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The Medium is the Metaphor The Medium is the Metaphor

The Medium is the Metaphor - PowerPoint Presentation

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The Medium is the Metaphor - PPT Presentation

Las Vegas is the metaphor for our national character 1984 In the eighteenth century Boston was the center of political radicalism Donald Trump Tweet 52 15 Vegas Public discourse takes the form of entertainment ID: 494954

world truth wire culture truth world culture wire forms journalism medium television melodrama williams simon serial entertainment form media

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Slide1

The Medium is the Metaphor

Las Vegas is the metaphor for our national character (1984)In the eighteenth century, Boston was the center of political radicalismDonald Trump Tweet 52:15Slide2

Vegas

Public discourse takes the form of entertainment Politics, religion, news, athletics, education, are all show business now In America preachers, athletes, entrepreneurs, politicians, teachers and journalists are all expected to entertain Slide3

“Conversation”

Used metaphorically to refer to all techniques and technologies that permit people of a certain culture to exchange messages All culture is a conversation or a corporation of conversations Postman talks about how different forms of public discourse regulate and even dictate what kind of content can come from these formsSlide4

William Howard Taft (27th President)

Neil Postman questions whether a 300 pound man could be president today Slide5

Television

Gives us a conversation in images and not words Slide6

Metaphor

Suggests what a thing is like by comparing it to something else Now metaphors are far more complex (other aspects come in to play)Symbolic forms (the form contributes to the symbol)The context in which their information is experienced

The quantity and speed of their information Slide7

Epistemology

the study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge.How do we know things?How do we understand something to be the truth?Slide8

Medium as Metaphor

Message: denotes a specific, concrete statement about the world Our current forms of media, including the symbols through which they permit conversation, do not make such statements. They are more like metaphors, working by unobtrusive but powerful implication to enforce their special definitions of reality Slide9

Media and Truth

There is no one way to know truth A civilization’s media will determine that culture’s understanding of truth Primitive oral cultures will value someone who has the ability to remember proverbsA written culture may find proverbs quaint and value written word as the way to truthSlide10

“Truth, like time itself, is a product of a conversation man has with himself about and through the techniques of communication he has invented.”

“Some ways of truth-telling are better than others, and therefore have a healthier influence on the cultures that adopt them.”Slide11

TV

Postman speaks highly of TV as a form of entertainmentHis concern is that entertainment has become a dominant form of communication Television influences: politics, education, religion, and journalismSlide12

Typographic Mind

Colonial mid nineteenth centuryEarly Americans were a literate cultureWritten word is rational discourse A written argument provides, exposition and makes points that are explainedThe reader makes a judgment about whether the statements are true or false (based on supporting evidence) Slide13

The news of the day

Comes from the telegraphAnd is continued through the news media

Made it possible to move decontextualized information across vast distances

Without a medium to create its form, the news of the day does not exist

Postman agrees with McLuhan about his aphorism: the medium is the message

Postman agrees that the clearest way to see through a culture is to look at its tools of conversation (TV, Advertising, Telegraph)

William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone's electric telegraph ("needle telegraph") from 1837 Slide14

The Telegraph and the News of the Day

“Peek a boo world”The telegraph (and later forms of media) bring instantaneous information that was no longer limited by geographic distanceSociety became less driven by the understanding of contextThe news of the day brings us irrelevant information divorced from its context.

The deliberate process of rational discourse began to break down Slide15

Media as Epistemology

“the content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense” according to PostmanThis is due to entertainment becoming necessary in all forms of communication Epistemology is concerned with the origins and nature of knowledgeEntertainment/Communication is a part of that origin--natureSlide16

There is no universal way to know truth, but rather that a civilization will identify truth largely based on its forms of communication.Slide17

primitive oral culture

great stock in a man who remembers proverbs, since truth is passed on through such storiesSlide18

culture of the written word

Will find oral proverbs quaint The rationality of written arguments would be considered superior to a proverbSlide19

Television

limited our discourse to where all of our serious forms of discussion have turned into entertainment. Television has influenced the way we live off the screen.His examples: Religion, politics, journalismSlide20

