Good discussion today in both classes! We're off to a great start. We'll try to finish up Saunders's "The Braindead Megaphone" on Fri as well as some other stuff (see below).
The TBA essays we'll read in Signs: I hope to have a complete list for unit 1 up over the weekend.
The following appears on uLearn, too:
Read Signs of Life pgs. 1-21
Some reading questions/writing prompts to jot down in your journal for Fri discussion:
Among the annotations (notes) you make in and around the text, underline a few lines that seem really important or eye-opening to you. Note, too, where you were confused.
The "You Decade": good or bad? Obviously, good or bad doesn't say much, but what is your gut reaction to the authors' claim that the traditional top-down nature of media/entertainment has been turned around by our ability, via high-technology, to contribute to the media/entertainment enterprise? Think of places where you can contribute--for instance, online commenting on articles or videos. Or citizen (participatory, or street) journalism. Or voting on American Idol. Do these benefit our national conversations, or are the floodgates open too wide, allowing too many idiots and "braindead megaphones" into the chat rooms?
Think about our culture, according to the authors: "Corporate rather than communal, it is creative rather than conservative, but its creativity is tied to commodification, turning entertainment into a commodity to be sold alongside all the other products in a consumer society (4)." Have you ever thought of your entertainment like this?
"(I)n the kind of mass consumer society in which we live, we are, in effect, constantly being trained to be the sort of passive consumers that keep the whole consumer-capitalist system going" (6). Agree or disagree? How are we being trained? Does this ring any bells with "The Braindead Megaphone"?
Concerning the example on 12 about popular shows in the 1950s, can you think of any shows nowadays that claim to, but actually do not, reflect reality--or that offer a distorted view of reality? In the 1950s shows, a patriarchal system was being served. Whose interests are being served by your example? What kind of signs or systems are being enforced?
Some reading questions/writing prompts to jot down in your journal for Fri discussion:
Among the annotations (notes) you make in and around the text, underline a few lines that seem really important or eye-opening to you. Note, too, where you were confused.
The "You Decade": good or bad? Obviously, good or bad doesn't say much, but what is your gut reaction to the authors' claim that the traditional top-down nature of media/entertainment has been turned around by our ability, via high-technology, to contribute to the media/entertainment enterprise? Think of places where you can contribute--for instance, online commenting on articles or videos. Or citizen (participatory, or street) journalism. Or voting on American Idol. Do these benefit our national conversations, or are the floodgates open too wide, allowing too many idiots and "braindead megaphones" into the chat rooms?
Think about our culture, according to the authors: "Corporate rather than communal, it is creative rather than conservative, but its creativity is tied to commodification, turning entertainment into a commodity to be sold alongside all the other products in a consumer society (4)." Have you ever thought of your entertainment like this?
"(I)n the kind of mass consumer society in which we live, we are, in effect, constantly being trained to be the sort of passive consumers that keep the whole consumer-capitalist system going" (6). Agree or disagree? How are we being trained? Does this ring any bells with "The Braindead Megaphone"?
Concerning the example on 12 about popular shows in the 1950s, can you think of any shows nowadays that claim to, but actually do not, reflect reality--or that offer a distorted view of reality? In the 1950s shows, a patriarchal system was being served. Whose interests are being served by your example? What kind of signs or systems are being enforced?
Can you think of any "cultural myths" as explained on 18?
No comments:
Post a Comment