My first attempt at photoshop.....this sucks. I have no idea.....
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Lecture Notes Week 2!
INTRODUCTION
20th Century saw development of mass society and explosion of broadcast media where messages from centralised sources were distributed around the world. Academic disciplines have appeared to investigate issues around C:
COMMUNICATION STUDIES
MEDIA STUDIES
CULTURAL STUDIES
At the same time a number of more job-focussed disciplines emerged:
JOURNALISM
PR
ADVERTISING
MARKETING DESIGN
In last decade, rise of computers etc has spawned new areas of investigation:
NEW MEDIA STUDIES
CYBERSTUDIES
INTERNET STUDIES
CYBERCULTURE STUDIES
WEB STUDIES
These mass of disciplines is what academic study of C has became to after a century. Began in France 100yrs ago.
1900 semiotics- Ferdinand de Saussure
Studies the role of signs as part of social life
Signs are:
· SIGNIFIER- Sign saying ‘Griffith Library’
· SIGNIFIED- Actual library
· DENOTATION- literal account. ‘bumping roads’
· CONNOTATION- draws out cultural associations. ‘sexual’
· SEMANTICS- relationship of signs with what they stand for- appreciation of words, their meanings
· SYNTACTICS- formal structural relations between signs- rules of grammer, spelling, sentence structure. They way we read and carry messages. The way we decipher the symbols of a page
· PRAGMATICS- relationship of signs to interpreters of sings- perhaps arguing meaning of a sign.
COMMUNICATION STUDIES (USA)
1920s - Bullet (Inoculation) Theory = Maximum effects
The mass media is a vehicle through which selected content could shape opinion and belief, change habits of life, actively mould behaviour and impose political systems.
Example: Movie showing singlet- next week singlet sales increase.
1930 - Application of Statistical Method
Kolmogorov systematised probability theory so small but random samples could predict large social effects. EG samples of populations eg ratings. Take small random sample of ppl to understand large social effects- the mathematics.
1940 - Minimum Effects
The resistance of US soldiers to Nazi propaganda and Lazarsfeld's studies of voting behaviour showed exposure to propaganda communicated through the mass media had only 'minimal effects' on citizens. Nazi propaganda had no effect- so maximum effects theory not true. More effect from family community connection on voting habits.
1950s - Looking for effects - connections to psychology
Ppl set out to see what nature of media effects was- looked at these areas : Advertising* Kids* Violence* Politics. Result: there were conflicting/ mixed findings as there are a range of ways to study media effects.
1960s - Marshall McLuhan
McLuhan defines media as technological extensions of the body. He frames media effects as 'hot' to 'cool' in terms of the intensity of different media on the physical senses - radio and cinema are hot because their dense information consumes the audience, telephone and television are cool with less intense information.
1970s - Mixed Effects
*George Gerbner and Larry Grosss 'cultivation hypothesis' identified the way the public's perceptions of a crime 'problem' were shaped and cultivated by the ways in which the media reported and portrayed criminal violence.
*Media set agenda for what ppl talk about. Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw's observations on agenda setting indicated that the rank order of issues voters nominated as important in an election closely correlated with the rank order of issues raised in the press. Eg enviro concerns arouse from mainstream media
'spiral of silence' theory suggested that presentation of viewpoints in the media produce a decrease or increase in the willingness of citizens to express those viewpoints. Eg. Ppl are validated.
1980s - Return of Maximum effects
Media v. powerful in establishing nature of debate in society
MEDIA STUDIES (UK)
Raymond Williams
How media works with culture in people’s lives. Not literary, systematic methods- CULTURAL. ‘u can study media product….but what is interesting is how media works with culture in ppl lifves’.
Stanley Cohen; Moral Panics
Media creates moral panics.
Glasgow School
Through close analysis of news programs, they revealed their ideological content. Observing closely content n use of content of news.
Stuart Hall, Birmingham School
Understood that effects of media msgs are in hands of viewer who decodes the msgs. Audience has power to decode then use.
Argued that the message intended by the producers may be read in a variety of ways by the audience: they might accept the preferred reading; negotiate their own reading by contesting the preferred message or; produce an oppositional reading by rejecting the preferred strategy.
