W11

Overview of Final Lecture in Media Studies

  • Instructor expresses feelings of being overwhelmed and acknowledges the amount of content.

  • Reminder that next week there will be a lecture on effective communication and academic writing, crucial for students writing their first university essays.

Next Week's Events

  • Effective Communication and Academic Writing Lecture:

    • Aimed at helping students better understand essay writing.

    • Encouragement for attendance, especially for those working on their first academic essays.

  • Week 13 Assessment Clinic:

    • Students can bring their final essays for feedback.

Campus Announcements

  • Blood Donation Van:

    • Will be available next week on campus.

    • Encouragement for students to register if eligible to donate blood with positive incentives: snacks, friendly staff, and music.

  • JAX Professional Development Networking Event:

    • Hosted by the Journalism and Communication Society.

    • Event Date: Thursday night in CBD.

    • Cost: $25 for non-members, $20 for members.

    • Features: panellists discussing journalism and communications roles, headshots, and networking opportunities.

  • Content Creation Workshop:

    • Hosted by MAPS.

    • Workshops on content creation happening on October 23 (face-to-face) and October 30 (online).

Student Union Elections

  • Announcement for voting in the student union election.

  • Voting in person rewards a $5 union credit.

  • Importance of voting for representation and impact on academic board policies.

Acknowledgment of Traditional Land

  • The instructor acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land and pays respects to elders past, present, and emerging.

Review of the Semester

Week 1: Understanding Media

  • Media viewed as three integral components:

    • Individual: Extensions of ourselves, enhancing human faculties and senses into different spaces and times.

    • Social: Facilitate communication and interaction between people through shared messages.

    • Cultural: Form and shape environments that influence personal growth and societal context.

Week 2: The Importance of Media

  • Media as processes of transferring and circulating meanings.

  • Control over meaning influences power dynamics and behavior:

    • Powerful example: If someone controls what you see, they control your thoughts and behaviors.

Week 3-4: Media Development Models

  • Kittler's Model:

    • Symbolic Media: Relied on human involvement (rock art, writing).

    • Technical Media: Emergence of innovations like the printing press.

    • Mass Media: Result of industrial processes, leading to professional communicators and agenda setting.

  • Hypodermic Needle Theory & Magic Bullet Theory:

    • Audience viewed as passive recipients of media messages.

  • Stuart Hall's concept: Audiences interpret media based on personal frameworks, with three interpretations possible: dominant hegemonic, negotiated, and oppositional.

Week 5: Participatory Culture

  • Henry Jenkins: Participatory cultures in digital media foster creativity and community inclusion, but also present dominance by corporate companies.

  • Ted Stryfus: Critique of algorithmic culture and the illusion of choice provided by platforms like Amazon.

  • Algorithmic Imaginaries: Perceptions and experiences related to algorithms, including how they affect our media interactions.

Week 6: Media Platforms

  • Jose van Dijk: Concept that platforms are not neutral, having specific techno-cultural constructs and business models influencing user experiences.

  • Audience Labour: Concept categorizing two work types—watching and being watched—raising questions of fairness and control in the digital space.

Week 7: Future of Media Studies

  • Examination of new media examples like TikTok, VR, AI, and their roles within society.

  • Wendy Chun's argument: New media exist at the bleeding edge of obsolescence, emphasizing the necessity of updates for relevance.

The Role of AI & Updates in Media

  • AI developments, particularly in relation to ChatGPT.

    • Accessibility of technology rather than innovation marked the introduction of ChatGPT.

  • Importance of updates in maintaining relevance and engagement alluding to dependency on technology.

  • The cyclical pattern of innovation causing loss of prior iterations (e.g., loss of AI companions after updates).

McLuhan's Tetrad of Media Effects

  • Discusses enhancement, reversal, retrieval, and obsolescence:

    • Enhancements and innovations lead to reversals (e.g., faster communication leading to content saturation).

    • New media reshaping older media concepts while simultaneously recycling them.

Case Study: Xerox & Computers

  • Xerox:

    • Enhanced speed of printing leading to personal publishing enabling individuals to produce content.

    • Retrieved elements of oral traditions while making traditional publishing less prevalent.

  • Computers:

    • Enhanced calculation and retrieval speeds, leading to potential anarchy in frameworks of knowledge.

Conclusion and Reflection

  • Encouragement for students to reflect on what they want the future of media and society to look like, emphasizing the non-inevitability of media developments.

  • Final thoughts on understanding media’s role in shaping behavior and how that contributes to societal power dynamics.

Assignments and Encouragement

  • Importance of completing assigned readings and coming to tutorials prepared with questions on Wendy Chun's ideas.

  • Encouragement to reflect critically on the semester's discussions.

  • Upcoming opportunities for student evaluation of exam performance.

Wrap-up

  • Thanking students for their engagement throughout the semester and enthusiasm for future discussions on effective communication.