Metaphors that Resonate

Athens=intellectual excellenceHamlet=brooding indecisivenessSlide21

Every medium of communication has resonance, for resonance is metaphor writ large”

--A medium has the power to fly beyond that context into new and unexpected ones, because of the way it directs us to organize our minds and integrate our experience of the world

The medium of TV and also of Twitter can lead us to believe that Donald Trump should be consulted on issues that are not in keeping with his qualificationsSlide22

Medium of TV

Creates new forms of truth-tellingThe epistemology of TV is inferior to a print based one (according to Postman) Amusement (and pleasure) is how TV communicates (contrast to Linda Williams and David Simon) Slide23

Emotional Power of TV

Emotional power so great that it could arouse sentiment against the Vietnam War or against RacismWe must be careful in praising or condemning a medium because the future may hold surprises for us Enter Linda Williams and her writing in “On the Wire” and the use of emotion to point to injustice Slide24

Literate Culture

Common Sense by Thomas Paine published 1776Popularity of that book close to an event like the Superbowl today Different classes were all interested in reading about a variety of subjects Printed matter was all that was available American was founded by intellectualsSlide25

Literate Culture

Approaches the world from a rational perspective based around a series of rational propositions that challenge a reader or audience to judge them as true or false, the entire society was founded around the idea of rational discourse.This not to say that rational arguments made in print can’t be false—he is talking about how communication is structured in this formatSlide26

“The Age of Exposition"

defined Typographic America Exposition: a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory.replaced by a spectacle that prizes flash and entertainment over substance. The message itself is less important than the entertainment value of its delivery.Slide27

TV

Demands rapid-fire editing, non-stop stimulation, and quick decisions rather than rational deliberation (not in the case of The Wire) Also, the pleasure of an ending that ties everything up into a bow No spoilers either! The pleasure of a surprise ending that ties everything up.Slide28

The Corner(Simon’s Editorializing)

To look backward across thirty years on the Fayette streets of this country is to contemplate disaster as a seamless chronology, as the inevitable consequences of forces stronger and more profound than the cities themselves. Cursed are we with a permanent urban underclass, an unremitting and increasingly futile drug war, and Third World conditions in the hearts of our cities, the American experiment seems, at the millennium, to have found a limit. Slide29

Wealth

In neighborhoods where no other wealth existsAn economic engine so powerful they will sacrifice everything to itA “wealth generating structure”“Lives without any obvious justification are given definition through simple, self-sustaining capitalism”Slide30

Purpose

They all do it not so much for the cash-which they will piss away anyhow-but for a brief sense of self The disaster of the American rust beltShut down the assembly lines, devalued physical labor, and undercut the union pay scaleSome of the current addicts used to “make steel”Slide31

Wealth

neighborhoods where no other wealth exists (aside from the drug trade)An economic engine so powerful “they” will sacrifice everything to itA “wealth generating structure”“Lives without any obvious justification are given definition through simple, self-sustaining capitalism”Slide32

Purpose

They all do it not so much for the cash-which they will piss away anyhow-but for a brief sense of self The disaster of the American rust beltShut down the assembly lines, devalued physical labor, and undercut the union pay scaleSome of the current addicts used to “make steel”Slide33

The Bag

1960’s” prohibition of public drinking Paper bags allowed police to ignore public drinking Hiding the alcohol gave police respectAllowed the government to ignore petty offenses Slide34

War on Drugs

With nothing like “the bag” on the corners, then there can’t be the same type of equilibrium of prioritiesCreates alienation of underclass from the government “rather than focus on the truly dangerous—the murders and the shootings we have indulged our furies”Slide35

“Statistical Charade”

Placates public 20,000 prison beds (at the time of the book) in Maryland In Baltimore 15,000-20,000 drug arrestsBuild more prisons?“You could bankrupt the state government—and still not have enough prisons”Slide36

Federal vs. State Budget

Federal prisons can be built by running up the deficit States have to balance their budgets and they carry 90% of the burden of incarcerationsFor all of the arrests only a small percentage will go to jailState budgets devote a great deal of resources to the arrests, courts, legal aids etcSlide37

