Comm 2302 Spring 20

Reading Summary
This chapter talks about mediums and why they’re hard to define. Typically, we see them as the technology we use to view content, but their meaning is expansive and different for everyone. He uses the examples of film, photography, and art to show how different technologies affect our understanding of the content. Mediums change with technology and with society, so the purpose of mediums is fluid and ever changing.

Outside Connection
I thought of the original iPhone when reading this passage. Phones used to be solely for calling, and eventually texting. The main usage of a phone was always communication. Eventually though, technology and society evolved, and now we use phones for a variety of purposes.

Reading Connection
The phone has always been a medium for communication, but just as mediums change over time, so too has the use of the phone. I used the example of an iPhone because I believe that is the point in time where the both the usage of the iPhone and the phone as a medium changed. Phones went from being used for communication to being used for just about everything.

Summary of Reading

This week’s reading focuses on the nature of our discussions on emergent or new forms of media. Macnamara suggests that in our discourse on new kinds of media, we tend to exaggerate in the claims we make and in the viewpoints we hold. One example of this is “endism” which refers to the “all too frequent predictions that new developments will result in the end of other methods and approaches” (129).

Outside Example:

While reading the chapter, one example I thought of was how, contrary to many people’s predictions, eBooks and Kindles did not spell the end of reading paper copies of books. In fact, as seen in this article by the Guardian, eBooks have actually lost their appeal. The article describes how perceptions of Kindles have changed over the years. When the product was first released, the idea of enfolding hundreds of stories into a “tiny slip of plastic” was considered miraculous. Although the Kindle was a more convenient and compact alternative to lugging around multiple books, many felt reading electronically took away from the experience of reading. For example, you can’t turn the pages of an eBook or breathe in the scent of an old book. In addition to this, Kindles aren’t the nicest thing to look at, resembling a “clunky and unhip” “cathode ray tube TV” whereas books tend to have aesthetic covers. In light of this, books have now become celebrated and coveted items.

Connection to Reading:

The rise and fall of the eBook is an explicit example of “endism”. While we though that new forms of media such as Kindles would make the need for paperback/hardback copies of books obsolete, the opposite occurred.

SUMMARY

This chapter asks the reader to think about exactly what a medium is. We typically look at a medium as what kind of technology we are watching content through, but this chapter aims for the reader to question that idea. It argues that the medium content is viewed through can affect how the audience absorbs/understands it. For example, because television is at home and you can become easily distracted, the content won’t have as much of an effect on you. Mediums have changed through the course of time, from paintings, to radio, to eventually the technology we use today, and the ability to effect someone is directly correlated to the medium’s ability to properly get a message across.

It also addresses how this technology came to be, explaining the invention process and how slow it was. Because things are made and fill the present need, this slows down the process of new technology coming out sooner. We are still to this day technologically advancing and aren’t even aware of it.

OUTSIDE EXAMPLE

When I was in high school, we watched the movie Chicago in my English class on an off day when we had free time. She turned the projector on and of course after about 10 minutes, the entire class was talking and gossiping at an unholy volume. I watched the movie in parts basically, listening the the music and seeing the images, but not taking in any of the plot line. It was a 12th grade English class and I wanted to talk to my friends. I was distracted and my attention was elsewhere.

Later, I went home and watched this movie with my sister on our TV upstairs. The movie was quite eventful, and I went to bed that night continuously thinking about it, unable to sleep.

CONNECTION

As you can see, my environment and the technology in which I was in/used to view the movie greatly affected my understanding of the content. Watching a movie on a projector with a room full of highschoolers is completely different than sitting down with popcorn and your sister in a dark room to view the film on a larger screen.

Mediums can be a quite larger factor than anticipated when looking at media. We have to pay close attention to how we are consuming content, and how much that can affect our own perspectives on it.

Summary: The article begins with the discussion of endism, the idea that new developments come from the ending of others and its limitations as an absolute. It then discusses the role of virtual reality in cyberspace and the differing views; positively as an information pathway and negatively as turning children into delinquents. Culture and fantasy play an important role and the article discusses the beginnings of virtual reality and the ideologies behind it. It then talks about online presence and its relationship to imagined communities. Next the article analyzes a study about Facebook and finds that people combine the virtual and real world. It then gives the idea that mediated communication can be better than face to face using the examples of the sisters opening up to one another and the associate dean staying in contact with family. Next the article discusses the disappearing computer as time goes on and we become more accustomed to the changing technology. Along with communication networks these are ubiquitous and always on but are becoming physically and psychologically invisible. Next it claims that media is immaterial and discusses two conceptual shifts. The first being the wide variety of media forms transforming the word media to the content instead of form and the second being inscription. It then discusses Hayles construction of the “posthuman”, Listers idea of media being dematerialized, and Manovichs “post-media”. Next the article talks about marketers using buzz and social media and its limitations with robots.