Active Audiences
Ien Ang clains that only ‘a perspective that disp[lays sensitivity to everyday practices & experiences of actual audiences themseleves’ can supply any true insight into TV viewers.
CULTURE STUDIES (Europe)
1930s Walter Benjamin
How reproduction of posters/ paintings to reproduce moments have benefits and dangers. Eg anyone nowadays can have mona lisa- destroys integrity of art and also democratizes it.
1940s Frankfurt School
"Real life is becoming indistinguishable from the movies. The sound film, far surpassing the theatre of illusion, leaves no room for imagination or reflection on the part of the audience- hence the film forces its victims to equate it directly with reality. Trying to make sense of Hollywood.
1950s Situationists – Society of the Spectacle
Consumption of spectacles most Important part of life- eco rationale for lide where personal things most imp to society used to be regarded
1960s Habermas
Pub sphere where pub opnion forms.
1970s Louis Althusser
Louis Althusser theorised the media as Ideological State Apparatuses which, he argued, institutionally produce and reproduce "the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence" and so constrict the opportunities for uncoerced debate between those individuals.
1980s Baudrillard – Simulacra
The real was represented, now the hyperreal was simulated… this is the world that we live in.
1990s Fraser - Subaltern counterpublics
Pushed for femi in mead- to effect our lvies. Interesting contribution.
NEW WAVE & FUTURE OF THEORY
Not one sub-discipline of C is going to tell the whole story.
20th Century saw development of mass society and explosion of broadcast media where messages from centralised sources were distributed around the world. Academic disciplines have appeared to investigate issues around C:
COMMUNICATION STUDIES
MEDIA STUDIES
CULTURAL STUDIES
At the same time a number of more job-focussed disciplines emerged:
JOURNALISM
PR
ADVERTISING
MARKETING DESIGN
In last decade, rise of computers etc has spawned new areas of investigation:
NEW MEDIA STUDIES
CYBERSTUDIES
INTERNET STUDIES
CYBERCULTURE STUDIES
WEB STUDIES
These mass of disciplines is what academic study of C has became to after a century. Began in France 100yrs ago.
1900 semiotics- Ferdinand de Saussure
Studies the role of signs as part of social life
Signs are:
· SIGNIFIER- Sign saying ‘Griffith Library’
· SIGNIFIED- Actual library
· DENOTATION- literal account. ‘bumping roads’
· CONNOTATION- draws out cultural associations. ‘sexual’
· SEMANTICS- relationship of signs with what they stand for- appreciation of words, their meanings
· SYNTACTICS- formal structural relations between signs- rules of grammer, spelling, sentence structure. They way we read and carry messages. The way we decipher the symbols of a page
· PRAGMATICS- relationship of signs to interpreters of sings- perhaps arguing meaning of a sign.
COMMUNICATION STUDIES (USA)
1920s - Bullet (Inoculation) Theory = Maximum effects
The mass media is a vehicle through which selected content could shape opinion and belief, change habits of life, actively mould behaviour and impose political systems.
Example: Movie showing singlet- next week singlet sales increase.
1930 - Application of Statistical Method
Kolmogorov systematised probability theory so small but random samples could predict large social effects. EG samples of populations eg ratings. Take small random sample of ppl to understand large social effects- the mathematics.
1940 - Minimum Effects
The resistance of US soldiers to Nazi propaganda and Lazarsfeld's studies of voting behaviour showed exposure to propaganda communicated through the mass media had only 'minimal effects' on citizens. Nazi propaganda had no effect- so maximum effects theory not true. More effect from family community connection on voting habits.
1950s - Looking for effects - connections to psychology
Ppl set out to see what nature of media effects was- looked at these areas : Advertising* Kids* Violence* Politics. Result: there were conflicting/ mixed findings as there are a range of ways to study media effects.
1960s - Marshall McLuhan
McLuhan defines media as technological extensions of the body. He frames media effects as 'hot' to 'cool' in terms of the intensity of different media on the physical senses - radio and cinema are hot because their dense information consumes the audience, telephone and television are cool with less intense information.
