Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

INFORMATION AND THE MARKET
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regard to sport. Since 1990 all Premier League football, almost all international
games when England plays, and a sizeable proportion of European Champions
League matches (when the likes of Real Madrid, Milan and Chelsea play one
another) have been purchased by Sky, as have other major sporting events such
as Ryder Cup golf and world-title boxing matches. The upshot is that those who
may formerly have seen such sport free are now excluded unless they are prepared
to pay a monthly subscription (and occasionally an additional sum for a
special programme).
Of course, it is not being argued here that this transfer makes one ‘information
poor’ of itself. It would scarcely be feasible to contend that subscription to
the existing cable television channels does much to deepen or extend anyone’s
information resources. Nonetheless, the transfer does further impoverish the
environment of the already information-disadvantaged. It does this by reducing
the variety of programming currently made available by public service television.
And then, paradoxically, it fails to enhance choice on cable networks both
because a prerequisite of cable access is ability to pay (and hence potential
viewers are economically excluded) and because the cable and satellite channels
are so uniform in their programming (sports, movies or other entertainments),
thereby reducing the diversity which is characteristic of British public service
broadcasting.
Comparable processes which deepen information divisions are visible
between nations where differences of income lead to sharp information inequalities.
The advanced nations where the world’s wealth is concentrated are the
major beneficiaries of the ‘information revolution’. At the same time, the poorer
nations, wherein are located the majority of the world’s population, are limited
to the leftovers of the first world (for example, reruns of Hollywood serials), are
dependent on what the affluent nations are willing to make available (for example,
what is produced from the news agencies), and may be further disadvantaged by
the rich’s monopoly of leading-edge information technologies such as satellites
which may monitor poorer nations from far above in the skies (for example, for
crop developments, mineralogical deposits, shoals of fish, even plain spying)
and/or broadcast Western shows which undermine indigenous cultures and
patterns of belief.
What is being suggested here is that the ‘information revolution’, being born
into a class society, is marked by existing inequalities and may indeed exacerbate
them. Thus what has been called the ‘information gap’ may be widened,
with those economically and educationally privileged able to extend their
advantages by access to sophisticated information resources such as on-line databases
and advanced computer communications facilities, while those towards
the bottom of the class system are increasingly swamped by what Schiller has
termed ‘garbage information’ which diverts, amuses and gossips, but offers little
information of value.
Here Schiller is observing that more information of itself does not necessarily
enrich people’s lives. On the contrary, the overriding determinant of information
access and supply being ability to pay has meant that, for the majority, what is
offered is cheap-to-produce, shallow, superficially appealing mass information.
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