Outside Example: When reading the section about face to face communication and the freedom the internet brings, I disagreed with some of the statements. Based on my experience with a friend and their online habits, I would argue this section. My friend is very big on social media and when she started going through a rough time, she could not talk to anyone in person about her problems. I understand it made her more comfortable, but after reading this article it makes me think, how long will it be until face to face communication is the outcast or viewed as the oversharers. Also, it makes me feel like there is a disconnect with this friend because I’m not there in person when she shares those vulnerable moments. I might just be old school but I think there is a lot of value to face to face communication.

Reading Connection: On page 136, it says “the internet frees people to explore themselves and their potentialities”. I can see how this would help some, but at the same time with my generation and younger, it can also be considered hiding not freedom. People want to express themselves and can do so in many ways online as multiple personalities, but if they do this online, how does it carry over to real interaction face to face. While this section does acknowledge that they aren’t discounting face to face communication, I believe that by undermining it, it will change those views. Like the example of Susan and Gillian on page 135, I am glad my friend has access to the internet to express her thoughts and keep in contact and in the loop, especially since we are both busy all the time, however, how far is too far on this?

Summary:

Chapter seven argues that the notion of a “medium” was never clear and technology has only added confusion on that matter. Because television is usually located in a home, we interact with a television differently than we would if we were to see a movie in a theater. There are different social rules that apply since a television is a domestic medium. We are able to do household chores and talk on the phone. We are in control of our own TV experience, like changing the channel or pausing the program. Some say that television is a medium for distracted people and encourages short attention spans. Marshall McLuhan argues that television is a “cool” medium because it requires the viewer to be actively engaged in piecing together pixels in our minds to make an image. Some believe that a medium has an “essence” and that each new medium changes the purpose of the previous ones. When photography was invented, it freed painting from being all about realistic representation and allowed it to be more about personal interpretation. However, focusing on the “essence” of each medium seems to discount the history of the medium and its path to the present.

When a medium is just an idea in the works, the inventors have no idea what the medium can accomplish. Motion pictures were supposed to be solely used for scientific purposes. To go from an idea to a true invention, there must be a societal need for that specific thing. The public must adopt the invention. There is not always a need in society for that invention, sometimes the need is created by the creation of other inventions. Sometimes large corporations create the need for certain products. It is never clear how a medium will be put to use until it is introduced into society. It becomes a negotiation between the original intention of the medium and social adoption. However, it is also clear to see that new mediums borrow from old mediums and vice versa. This is called remediaton.

John Durham Peters argues that the idea of a medium is a trap because it divides media into categories. We focus on the categories more than we focus on the content itself. At times, we become too concerned with the fantasy of what a medium is. A cellphone is still considered a common carrier, although, with the invention of smartphones, we use our phones for so much more. We should not let our fantasies of what media has been or could be, distract us from media in the present.

Outside Example:

Like it says in the reading different mediums share ideas and compete. This made me think of different competing social media platforms and how they share ideas. Originally, Snapchat was the first social media platform to be able to post stories, which are an accumulation of photos that you want to share with your friends that disappears after 24 hours. However, later instagram adopted this same idea and then facebook also jumped on the bandwagon.

Connection to reading:

I know this reading talks about different mediums like TV versus a movie, so I’m not sure if my example is irrelevant or not. Even different social media platforms borrow ideas from one another because they don’t want to seem outdated. As youtube tries to grow as a platform, it has begun creating television shows. Does this mean that youtube is still considered a website or an app? Does this mean that it is considered TV? I agree with the original argument in chapter 7 that the idea of a “medium” becomes ever so blurred. It becomes hard to classify what kind of medium youtube. Also, instagram added a live streaming feature, which also confuses the purpose of instagram. Is it to share stilled images or to broadcast live? I think the more we focus on the classification of each platform, the more we loose focus on the content and the present of media.