1970s - Mixed Effects
*George Gerbner and Larry Grosss 'cultivation hypothesis' identified the way the public's perceptions of a crime 'problem' were shaped and cultivated by the ways in which the media reported and portrayed criminal violence.
*Media set agenda for what ppl talk about. Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw's observations on agenda setting indicated that the rank order of issues voters nominated as important in an election closely correlated with the rank order of issues raised in the press. Eg enviro concerns arouse from mainstream media
'spiral of silence' theory suggested that presentation of viewpoints in the media produce a decrease or increase in the willingness of citizens to express those viewpoints. Eg. Ppl are validated.
1980s - Return of Maximum effects
Media v. powerful in establishing nature of debate in society
MEDIA STUDIES (UK)
Raymond Williams
How media works with culture in people’s lives. Not literary, systematic methods- CULTURAL. ‘u can study media product….but what is interesting is how media works with culture in ppl lifves’.
Stanley Cohen; Moral Panics
Media creates moral panics.
Glasgow School
Through close analysis of news programs, they revealed their ideological content. Observing closely content n use of content of news.
Stuart Hall, Birmingham School
Understood that effects of media msgs are in hands of viewer who decodes the msgs. Audience has power to decode then use.
Argued that the message intended by the producers may be read in a variety of ways by the audience: they might accept the preferred reading; negotiate their own reading by contesting the preferred message or; produce an oppositional reading by rejecting the preferred strategy.
Active Audiences
Ien Ang clains that only ‘a perspective that disp[lays sensitivity to everyday practices & experiences of actual audiences themseleves’ can supply any true insight into TV viewers.
CULTURE STUDIES (Europe)
1930s Walter Benjamin
How reproduction of posters/ paintings to reproduce moments have benefits and dangers. Eg anyone nowadays can have mona lisa- destroys integrity of art and also democratizes it.
1940s Frankfurt School
"Real life is becoming indistinguishable from the movies. The sound film, far surpassing the theatre of illusion, leaves no room for imagination or reflection on the part of the audience- hence the film forces its victims to equate it directly with reality. Trying to make sense of Hollywood.
1950s Situationists – Society of the Spectacle
Consumption of spectacles most Important part of life- eco rationale for lide where personal things most imp to society used to be regarded
1960s Habermas
Pub sphere where pub opnion forms.
1970s Louis Althusser
Louis Althusser theorised the media as Ideological State Apparatuses which, he argued, institutionally produce and reproduce "the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence" and so constrict the opportunities for uncoerced debate between those individuals.
1980s Baudrillard – Simulacra
The real was represented, now the hyperreal was simulated… this is the world that we live in.
1990s Fraser - Subaltern counterpublics
Pushed for femi in mead- to effect our lvies. Interesting contribution.
NEW WAVE & FUTURE OF THEORY
Not one sub-discipline of C is going to tell the whole story.
Monday, March 19, 2007
SEARCH ENGINES....WOOHOOOOOO!
What is a search engine?
A Search Engine is a computer program that electronically searches the contents of a database to locate specific information.
The search engine allows one to ask for content meeting specific criteria (typically those containing a given word or phrase) and retrieves a list of items that match those criteria. This list is often sorted with respect to some measure of relevance of the results. Search engines use regularly updated indexes to operate quickly and efficiently.
How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
When a user comes to the search engine and makes a query, typically by giving key words, the engine looks up the index and provides a listing of best-matching web pages according to its criteria, usually with a short summary containing the document's title and sometimes parts of the text.
The algorithm is a set of rules, search engines follow when ranking web pages.
The most important rule is the Location/Frequency Method:
This is where the Search Engine uses keywords from your search and ranks them by their location and frequency in the text on the different webpages.
What are some of your favourite search engines? Why do you like one more than others?
GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE! definently! i guess it is because it is so well known and i follow the trend. But also because i actually find it the most effective. I sometimes use yahoo or dogpile but dont find it as accurate and effective. THEREFORE google all the way!
Can you find some current news stories about search engines?
