Lecture 11 Davids Slingshot Do digital media help

Lecture 11: David’s Slingshot: Do digital media help the underdog? Professor Victoria Meng 1

Review: Flew • Technology (Media) = object + activity + context = tool + skill + infrastructure • Example: Power. Point presentation + Making and using the presentation + Factories, utilities, schools, etc. 2

Course Design • Unit I: Imagination and Practice (activities and skills) • Unit II: Forms and Styles (objects and tools) • Unit III: Identity and Community (context and infrastructure) 3

Course Design Unit II “Forest” “Trees” Media in general Media specificity 4

Course Design I: “Forest” (activities) II: “Trees” (objects) III: “Biomes” (contexts) 5

Why Politics Matter Political Activism, broadly defined. Typical reactions to the word “politics”: it’s “boring, ” “dirty, ” and “too much trouble. ” 6

Why Politics Matter Politics is an important context for understanding media technology. 7

Why Politics Matter Can digital media be a “slingshot” that changes traditional power relationships? David and Goliath 8

Lecture Outline • “The Promise and the Peril of Social Action in Cyberspace” (Gurak, 1999) • “Photoshop for Democracy” (Jenkins, 2006) • An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006) • Move. On. org; Haystack 9

Reading: Gurak The Internet during the 1990 s: a different digital experience. 10

Reading: Gurak The Internet during the 1990 s: a different digital experience. • Starting to become a “democratic” medium • Hardware and software were expensive, difficult to use, and slow • Relatively few users who had a lot in common: “Net Community” 11

Reading: Gurak Case Studies: Lotus Market. Place, 1990; Clipper chip, 1994. 12

Reading: Gurak Case Studies: Lotus Market. Place, 1990; Clipper chip, 1994. Method: Collecting Internet communications, tracking sources and dates, and performing rhetorical analysis. 13

Reading: Gurak Case Studies: Lotus Market. Place, 1990; Clipper chip, 1994. Method: Collecting Internet communications, tracking sources and dates, and performing rhetorical analysis. Conclusion: the Internet changed how information was delivered and the nature of social action. 14

Reading: Gurak Promise: “…the speed and reach of online delivery along with a powerful community ethos made the issues clear and immediately accessible…” (248) 15

Reading: Gurak Promise: “…the speed and reach of online delivery along with a powerful community ethos made the issues clear and immediately accessible…” (248) Peril: “…in cyberspace, certain voices/texts can easily become dominant, whatever their level of accuracy. ” (259) 16

Gurak: Characteristics of Internet Delivery Internet v. mail, telephone, face-to-face 17

Gurak: Characteristics of Internet Delivery Faster More reckless 18

Gurak: Characteristics of Internet Delivery Faster Cheaper More reckless More careless 19

Gurak: Characteristics of Internet Delivery Faster Cheaper Far-reaching More reckless More careless Hard to assess 20

Gurak: Characteristics of Internet Delivery Faster Cheaper Far-reaching Compressed More reckless More careless Hard to assess “TMI” 21

Gurak: Characteristics of Internet Delivery Faster Cheaper Far-reaching Compressed Hierarchyflattening More reckless More careless Hard to assess “TMI” Less formal tone 22

Gurak: Characteristics of Internet Delivery Faster Cheaper Far-reaching Compressed Hierarchyflattening Community ethos More reckless More careless Hard to assess “TMI” Less formal tone Isolationism 23

Reading: Jenkins Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins 24

Reading: Jenkins “The current diversification of communication channels is politically important because it expands the range of voices that can be heard: though some voices command greater prominence than others, no one voice speaks with unquestioned authority. ” (208) 25

Reading: Jenkins “The new media operate with different principles…: access, participation, reciprocity, and peer-to-peer rather than one-to-many communication. Given such principles, we should anticipate that digital democracy will be de-centralized, unevenly dispersed, profoundly contradictory, and slow to emerge. ” (208 -209) 26

Reading: Jenkins “The new political culture – just like the new popular culture – reflects the pull and tug of these two media systems: one broadcast and commercial, the other narrowcast and grassroots. ” (211) 27

Reading: Jenkins “…crystallizing one’s political perspectives into a photomontage that is intended for broader circulation is no less an act of citizenship than writing a letter to the editor of a local newspaper that may or my not actually print it. ” (222) 28

Reading: Jenkins Red v. Blue (2003 -2007) 29

Community v. Isolation An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006) 30

Community v. Isolation An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006) 31

Community v. Isolation An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006) 32

Review: Friedman 33

End of Lecture 11 Next Lecture: “Spending” Time: Is there balance between mass production and customization? 34