Reading Summary

Greg Smith poses the question of, “what difference does the definition of a medium make?”. The answer he gives is that the definition of a medium is big. People have different experiences with each medium. TV is something someone would watch at home and have the distractions of that, while Movies are something you are supposed to watch in silence at a theater in a crowded room of people. He explains the example with photography, and theater, and painting as well. The reason the definition matters is because the definition depends on the varied experiences of the person. This leads to a difference in what the technologies perception is. The functions of each medium evolve and grow, thus changing the definitions and the way people experience these mediums. Radio for example was supposed to be point to point contact, but has now turned into a corporate driven medium used to promote records and play commercials. It was originally deemed a failure based on its original purpose. These purposes emerge from the social adoption of the medium due to what one unique characteristic that medium has. An invention might have one original purpose, but social adoption gives it another. Mediums also share and blend their purposes together sometimes. This stems from the problem that people get caught up envisioning the mediums past rather than its future. A medium is more than just it’s technology, and a mediums definition changes with technology and audience participation. These changes affect how society thinks of media.

Source: Smith, G. (2011). What media classes really want to discuss. Chapter 7, pages 117-134.

Outside Example 

The first thing that comes to mind is net neutrality. Net neutrality is when there are government regulations in place that prohibit corporations from controlling the internet and allows everyone equal access to the internet. Some of the things that net neutrality protects internet users from is: 1. Corporations want it to where you have to pay to access their website. They want you to have to pay them every time you use a certain website. Think about it as the way you pay for channels on cable television. You pay for a package of channels you can access, but you can’t access the other channels without having to pay extra. 2. Your internet provider can be paid by other companies to throttle certain websites and slow them down. An example would be, lets say you have comcast as your internet provider. Yahoo wants people to use google less. Yahoo goes to comcast and pays them X amount of money to slow down your internet every time you use Google. Google notices this and goes to Comcast and pays them X amount of money to slow your internet down every time you use Yahoo. That leaves you with slow internet no matter who you choose and leads to a corporate internet cold war. 3. Say you are a small company that wants to make a website. You want your website to be open for anyone to access so you can sell more close and reach more people. Well the internet providers can say your not apart of the basic internet package and charge their users every time they go to your website. Then, lets say your competitor is walmart, Walmart can pay the internet providers X amount of money to make it where no one is allowed to access your site. It leads to unfair competition among businesses and a closed off internet for the users. Welcome to oligopolies. 

Read More About It Here: https://www.wired.com/story/guide-net-neutrality/

And Here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennyodegard/2017/12/04/what-net-neutrality-changes-could-mean-for-your-small-business/#71a2eeca56a1

Reading Connection

The reason I bring up net neutrality is because the government in the U.S. has slowly been peeling away at it for years. Mainly the FCC Chairman, thou who shall not be named, because he receives large corporate backing from, you could guess it, internet providers who lobby a lot. This is similar to how radio changed and became regulated, except the internet has a way of making a lot more money and is a lot more accessible than radio broadcasting. We are currently the only democratic country going backwards right now (My opinion, but if you look it up you would probably agree). The connection is that the internet as a medium has changed since its original purpose. It originally was created for the military as a way to communicate locations and coordinates. It now is a very diverse and unique medium that is home to a lot of virtual content. The future for it currently looks very different. Smith said that people don’t envision the mediums future, but the future of the internet looks much different right now than the present and the past.

Summary

Giannette defines ideology as a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture that is used as a language system in film. He goes on to explain that movies often convey an ideology and how strongly they are emphasized, which helps to divide them into categories. Neutral movies do not focus on a certain ideology and is mainly made for a primarily aesthetic purpose. Implicit movies often have protagonists and antagonists with conflicting values, but that fact is not dwelled on. Explicit movies are meant to teach/persuade as much as they are meant to entertain. Movies can compel audiences using tropes such as ‘the underdog’ or attractiveness.

Example

While reading about ideology and the ways movies convey those ideas, I was reminded of the Harry Potter movie franchise. The movie is about a boy who’s parents die, but he survives, during an attack by an evil wizard, Voldemort, when he is a baby. He is then hidden away until he turns 11, when he is told of his magic powers and taken away to a magic boarding school. The series then follows him through the 7 years he goes to this school. He has several encounters with Voldemort and Voldemort’s followers, Death Eaters, while he attends school. The franchise ends with a tense battle, and over the years the movies became progressively darker as the risk to Harry’s life becomes more prevalent.

Connection

I was reminded of this movie while reading about the ways that characters are written in order to convey ideology to an audience. Voldemort is an evil wizard and is non-human looking as a result. He has no hair on his head or face and is missing his nose. He has incredibly pale skin and most of the features we would define as human features are absent. He is often referred to as something other than human, therefore further reinforcing the difference between Voldemort and Harry. The movie crew made Voldemort look so non-human so that the audience would be more wiling to accept the idea that Voldemort is evil.