This is a recent article I found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4645596.stm
Google censors itself for China
Leading internet company Google has said it will censor its search services in China in order to gain greater access to China's fast-growing market.
Google has offered a Chinese-language version of its search engine for years but users have been frustrated by government blocks on the site. The company is setting up a new site - Google.cn - which it will censor itself to satisfy the authorities in Beijing.
Google argued it would be more damaging to pull out of China altogether.
Critics warn the new version could restrict access to thousands of sensitive terms and web sites. Such topics are likely to include independence for Taiwan and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The Chinese government keeps a tight rein on the internet and what users can access. The BBC news site is inaccessible, while a search on Google.cn for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement directs users to a string of condemnatory articles.
Google's move in China comes less than a week after it resisted efforts by the US Department of Justice to make it disclose data on what people were searching for.
Google hopes its new address will make the search engine easier to use and quicker.
Its e-mail, chat room and blogging services will not be available because of concerns the government could demand users' personal information.
Google said it planned to notify users when access had been restricted on certain search terms.
The company argues it can play a more useful role in China by participating than by boycotting it, despite the compromises involved.
"While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission," a statement said.
Julian Pain, internet spokesman for campaign group Reporters Without Borders, said Google's decision to "collaborate" with the Chinese government was "a real shame".
The number of internet search users in China is predicted to increase from about 100 million currently to 187 million in two years' time.
A survey last August revealed Google was losing market share to Beijing-based rival Baidu.com.
Last year, Yahoo was accused of supplying data to China that was used as evidence to jail a Chinese journalist for 10 years.
A Search Engine is a computer program that electronically searches the contents of a database to locate specific information.
The search engine allows one to ask for content meeting specific criteria (typically those containing a given word or phrase) and retrieves a list of items that match those criteria. This list is often sorted with respect to some measure of relevance of the results. Search engines use regularly updated indexes to operate quickly and efficiently.
How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
When a user comes to the search engine and makes a query, typically by giving key words, the engine looks up the index and provides a listing of best-matching web pages according to its criteria, usually with a short summary containing the document's title and sometimes parts of the text.
The algorithm is a set of rules, search engines follow when ranking web pages.
The most important rule is the Location/Frequency Method:
This is where the Search Engine uses keywords from your search and ranks them by their location and frequency in the text on the different webpages.
What are some of your favourite search engines? Why do you like one more than others?
GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE! definently! i guess it is because it is so well known and i follow the trend. But also because i actually find it the most effective. I sometimes use yahoo or dogpile but dont find it as accurate and effective. THEREFORE google all the way!
Can you find some current news stories about search engines?
This is a recent article I found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4645596.stm
Google censors itself for China
Leading internet company Google has said it will censor its search services in China in order to gain greater access to China's fast-growing market.
Google has offered a Chinese-language version of its search engine for years but users have been frustrated by government blocks on the site. The company is setting up a new site - Google.cn - which it will censor itself to satisfy the authorities in Beijing.
Google argued it would be more damaging to pull out of China altogether.
Critics warn the new version could restrict access to thousands of sensitive terms and web sites. Such topics are likely to include independence for Taiwan and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The Chinese government keeps a tight rein on the internet and what users can access. The BBC news site is inaccessible, while a search on Google.cn for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement directs users to a string of condemnatory articles.
Google's move in China comes less than a week after it resisted efforts by the US Department of Justice to make it disclose data on what people were searching for.
Google hopes its new address will make the search engine easier to use and quicker.
Its e-mail, chat room and blogging services will not be available because of concerns the government could demand users' personal information.
Google said it planned to notify users when access had been restricted on certain search terms.
The company argues it can play a more useful role in China by participating than by boycotting it, despite the compromises involved.
"While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission," a statement said.
Julian Pain, internet spokesman for campaign group Reporters Without Borders, said Google's decision to "collaborate" with the Chinese government was "a real shame".
The number of internet search users in China is predicted to increase from about 100 million currently to 187 million in two years' time.
A survey last August revealed Google was losing market share to Beijing-based rival Baidu.com.
Last year, Yahoo was accused of supplying data to China that was used as evidence to jail a Chinese journalist for 10 years.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
SCAVENGER HUNT!
