I have to note that I am reading the book, Media & Culture 2011 update in digital form, which is quite awesome, seeing that I can have the speech function on my MAC read it to me when I get tired! Woohoo!
As stated in the last blog post, I think it's kind of amazing to have a standardized textbook relaying all this information. I feel I am understanding mass media, internet, and television from a larger perspective, which is oh-so-important working in film & media. Kudos, Richard Campbell. For example, I never had thought of Late Night or The Tonight Show as a "Magazine Format" TV show. It makes tons of sense, and I almost can't believe I haven't picked up on this simple notion before. It also is really interesting to finally learn the whereabouts of the $64,000 Dollar Question, seeing that my [elderly] dad mentioned its popularity multiple times, with me not having understood. Gosh, that having turned into ABC's "Who Wants to be a Millionare". I really can't express how interesting it is to learn of these experiences, some of my own, remembering the popularity of Who wants to be a millionaire back in 2000.
In terms of cable, I am so happy to read an updated edition of this book, because Weeds on showtime was mentions in the cable chapter... AWESOOOME. In contrast, we have relative disconnects like PPV and VOD, Pay per view and video on demand. So LAME! I have to say I'm glad that the internet is almost completely obstructing PPV and VOD, because they essentially ARE PPV and VOD! No more remote controls in cheap hotel rooms that say "BUY". :-)
The history of film is something that I have been studying for a while now, with the history of television and cable television seeming more complicated. All I could say is that I'm thankful for an intricate backround of television, as it is one of the more complicated entertainment forms to understand, keeping in mind its long and affluent history. Viva La Jersey Shore!!!!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Chapters 1 & 2 of Media & Culture
Wow. I actually really like this textbook. Not just because it is actually updated (unlike all of the algebra books I've been subjected to in elementary school, ones from the seventies where you have to calculate the circumference of johnny's afro...), But because I have never read of such a large perspective view of new media in relation to communication's history. It makes me excited that things are changing so quickly. Last time I read a media and culture textbook was probably back before the internet actually had influence.
I must admit I'm amazed that the last telegram was sent in 2006. I though that $hit was long gone decades ago! Kudos, Western Union!
ANYWAY. It's amazing to compare the notion of oral communication to texting and email. It's kind of profound and amazing. I come to the conclusion that oral communication isn't in the old sense lost, but only reinvented. This actually makes me really excited.
When it comes to the question of media shaping values in comparison to ethics, I don't really like the example that s kid would get shot for wearing a designer jacket. Although I understand the example, I couldn't imagine a feminine 12 year old boy wearing a Versace jacket getting shot.
What I consequently did flash back to was the numerous plethora of AOL discs I would get in the mail back in the nineties, always begging my mom to let me use them! I had no idea that AOL was the main ISP. It really is refreshing to have a backstory of the creation and popularity of the internet and mass media. These are all sort of things that are experienced and understood through hearsay, so a timeline and statistics are really fascinating to observe in regards to the general history of internet and internet security.
Lewis
I must admit I'm amazed that the last telegram was sent in 2006. I though that $hit was long gone decades ago! Kudos, Western Union!
ANYWAY. It's amazing to compare the notion of oral communication to texting and email. It's kind of profound and amazing. I come to the conclusion that oral communication isn't in the old sense lost, but only reinvented. This actually makes me really excited.
When it comes to the question of media shaping values in comparison to ethics, I don't really like the example that s kid would get shot for wearing a designer jacket. Although I understand the example, I couldn't imagine a feminine 12 year old boy wearing a Versace jacket getting shot.
What I consequently did flash back to was the numerous plethora of AOL discs I would get in the mail back in the nineties, always begging my mom to let me use them! I had no idea that AOL was the main ISP. It really is refreshing to have a backstory of the creation and popularity of the internet and mass media. These are all sort of things that are experienced and understood through hearsay, so a timeline and statistics are really fascinating to observe in regards to the general history of internet and internet security.
Lewis
Monday, September 20, 2010
Media Criticism of MEDIA UNLIMITED
Why hello my fellow followers...
