presented at the Personal Democracy Forum 2009. The real presentation also includes 15 minutes of mashed up YouTube videos - basically a shortened but updated version of An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

1. by Michael Wesch
Kansas State University
mediatedcultures.net

2. 1984 A.D.

7. Media Ecology

8. Media are not just tools.

9. Media are not just means of communication.

10. Media mediate our conversations

11. Media
change

12. Media our conversations
change change

13. “We shape our tools,
and thereafter our tools shape us.”
- Marshall McLuhan

16. the conversations
of our culture
happen here

17. the conversations
are controlled by few

18. the conversations
are controlled by few
and designed
for the masses

19. the conversations
are always entertaining

20. the conversations
are always entertaining
(even the serious ones)

21. the conversations
are punctuated by
30 second commercials

22. the conversations
create our culture

23. the conversations
create our culture
of irrelevance
incoherence
and impotence

24. “What steps do you plan to take
to reduce the conflict in the
Middle East?”

25. “Or the rates of inflation,
crime, or unemployment?”

26. “What do you plan to do about
NATO, OPEC, the CIA, etc.?”

27. “I shall take the liberty of
answering for you: ...

28. “You plan to do nothing.”

29. “You plan to do nothing.”
- Neil Postman 1984

30. “The public has adjusted to incoherence
and been amused into indifference.”
- Neil Postman 1984

31. 25 years later ...

35. “What we are encountering is a
panicky, an almost hysterical,
attempt to escape from the
deadly anonymity of modern
life ... and the prime cause is
not vanity ... but the craving of
people who feel their
personality sinking lower and
lower into the whirl of
indistinguishable atoms to be
lost in a mass civilization."

36. “What we are encountering is a
panicky, an almost hysterical,
attempt to escape from the
deadly anonymity of modern
life ... and the prime cause is
not vanity ... but the craving of
people who feel their
personality sinking lower and
lower into the whirl of
indistinguishable atoms to be
lost in a mass civilization."
- Henry Seidel Canby 1926

38. Assembly line

42. It's a one-way
conversation

43. You have to be on TV
to have a voice

44. You have to be on TV
to be significant

48. The MTV Generation
 Short attention spans
 Materialistic
 Narcissistic
 Not easily impressed

50. “in the midst of a fabulous array of
historically unprecedented and
utterly mind-boggling stimuli ...

51. “in the midst of a fabulous array of
historically unprecedented and
utterly mind-boggling stimuli ...
whatever.”

52. “in the midst of a fabulous array of
historically unprecedented and
utterly mind-boggling stimuli ...
whatever.”
- Thomas de Zengotita

53. A brief history of “Whatever”
 pre-1960s: "Whatever. That's what I meant."
 Late 60s: "I don't care. Whatever."
 1990s: MTV Generation – the indifferent "Meh."

54. “I find it hard.
It's hard to find,
oh well, whatever,
nevermind.”

55. “I feel stupid,
and contagious.
Here we are now.
Entertain us.”

60. flattering

62. A brief history of “Whatever”
 pre-1960s: "Whatever. That's what I meant."
 Late 60s: "I don't care. Whatever."
 1990s: MTV Generation – the indifferent "Meh."

63. A brief history of “Whatever”
 pre-1960s: "Whatever. That's what I meant."
 Late 60s: "I don't care. Whatever."
 1990s: MTV Generation – the indifferent "Meh."
 Late 90s - present: "Whatever. I'll do what I want."

67. the search for identity and recognition

68. the search for the authentic self

69. the search for the authentic self
Charles Taylor's “Ethics of Authenticity” (1991)

70. Two Slides:
Charles Taylor's “Ethics of Authenticity” (1991)

71. Two Slides: towards ...
Charles Taylor's “Ethics of Authenticity” (1991)

72. Two Slides: towards ...
1. “self-centered modes of self-fulfilment”
Charles Taylor's “Ethics of Authenticity” (1991)

73. Two Slides: towards ...
1. “self-centered modes of self-fulfilment”
2. “negation of all horizons of significance”
Charles Taylor's “Ethics of Authenticity” (1991)

74. Two Slides: towards ...
1. “self-centered modes of self-fulfilment”
disengagement
2. “negation of all horizons of significance”
Charles Taylor's “Ethics of Authenticity” (1991)

75. Two Slides: towards ...
1. “self-centered modes of self-fulfilment”
disengagement
2. “negation of all horizons of significance”
fragmentation
Charles Taylor's “Ethics of Authenticity” (1991)

76. Two Slides: towards ...
1. “self-centered modes of self-fulfilment”
disengagement
2. “negation of all horizons of significance”
fragmentation
special interest sound bite politics
Charles Taylor's “Ethics of Authenticity” (1991)

77. If the conversations of our culture
now happen here ...

78. Why this matters ...
 not controlled by the few
 not one-way
 created by, for, and around networks, not masses
 transform individual pursuits into collective action
 makes “group” formation “ridiculously easy”
(Paquet/Shirky)

79. Why this might deeply matter ...
 We know ourselves
through our relations with others.
 New media create new ways of relating to others.
 New media create new ways of knowing ourselves.

84. 1,728,000 minutes/day

85. Over 1,000x faster than you can watch

86. 493,714 videos/day

87. 493,714 videos/day
(just on YouTube)

88. 1,000,000+ online videos per day

89. over 99.9% irrelevant to you
(estimated)

90. Who is on YouTube
(percentage of videos featuring people of different
ages)

107. viewed by less than 1% of Americans

110. Toward a new future of “whatever”

60s: “I don't care. Whatever (you think).”

90s: “Whatever. (I don't care what you think).”

Future: “I care. Let's do whatever it takes ... by
whatever means necessary.”

111. by michael wesch
assistant professor of cultural anthropology
Kansas State University
more information, including
videos viewed over 15 million times
and translated in over 15 languages ...
mediatedcultures.net