1. Weight of Worlds Biggest Pumpkin???
http://www.usefultrivia.com/holiday_trivia/halloween_trivia_006a.html - through dogpile
The world's record for biggest pumpkin is currently held by a gigantic gourd weighing a whopping 1,385 pounds!
http://www.verybestbaking.com/products/libbys/trivia_answers.aspx#7- through dogpile
Gerry Checkon of Altoona, Pennsylvania grew a pumpkin weighing 1,131 pounds from Atlantic Giant seed stock on October 2, 1999.
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/record.htm- through yahoo
The largest pumpkin ever grown is 1,502 pounds. It was grown by Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island. It was weighed in on October 7, 2006 at the Rhode Island Weigh-off.
2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?
Go to his changeroom at a swimming event?
3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html- through yahoo
18 inch (46 cm)
AND
A giraffe's tongue can be 29 inches (74 cm) in length. (Turin, M.S. Aardvarks to Zebras, New York: Citadel Press, 1995.) - Found via yahoo.
4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?
Searched through yahoo. Typed in 'Definition: Ontology'
http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-an-ontology.html
An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization.
I believe ontology is a branch of study concerned with the nature and relations of being, or things which exist. The study of what kinds fo things exist, what entities there are in the universe.
5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?
Search retrieved via Ask.com
http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=15821017&trkid=134852
Director David Cronenberg's first feature film, 'Shivers'.
http://home.comcast.net/~tatemanor/feature_makers/director_david_cronenberg.htm
First feature 'Stereo' (1969).
http://www.northernstars.ca/directorsal/cronenbergbio.html
In 1966, he directed his first short, 'Transfer', in which two men talk and eat across a table in a snowy field and end up engaged in a duel in which they flap their neckties at one another.
6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Manifesto- through yahoo
The Conscience of a Hacker (also known as The Hacker Manifesto) is a small essay written January 8, 1986 by a hacker who went by the handle (or pseudonym) of The Mentor (born Loyd Blankenship).
7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?s=aa9995345b0c739e04c9e7c823356e40&t=24980&page=3&pp=25
All phone numbers in the US depicted in film and on TV begin 555 beacause that particular 3 digit code doesn't exist, and no phone numbers in the US begin 555, therefore you don't get freaks phoning numbers they see on tv or at the cinema.
8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?
I dont know, i dont want to go.
9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?
Typed in 'Music 1965' in yahoo search engine and found the Oz Net Music Chart
'Honey Don't' - The Beatles
10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?
Search through yahoo.
http://s472216.tblog.com/post/439925
Black Assain
http://jojow.tblog.com/
Black Assain
I discovered from this search engine excersise that the internet is FULL OF CRAP!!!!!! There is NOT just one answer! There are sooooooooooooo many different answers! ANYONE can put ANYTHING they want on the internet!!!!!
http://www.usefultrivia.com/holiday_trivia/halloween_trivia_006a.html - through dogpile
The world's record for biggest pumpkin is currently held by a gigantic gourd weighing a whopping 1,385 pounds!
http://www.verybestbaking.com/products/libbys/trivia_answers.aspx#7- through dogpile
Gerry Checkon of Altoona, Pennsylvania grew a pumpkin weighing 1,131 pounds from Atlantic Giant seed stock on October 2, 1999.
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/record.htm- through yahoo
The largest pumpkin ever grown is 1,502 pounds. It was grown by Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island. It was weighed in on October 7, 2006 at the Rhode Island Weigh-off.
2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?
Go to his changeroom at a swimming event?
3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html- through yahoo
18 inch (46 cm)
AND
A giraffe's tongue can be 29 inches (74 cm) in length. (Turin, M.S. Aardvarks to Zebras, New York: Citadel Press, 1995.) - Found via yahoo.
4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?
Searched through yahoo. Typed in 'Definition: Ontology'
http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-an-ontology.html
An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization.
I believe ontology is a branch of study concerned with the nature and relations of being, or things which exist. The study of what kinds fo things exist, what entities there are in the universe.
5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?