Current Numbers

2,418,35270 Billion spent on prisons annually Slide38

California numbers: 2006

Oakland spends 8,000 per student annuallyCA spends 216,000 on one juvenile inmate Slide39

War on Drugs

Hasn’t taken back a single cornerCommunity folks (who vote) complain about drugsLocal government reactsFed and State government can’t be honest about how ineffectual the war on drugs isArrests and convictions for violent crimes, rapes, burglaries, and armed robbery goes downSo many resources go to generating stats about drug crimeLeads to police brutality

Bad morale: hate between police and corner

kids

Leads to meaningless arrests for things like loiteringSlide40

Serial vs. The Wire

What are the similarities?What are the differences?Is one more informative than the other?What information is the most relevant to you?Which one is the most like traditional storytelling/entertainment? Slide41

Serial: The Alibi (Exposition)

Jay recounts the entire day of the murderthe entire case hinges on just 21 minutes the window of time in which Hae is killedAbout those 21 minutes, precious little is known. "The Alibi," lays out the day of the murder and Adnan's alibi that would clear him of killing Hae. Slide42

Serial

What is the exposition?Character exposition?What does it say about the case?Slide43

Linda Williams (On the Wire)

Considers it the most serious and ambitious fictional narrative of the 21st Century The Wire, 2002On the Wire, 2014 Slide44

Praise for The Wire

Greek Tragedy (according to Simon) Williams says this description isn’t accurate, but corresponds to the series’ excellence First is a form of journalism and second as conventional Conventions: seriality, televisuality, and melodrama (not necessarily the soapy kind) Slide45

Simon

For 12 years Simon worked as a journalist Digging increasingly deeper for social context When he could not deliver that context in the Baltimore Sun’s current form he wrote fictional stories based on fact The Wire, breaks with the editorializing journalism that shows up in The Corner Instead of telling—he showsSlide46

Melodrama

Melodrama doesn’t necessarily mean corny Demands justice while tragedy reconciles us to its lackJustice does not (in the show) consist of catching dope dealers or solving homicides or thwarting surveillance Larger questions of what might be an equitable and just society Slide47

Simon vs. Williams

Simon calls The Wire a modern tragedy Williams calls it superior serial melodramaTragic heroes rail against injustice but in the end they accept their fateMelodramatic heroes suffer injustice, sometimes they overcome it by brave deeds, sometimes they show their virtue by continuing to sufferSlide48

The Wire

Reveals interconnected truths of many institutional failuresDrug tradeDevaluation of workCynical city governmentFailure of education Media that can’t report the truth on any of this Slide49

The Wire’s Melodrama

Operates at both the personal and institutional level The meshing of the two allows it to picture the political and social totality of what ails contemporary urban AmericaIt “imagines” what justice can be(From Williams text) “No other television series or film “franchise” has accomplished this featSlide50

Real Justice

We are allowed to imagine what would consist of genuine, creative work, democratic governance, education with “soft eyes”The interest of the audience tends to lie with those who suffer the failures of justice (that use of emotions to create interest is a technique of melodrama) Slide51

Character

Digs deep into character without making any characters simply virtuous or evil Slide52

Race

Isn’t simply about racism..and the drug trade Decline of work ClassEducation Media Slide53

“Soft Eyes”

Best police work done not with the hard surveillance, but with “soft eyes” An alternative to prying “hard eyes” Can take in subtle, seemingly peripheral forms of information and creatively process them to successful effect Understanding comes from the perceptive intimate experience of a given situation Slide54

Ethnography

Defined as a method of nuanced qualitative research “in which fine grained daily interactions constitute the life blood of the data produced,” In that sense Simon’s journalism at the Baltimore Sun can be described as ethnographic Slide55

The Corner, 1997

Employs basic methodologies of ethnographylong-term stay in the fieldObservation of social relationsObserver learns rituals and habits of the culture by following selected individuals in their work and daily livesStayed long enough to become “fixtures on the scene”“stand around and watch journalism”Slide56

