The Fifth WaveInformation expands in great waves which sweep over the human landscape and leave little untouched. Modern society stands at the earliest moments of what promises to be a cataclysmic expansion of information and communication technologies: the fifth wave.
The fourth wave, now nearly spent, was that of mass media. Fourth wave communication is organized in an industrial manner, and its orientation commercial or propagandistic. Whether print, radio, or TV, the mass media is always in broadcast mode, one voice speaking to many. This has been true in the US no less than in North Korea.
Governments and mass media default to telling the public what to think and how to behave, while governments easily control or manipulate the media, in many cases turning it into a department of state. Mass media everywhere has historically assisted the rise of powerful, intrusive governments.
New technologies and dissemination platforms are the necessary cause for the evolution to a fifth wave of communication, but the change itself pertains to the public. It has largely stopped listening, and it has started talking back. Facebook and Twitter are current examples of fifth wave technologies that have facilitated the overthrow of governments.
The new information environment is a constantly changing, dynamic, multi-dimensional web of facts, ideas, and connections. How can analysts navigate the new information environment? What are the most effective methods to extract and analyze information from all available sources, including social media like Twitter and Facebook?
Using a hands-on, interactive approach, AAI's newest course, Navigating the New Information Environment, teaches how to recognize and use the appropriate technique and information set to obtain an answer and solve an analytic problem exploiting the constantly evolving fifth-wave technologies.
The course is two days in length, and is available at your facility. Contact us for more information. |
