Page 75 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

DATACASTING

capitalism’ (Haraway, 1984: 193), but one which is not faithful to its
parent. The cyborg takes science and technology beyond a masculinist
tradition of progress and breaks down the binaries of culture : nature,
civilised : primitive, mind : body. It therefore provides a means to
overcome an imposed ‘natural’ state of being that confines the
individual to oppressive power relationships. The cyborg is transfor-
mative and postmodern as ‘the certainty of what counts as nature – a
source of insight and a promise of innocence – is undermined,
probably fatally’ (1984: 94). Although Haraway’s vision of the cyborg
is not restricted to cyberspace, it implies that expression in cyberspace
– both through and within technology – will have ramifications for
real-world politics.

See also: Cyberdemocracy, Virtuality
Further reading: Halberstam and Livingston (1995); Kirkup et al. (2000); Stone
(2001)

DATACASTING

The word datacasting can mean simply the distribution, or streaming,
of digital data. However, it is used more specifically to describe digital
television services beyond traditional broadcasting. Broadcasting
(analogue) is thought of as continuous, with a content of linear
narratives, and distributed from one-to-many. Datacasting (digital)
allows for interactive services (such as access to the Internet), data that
you might request on-demand (such as weather reports or stock
quotes) or pay-per-viewsubscription to giant audio-visual archives
(e.g. TiVo).
All digital information consists of interchangeable and discrete bits
of information, making datacasting and broadcasting technically
indistinguishable. The word datacasting, when used to describe digital
television services, is therefore referring to the industry and
regulatory characteristics of datacasting services rather than the
technical features. It is generally used to describe particularly
innovative (as opposed to conventional) content that may require a
degree of interactivity.

See also: Broadcasting, Convergence, Interactivity

60