Ethnography

Is a more systematic extension of stand around and watch journalism Slide57

Ethnographic Imaginary

Limitation of “single-site” according to George MarcusHow do you indicate the existence of the larger system that affects the micro-level of the community studied?Ethnographers of a “single site” have recourse to a larger whole that has not been studied in so deep or systematic a fashionThe whole is more assumed than observed Marcus calls this recourse “the fiction of the whole”Slide58

This usually amounts to some abstraction like:

“the state”“the economy”“capitalism”Slide59

The “fiction of the whole” controls the narrative in which an

ethnographer frames a local worldSolution: undertake a “multisited” ethnography

The problem: no single ethnographer has enough knowledge

of enough worlds or enough time to map this constantly

evolving world system

Multisited

ethnography may be an ideal more than a

reality

Imaginary “world

enough

and time

Ethnographer George Marcus holds out hope for an

Ethnographic

ImaginarySlide60

“I am looking for a different, less stereotyped and more significant

place for the reception of ethnographically produced knowledgein a variety of academic and non-academic forms…Tracingand describing the connections and relationships among sitespreviously thought incommensurate is ethnography’s way of making arguments and providing its own contexts of significance”--

George MarcusSlide61

“different, less stereotyped and more

significant place for the reception of ethnographically produced knowledge”Simon’s unique fabrication of ethnographically informed serial television melodrama speaks to this according to WilliamsMakes arguments, sets up contexts that could not be managed in journalism alone Serial television melodrama, according to Williams, makes possible the larger canvas of the ethnographic imaginary Slide62

Combined factual, ethnographically observed, and detailed worlds of cops and corners into one converged fictional world

With the exception of Spike Lee’s 1995 adaption of Richard Price’s novel Clockers there had never been a film that had given equal time to both sides of the law Slide63

Season 1

Breaks crime story conventionsIntroduces a crime A cop who pursues solving the crimeHigher ups who have no interest in solving the crimeDoesn’t stay with the cop, but moves to the complex world of the committer of the crimeHumanizes that character as wellEqually important procedures of cops and dealers are introduced Slide64

Comparison between two microsites

Cops who want to be good and cops who just want to bust headsCompetent drug dealers vs. ones who lack the discipline to avoid capture Slide65

Complexity of the Series’ microsites (plotlines)

PoliticsDifferent police detailsEducationCo-opsWar on drugs and “Hamsterdam”Etc. Slide66

The vivid and interlocking stories from so many concrete ethnographic sites is what fiction affords, what ethnography aspires to, and what newspaper journalism can rarely achieve

Multi-sited ethnographic imaginary that no longer needs to depend on allusions to abstract ideas of “the state,” “the economy”, or “capitalism” as its “fiction of the whole”The many sites reveal a vivid picture of that “whole”Slide67

Simon had to quit the business he loved and turn to television Hasn’t fully embraced the form

Hence the comparison to Greek Tragedy? Slide68

John Carroll and Bill Marimow

From Baltimore Sun (criticized “The Metal Men—1995”Said it was too much like “The Corner” and that it wasn’t hard enough on the thievesSimon believed that newspapers should adopt a wide sociological approach His editors thought he should be more clear and focused on right and wrongSlide69

Rifle-Shot Journalism

One story is small and self-contained and has good guys and bad guys The other is about why we are where we are About who is being left behindHarder to report Carroll and Marimow saw them as performing a public service that can’t reach for the larger ethnographic complexities Slide70

Rifle-Shot vs. Multi-Site

Rifle shot is like a half hour of episodic television whose world is necessarily narrow and whose time is limited to a half hour or hourIn contrast, Simon’s reporting presented an expanded world view Transforms a social “type” to a human being Slide71

White Middle Class Editorializing

In The Corner, his editorializing has an identityIn The Wire he shows instead of telling (Which is more truthful?)Slide72

In place of the five-paragraph rifle-shot story he would eventually create a five- season cumulative serial whose primary outrage-a futile war on drugs-encompasses myriad others

Serial melodrama can show us, in a way sociologists and ethnographers cannot, how much as Detective Lester Freamon puts it, “all the pieces matter.”