L1: introduction
Sociology
Sociology studies the social organization of society
- How do people live together?
- What opportunities and problems arise from this?
Questions revolve mainly around
- Social order (and social cohesion)
- Social inequality, in a material and symbolic sense
- Identity, as a group and as individual
<-> psychology: individual (cognition, emotion, behaviour)
A digital media society
How do digital media…
- Are implicated in ‘the way we do things’ (social order)?
- Disrupt or reproduce power? (social inequality)?
- Shape the meaning of things (identity)?
Micro-level: Changes in our everyday practices
Macro-level: Changes to our societal institutions
Media sociology vs media psychology
- Media sociology studies how media affect the social organization of society, and
- Media psychology how media affect individual cognition, emotion and behaviour
- Media studies study the media industry and how it delivers messages to audiences
E.g. does TV viewing lead to a child obesity epidemic?
o Two-working households, latchkey children (= children who came home alone after
school) & traffic & stranger danger sociologic explanation
o Audience diversification & commercial broadcasting media psychological
explanation
o Addictive design & fast food advertising media psychological explanation
Social structure & social positions and social roles
Social structure = the organized patterns of relationships rules and ‘rule arrangements’ that govern
how people interact and live together
- (!) organized =/= formal
- Arrangements of rules into established systems social institutions
- Arrangements of relationships/interactions social positions
Social structure & culture
Culture = a shared set of beliefs, norms, behaviours, values, symbols, rituals, attitudes,…
Culture and social structure are linked
- Values and beliefs are forces that shape social order
- Norms are expectations of how one should behave
- Patterns of behaviour normatively expected for certain social positions are social roles
- Rituals are habitualized behaviours and objects that are symbolic/carry meaning (and thus
value)
1
,3 questions tied to 3 ‘logics’ (course information)
1. Is 24/7 connectivity a bliss or a burden? (network logic)
2. Are social media making us more or less social? (social logic)
3. Does datafication empower or disempower? (personal logic)
Socio-historical change: how did we get here?
Micro-level: what are the implications for the everyday life?
Macro-level: what are broader, societal implications?
Social structure: why do we do the things we do?
Our everyday practices, i.e., the ways in which we typically ‘do things’, reflect the relationship
between individuals and the social order
- Social order concerns the rules that order society
- Individuals, through their practices, obey or disobey these rules, thus reproducing the social
order or challenging it
- Practices are thus inherently relational (= social), persistent/durable (historical), and cultural
(= contextual)
- Social change occurs when individuals successfully and collectively produce a new social
order (e.g. olifantenpaadje)
Giddens’ structuration theory (1984)
- Duality of structure: structure and agency as mutually constitutive
o Flip sides of the same coin
- Social structures: enable and constrain human action (provides rules and resources for
meaningful action)
- Agency: individuals produce and reproduce social structure. They are knowledgeable, rational
actors with
1. The capacity for ‘reflexivity’: a capacity to reflect on the social structure and their role
as reproducing agent in it
2. The capacity to act ‘intentionally rational’: to modify their behaviour in line with
certain goals that they can reasonably justify as being worthy of pursuit
- The ‘duality’ between structure and agency is an interplay that oftentimes reveals how power
is distributed and negotiated in society
Why is this relevant for this course?
- Social structures are prescriptive: they specify a way of ‘doing things’ (Giddens, 1984). In
other words: they make it logical to organize things repeatedly and systematically in a certain
manner
- There are also such ‘logics’ present in media technologies
o ‘Apparatgeist: the ‘spirit of the machine’ (Katz & Aakhus)
There are logics prescribed by the technology that direct human behaviour –
not in a deterministic way, but rather by providing humans with both a
‘rationally of means’ and ‘constraint upon possibilities’
2
,Duality of technology
Orlikowski’s (1992) duality of technology
‘Technology is the product of human action, while it also assumes structural properties. That is,
technology is physically constructed by actors working in a given social context, and technology is
socially constructed by actors through the different meanings they attach to it and the various
features they emphasize and use. However, it is also the case that once developed and deployed,
technology tends to become reified and institutionalized, losing its connection with the human agents
that constructed it or gave it meaning, and it appears to be part of the objective, structural properties
of the organization’
The history of sms
1. Insignificant by-product of mobile telephony
2. ‘free’ communication
3. Massive success leads to development tariff plans
4. 140 chars limit + paid-for contribute to particular practices of communication, sms-language,
…
5. Keyboard phone facilitates typing
6. People start sending multimedia
7. …
The structures of digital media: technological affordances
what structures are there in technology that make it logic-al to do things in a particular way?
