenced the evolution of human. Technology such as television online TV, advertisement among other technologies have played a significant role in creating new spaces for human to inhibit on a physical or a mental basis (Winston 789). Therefore, humans have adapted to these new spaces in that the patterns of their discernment are progressively altered without any resistance. Since technological determinism is merely putting the idea that technology is critical to people’s lives, there are various aspects of discourse that may invoke technological determinism. Social construction is a very critical aspect in invoking technological determinism. Social construction is considered to be a technological determinism since it is capable of explaining a great part of various technologies including Television, Computers, and Photography among others. 4. Identify either a law of supervening social necessity OR a law of suppression of radical potential (these are likely, not fore-grounded in the example; they require an analysis of the broader cultural determinisms for the emergence of this technology).   The law of suppression of radical potential is among the first ideas that are discussed in Winston book. This law relates to misunderstanding of media. The laws state that, when a

Issues and Dilemmas of Contemporary Public Administration WK 6 Term Paper - 1

Issues and Dilemmas of Contemporary Public Administration WK 6 - Term Paper Example More often than not however, public administrators have been confronted with a myriad of ethical obligations which include but not inclined to: public interest, administrative responsibility as well as other personal life matters such as finances, sexual misconduct and health, among many others (Geuras & Garofalo, 2009). Public interest incorporates the welfare of the general public. Public administrators are mandated to serve the people. Thus, they are endorsed with the duty and responsibility to enhance public interest. It is therefore expected of them to conduct their activities with fairness and equality. Thus, they have an ethical obligation to maintain accountability and openness in their activities so as to ensure that they are doing what is perceived to be right within the perception of the public. Administrative responsibility on the other hand involves the behavior of public administrators and the expectations that others have with respect to that behavior. In this regards, a public administrator is deemed to be responsible if his/her behavior conforms to the expectations. Conversely, if a public administrator’s behavior deviated from the expectations, such an administrator is considered irresponsible. The private sector has been applauded for enhancing administrative responsibility more efficiently than the public sector. Perhaps, this accounts for the increased prevalence of various governments privatizing most of their activities. In a nutshell, privatization refers to the incidence of transferring ownership of public service, property, agency, enterprise or business from the public sector to the private sector. More often than not, privatization has been considered as a solution to the many challenges that are replete in public administration. This has seen an increase in the private sector assuming the responsibility of carrying out service delivery, which was initially carried out by the public sector. In the recent years, many