DMA 215 - Unit One: Technology, Media & The Web

Question 1

When did McLuhan do most of his writing?

Answer 1

1968

Question 2

From which college were the students from in digital nation?

Answer 2

MIT - Mass. Institution of Technology

Question 3

What is the difference between a delivery technology and a medium?

Answer 3

A delivery technology is a tool used to access media content. They become obsolete and replaced by something new. Ex: DVDs, CDs, 8 Track Cassettes

A medium is a technology that enables communication; it’s content may shift, but will still persist as a layer within an even more complex layer. Ex. Printed words did not kill spoken words, Cinema did not kill theater, tv did not kill the radio - each old medium was forced to coexist with the emerging media

Question 4

What is the black box fallacy?

Answer 4

All media content is going to flow through a single black box; in actuality there are many black boxes - VCRs, DVD players, Cable boxes, sound system, game system…

Question 5

What is media convergence?

Answer 5

It alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets and audiences. Convergence is a process, not an endpoint. It changes the way media is consumed and produced.

Cell phones are no longer communication devices, the also have games, internet, cameras, music, books….

Warner Brothers produce films, television, popular music, computer games, web sites, toys, books, newspapers….

Question 6

Name five things that constitute a culture

Answer 6

1. Launguage
2. Food
3. Religion
4. Clothing
5. Location
6. Architecture

Question 7

Neil Postman

Answer 7

Was an Antagonist

He examined technology critically but was a supporter of it.

Question 8

Henry Jenkins

Answer 8

Was a Protagonist

Said “we’re better off as a society to look at technology with an open mind and a sense of exploration”

Question 9

Postman’s First Idea

Answer 9

Technology giveth and taketh away - all technological change is a trade-off

Question 10

Example of Postman’s First Idea

Answer 10

Car -
Advantages: convenience, efficiency, transportation
Disadvantages: poisons the air, degrades the beauty of nature

Printing Press -
Advantage: Inductive science
Disadvantage: Reduced religious sensibility to superstition

Question 11

Postman’s Second Idea

Answer 11

New technology benefits some and hurts others

Question 12

Example of Postman’s Second Idea

Answer 12

Computer -
Benefits: Computer companies, multi-national corporations, nation state
Harms: everyone else; their private matters are more accessible to powerful institutions; more easily tracked and controlled; easy targets for ads and junk mail

Printing Press -
Harms: Catholics; placing the word of God on every Christian’s table undermined the authority of the church and hastened the breakup of the Holy Roman See
Benefits: Protestants

Uber

Question 13

Postman’s Third Idea

Answer 13

“The medium is the message” - McLuhan; Embedded in every technology is a powerful idea but is hidden from view because it is abstract in nature

Question 14

Example of Postman’s Third Idea

Answer 14

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

To a person with a pencil, everything looks like a sentence.

To a person with a camera, everything looks like an image.

To a person with a computer, everything looks like data.

Question 15

Postman’s Fourth Idea

Answer 15

Media Ecology; Technological change is not additive, it is ecological.

Question 16

Example of Postman’s Fourth Idea

Answer 16

Placing a drop of red dye into a cup of water will change the coloration of every molecule of water; it would not just be a cup of water with a drop of red dye in it.

Printing press - was not Europe and a printing press; it was a different Europe

Question 17

Postman’s Fifth Idea

Answer 17

Technology is a social myth; it becomes “what goes without saying”.

When technology becomes mythic, it is not easily susceptible to change or control.

Question 18

Example of Postman’s Fifth Idea

Answer 18

Do you know when the alphabet was invented? The question astonishes kids because they believe it was not something that was invented, it just exists

Cars, planes, TVs - achieved mythic status because they are perceived as gifts of nature