Digital media
- Technologies (devices, platforms, applications) that are connected (wired or wireless) to an
underlying technological infrastructure that supports data transfer, and can be used to
access, consume, create and exchange information and/or communication
- Focus on the everyday life (smartphones, computers, mobile and social media, …), and how
digitization has made it logical to do things a certain way
Houston, we have a problem (or 3)
1. Digital media landscape constantly welcomes new technologies
2. Moving target problem: technologies that persist are constantly updated
3. A technology is more than the sum of its separate features (Instagram and Snapchat have
almost the same features, but very different ‘Apparatgeist’
3
, A functional view: technological affordances
- Affordances are ‘possibilities for action’
- Affordances structure: they enable and constrain potential behavioural outcomes in a
particular context
- Dominant affordance = Apparatgeist
- Technology structures (through its affordances) and is structured through human agency
- Affordances are
o Relational (perceived depending on abilities/attributes of users)
o Contextual (contexts of use)
o Designed (to be readily perceived)
The affordance checklist
- 3 threshold criteria to be an affordance
1. Neither the object nor a feature of the object (e.g. phone camera is a feature, not an
affordance)
2. Not the outcome (e.g. a photo is not an affordance, it is the outcome)
3. Has variability: a feature is present or absent, but an affordance is gradual
(technologies can vary in the extent to which they ‘afford’ something) (e.g.
recordability)
- Example: scrollability
o Feature: no, but there are features that are needed to be able to scroll
o Outcome: no, there can be many different outcomes of scrolling
o Variability: yes, there is variability
- However… side note: affordances remain a fuzzy concept, that is often misused…
How do digital media affect the social organization of society?
So: social structures make certain practices logic-al
- Social structures are prescriptive: they specify a way of ‘doing things’ (Giddens, 1984)
- Because of their prescriptive nature, structuration can be described as a process of installing
and maintaining a logic in society, a set of principles that makes it logic-al to organize things
repeatedly and systematically in a certain manner
o E.g. gender
- Technological affordances are social ‘structures’ built-into technology that make it logic-al to
do things in a particular way. They are thus prescriptive: they specify a way of ‘doing things’ in
line with the ‘spirit of the machine’ (Apparatgeist)
Changing processes & routines
- In doing so, they thus shape society at the micro-level by changing processes and routines in
everyday life, and at the macro-level by that may alter or maintain the social/institutional
order
- E.g. read-receipts (WhatsApp): a seemingly small technological feature with substantial
impact on how we communicate because of the visibility it affords (presence awareness cue)
Altering the social order
- Altering social order: social change in the social structures in society, e.g. via collective action
(e.g. #MeToo)
4
Sociology
Sociology studies the social organization of society
- How do people live together?
- What opportunities and problems arise from this?
Questions revolve mainly around
- Social order (and social cohesion)
- Social inequality, in a material and symbolic sense
- Identity, as a group and as individual
<-> psychology: individual (cognition, emotion, behaviour)
A digital media society
How do digital media…
- Are implicated in ‘the way we do things’ (social order)?
- Disrupt or reproduce power? (social inequality)?
- Shape the meaning of things (identity)?
Micro-level: Changes in our everyday practices
Macro-level: Changes to our societal institutions
Media sociology vs media psychology
- Media sociology studies how media affect the social organization of society, and
- Media psychology how media affect individual cognition, emotion and behaviour
- Media studies study the media industry and how it delivers messages to audiences
E.g. does TV viewing lead to a child obesity epidemic?
o Two-working households, latchkey children (= children who came home alone after
school) & traffic & stranger danger sociologic explanation
o Audience diversification & commercial broadcasting media psychological
explanation
o Addictive design & fast food advertising media psychological explanation
Social structure & social positions and social roles
Social structure = the organized patterns of relationships rules and ‘rule arrangements’ that govern
how people interact and live together
- (!) organized =/= formal
- Arrangements of rules into established systems social institutions
- Arrangements of relationships/interactions social positions
Social structure & culture
Culture = a shared set of beliefs, norms, behaviours, values, symbols, rituals, attitudes,…
Culture and social structure are linked
- Values and beliefs are forces that shape social order
- Norms are expectations of how one should behave
- Patterns of behaviour normatively expected for certain social positions are social roles
- Rituals are habitualized behaviours and objects that are symbolic/carry meaning (and thus
value)
1
,3 questions tied to 3 ‘logics’ (course information)
1. Is 24/7 connectivity a bliss or a burden? (network logic)
2. Are social media making us more or less social? (social logic)
3. Does datafication empower or disempower? (personal logic)
Socio-historical change: how did we get here?
Micro-level: what are the implications for the everyday life?
Macro-level: what are broader, societal implications?
Social structure: why do we do the things we do?
