...Article Watching the Watchers and McLuhan’s Tetrad: The Limits of Cop-Watching in the Internet Age Brian P. Schaefer Kevin F. Steinmetz University of Louisville, US. brian.schaefer@louisville.edu Kansas State University, US. criminogenic@outlook.com Abstract The internet is considered by many to be a boon for political activists, such as cop-watchers—a free, open, and widespread medium in which to disseminate political messages. While there is truth to these claims, the internet, like any technology, can be used for many purposes and comes with its own arrangement of limitations. To elucidate these limitations and to provide a word of caution about the political potential of the internet, particularly for video-activists/cop-watchers, the theoretical work of Marshall McLuhan is used to understand how the internet, as a medium, shapes and limits political messages. Using McLuhan’s tetrad, this study examines how the internet is problematic for cop-watching groups. In particular, the internet is said to yield consequences through how it (1) enhances or intensifies how the viewer experiences political messages through speed, (2) retrieves the importance of the narrator, (3) renders previous media increasingly obsolete, yet opens up new avenues for commercial dominance, and (4) creates additional reversals or other problems for video activism, such as the mass proliferation of surveillance and formatting discussion in counter-productive ways. ...
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...figure of media expansion, Marshall McLuhan expressed his debatable idea of “The Medium is the Message” in his book “Understand Media” written in 1964, as he explained that the media themselves are the very emphasis we should look upon to the contrary of the content they convey. Secondly, James Carey, sharp critic of McLuhan, was best known for identifying the space partiality of modern civilization and was described by Lance Strate (2007) as excellent at “uncovering interrelationships among ideas, perspectives and school of thoughts” (p.177). With this intention, I will compare and contrast how Marshall Mcluhan and James Carey differ in their conception of how communication shapes reality, arguing that Marshall McLuhan concept of the message extracted from the medium constructing reality is superior to James Carey’s theory because his concept of the “medium being the message” emphasizes difference between how and which information is transmitted. To illustrate how Marshall McLuhan’s theory is stronger in terms of constructing reality, this synthesis will discuss how symbols are produced and used as the basis of communication, how society is maintained through transmission and finally, how mediums are the main cause of social changes in societies. Communication produces reality by the structure, apprehension and application of symbolic forms, presented of and created for reality (Carey, 1989). Symbolic forms are characterized by two categorized attributes, which...
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...that doesn't seem like it's going in the direction of more access to straight news." 3.1 Marshall McLuhan’s Influence on...
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...American audiences were challenged to determine whether what they were seeing was real or not and how such realistic illusions were created. Mass culture gave rise to a subjective passion of wonder for illusion. Theatrical producers manipulated the new mass media, such as newspaper, to promote debates about the authenticity of their exhibits, submitting to “a new, media-driven form of curiosity – perpetually excited, yet never fully satisfied.” The ceaseless proliferation of representations consequently undermined truth. The illusions and discussions they engendered served to distract audiences away from the Victorian cult of truth and sincerity and pushed for a new awareness of contingency and illuminated the possibility of multiple perspectives. Deceptions and emerging ideas of modernity generated from the changing nature of the economy, contested accounts of race, class and gender and novel findings by scientists and philosophers about the connections between perception and reality made way for a centrality of illusionism to modern life. The ubiquity of representations generated by the mass market blurred distinctions between artifice and reality....
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...The film deals with the loss of privacy in the digital age, and examines the effects of media on personal identity through Harris’ human experiments. Harris believes that the public will eventually trade their privacy for connection and recognition. While both McLuhan and Meyrowitz offer illuminating arguments that can be used to analyze We Live in Public, I think Meyrowitz is better suited to advance a critical reading of the film because he emphasizes the effects of media on the “situational geography” of social...
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...Google Glass as a Cybernetic System Paola Gulian 18/06/2013 p.gulian@me.com Stavangerweg 352, Amsterdam 1013AX Telephone: +359 888 88 30 81 Student Number: 10396144 Thesis supervisor: Michael Dieter Media Studies: New Media and Digital Culture Universiteit van Amsterdam 1 Table of Contents: 1. Introduction / 3 2. Chapter 1 – History of Cybernetics theory, Systems Theory, Cyborg and Posthumanism / 6 2.1. Introduction to Norbert Wiener’s theory of cybernetics / 6 2.2. Gregory Bateson on second-order cybernetics / 8 2.3. The kinship between human, animal and machine, Donna Haraway’s theory of the cyborg / 12 2.4. The disembodiment of the human being, Katherine N. Hayles’ theory of the posthuman / 14 3. Chapter 2 – Google Glass, Individuation and the Black Box / 21 3.1. Introduction to Google Glass / 21 3.2. Google Glass and Gregory Bateson’s theory of self-corrective systems / 24 3.3. Industrialization of memory through Google Glass and Bernard Stiegler’s theory of the exterior milieu / 26 3.4. Google Glass as a black box and W. Ross Ashby’s theory of the black boxing / 29 3.5. Experience Design, Olia Lialina and the disappearing user / 30 3.6. Miniaturization of technology, Google Glass as a ubiquitous computer through Mark Weiser’s theory / 32 4. Chapter 3 – Google Glass as an Extension of the Human Being: MediumSpecificity and Becoming Posthuman / 34 4.1 Media ecology through Marshall McLuhan and Google Glass as an extension of the human being / 34 4.2 Perceptual...
