Assignment Question: What is 'technological determinism'? Does it help or hinder our understanding of contemporary mass media?
             Response: A theme that appears over and over in discussions about technology is whether or not technology is the cause of major social, cultural, political, and economic changes in modern society. Of course, we can find many, many examples of technologies associated with enormous social changes. The automobile, for example, often speaks of as "causing" a whole array of social changes, from the creation of suburbia to the development of the fast-food industry to the paving of farmland, to the imported oil vulnerabilities of the 1970s. The popular media is filled with similar examples of new technologies that are going to change everything, from computers to new technologies to new medical devices. And we are often told that we must find ways to accommodate ourselves to these new devices and to the changes they will cause, that we must strive to ride the wave of social flux produced by emerging technologies or face the dire prospect of being "left behind."
             In this essay, I will define the meaning of technological determinism. In doing so, I will also assess whether this view helps us to understand contemporary mass media or does it merely just hinders the process of understanding technological determinism. In doing this, I will also refer to some of my own research, which I have undertaken with members of my family and friends. I will also look at secondary sources to come to a conclusion on the understanding of technological determinism and the role that it plays within society. The technological determinist view is a technology-led theory of social change: technology is seen as 'the prime mover' in history. In economics, this is known as a 'technology-push theory rather than a 'demand-pull theory. According to technological determinists, particular technical developments, communications technologies or med...