Search retrieved via Ask.com
http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=15821017&trkid=134852
Director David Cronenberg's first feature film, 'Shivers'.
http://home.comcast.net/~tatemanor/feature_makers/director_david_cronenberg.htm
First feature 'Stereo' (1969).
http://www.northernstars.ca/directorsal/cronenbergbio.html
In 1966, he directed his first short, 'Transfer', in which two men talk and eat across a table in a snowy field and end up engaged in a duel in which they flap their neckties at one another.
6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Manifesto- through yahoo
The Conscience of a Hacker (also known as The Hacker Manifesto) is a small essay written January 8, 1986 by a hacker who went by the handle (or pseudonym) of The Mentor (born Loyd Blankenship).
7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?s=aa9995345b0c739e04c9e7c823356e40&t=24980&page=3&pp=25
All phone numbers in the US depicted in film and on TV begin 555 beacause that particular 3 digit code doesn't exist, and no phone numbers in the US begin 555, therefore you don't get freaks phoning numbers they see on tv or at the cinema.
8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?
I dont know, i dont want to go.
9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?
Typed in 'Music 1965' in yahoo search engine and found the Oz Net Music Chart
'Honey Don't' - The Beatles
10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?
Search through yahoo.
http://s472216.tblog.com/post/439925
Black Assain
http://jojow.tblog.com/
Black Assain
I discovered from this search engine excersise that the internet is FULL OF CRAP!!!!!! There is NOT just one answer! There are sooooooooooooo many different answers! ANYONE can put ANYTHING they want on the internet!!!!!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Lecture Notes Week 2
COMMUNICATION: Any process that transfers, transmits or makes information known to other people.
· Basic model of communication explained by Aristotle in ‘Rhetoric’ about 2500 yrs ago:
1. speaker produces message that is heard by listener
The communication is face to face and communicators have common background.
· New complex model by Shannon & Weaver in book ‘The Mathematical Theory of Communication’:
1. speaker produces effect on transmitter that sends message (which is degraded by the noise of transmission process) that is intercepted by receiver which converts it into an effect heard by listener.
INTERSUBJECTIVITY:
· listener interprets the message and changes it as they send it along
· C between ppl and they always want to argue about things, interpreting them in light of own experience.
· active audience produces feedback
INTERTEXTUALITY:
· No msg is ever complete
· Any msg gains its meaning (for a particular person) from all the other messages that person has previously received and sent
Just as genes carry biological info required for survival, memes carry the social ideas that are also required for survival.
TECHNOLOGY:
Scientific study of mechanical arts and their application to the world. Technology arises form and carries ideas. T is apart of the material world. The constantly developing relationship between material world and the ideas humans have is at core of dialectic that acts as dynamo in development of human society and that produces the small-r reason, or logic, that we use to make the decisions required to get through day.
· Marshall McLuhan says technologies are extensions of human body. Book extension of eye, wheel extension of leg etc. Also C is extension of mind, and the medium in which that C occurs is the message.
ANALOG- technology functions by representing cariable forces that are continuous in both time and space through dials that allow the relatively imprecise modulation of those forces.
DIGITAL- technology relies on storing bits of binary info about forces by turning on and off currents of electricity or light in ways that allow for the precise modification of those forces.
Shift from analog to digital can be good or bad (tuning digital car radio while driving). While dig T is ascending, some find analog offers something more appealing than certainty & flat structures of dig domain.
McLuhan: in shift from A to D perhaps we moving from old C technology that allows many shades of grey to much more black n white that encourages us to C exactly what we mean.
OLD TECHNOLGY
Printing- 1452 when Gutenberg printed version of bible in Germany. Printing press 1st C technology to make info available to mass audience: books, pamphlets & papers were a necessary precondition to development of mass society.
Telegraph- 1837 Samuel Morse sent electrical impulses down wire in patterns that could be reinterpreted as msg at other end. First public telegraph in 1844. Morse’s code of dots & dashes was early binary system & prompted cable tween continents that allowed immediate C around globe.
Telephone- 1876 Alexandra Grahem Bell, allowed sounds transmitted over long-distances.