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...allowed to visit a virtual museum with each link leading to another page for exploration and other work or art followed by a story. Obtaining information in this manner can be difficult as well as challenging because one of the reasons for desiring to read is to have the opportunity to gather thoughts and to gain insight from what is being read. To present an argument relative to this thought, let us see what Birkerts and McLuhan have to say for the sake of argument. Birkerts (1974) is not an advocate of text as he believes that words on screen have a different meaning and affect the reader in a different way. He also believes that there is an issue because of the texted not been fixed which hinders the reader from gaining a sound perspective of what is being read. I agree with this thought process. From a personal review of Kenney’s work, I found it difficult to organize thoughts and to stay abreast of what was being read. Any type of distraction did not help the reading process as the main parts of the story were confusing. It was also a process just keeping up with what had been read versus what had not been read. As an example, when reading the lobby, there was South Wing. The reading was not clear as there were a total of five or six different hyperlinks. Clicking on the first link led to another page with yet another link (hypertext). Finally, I realized that after clicking on link after link that, when reading in this manner a hyper textual story is similar to...
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...After the year 1984 passed the world breathed a sigh of relief that Orwell’s prophecy of oppression by government or a “big brother” did not come true. In 1985 Neil Postman published Amusing Ourselves to Death in which he describes a takeover of a passive society using Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World as the prophecy. Postman describes imminent death by comparing Orwellian fears to those of Huxley’s: “We had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing…What Orwell feared were those who ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy…In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World they are controlled by inflicting pleasure” (vii). With entertainment and technology surrounding the population everyday...
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...eived around the world. Privatization of news media has allowed global news networks, namely CNN and the BBC, to break up longstanding government monopolies. Continuous news has found a global audience, both for convenience and the most updated story details. Breaking news relies on up to the minute updates, and every second counts in the competitive global news arena. CNN dominates the global airways, but critics maintain that this product is merely a cultural export from the United States. Effects of global news include a surge in the local news market and an overall increase in news appetite. The intrusion of global television news into traditionally oral cultures threatens the individual's sense of cultural identity. Marshall McLuhan's vision of a global village, however, is becoming increasingly possible as reception costs fall and more media hungry individuals than ever are...
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...Themes in Media Theory Dan Laughey KeyThemes in MediaTheory KeyThemes in MediaTheory Dan Laughey Open University Press Open University Press McGraw-Hill Education McGraw-Hill House Shoppenhangers Road Maidenhead Berkshire England SL6 2QL email: enquiries@openup.co.uk world wide web: www.openup.co.uk and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121–2289, USA First published 2007 Copyright # Dan Laughey 2007 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS. A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN–10: 0335 218 13X (pb) 0335 218 148 (hb) ISBN–13: 9780 335 218 134 (pb) 9780 335 218 141 (hb) Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data CIP data applied for Typeset by YHT Ltd, London Printed in Poland by OZGraf S.A. www.polskabook.pl Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements 1 What is media theory? What are media? What is theory? What is media theory? How to use this book Behaviourism and media effects Introduction Lasswell’s chain...
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...THE CONSEQUENCES OF MASS COMMUNICATION Cultural and Critical Perspectives on Mass Media and Society Kirk Hallahan ii For Jean and Jenna Copyright info to be set by McGraw-Hill. iii Foreward This book is a brief survey of contemporary ideas about the cultural impact of mass media on society. The use of consequences in the title reflects the fact that most cultural researchers prefer this term (instead of media effects) to describe media's influence on human experience. During the past 30 years, culture has emerged as a major theoretical framework in which to investigate media. Chapter I examines how media influence culture generally, as suggested by various contemporary media scholars and others. Chapter II then focuses on critical-cultural theories about the nature of media power and its potentially negative influence. This book can adopted as a supplementary text in introductory mass media courses along with a survey text such as Joseph R. Dominick's The Dynamics of Mass Communication (available from McGraw-Hill). It also can serve as a foundational text for other assigned readings in advanced courses dealing with mass media and society, communication theory, or cultural studies. Students are encouraged to focus thoughtfully on the main ideas, not attempt to merely memorize details. Important concepts and names appear in boldface and are defined in italics. The abridged Subject Index lists the page with the primary discussion of each topic. Sidebars throughout...
