PowerPoint Presentation

Living InformationMedia & InformationCourse Review

Review Overview of the key themes of the course, tying everything together and discussing the implications of living information for the scholarly study of media, information, and communication. Reading: Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt (2014) Mediatization: an emerging paradigm for media and communication studies (18 pages, PDF Blackboard).

It is first argued that mediatization is characterized by two crucial features: it concerns the effects of the media on a field of society that is historically separate from the media, and it recognizes that these effects work in a complex manner over a considerable period of time.

1

1media are ubiquitous and pervasive

3. Gamers notice that, when they use their computer log on to their favourite virtual world to check in on their avatar, the game has changed since the last time they played: new updates have been installed, quests and wars took place, and so on. This is an example of media being...

10. [OPEN QUESTION] What makes media ubiquitous?

14. What functionality tends to be hard to find on most media devices?

2

2there are no old or new media

6. What theory best describes how our media are always versions of each other, and in their design try to make themselves disappear?

3

3in fact, media disappear

4. The TV remote, VCR, joystick and computer mouse all have a certain property in common, particular to our expectations of living in media; its

4

4except when they do not work

5. When do we actually notice our media?

5

5but we love our media!

9. What does someone suffering from shiny toy syndrome do?

6

6concurrent media exposure

1. Our estimations of the hours that we report we spend engaging with media are dramatically less than the actual amount of time we spend with media. What concept best captures and explains this forgetfulness?

7

and using media is making media7

12. This course is titled Living information; as explained in class, how can information be considered to be alive?

8

8there is no such thing as TMI

2. What makes the Life in a Day video (compiled by Ridley and Tony Scott for YouTube) such a crucial document to understand media life?

9

9we live in public

8. Today, if people decide to meet somewhere in the city at 8pm, the Whatsapp messages, SMS texts and other instant communications start flying from around 730pm. What is this type of media as a social arrangement called by sociologists?

20. There are five ways in which we are being monitored by media and information technologies in everyday life think of the fact that on the way to class you may have featured in numerous pictures that tourists were taking on the streets of Amsterdam. What kind of monitoring does this example refer to?

21. [OPEN QUESTION] What is the difference between Big Brother and little brother surveillance?

10

10there is a dark side to media

11

11(and were working on that)

7. What do companies such as Rank-A-Brand, Fairphone, Envirophone, and Total Collect have in common?

13. What is the StEP initiative of the United Nations?

12

12media fit into everyday life

16. What kind of community in Barry Wellmans terms is a group of people who connect because of shared interests (rather than for example a shared place of residence), who maintain these ties through phoning, emailing, writing, driving, railroading, transiting, and flying?

13

13media evolve

17. [OPEN QUESTION] Give a clear example of a technomyopic statement about media and information.

14

using media to survive

14

when we try to make sense of media (and life) we tend to step into all kinds of traps: mediacentrism or societycentrism; utopian or dystopian expectations; and technomyopia. remember Darwins lesson: evolution is not progress, it is about diversity and complexity and adaptation

Monty Python How Not To Be Seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTQYEkIvN2M15

15struggle to reproduce

22. What is the fastest growing group of people who engage in 'sexting?

23. Do people lie about themselves in online dating?

25. It can be argued that living with pervasive and ubiquitous media and information offer people adaptive advantages to survive in this day and age. One of the fundamental struggles for survival is the struggle to find mates. Which of the following media help people in this struggle?

16

16(like us), media are messy, not perfect

http://modernlifespace.tumblr.com/everything starts to look/feel the same17

17we are all (media) zombies

step 10: perhaps in the end we are all fucking zombies; media zombies, that is: like zombies, in media we cease to be unique individuals (were all alike on Facebook); we are all connected whether we know or like it or not, and we constantly move around, sign up/register and join networks/groups/channels without seeming having any other purpose than to connect. and perhaps all of that is a GOOD thing.18

18and that can be a good thing

step 10: perhaps in the end we are all fucking zombies; media zombies, that is: like zombies, in media we cease to be unique individuals (were all alike on Facebook); we are all connected whether we know or like it or not, and we constantly move around, sign up/register and join networks/groups/channels without seeming having any other purpose than to connect. and perhaps all of that is a GOOD thing.19

our options?

19

11. Before the first lecture, students watched the 1998 film The Truman Schow. Two key issues of the course were related to this film. Which two (pick the 2 correct answers)?

20

20we can wage war on the machines

24. In the 19th century, Samuel Butler had one strong piece of advice for us after applying Darwins ideas about evolution to the history of machines. What was that advice?