I doubt anybody will be reading this blog except Carl Skutsch, If I'm lucky. To clarify, this will be my literal (When I say literal, I literally mean this blog will be in a written format) class blog. I will be posting all of my Media Crit. class entries here. I have a photo journalism blog that you can find HERE. Besides that, I tend to stay away from posting my thoughts online, seeing that I'm one of those outraegeous people with an absurd world view, so posting those thoughts can be incessantly embarassing.
In the spirit of Tina Fey and Sarah Palin, I'm going to evade that question and talk about unlimited media, from Todd Gitlin's book, Media Unlimited.
I liked this book a lot, yet I wish I would have taken this class or at least read Gitlin's book before having taken Art & Technology at SVA, a new media course.
Among various issues I have never really questioned before, Gitlin brings up early forms of media, beginning with the printing press. Having been consistent in my life about breezing over this invention, it's obvious now that the invention of text publication revolutionized media at a similarly large scale as television (A modern reference for a youngin like myself to associate with). Gitlin point's out the French mathematician, Blaise Pascal's declaration that gambling, hunting and womanizing were "feeble efforts to divert ourselves from the inescapable fact of human mortality", Gitlin, 32. This is all too applicable in a modern context, seeing that gambling and overspending, mainstream, arbitrary sports and womanizing still exist. I believe they tend to exist in facets of society where inhabitants lack a real connection to themselves, psychological or spiritual. Jocks, beer-chugging state school inhabitants seem all too invested in consistent distraction.
Another element I could heavily relate to (Besides Gitlin's persistent useage of the term "Retarded") is the built in, human need for speed. The onrush of imagery, the unlimited torrent of images flushing through a television in a quaint living room in a day. On average, Gitlin states that televisions blast for seven hours a day, although not nessesarily being watched. I can relate to a childhood of constantly having the TV on, feeling alone or uncomfortable if it was shut off.
The idea of stasis and political navigation is very very interesting to me. I have to admit I did something very lame and loathing on the anniversary date of the attack this year. I watched a video that a small family living in the financial district took of the World Trade Center, only blocks away from their house. It was a thirty minute long video, but the reason I found this riveting is that when the incident happened I had no relation to NYC, hadn't moved here yet, didn't know I ever would. With that said, I watched the debacle on a mainstream news source. "The pundits, barking heads, hunt for amusing or pontifical sidebars, striving to summon the nation to feelings that all of us are supposed to feel, trying to power the display with emotional bursts..." Gitlin, 170. I have to admit that I heavily recognized this overall, assumed feeling. I did admit that I didn't understand the situation, and if I had thought any differently or expressed anything less than deep remorse, I was fully scolded by my teachers and peers at that time. With all this in mind, the feeling of being a witness of national history, as stated by Gitlin, is riveting and somewhat selfish because it lends a somewhat selfish feeling that you're somehow involved in the pain. When this all happened, I could say this is definitely how I felt.
Now that I am somewhat of a New Yorker (I know the boroughs well, and eat bagels everyday), I feel a deep remorse for the attack on the WTC. I feel a more connected sense of distraught what I hadn't recognized before. Watching this unfiltered youtube video of a family in the immediate path of the smoke, and knowing what building they were living in helps me gain a connected sense of reality and I am now able to draw my own conclusions and emotions as opposed to being influenced indefinitely by the mainstream media.
Overall, I feel Gitlin is not only very resourceful within his conclusions, but he seems to be unafraid to ask formerly "common knowledge", or embarrassing questions relating to various forms of media (Who could have brought up habitual porn in this manner fourty years ago, or even during the Regan neo-conservatism era?). His historical knowledge lends his outcome of conclusions a hand, and helps someone as young as I understand media from a very wide perspective. I begin to wonder what forms of media existing in cave times, if any. I'm glad that I was forced to read this book in a week, seeing that my ideological perspective of media devices are somewhat limited, especially since I am also heavily interested in new media. I thank Todd Gitlin, and after photocopying some of my favorite pages at the SVA library, I hope I can return Media Unlimited by Todd Gitlin for full value.