Our everyday practices, i.e., the ways in which we typically ‘do things’, reflect the relationship
between individuals and the social order
- Social order concerns the rules that order society
- Individuals, through their practices, obey or disobey these rules, thus reproducing the social
order or challenging it
- Practices are thus inherently relational (= social), persistent/durable (historical), and cultural
(= contextual)
- Social change occurs when individuals successfully and collectively produce a new social
order (e.g. olifantenpaadje)
Giddens’ structuration theory (1984)
- Duality of structure: structure and agency as mutually constitutive
o Flip sides of the same coin
- Social structures: enable and constrain human action (provides rules and resources for
meaningful action)
- Agency: individuals produce and reproduce social structure. They are knowledgeable, rational
actors with
1. The capacity for ‘reflexivity’: a capacity to reflect on the social structure and their role
as reproducing agent in it
2. The capacity to act ‘intentionally rational’: to modify their behaviour in line with
certain goals that they can reasonably justify as being worthy of pursuit
- The ‘duality’ between structure and agency is an interplay that oftentimes reveals how power
is distributed and negotiated in society
Why is this relevant for this course?
- Social structures are prescriptive: they specify a way of ‘doing things’ (Giddens, 1984). In
other words: they make it logical to organize things repeatedly and systematically in a certain
manner
- There are also such ‘logics’ present in media technologies
o ‘Apparatgeist: the ‘spirit of the machine’ (Katz & Aakhus)
There are logics prescribed by the technology that direct human behaviour –
not in a deterministic way, but rather by providing humans with both a
‘rationally of means’ and ‘constraint upon possibilities’
2
,Duality of technology
Orlikowski’s (1992) duality of technology
‘Technology is the product of human action, while it also assumes structural properties. That is,
technology is physically constructed by actors working in a given social context, and technology is
socially constructed by actors through the different meanings they attach to it and the various
features they emphasize and use. However, it is also the case that once developed and deployed,
technology tends to become reified and institutionalized, losing its connection with the human agents
that constructed it or gave it meaning, and it appears to be part of the objective, structural properties
of the organization’
The history of sms
1. Insignificant by-product of mobile telephony
2. ‘free’ communication
3. Massive success leads to development tariff plans
4. 140 chars limit + paid-for contribute to particular practices of communication, sms-language,
…
5. Keyboard phone facilitates typing
6. People start sending multimedia
7. …
The structures of digital media: technological affordances
what structures are there in technology that make it logic-al to do things in a particular way?
Digital media
- Technologies (devices, platforms, applications) that are connected (wired or wireless) to an
underlying technological infrastructure that supports data transfer, and can be used to
access, consume, create and exchange information and/or communication
- Focus on the everyday life (smartphones, computers, mobile and social media, …), and how
digitization has made it logical to do things a certain way
Houston, we have a problem (or 3)
1. Digital media landscape constantly welcomes new technologies
2. Moving target problem: technologies that persist are constantly updated
3. A technology is more than the sum of its separate features (Instagram and Snapchat have
almost the same features, but very different ‘Apparatgeist’
3
, A functional view: technological affordances
- Affordances are ‘possibilities for action’
- Affordances structure: they enable and constrain potential behavioural outcomes in a
particular context
- Dominant affordance = Apparatgeist
- Technology structures (through its affordances) and is structured through human agency
- Affordances are
o Relational (perceived depending on abilities/attributes of users)
o Contextual (contexts of use)
o Designed (to be readily perceived)
The affordance checklist
- 3 threshold criteria to be an affordance
1. Neither the object nor a feature of the object (e.g. phone camera is a feature, not an
affordance)
2. Not the outcome (e.g. a photo is not an affordance, it is the outcome)
3. Has variability: a feature is present or absent, but an affordance is gradual
(technologies can vary in the extent to which they ‘afford’ something) (e.g.
recordability)
- Example: scrollability
o Feature: no, but there are features that are needed to be able to scroll
o Outcome: no, there can be many different outcomes of scrolling
o Variability: yes, there is variability
- However… side note: affordances remain a fuzzy concept, that is often misused…
How do digital media affect the social organization of society?
So: social structures make certain practices logic-al
- Social structures are prescriptive: they specify a way of ‘doing things’ (Giddens, 1984)
- Because of their prescriptive nature, structuration can be described as a process of installing
and maintaining a logic in society, a set of principles that makes it logic-al to organize things
repeatedly and systematically in a certain manner
o E.g. gender
- Technological affordances are social ‘structures’ built-into technology that make it logic-al to
do things in a particular way. They are thus prescriptive: they specify a way of ‘doing things’ in
line with the ‘spirit of the machine’ (Apparatgeist)
Changing processes & routines
- In doing so, they thus shape society at the micro-level by changing processes and routines in
everyday life, and at the macro-level by that may alter or maintain the social/institutional
order
- E.g. read-receipts (WhatsApp): a seemingly small technological feature with substantial
impact on how we communicate because of the visibility it affords (presence awareness cue)
Altering the social order
- Altering social order: social change in the social structures in society, e.g. via collective action
(e.g. #MeToo)
4