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...intermediaries have either taken title to the goods or services during the flow from producer to customer, or in some way facilitated this by specializing in one or more of the functions that must be performed for such movement to occur. These flows of title and functions, and the intermediaries w h o have facilitated them, have generally come to be known as distribution channels. For most marketing decision makers, dealing with the channel for a product or service ranks as one of the key marketing quandaries. In many cases, despite what the textbooks suggest, there is frequently no real decision as to "who" should constitute the channel; rather, the question is how best to deal with the incumbent channel. Marketing channel decisions are critical also because they intimately affect all other marketing and overall strategic decisions, Distribution channels generally involve relatively long-term commitments, but if managed effectively over time, they create a key external resource. Small wonder, then, that they exhibit powerful inertial tendencies, for once they are in place and working well, managers are reluctant to fix what is not broken. Here we contend that a new m e d i u m - - t h e Internet and the World Wide Web---will change distribution like no other environmental force since the industrial revolution. Not only will it modify many of the assumptions on which...
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...Career Management Guide In the current career environment, individuals with alternatives obtain more challenging and growth-oriented opportunities. Individuals with alternatives need not accept consequences, rather they create opportunities for themselves. Career Management Guide Section 1 Paaggee 11 SECTION 1: CAREERS TODAY Part 1 - The Environment, Career Issues and Trends The Importance of Education and Experience In the current economic environment, education is becoming increasingly critical to career success. While employment rose for Canadians with university and college educations, 651,000 fewer jobs existed for those people without high school qualifications. Unemployment rates in the U.S. exceed 10% for those with less than a high school diploma and approximately 2.5% for college graduates.1 When professional designations (i.e., accounting, engineering) are taken into account, the data on employability and income is skewed in favour of the professional, relative to those who possess only a post secondary educational background. However, in order to maintain a competitive edge, individuals must continue to invest in their development throughout their careers. Specifically, with respect to the future for business and accounting positions, “growth due to the increasing number and complexity of business operations will be offset somewhat by corporate restructuring and downsizing of management, resulting in average growth for executive, administrative and managerial...
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...Theories of Communication – MCM 511 VU LESSON 01 COMMUNICATION Defining communication Communication is seen as central to our everyday ideas about what makes life worth living. It is not surprising that academicians have attempted to unravel the secrets of the communication process. In this section of the study we will examine the theorizing and theories of this discipline of communication. To understand communication theory we need to understand the nature of communication. Nature of communication People define terms in different ways, and those differences in definition can have a profound impact on the extent to which we understand each other and the way we move forward with both academic and everyday pursuits. Given the variety of ways in which words are used and understood, we are often ill-served to search for the single, so-called correct definition of a term. In other words, it is better to evaluate definition in terms of their utility rather than in terms of their correctness. So we should not assume that there is always a single right way to define a concept. There is a great deal of variation in the definitions. Some are very abstract and some are extremely specific. Few definitions are cited below. Communication is the process by which an individual (the communicator) transmits stimuli (usually verbal) to modify the behavior of other individuals (the audience). (Hovland Janis and Kelly in 1953) Communication is the process by which we understand others and in turn...
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...International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2008, Vol. 4, Issue 1, pp. 49-65. The Internet in developing countries: a medium of economic, cultural and political domination Abdulkafi Albirini University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA ABSTRACT The last decade has witnessed an unprecedented diffusion of network technologies into developing countries. The technological discourse attending this diffusion has presented the new media as a utopian, egalitarian and empowering tool with the potential of ushering in a new era of development, democracy, and positive cultural change. This paper examines the economic, cultural, and political effects of the Internet within the historical context of developing countries. The paper traces the politically-inspired evolution of the Internet, its transfer into developing countries, and the economic, cultural, and political consequences of this transfer. Existing data indicate that the implementation of the Internet in most developing countries has served as a drain to the local resources, thus exacerbating their economic dependency on foreign nations. On a cultural level, the Internet’s predominantly Western design, content, and language have facilitated the proliferation of alien cultural patterns at the expense of the social experiences of the local cultures. Lastly, the Internet’s build-in tracking capabilities and its current manipulation for political purposes on international...
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