Media Values Technology

1. Write a paper to reflect the point that mainstream media values technology as the panacea for most societal problems, especially with COVID-19, but that the success stories usually were due to central planning by governments (as opposed to the neoliberalist views that tech companies will save us). This is even in the case of Singapore, where the main rhetoric focuses on success from technology. to tie in with techno-solutionism (thinking an app will solve complex social problems with no hidden costs, reducing our imaginations to think beyond what tech companies are telling us), and how moving forward post-COVID-19, perhaps we need to expand our imaginations to solve complex social problems. Technology has a supporting role, but it shouldn’t dictate our imagination. 2. Provide clear distinctions of different ideological frameworks for using technology in development. E.g. private sector-led with minimal government intervention; State-driven infrastructure for universal access to ICT, etc. 3. More sources + in-depth discussions on the case studies (Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) themselves. Meaning more news articles and analyses. I want this to be the meat of the paper. 4. Reduce the methodology section to no more than 500 words (can delete many of the sub-sections and research here) 5. Include Naomi Klein’s views on the “Screen New Deal” into the recommendations section. She talks about how instead of only thinking about technology solutions, we should be exploring other options. Her main example is with education during COVID-19. Our imagination seems to be limited to remote and online learning, most of the time using big tech platforms. Instead, she invites us to stretch our imagination to think about investing in hiring a double number of teachers so that we can reduce classroom sizes.