Sound Beams

Here's an NYT article about the sound beam billboard.

Acceleration

As to our conversation about future things, try imagining "a world where there is no distinction between the biological and the mechanical." To that end, here's an interesting article. It may sound fantastical, but that doesn't mean it isn't so. Here's the page for the LongPen--there's video available on the site.

And more mundanely, here's the Daily Show explanation of net neutrality.

Century of the Self

"You [advertisers] have taken over the job of creating desire and have transformed people into constantly moving happiness machines, machines which have become the key to economic progress." Herbert Hoover, 1928.

"People are going about their daily lives, working and shopping." George W. Bush, Nov. 2001

"I encourage you all to go shopping more." George W. Bush, Oct. 2006

Here's the movie. And, in case you missed it, here's the NYT article.

Reminder: The Final Exam will be May 8.

Catapult The Propaganda

This video clip is from a "town hall meeting" (with some plain folks) about "reforming" social security. One thing we mentioned in the previous class was the importance of repetition, repetition, repetition. Why are the people clapping?

Propaganda

Before I lose track of it, here's a significant report from the NYT.

Webb Power Point

I uploaded the Gary Webb ppt to the course google page, for those of you who missed it.

Webb Links

In case you're curious, here is the original series of ariticles. And here is a really good story about the kerfuffle by CJR.

Swimming out of the Mainstream

To start, let's notice that labels are often the mothers of ideas. What we call a thing colors our thoughts of it. Are the men held at Guantanamo "prisoners," "captives," or "detainees"? Were the folks fleeing Katrina "refugees"? (Were they "folks"?) Beyond euphemism, we are limited by our ability to categorize. Language is not just the clothing of ideas, it is the mold of them.

The label "mainstream" is pejorative in the context of media. Discussions of the topic of Mainstream Media (MSM) inevitably originate from the backwaters of cultural thought. It may be true that culture is more composed of these than it is of the channel, but critics of the MSM nevertheless voice their discontent from a position of disenfranchisement, almost by definition.

With this in mind, I ask you to consider what we mean by "alternative." This label carries the happy implications of "different," that is to say "better" than the hegemon. The alternative is perforce not the maligned mainstream. But the term also constrains. The "alternative" is forever marginal, always discreditable by its minority.

I mention all of this to give you footing. Our discussion of "alternative media" is flawed from its beginning, flawed by the very terms. But important nonetheless.

Midterm Grades

The midterms have been graded. I apologize for the delay in posting the scores; they'll be on D2L tomorrow before noon.

The Death of News

Please read this article. It's quite long, but read it anyway.

Midterm

Some of the topics to consider for the midterm are: media violence (follow the links posted below), media consolidation and ownership (how it affects the content we are offered), the nature and psychology of advertising.

The results are in

Here are some of the things you had to say about foregoing electric media:

I actually sat down and read, from cover to cover, a book. Crazy, I know.

I [. . .] found myself reading a book before bed . You always see that on some sitcom, not thinking that people actually do [read in bed]. But it made me relax before I went to bed. It was almost just as good as tanning! Tanning was also harder. [. . .] I think I might have a slight case of ADHD.

Despite doing my best to withold my urges, I was hindered by the presence of media EVERYWHERE.

Over the next few days, I did my best to cut back on my media usage, but I just couldn't find myself to tune it out altogether. [. . .] It's like a drug to me and I'm not even a big video gamer.

Captain's Log - Stardate 02/19/2008
Today was the first day of my non-electronic media adventure. I noticed right away it was almost impossible to stay away from electronic media because my alarm was set to the radio.

Midterm Postponed

I have decided that there hasn't been quite enough since the McLuhan/Postman business to justify the 100 pt. midterm. The new date for the midterm is March 25. It will include McLuhan and Postman.

Persistent Issues

In response to issues swirling in the comments to the previous post:

It's correct that we cannot blame the media for "violence itself." But this isn't really the point. Let's admit straight off that violence has always been a part of human behavior and culture. Does this mean that we should embrace and foster it? Is this the part of ourselves that we want to encourage and develop?

The hostility in the world is not a fixed quantity; it can be increased or diminished by the choices we make--as individuals and as a society.

Furthermore, it's erroneous to think we are either psychopaths or little lambs in some manichean universe. Of course it's true that listening to a particular artist won't flip your personality to something it wasn't. But, as we already admitted, the potential for violence is in people; we can choose to feed it or let it starve.

Violence

To supplement the discussion from last Thursday, here's the Senate Judiciary Committee's report on Children, Violence, and the Media. Also, the Congressional Public Health Summit, which I mentioned in class, issued this Joint Statement in 2000.

