Social Determinism In Journalism

Henrik Ornebring – A professor of media and communications – is a believer that technology may be presented as being natural and inevitable, when in fact it’s development and use is shaped by the motives of industrialists, media owners and so on, much similar to the view of Jonathan Sterne. He believes that technology serves an agenda but that agenda can be made to seem natural rather than being man-made. Ornebring looks deep into the impact of technology and how it changes journalism. One of the main areas Ornebring studies is labour. Ornebring feels there is a lack of a relationship between labour and technology in relation to journalism. He feels there should be a bigger emphasises put on labour from journalists because it will be crucial them and for the future of journalism. The work of journalists is becoming increasingly more difficult as they must adapt to many technology systems and and be able to work across all media platforms – print, online and broadcast. He says that journalists view that

Technological determinism is defined as a reductionist theory that presumes that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. It is believed that the term first came about by Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), an American sociologist and economist. Technological determinism identifies the technological advancements as the main characteristic in social change process. Karl Marx was often seen as a technological determinst. He once said “the windmill gives you scoiety with the feudal lord: the steam mill with the industrial capitalist” (Marx: 2005). Technology is driven by the capitalist world and is seen as a way of passing on the blame in reation to labour. Technologu is enforcing practises, and example of this is the Garda speed camera on the roads and the phsicality of technology shaping practise