Textbook Ch.4 - Media Practices

Question 1

What are the highlights of this chapter?

Answer 1

• there is no single deep meaning to any text, it all depends on what different people make of it and what they do with it
• Do we find the things on media interesting or is it because we inhabit a world that decides what interesting looks like for us?
• the meaning that media has for each of us depends on the rules that we follow
• while we do not usually think about it, there are rules that govern the way that we act across everyday life that can be identified and rationalized

Question 2

Metaphysics

Answer 2

Refers to the philosophical questions that are beyond observing in our real world.

• For example, things like being, time, and so on

Question 3

Called forth

Answer 3

Refers to the specific aspect of you that is activated when you use media.

• the idea is that we are many things simultaneously, but only certain parts of ourselves are on active duty at any one time

Question 4

Partially implicated self

Answer 4

It suggests that a particular you is forced to snap into action by the media you encounter. It is only a partial self you are expected to activate, and it need not overwhelm your sense of who you are.

Question 5

Propoganda

Answer 5

The use of media to tell people what to do and what to think

Question 6

Position-taking

Answer 6

Being in a field is essentially competitive - you want to occupy a position where you will have status and power.

Question 7

What is does anonymity on the internet reveal?

Answer 7

It reveals what people are really like when the niceties of social convention are removed.

Question 8

Trans people in the Media

Answer 8

• tend to be portrayed as either the villains, or more commonly, the victims
• their experience in media is very different from in real life
• they gave lines of questioning in media that nobody else does

Question 9

Solipsism

Answer 9

The belief that the world exists so you can experience it.

In other words, it says that the self is the only reality, and everything else, including other people and the external world, might be mere products of one’s own mind.

Question 10

Pierre Bourdeau’s Habitus

Answer 10

A set of dispositions, both adaptable and durable, that guide your behaviour in everyday life.

Question 11

What is the main takeaway of this chapter?

Answer 11

The meaning of media in our society is whatever we collectively agree it is.