In addition--while considering Postman's depiction of the typographic mind--consider this notion. How's your threshold of boredom doing?

The Postman

The quiz is on Tuesday.

As for topics, I'll just say this: Review the chapter headings. If you understand, for example, what Postman means by "The Medium is the Metaphor," then you'll have little trouble explaining on the quiz what Postman means by a phrase like "technology is ideology."

Furthermore, a chapter is titled "Shuffle of to Bethlehem" -- it is about religion. What is Postman's take on televised religion? Asking yourself similar questions about the other chapter titles would be a good way to study for the quiz.

Levels of effects

The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining, which is another issue altogether [...] Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on television.

-- Neil Postman

Reflecting further on Postman, it strikes me that many of us are misperceiving the relative effects of electric and print media. Too often we imagine that, since we cannot observe any specific effect caused by electric media within our own, individual behavior, the problems are all overstated.

However, this thinking is deceptive. Just as global warming is not of any concern when judging by a particular day, so too the ways society responds to the presence of electric media will be insignificant as manifest in any one particular person. It is really an effect registered at the level of society, since it alters only the way that culture communicates with and replicates itself.

In climate, if today is one or two degrees warmer than the same day last year, there is no harm whatsoever. But if a decade, or a century, goes up by an average degree, then ecosystems and weather patterns shift, causing great upheaval. So too television and this Internet force out the habitat that sustains our old patterns of thought. When you examine yourself individually for the effects of the diminished literacy, you'll find none. You might even be a reader. But, just as a cold day in January doesn't provide any meaningful data on climate change, the fact that you might read books doesn't mean we don't have problems with literacy.

Business

Two points of business:

First, we need a paid note-taker for this class. If you want to earn money for something you're already doing, talk to me asap. This is a regular payroll position. Please contact me today, someone.

Second, a reminder about your media abstinence exercise: it is due March 4. Here's a description from the syllabus:

To better understand your relationship with electronic media, you will be spending a week without it. This means, as much as possible, avoid: radio, television, the internet (including email), and the like. (If you simply cannot do this, you are a hopeless media junky, and this alone should teach you something.) Take notes along the way. Observe your emotional and physical reactions—you will write about them for grade.

"For grade" here means in a brief paper (the appropriate length is for you to determine). I do not need your notes about the experiment, just the write-up. Go into as much detail as possible and be insightful. Think about the ways in which electronic media have determined your culture, knowledge, and processes of thought.

The Postman Cometh

Please post your comments below.

Here we are now--entertain us

I'm hoping to get some discussion going here about the Postman book. It seems entirely appropriate to do so on a blog, since it's hard to imagine anywhere words are typed that are less typographic. Treat this as an open thread for now. Please post comments, reflections and insights below.

Orwellian Nightmare

I have tonight been unable to find the actual contract, but there are numerous news accounts attesting to its veracity. The rumor that we are sliding into a police state has been around a long time. The end of habeas corpus (which is the most fundamental legal safeguard against arbitrary government abuse) is certainly cause for much concern, as is warrentless wiretapping. And for those of you interested in ironic numerology, find out more about Rex 84.

All I'm saying is that there is good reason for us to keep an eye upon the Orwellian model. Although the Huxleyan will remain our primary focus.

Validations of McLuhan

In the comments for the previous post, someone named "McLuhan Prophecy" brought to our attention this article. Please read it, as it offers some startling neurological validation for McLuhan's concept of extensions. Our tools, it turns out, are not simply metaphorical extensions of our biological selves, but are in fact wired right through us. Here's an excerpt:

The findings "fairly clearly show that monkey tool use involves the incorporation of tools into the body schema, literally as extensions of the body," says Dietrich Stout, an archaeologist specializing in tool use at University College London. Scott Frey, a neuroscientist at the University of Oregon, Eugene, says that in humans, this ability to represent tools in the brain, combined with a capacity for innovation, "was no doubt a fundamental step in the development of technology."

McLuhan Quiz

There will be a quiz on McLuhan-related concepts Tuesday. Make sure you know the following terms and the ideas behind them:

• Four Laws of Media
• Rear-view Mirror
• Global Village
• Acoustic environment
• Poe's "Maelstrom"
• Extension
  

The Paper

The paper is in the bookstore. Show your id and pick it up at the register. And read it.

New York Times

I'm told the NYT will be in on Monday. Please post comment below if you have any questions about your McLuhan.

Begin Transmission

"As soon as [the Wardenclyffe plant is] completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. . . ." — Nikola Tesla, 1893