SOCIAL CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT

ON MEDIA

DIGITIZATION
 SOCIAL CHANGE

Social change refers to any significant alteration over time in

behavior patterns and cultural values and norms. By
“significant” alteration, sociologists mean changes
yielding profound social consequences.
Social change is the general term refer to the change in
nature, social behavior, social institutions or social relations
of the society, community of people or other social
structures.
Any event or action that affects a group of individuals that
have shared values or characteristics, act of advocacy for the
cause of changing norms of society-
 WHY SOCIAL CHANGE OCCUR

Economic conditions/system
Education
Change in social classes – rise of middle class.
Political economy
 Political economy is the study of production and trade and
their relations with law, custom and government; and with the
distribution of national income and wealth.
 EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL CHANGES

 Examples of significant social changes having long‐term effects

include;
 the industrial revolution,
 Mid 1700s to 1830 mostly in Britain.

 the abolition of slavery,

 Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6,
1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States
and provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except
as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States.
 EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL CHANGES

 and the feminist movement. 

 Most historians agree that the modern feminist movement began on
July 19th and 20th, 1848, in Seneca Falls, New York. It became known
as the Seneca Falls Convention. Organizers advertised it as “a
convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and
rights of woman.”
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
 DIGITIZATION

 Digitization refers to the process of converting data/information into

digital format from analogue format.
 It simply means the conversion of large analogous objects, image,
sound, document or signal by generating a series of numbers that
describe a discrete set of its points.
 In other words it means the presentation of ideas using binary digits
as its technology framework.
 PAKISTAN AND INTERNET

When the internet arrived in Pakistan during the 1990s, not only was it expensive, but many thought that

it would not last long due to its intricacies.

Internet, in the form of international USENET newsgroups, was introduced in Pakistan in 1993. It was

meant to provide dial up and e-mail service to general public and support to projects related to

education and other areas.

Broadband was introduced in the country in 1995. 

Pakistan's getting its submarine Fiber Optic in 2000 also helped the ISP market flourish like never before.

By the end of 2001, there were as many as 50 internet Service Providers in the country.

In 2008, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority reported over 22 million internet users in the country,

and the number is growing with every passing day.

 DIGITIZATION AND MEDIA

Impacts on print media

Changing business models

Shift to online platform

Be technically sound and up to date.

The pursuit of cost savings and flexibility through digitization is pushing

book, magazine, and newspaper publishers toward “e-readers” as
consumption platforms.

Negative and positive for journalism.

 WHAT CHANGES IT BROUGHT IN MEDIA AND
HOW IT IMPACTED ON MEDIA
At least one side of digitization in Pakistan can be told through the story
of the “lawyers’ movement.” In March 2007.

During the emergency, a blog named The Emergency Times live-streamed

protests and inspirational multimedia messages from lawyers and
activists, and crowd-sourced information.

Another example is over the past few years, social media have sometimes
erroneously been regarded as ready-to-use tools for citizens, rioters,
journalists, and activists to bring about social change, whether civil
disruption, such as in Haren, or social uprisings, such as the ones in
Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, which were casually tagged as "the Twitter
revolutions".
 DIGITIZATION AND MEDIA PRODUCTION

Media production has largely transformed from a restricted domain to a

free for all domain under the influence of digitization.

Any individual anywhere in the world in possession of digital devices is a

potential creator of media content.

Media production that used to be a professional business has now become

a free zone for anyone that possesses a computer and will to put for
production.

The practice has created a new form of journalism that is pure grassroots
according to Alexander James. It has in consequence removed the concept
of ownership of content because digital media is not quite tangible.
 DIGITIZATION AND JOURNALISM

 There is conflicting opinion about the impact of digitization on

journalism. Some say it is beneficial and advancement for the
journalists and for the media newsrooms as the journalists have excess
to unlimited data and information and virtual libraries, public records;
while some think it has taken professionalism out of the journalism and
credible and reliable reporting.

 The same internet has increased the demand for continuous accessible
on the clock news, which news agencies are responding to if they still
wish to remain in business, irrespective of the opinion they hold about
digitization of the press. This has led to 24-hours news delivery by News
agencies and other improved services for their customers’ satisfaction
such as customization of news.