:-)
Lewis Meyer
I doubt anybody will be reading this blog except Carl Skutsch, If I'm lucky. To clarify, this will be my literal (When I say literal, I literally mean this blog will be in a written format) class blog. I will be posting all of my Media Crit. class entries here. I have a photo journalism blog that you can find HERE. Besides that, I tend to stay away from posting my thoughts online, seeing that I'm one of those outraegeous people with an absurd world view, so posting those thoughts can be incessantly embarassing.
In the spirit of Tina Fey and Sarah Palin, I'm going to evade that question and talk about unlimited media, from Todd Gitlin's book, Media Unlimited.
I liked this book a lot, yet I wish I would have taken this class or at least read Gitlin's book before having taken Art & Technology at SVA, a new media course.
Among various issues I have never really questioned before, Gitlin brings up early forms of media, beginning with the printing press. Having been consistent in my life about breezing over this invention, it's obvious now that the invention of text publication revolutionized media at a similarly large scale as television (A modern reference for a youngin like myself to associate with). Gitlin point's out the French mathematician, Blaise Pascal's declaration that gambling, hunting and womanizing were "feeble efforts to divert ourselves from the inescapable fact of human mortality", Gitlin, 32. This is all too applicable in a modern context, seeing that gambling and overspending, mainstream, arbitrary sports and womanizing still exist. I believe they tend to exist in facets of society where inhabitants lack a real connection to themselves, psychological or spiritual. Jocks, beer-chugging state school inhabitants seem all too invested in consistent distraction.
Another element I could heavily relate to (Besides Gitlin's persistent useage of the term "Retarded") is the built in, human need for speed. The onrush of imagery, the unlimited torrent of images flushing through a television in a quaint living room in a day. On average, Gitlin states that televisions blast for seven hours a day, although not nessesarily being watched. I can relate to a childhood of constantly having the TV on, feeling alone or uncomfortable if it was shut off.
The idea of stasis and political navigation is very very interesting to me. I have to admit I did something very lame and loathing on the anniversary date of the attack this year. I watched a video that a small family living in the financial district took of the World Trade Center, only blocks away from their house. It was a thirty minute long video, but the reason I found this riveting is that when the incident happened I had no relation to NYC, hadn't moved here yet, didn't know I ever would. With that said, I watched the debacle on a mainstream news source. "The pundits, barking heads, hunt for amusing or pontifical sidebars, striving to summon the nation to feelings that all of us are supposed to feel, trying to power the display with emotional bursts..." Gitlin, 170. I have to admit that I heavily recognized this overall, assumed feeling. I did admit that I didn't understand the situation, and if I had thought any differently or expressed anything less than deep remorse, I was fully scolded by my teachers and peers at that time. With all this in mind, the feeling of being a witness of national history, as stated by Gitlin, is riveting and somewhat selfish because it lends a somewhat selfish feeling that you're somehow involved in the pain. When this all happened, I could say this is definitely how I felt.
Now that I am somewhat of a New Yorker (I know the boroughs well, and eat bagels everyday), I feel a deep remorse for the attack on the WTC. I feel a more connected sense of distraught what I hadn't recognized before. Watching this unfiltered youtube video of a family in the immediate path of the smoke, and knowing what building they were living in helps me gain a connected sense of reality and I am now able to draw my own conclusions and emotions as opposed to being influenced indefinitely by the mainstream media.
Overall, I feel Gitlin is not only very resourceful within his conclusions, but he seems to be unafraid to ask formerly "common knowledge", or embarrassing questions relating to various forms of media (Who could have brought up habitual porn in this manner fourty years ago, or even during the Regan neo-conservatism era?). His historical knowledge lends his outcome of conclusions a hand, and helps someone as young as I understand media from a very wide perspective. I begin to wonder what forms of media existing in cave times, if any. I'm glad that I was forced to read this book in a week, seeing that my ideological perspective of media devices are somewhat limited, especially since I am also heavily interested in new media. I thank Todd Gitlin, and after photocopying some of my favorite pages at the SVA library, I hope I can return Media Unlimited by Todd Gitlin for full value.
:-)
Lewis Meyer
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