Open AccessFair media technologies: innovative media devices for social change and the good life
Author(s) -
Sigrid Kannengießer
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the journal of media innovations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1894-5562
DOI - 10.5617/jomi.7832
Subject(s) - appropriation , sustainability , social media , globalization , production (economics) , field (mathematics) , business , sociology , public relations , political science , economics , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , mathematics , macroeconomics , pure mathematics , law , biology
Efforts to produce social change are often connected to the aim of creating the good life. Against the background of the current ecological crisis and climate change as well as exploitive globalization processes, I argue in this article that the good life is currently connected to sustainability, which not only implies ecological aspects but also economic and social ones. In this article, the research question looks at how both companies and users of media technologies can contribute to social change in general and sustainability in particular through media innovation. To answer this question, the results of a qualitative study are discussed in which the Fairphone was analyzed as a case study for media innovation. The Fairphone is a smartphone which is supposed to be produced under fair working conditions using sustainable resources. Putting the focus on the Fairphone, innovative production and appropriation processes that materialize in fair media technology are taken into account. The article contributes to research in the field of media innovation (in technology, production and appropriation) in general and media innovation with respect to social change, the good life and sustainability in particular.