CDAE 2240 Unit 2: Democracy, Community, & Media

Media

• Plural of medium

• Outlets to store and / or deliver content

• Means of communication

• Material or form used by an artist

Media (technology)

Material devices that enable and extend peoples’ ability to communicate and share meaning

Media (uses)

Communication activities and practices that people engage in

Media (3)

Larger social arrangements and organizational forms built around the devices and practices

When old media was new: 1990s / 2000s

• Smaller, more portable video cameras

• Internet available to share content, including capability to compress files

“New media” technology

• Hybrid (combined new innovations with older media)

• Interactivity which lends itself to participation

• Networked architecture rather than broadcasting

  • More like telegraph / telephone, less than TV and radio

  • Move from few producers (with many consumers) to many producers

  • Shift in dynamics of production and consumption

Reconfiguration

Users modify and adapt media technologies and systems to suit their purposes or interests

Remediation

Users borrow, adapt or remix existing materials, expressions and interactions

Participatory journalism examples

• Blogs

• Open-source journalism projects

Participatory journalism

• Heir to the alternative, underground and radical press

• Alternative or oppositional perspective: critique and deconstruction of mainstream media and news coverage

• Blur the lines that distinguish information providers, editors and readers

Public sphere

• Model for understanding public communication

• Metaphorical space where informed citizens gather to discuss ideas

Public sphere example

Coffeehouse

Public opinion

• Discussion within this metaphorical space produces public opinion

• Mediates between private sphere and public authority

What does public opinion influence?

Governing institutions

Characteristics of the “Public Sphere”

• Open access

• Bracketing of social inequalities

• Rational discussion

• Dialogue

• Embodiment

• Ability to reach consensus

Critique against “Public Sphere”

• Is it really open access?

• Are people simply going to be heard without bias?

• If someone doesn’t “look” or “speak” the right way (using the right vernacular), will they be heard?

• Can you really just bracket inequality?

Democratic ideal

The Public Sphere

(Un)Democratic reality

The Public Screen

Public Sphere vs. Public Screen - Public Sphere characteristics

• Dialogue

• Open access

• Bracketing of social inequalities

• Rational discussion – focus

• Embodiment

• Ability to reach consensus

Public Sphere vs. Public Screen - Public Screen characteristics

• Dissemination (spreading of messages)

• Access not guaranteed

• Inequalities not bracketed

• Spectacle – distraction

• Mediated

• Lack of consensus

Democratizing the media

Creating democratic media

Democracy through the media

Tactics for navigating the public screen

How did telegraphy change the society?

Until the 1840s, information could only move as fast as a human being could carry it, meaning as fast as a train could travel (35 mph)

Broadcasting

Message is transmitted from one point to many receivers

What is the broadcasting model?

One-to-many model

What is the broadcasting audience?

“General” audience

Narrowcasting

Targets a specific audience (e.g. ESPN, Food Network, etc.)

Public-Access Television

• Cable companies were required to carry local content and provide facilities for local production

• Non-commercial television, social potential of TV

• A media “commons?”

Tactics for navigating the Public Screen

• The media not only transmits messages, it is a site of struggle over public opinion

• Activists operate on an uneven “playing field”

• Tactics for operating on “enemy territory”

• Can have “popular culture” sensibility

Symbolic violence

• Directed towards property, not people

• Increases media coverage of events

Example of something that is NOT symbolic violence

The Luigi Mangione case

Litigious event

A staged lawsuit designed for a mass media dissemination and viral public participation

• Lost cause in terms of a legal victory

• Possible success in the court of “public opinion”

Outing

• Reporters have routinely outed people when it has upheld heteronormativity

• Applied to public figures and celebrities

• When it is pertinent to the story

• Should not be used as punishment