21

21we can surrender to media

22

22we can become media

step 6: in a completely mediated context, questions about what (and who) is real become paramount; the media life point of view stipulates that mediated reality is not more or less real; its just another form of reality just as real as non-mediated reality is. what is fascinating, though, is that we tend to try to make our mediated realities look better than reality really is apparently we all know were not THAT special after all.23

23the scholarly answer

in the process of complete mediatization, the way we make sense of things biological or technological collapses. everything becomes media. it shapes even our most profoundly social and intimate interactions our world turns into a silent disco, where we are constantly dancing with others while enveloped in our own personalized media space, together alone.24

24

Trumans answer

25What this means, is that we are all living inside our own TRUMAN SHOW, as the Jim Carrey character in the movie of that tile did: surrounded by omnipresent media, being recorded and monitored all the time, making and consuming media constantly, being connected to everyone else through increasingly digital, portable and networked media devices all the time - and unwilling or indeed unable to switch any of this off. The question now is: what skills and attitude do you need to cope with this kind of life? How do you survive inside your own Truman Show?

25your answer?

what will you do?26

In a case of life seeking to imitate art, the tribe appealed to James Cameron to help them stop Vedanta, reckoning that the author of the film Avatar, which deals with a similar subject, would understand their plight. An advertisement in Variety magazine said: "Appeal to James Cameron. Avatar is fantasy and real. The Dongria Kondh tribe in India are struggling to defend their land against a mining company hell-bent on destroying their sacred mountain. Please help the Dongria."[7] Other celebrities backing the campaign include Arundhati Roy (the Booker prize-winning author), as well as the British actors Joanna Lumley and Michael Palin.[6] Lingaraj Azad, a leader of the Save Niyamgiri Committee, said the Dongria Kondh's campaign was "not just that of an isolated tribe for its customary rights over its traditional lands and habitats, but that of the entire world over protecting our natural heritage".[6]

29

follow-up on Avatar: a people in West India appeals to James Cameron via an ad in Variety magazine to help them as they are the real Navi, defending their mountain against a mining corporation; Cameron responding later on to calls for help from an organization of Amazon tribes in and around the Xingu river, to appeal the construction of a dam there.

30

most recent news update James Cameron & Xingu

ttp://newsblaze.com/story/20100209133850zzzz.nb/topstory. html.

in early June 2011, the Brazilian gov- ernment granted an installation license for the Belo Monte dam, clearing the way for construction to begin. In response, Cameron told a reporter for Agence France-Presse that The Kayapo are going to fight, professedly predicting (or preme- diating) that real-world events would follow the script of his31

32

avatar activism33

34

avatar porn parody35

The village even organizes special events such as Smurf painting competitions, a Smurf moonlight fun run, and Smurf trade fairs. There are even Smurf-themed weddings to keep tourists coming.So why did Sony choose this small settlement in the hills for their world premiere? It seems that Jzcar is popular among mycologists and the Smurfs are known to love mushrooms. Fungi flourish in large quantities each autumn in dense local woodland and in September Jzcar celebrated its fifth annual mycology congress.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8964129/Spanish-village-painted-blue-for-Smurfs-film-votes-on-keeping-theme.html

Juzcar, inland from Malaga, was transformed six months ago when it was chosen as the set for The Smurfs 3D, becoming the world's first official Smurf Village.Sony, which made the film, had promised to return the village to its original state, with homes painted in dazzling white, as is typical of southern Spain.But the 250 locals are expected to vote for the unusual look to be retained, because since filming the hillside village has become a huge tourist attraction, pulling in more than 80,000 visitors.They embraced the makeover with such gusto that some dressed up as giant Smurfs and held a Smurf fair in the village square.David Fernandez Tirado, the mayor, who has been nicknamed 'Papa Smurf', said there were "many benefits" to the village being blue. The makeover distinguishes Juzcar from all the other 'pueblo blanco' white villages that dot the landscape of southern Spain.

"It's given a boost to the local economy, it's increased our happiness, our dreams and our levels of employment," the mayor told the Spanish media."Thanks to being painted blue we are known throughout the world."The transformation of the village involved more than a dozen painters and 1,000 gallons of bright blue paint.Special permission had to be sought from the regional government of Andalusia as well as the local bishop even the church was painted blue.The film, which opened in the UK in August, revolved around a plot in which the Smurfs were chased out of their home village by an evil wizard and forced to flee to a new life in New York.The movie starred the singer Katy Perry as Smurfette, while the wizard was played by Hank Azaria, who provides many of the voices in The Simpsons, including Moe the barman and police chief Wiggum.Villagers voted in a referendum on Sunday, with the result expected to be announced on Friday.The Smurfs were created as a comic strips by a Belgian cartoonist, Pierre Culliford, in 1958.

36

MEDIA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Vaneigem

media life is a life where we observe ourselves livethis in turn enables and powers a reflective position vis--vis our own behaviorour argument is that this position should always be aesthetic and ethical, like the Bilin/Avatar example: it is fun and seriously consequential at the same time.4. and this is how we need to look at ourselves in order to be able to take responsibility for our desires

39