The reading stated that ideology is usually defined as a body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. There term is generally associated with politics and party platforms, but it can also mean given set of values that are implicit in any human enterprise-including filmmaking. It emphasized that there are two sides to art, to teach and to provide pleasure. ideology is another language system in film, often disguised language spoken through codes. The reading acknowledged that virtually everything is ideological and we make decisions based on them whether we are oblivious or aware of them. The ideologies include sex, work, power sharing, authority, the family, and religion. Leftists are opposed to hierarchy’s, human behavior can be hanged by proper environmental incentives, sex and government should be separate matters, the past is full of ignorance and the future is hopeful, social progress strives through cooperation, they identify with the poor, are global in their perspective, and sex is a persons personal business alone.

My first thought when reading this was the movie HUSTLERS. This year, before traveling to Virginia, we went to the movies as a team to see hustlers. Immediately we had thoughts of who would be opposed to the promiscuous side of this movie, because as we know it impacts a viewers decision to see it whether they realize it or not.

In connection to the reading, HUSTLERS would be ideal for most leftists. The movie although heavily focused on women decisions in terms of their bodies as theirs alone. This was prominent not only before watching the movie but also in regards to the movie post-watching.

Reading Summary

This chapter covered the idea of media from its different forms, and uses to how we interact and respond to each. Different arguments were made concerning platform use and the affect on society. Media comes in many forms from print to virtual. As technology advances, print is being less used and virtual media is taking over the world. The way we interact and use print media is different than virtual. They may share the same information but provide different opportunities for exploration and use. Print media is argued to have a shorter shelf live where virtual media is seen to be less realistic. The chapter provides counter arguments for both. Although media can appear as less personal, many people who have struggled with human interactions are finding comfort and ability to express themselves better virtually. Whether this is a true form of self can be argued. Media is also an interchangeable term. Not only is it a way to identify form but also represents the content shared. Even though virtual media is constantly growing, print still exists and is used despite those who believed it would come to a complete stop. Print and virtual create different experiences for the users.

Outside Connection

The different platforms of media and how we use it brought our new learning environment zoom to mind. Being in class physically and online are two very different experiences not only for students but professors. In class everyone is physically present and can be seen. There’s no hiding when it comes to being in class. Having the zoom platform allows an option to be physically present or not. Additionally many of my professors still relied heavily on white boards or handouts in class and now rely more heavily on lectures or powerpoint creating a different learning environment.

Reading Connection

The reading talked about a shift in behavior in terms of print and virtual interactions. There were many examples of people being more comfortable with their true self online then in person. They were able to form better relationships and be more outspoken. With class being on Zoom I think there are two sides to this. One, those who are more quiet like me may feel more comfortable speaking up in class because there is less pressure talking to a screen then in front of physical humans where you can tell who’s paying attention or not. Students who are naturally more outspoken may be unfazed by the virtual tradition and how they participate in class. For professors this is more likely less enjoyable and harder for them to talk and deliver lessons without the affirmation that students are listening and interacting.

Reading Summary

This chapter discussed ideologies, what they are, and how they are depicted, giving concrete examples of specific ideologies by providing films in which they are prominent. The chapter describes an ideology as a set of values and priorities, and gives examples of political ideologies, the left and right’s different views on environment vs. heredity, relative vs. absolute, secular vs. religious and so on. The chapter also highlights cultural, religious, ethnic, feminist and homosexual ideologies, covering them as individual ideologies, and how they can overlap with each other. In the introduction to the chapter, the reading also describes three levels of ideological explicitness, neutral, implicit, and explicit which have little to no emphasis on ideology, ideology that the viewer must distinguish, and ideology that characters from the film make clear themselves.

Outside Connection

After one of their first meetings in the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon and Robin Williams’ characters meet again and Williams’ character recites a monologue to his patient. He knows that Damon’s character could recite to him information about Michelangelo, he could reference Shakespeare in regards to war, or he could quote sonnets if asked about love, but in reality, he never had truly experienced any of these things.

Reading Connection

I thought of this monologue as a great example of a scene that is implicit, in regards to the degree of ideological explicitness. While Williams’ character never comes out and explicitly says what he believe to be best, his remarks to his patient about never having stood and looked up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or never having woken up next to a woman in bed feeling truly in love, or never having held his best friends head in war as he took his last final breath imply that he believes having a first hand experience is far greater or more important than having just the knowledge related to similar things.