2. The Media Life Perspective We live IN media not with it. There is no life outside of media. There is no way to make sense of yourself outside of media.
3. In the media life perspective, since we don’t have to worry about the distinction between biology and technology, we’re free to focus on determining what a good, responsible, beautiful media life looks like. – Mark Deuze
8. “Media are infrastructures with three components: the artifacts or devices used to communicate or convey information, the activities and practices in which people engage to communicate or share information, and the social arrangements or organizational forms that develop around those devices and practices.”
25. Participation gap The unequal access to opportunities, experiences, skills, and knowledge that prepares people for full participation in a media life.
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29. Barry Wellman – Sociologist of Social Networks University of Toronto He studies the shift from group-centered relations to networked individualism.
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34. Barry Wellman’s take home point: Social closeness does not mean physical closeness.
36. Globalization is about -The interdependency of large corporations in different countries – outsourcing, etc. -The rise of the corporation and decline of the state - The increased exposure to other cultures – their language, news, traditions, fashion, media, etc.
40. Our bodies & the things we carry on them are technologies of surveillance
41. 4 types of media professionals Networkers (Project) Managers DIY'ers Creative Designers
42. digital nomads “mobility allows us to roam with our economic and social structure carried with us in tiny digital caravans. We’re seeing the enterprisation of our social lives, and the socialisation of our enterprises.” Dave Duarte (Tree Shaker), 2011 http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/
43. THE F-FACTOR “Consumers are increasingly tapping into their networks of friends, fans, and followers, to discover, discuss and purchase goods and services, in ever-more sophisticated ways.” trendwatching.com, 2011
52. The Economist Reading: The Rise of Lifestyle Media: Successful media companies will become “marketplaces that let consumers search, research, share and configure their media experiences.” To be good, these exchanges need to combine “a personalized media experience with a social context for participation.” Instead of “exclusive ownership of content or distribution assets” (the stuff of old media), the media marketplaces will compete in their “knowledge of consumer activity”, which they will use both to interact more intimately with consumers and to match them better to advertising that is unobtrusive and helpful (itself a novelty), and thus lucrative.”
53. The slides that follow contain questions from in-class reading comprehension exercises & discussion topics. Please study these and use them as a study guide. You may see similar questions on the exam.
54. Questions: In what ways do the lines between technologies and the body disappear when we think about media? How you think media shape our understanding of the world?
55. Reading Comprehension Question: From the Jenkins/Deuze reading, is convergence culture generally more of a centralizing or decentralizing force in the media industry? decentralizing
56. Discussion questions: Name five different “players” who actively participate in the convergence culture (today’s media industry) that Jenkins and Deuze describe.
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58. Networked Individualism Activity (For reading response credit): Take out a piece of paper. Write down short answers to the following questions and share them with a partner: You live away from your family right now. How do you connect with them and maintain your relationships with family members through new media? What is the funniest thing a family member of yours does through social media (texting, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, fantasy sports, Words with Friends, etc.) In what ways does the participation gap and/or gendered use of technologies play a role in the maintenance of those relationships? Do you think your family life is more or less fulfilling because of the way you use communication technologies to connect with one another? Why?
59. According to Florida, what is the difference between a “Creative City” and a “Nerdistan?” Nerdistans are bland, uninteresting places with acre upon acre of identical office complexes, row after row of asphalt parking lots, freeways clogged with cars, cookie-cutter housing developments, and strip-malls sprawling in every direction.
60. How does the creative class connect to the media life perspective? The key idea in a media life is that reality can be created by you as an individual (the reality of what work you do where and how you live your life, and the kind of person you are). Working in the creative class means life, work and play become indistinguishable. The creative class lives, works and plays in media. This notion is not new; what is new, is that we now see this as an individual’s responsibility instead of something we do together as a society.
61. The Economist Reading: “you get large by allowing the many and small to gather on your lawn.” Provide examples of companies who abide by this philosophy. Ebay, yahoo, google, facebook, wikipedia, etsy, youtube, digg, Reddit, etc.
62. Reading Comprehension Question: Is Google a media company? Why or why not? What do you think? Talk to your neighbor and write down what you think on a piece of paper.
63. In groups answer this question: In the Economist article the author talks about the difference in How Yahoo and Google choose content that appears on their site What are the differences and which approach do you think Works or will work better in the future. What are the advantages And disadvantages to each approach?
Editor's Notes
This is a frame of mind. You should make up your own mind. That’s what college is about. However, go with me for a while and let’s see where it takes us. Our lives are made up of conversation and communication.This conversation is hackable and remixable by anyone because of the technological world we live in today. That makes today’s world dynamic, unpredictable and permanently under construction.