Phonograph- Thomas Edison in 1876 recorded & played back sound on wax cylinders. This led to development of cassettes, records, CD’s etc.
Radio- In 1930s radio was modified to transmit & receive all manner of sounds & thus radio industry established allowing immediate & simultaneous broadcast of info to mass audience.
Cinema- By using mechanical device to shine light through number of photographic images in quick succession the Lumiere Brothers created early forms of cinema which relied on the ‘persistence of vision’ to retain image for 1/16th of sec at a time. IN 1929 reliable system was developed that allowed simultaneous & synchronised transmission of sound.
Television- 1926 John Baird developed. By late 1930s Tv ready to be marketed to mass audience.
· Basic model of communication explained by Aristotle in ‘Rhetoric’ about 2500 yrs ago:
1. speaker produces message that is heard by listener
The communication is face to face and communicators have common background.
· New complex model by Shannon & Weaver in book ‘The Mathematical Theory of Communication’:
1. speaker produces effect on transmitter that sends message (which is degraded by the noise of transmission process) that is intercepted by receiver which converts it into an effect heard by listener.
INTERSUBJECTIVITY:
· listener interprets the message and changes it as they send it along
· C between ppl and they always want to argue about things, interpreting them in light of own experience.
· active audience produces feedback
INTERTEXTUALITY:
· No msg is ever complete
· Any msg gains its meaning (for a particular person) from all the other messages that person has previously received and sent
Just as genes carry biological info required for survival, memes carry the social ideas that are also required for survival.
TECHNOLOGY:
Scientific study of mechanical arts and their application to the world. Technology arises form and carries ideas. T is apart of the material world. The constantly developing relationship between material world and the ideas humans have is at core of dialectic that acts as dynamo in development of human society and that produces the small-r reason, or logic, that we use to make the decisions required to get through day.
· Marshall McLuhan says technologies are extensions of human body. Book extension of eye, wheel extension of leg etc. Also C is extension of mind, and the medium in which that C occurs is the message.
ANALOG- technology functions by representing cariable forces that are continuous in both time and space through dials that allow the relatively imprecise modulation of those forces.
DIGITAL- technology relies on storing bits of binary info about forces by turning on and off currents of electricity or light in ways that allow for the precise modification of those forces.
Shift from analog to digital can be good or bad (tuning digital car radio while driving). While dig T is ascending, some find analog offers something more appealing than certainty & flat structures of dig domain.
McLuhan: in shift from A to D perhaps we moving from old C technology that allows many shades of grey to much more black n white that encourages us to C exactly what we mean.
OLD TECHNOLGY
Printing- 1452 when Gutenberg printed version of bible in Germany. Printing press 1st C technology to make info available to mass audience: books, pamphlets & papers were a necessary precondition to development of mass society.
Telegraph- 1837 Samuel Morse sent electrical impulses down wire in patterns that could be reinterpreted as msg at other end. First public telegraph in 1844. Morse’s code of dots & dashes was early binary system & prompted cable tween continents that allowed immediate C around globe.
Telephone- 1876 Alexandra Grahem Bell, allowed sounds transmitted over long-distances.
Phonograph- Thomas Edison in 1876 recorded & played back sound on wax cylinders. This led to development of cassettes, records, CD’s etc.
Radio- In 1930s radio was modified to transmit & receive all manner of sounds & thus radio industry established allowing immediate & simultaneous broadcast of info to mass audience.
Cinema- By using mechanical device to shine light through number of photographic images in quick succession the Lumiere Brothers created early forms of cinema which relied on the ‘persistence of vision’ to retain image for 1/16th of sec at a time. IN 1929 reliable system was developed that allowed simultaneous & synchronised transmission of sound.
Television- 1926 John Baird developed. By late 1930s Tv ready to be marketed to mass audience.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
mankind vs nature
humans are plentiful.
animals are in jeopardy.
humans are dominating.
animals are vulnerable.
humans are brutal.
callous.
inhumane.
ruthless.
savage.
animals are powerless.
unguarded.
naked.
exposed.
unprotected.
humans are superior.
animals are inferior.
mankind vs nature?
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