This is the fourth edition of The Information Society since its first publication in 1994, and includes updated material on the information marketplace, additions to reflect the growth in the DVD market, and a revision of key quantative data to bring it more up to date. Despite these changes, the fundamental content and argument of the book remains the same as ever: that the technologies and tools of the twenty‐first century information society have long historical origins and that there is as much that is old as there is new in our modern society.
In itself, this is valid and important, showing that what we think of as the information society is not a unique development brought about with the computer back in the 1960s, but part of a much longer trend. Feather's book is readable and approachable and provides a good overview to some of the more complex issues of information science. It is also ambitious in its coverage, touching upon history, economics, politics, linguistics, technology, and library and computer science.
However, this ambitions also proves one of its limitations as each topic is discussed in such general terms that the book takes on a very abstracted feel. Admittedly, it does not profess to be anything more than an introduction, a guide to further issues, yet as a reader you are left with the feeling that much has been glossed over and only given a superficial discussion. Individuals, governments, and businesses are all discussed in fairly homogenous terms, not just in contemporary society, but also throughout the historical discussion, which offers a somewhat limited view of the role of information and the intricacies of the information society.
Despite skilful discussion of the impact of new media, hypertext, digital technologies and the worldwide web, Feather has a tendency to impose modern assumptions of the role and influence of this technology upon his historical discussion of the information society. Consequently he seems to suggest an inevitable progression from writing on clay tablets through to the microprocessor. Despite the long section on the historical perspective of the information society, of its essential continuity, the book's technological determinism makes it fundamentally ahistorical. Its discussion of the development of new technologies and information tools, whether that be the printing press or the internet, is done in isolation from the subtleties of any social or political context, thereby creating the illusion that information processing and dissemination tools were created and developed within a vacuum, inevitably progressing towards the information society.
There are references to contextual events, but these are fleeting and their role is underplayed. In the chapter on the political dimensions to the information society he refers to the fact that English language publishing, in print or electronically, dominates the market because of historic English supremacy and Empire spreading the language across the globe. He also mentions the lack of information available in Cold War East Germany, and the impact of government control of information. Yet, these are only brief examples, and the sociological and cultural issues raised here are unfortunately not pursued. Such a focus on the tools, technology and control of information seems to lose the human element – it is the information society being discussed, after all. The result is that while what is examined is done so intelligently and competently (especially for those who are new to the subject), there is a sense that the issues have been abstracted from the context in which they occurred, or are occurring.
Curiously, there is also no reference (save for a slight nod in the further reading suggestions at the end) to any other scholarly opinions on the information society. Such an omission can perhaps be understood by Feather's defence that the book was intended to be pragmatic and empirical rather than deal with theoretical questions about the nature of information. Yet alternative interpretations of the information society can also deal with very real, empirical issues, whether that be concerns in the line of Habermas and Danedeker, or enthusiasms such as Bell or Castells. For an introductory work which argues the aspects of continuity and change of contemporary society, some acknowledgement and discussion of these arguments seems highly necessary.
The revisions to this edition focus on new technologies developed since 2000. It is an undisputed point that the pace of change is increasing more rapidly than ever before, and if the text was to be amended in line with this we could perhaps expect new editions every year. When The Information Society was first published ten years ago, much of the discussion relating to information‐rich, information‐poor, tools for dissemination and access, and the legal implications of digital information and the internet, were new. Now they are less so. These topics each have whole literatures of their own, and are fundamental, if not taken for granted, within contemporary society. While it is absolutely correct that these issues and arguments should remain central to the book, perhaps what would have been more interesting and relevant in any revision would have been to go one step further and include discussion of the more social elements of the information society. That is, not how tools and technology are affecting economic and political values, but rather how people's perceptions of the world, of immediacy, of truth, are changing, or indeed remaining constant, within this context.
Right at the end of the book, Feather observes that the information society could be best described as a society developing technology and learning how to use it. This insight confirms that for Feather, as for many other scholars and observers, the information society is more to do with tools and technologies rather than information per se. This explains the emphasis on processing and dissemination capabilities, and the implicit technological determinism of his argument. This school of thought is prevalent in modern society, and while it is not necessarily one I would personally favour, it does nevertheless provide an easy, accessible and comprehensive discussion of the technological continuity and change of the information society.