The point of this course: I’m going to give it away at the beginning: Is to make you question what is real. Suppose we all have our own realities. Through media, we can plant an idea in someone else’s mind and that then becomes reality. Also, this class is about creating an ability to see that ideas have been planted in our minds already. The movie shows that suicide is not an answer. Suicide is a metaphor for unplugging. If we all of a sudden don’t know what’s real anymore and unplugg or disconnect we are committing suicide like Maul did. Another solution is to do what Cobb does, plant ideas for a while to make some money so that you can enjoy those things that have meaning for you. For him it was his kids. You try to live passionately for what you care about.
Whatever media are they share a couple of characteristics. No matter if it’s a new tv, smartphone out of the box, gaming system, etc.
We should not overestimate the impact that media have in our lives. Think about Egypt and the debate about whether or not social media ‘brought about’ revolution there and in other places in the middle east and Africa. Littleton Colorado shooting at columbine. Video games were blamed for the killers shooting people. In the Arizona shooting of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a book was blamed and heavy metal music.
What is more powerful? The technology? Do they make us do things? Or is it people? Don’t people ask for crappy TV? The media content that exists is because we create it. We build the technology. Both arguments are wrong. Because technology is us. This is abstract but technologies are remixes. Technologies are made by other machines today. Very few humans are involved in the making of technology anymore. Technology evolves just like nature does. It becomes more and more complex and more and more difficult to track its origins. Computer software comes out in versions. Windows XP, Vista, 7. iPhone OX 4, etc. Technologies evolve like we do. This debate should be off limits during the course of T101. It doesn’t make sense in the media life perspective.
Describe Middletown and Ball State study. The only thing really that has changed over time is that the gap between how much time we spend with media and how much we report spending is getting bigger. We don’t spend more time with media today than we did 50 years ago. What this means is that media are disappearing from our consciousness.
Human synth: http://www.veoh.com/watch/v18914113Qk8tcW3y
In a social gathering, at a party, people act in order to be photographed. Or they act in relation to a photo or news story or sports game they saw on tv. How did you know how to act they way you do in a classroom? We can’t do anything about this but we can do some fun things with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H09xnhlCQU = The Hunt for Gollum. A fan-made prequel to the LOTR trilogy produced for less than $6000.
We love that Doritos brought back its UGC Super Bowl ad contest, and we love it even more that two unemployed brothers showed the ad world what’s what by creating a groin-achingly funny spot. Joe and Dave Herbert’s “Free Doritos” commercial not only won the brothers the Dorito’s contest (and a cool $1 million), nabbed the top spot on USA Today’s Ad Meter and was voted favorite ad by the YouTube and Hulu audiences, but according to a new survey released by comScore yesterday, Doritos enjoyed the biggest improvement in consumer perception among advertisers in Super Bowl.
Worldwide statistics. In T101 23% of the class are women. 7 out of 30 (as taken from the survey). This is not representative of larger population.
Women use social media to build a community. Men use it to share information. They want to seem like experts on something. Among twentysomethings, women and men are just as likely to be members of social networks. Facebook, MySpace, and Flixster are extraordinarily popular. But we found that young women are much more active on these sites than young men. And men above 30—especially married men—aren't even joining social networks. With the notable exceptions of LinkedIn users and venture capitalists in the Bay Area "friending" everyone on Facebook, married men are not hanging out on social networks. Married women, however, are joining social networks in droves. In fact, women between ages 35 and 50 are the fastest-growing segment, especially on MySpace.
We’re now individuals creating our identities instead of getting grouped into a larger demographic group and known through stereotypes. Actors have done this for centuries. In this media environment we do it too. [Truman Show] We are not the same at a frat party as we are at church. We are different when we play sports than we are when we meet our girl or boyfriend’s parents for the first time. In this media environment we’re the center of our own show b/c of social media.
GodessJaz (Feministing Blogger): Through using social media, or through a quick survey of the blogosphere, it’s apparent that our identities become more distinct online and if anything that distinction feels exaggerated, not invisible.Johanna Blakley: She’s wrong when she says, “Social media tools will help free from some of the absurd assumptions we have as a society about gender” “Social media will help dismantle some of the demeaning gender stereotypes we see in traditional media.” She may be right about, the fact that old (and big) media sees us in terms of our demographics. They see us as flocking in groups to different things so that they can identify us and send us messages about buying things.
social organization no longer fits the little-boxes model. Work, community and domesticity have moved from hierarchically arranged, densely knit, bounded groups (“little boxes”) to social networks
CBS digital family video
Globalization is about being connected to others, irrespective of one’s geographical location. In essence, globalization is the process by which market economies have more of a direct impact on each other, nations develop more of a reliance on one another for resources, individuals from around the world begin speaking the same language, and pollution in one country affects individuals half way around the world. Consequently, the world suddenly seems a lot smaller.When everyone’s connected do we have to worry about power inequities any more? Everyone is dependent on everyone else. Think of gas prices effected by whatever is going on in the Middle East. Globalization means that we are connected to
