Download Impacts of Communication PT. 2

The Impact of
Communication Technology
Economic Impact
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Businesses rely heavily technology
These systems have a real effect on our
economy.
With global communication comes a global
economy.
Things that happen this morning in New York
can affect business in Tokyo, thousands of
miles away, a few hours later.
Economic Impact
Communication technologies are also
moving us from a production economy to a
service economy.
 Today, more people are performing
services.
 Technologies make factories more efficient
 What else can technology do to make
business easier?
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Economic Impact – Use of
Credit
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Many people live on credit. Many people
spend more than they earn.
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Do you think that high speed communications
may be a reason why people seem to want
everything right away?
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What about TV advertising? Does TV affect
our spending habits?
Environmental Impact
Communication tends to be “clean”
technology.
 Compared to “smokestack” industries like
steel production, communication industries
are easier on our environment.
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Environmental Impact Downside
People thought that computers would
allow us to have a “paperless” office of the
future.
 Computers and photocopiers generate
more paper copies than ever before.
 When we harvest trees and use energy to
produce paper, we make an impact on the
environment.
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Cultural Impact
Many people believe TV has made us a
less literate society
 School test scores have declined.
 Could that be because we read less and
watch television more?
 What about slang? LOL, WTF, OMG?
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Cultural Impact – The Video
Revolution
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Many TV shows change scenes or images every
couple of seconds.
We have come to expect this constant action or
we are bored.
Many teachers report short attention spans
among today’s students.
Is television to blame for this?
Cultural Impact - Violence
What about our attitude toward violence?
 Have they changed because of television?
 When we constantly see violent movies
and violent stories on the evening news,
does it desensitize us toward violence?
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Cultural Impacts - Advertising
Shopping has become a national pastime.
 Instead of spending Sundays going to
museums or visiting, many families
wander around shopping malls.
 Do you think the constant advertising on
television might have something to do with
this?
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Ethical Issues
Ethical concerns have to do with matters
of right and wrong.
 Things that are unethical may not
necessarily be against the law, however,
most people agree that they are wrong.
 New developments in communication
bring with them some ethical problems
that did not exist before.
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Digital Editing
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Digital files can be changed very easily
through digital editing
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It can and is also be used for questionable
purposes.
Digital Editing - Continued
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The question is, what rights do photographers
have regarding their pictures?
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Digital sound editing enables an audio
technician to alter the voices and sounds.
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They can make anyone sound good singing. Is
this right?
Data Security
 Programmers can alter software creates a
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problem known as data security.
When should software be copy protected so it
may not be easily duplicated?
Should companies that purchase software allow
employees to make a copy for home use?
Computer Viruses
In the late 1980’s, computer viruses
became a major data security issue
 Now spyware is a major security issue
 Viruses and Spyware
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 Cause
your computers to run slow
 Monitor your actions on the computer
 Track what sites you visited
 Copy and destroy files
Ethical Questions
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Viruses could bring our country to its knees if it
infected key databases. What do you think?
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It is now easy to “fix” an election since voting
results are handled by a small number of
computers.
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Who is responsible for patrolling these
problems?