Blog from Class Discussion on Digital Democracy

Summary of early points in Chapter 6, Digital Democracy. Shelley & Class Comments. See also Shelley's blog and many interesting links.

Question—Can popular culture motivate people to vote? Class responses: Most people get information on-line. Average person—Hillary on the economy? Buzzwords. Soundbites interacting with rhetoric. P-Diddy will never vote again because his vote did not count. Responsible position? A lot of “us” were 18, now 21. They are going to have to follow us. Demographically, you have an income to make a difference. Power. What are you going to do with it? As we are graduating, reflecting on values: family, economics, “our own perception.” Blogs are important in finding one’s own position. Lots of different opinions in one place. Presidential candidates (Edwards) used Myspace and YouTube—more than one opinion. More personal. Example of a Facebook debate. No dodging of the questions—"you didn’t answer the question." (Annoying in other debate formats). Newspapers not addressing “our views.” People simply not using other sources, so using multiple modes is effective.
Are political blogs useful if they only attract participants with one point of view. Useful IF you understand the bias of a particular blog or news source. Newspapers—too much stuff, material, paper!Read all sides—“ignorant” if you don’t know more than one side.

Last section of Chapter 6: Ashley & Class Discussion
Alphaville and Voting Naked.
P. 28. “Here again, popular culture may be preparing the way for a more meaningful public culture; in this case, the most compelling example comes from the world of video games.” (Alphaville) People who don’t participate in the pop cultures that Jenkins is writing about are alienated. What happens when the ways into political life via pop culture are not appealing? Is there anything like McLuhan’s Global Village today? Walter Cronkite in the olden days?
What are the responsibilities of citizenship? How can you be fully informed in this culture? Achievable utopia. Politics like football season on TV or Valentine’s Day. About consumption, consumption. Microwave society.
Voting naked. Vulnerable, exposed. How could we get over this? If educated, confident.

Sean on Fish:
See Sean’s blog entries.
LBB: Good summary of issues in the history of rhetoric.
Belial (fallen angel in Milton’s Paradise Lost)
Plato’s attack on rhetoric
P. 124, 3 oppositions, 2 kinds of language
Chomsky, Habermas
Aristotle's defense, rhetoric’s ethics depend on moral purpose of the rhetor
Cicero’s defense of humanism
Homo seriosus (serious man); homorhetoricus (rhetorical man)
Upswing of rhetorical man (Examples 128-134. Postructuralism.
Roland Barthes: “jouissance"--importance of play, especially in the light of "convergence culture."
Rorty—ending important.

Comment here of Fish's "Rhetoric"

Sean will lead the discussion on this essay.

Chapter 6 on Photoshop etc.

Comment here on Chapter 6 in Jenkins (discussion to be led by Shelley, Monica, and Ashley).

Marshall McLuhan after 41 Years

This is the famous image of Marshall McLuhan that appeared on the cover of The Medium if the Massage, 1967. It's on top of Understanding Media and War and Peace in the Global Village. All are relevant to this course and to an article I'm writing with Karen Powell and Tiffany Walter, which we'll submit to an on-line journal so that we can use hyperlinks, pictures, and video. I'll share a version when it's ready.
In the meantime, here's vintage McLuhan in TheMistheM:
First he quotes A. N. Whitehead: "The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur."
The MM speaks: "The medium, or process, of our time--electric technology--is reshaping and restructuring patters of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life....Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men [sic] communicate than by the content of the communication. The alphabet, for instance, is a technology that is absorbed by the very young child in a completely unconscious manner, by osmosis so to speak. [MM was known for outrageous hyperbole...read on. LBB] Words and and the meaning of words predispose the child to think and act automatically in certain ways. The alphabet and print technology fostered and encouraged a fragmenting process, a process of specialism and detachment. Electric technology fosters and encourages unification and involvement. It is impossible to understand social and cultural changes without a knowledge of the workings of media." (p. 8) Now meditate on the idea that the first desktop computers came along in significant numbers around 1982. More to come.

Mandy

P. 170. Media literacy--not just enough to consume, we must express. Hugely important. Read Mandy's blog to see her comments on this. Parental skill? Will there be a gap when people in the class are of the age to participate in whatever cultures digital media will make possible then? Will we become our parents in terms of obsolescence? (LBB answers, "yes, but"; see my comment on Mandy's blog). Davidson: US one of the only places she's visited that charge for Internet access. China (sometimes censored), Africa, Latin America, Japan--free. What does our culture say about itself by preserving stratification? Capitalist model of consumption. Mandy will blog more on convergence culture, a la Davidson talk. Lexi will comment on Wissoker's talk on the book.

Catherine's Contribution

Great links on Catherine's website. Lists of top ten challenged reading lists. Interesting to compare different groups of readers' perspectives. Homosexuality, masturbation, gender roles, cross-cultural adoption, challenges to authority. Interesting lists of "offenses." Rowling is #4 on ALA list. Critical thinking skills. How can you use them if they are censored. Range of perspectives among Christian websites observed. Emphasis on the struggle mentioned on 194. 195. Fear about evil, fear about internet (on the part of Christian extremists, parents). Discernment seemed like a good response to Amanda. Christian traditions reflected in HP books; might be useful to strengthen one's beliefs. Sentence that bridges 194-195. Hyperbolic, but provocative. Last question: is portrayal of evil a focus because it's antiauthoritarian?

Lexi's Intro of the Literacy Chapter in Jenkins

Lexi (her points and class contributions): Bruno Bettleheim (significance of fantasy; LBB remembers, "We live our lives by narratives." ) Anne Haas Dyson--what fantasies do for kids. How can kids participate in this culture? Question: How many kids have computers in homes? What goes on with these books (p. 176)? 2005: 55%. Lillian H: home-schooled example (Heather Lawver) amazing. James Paul Gee (community spaces)--people learn more from pop culture than from textbooks. Beta reading (feedback)--we should try it. Scaffolding: modeling learning/cognitive processes. Sweeney. Friere: Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Banking model. Bruffee and others picked up on the idea that this is not the only way: social significance. Constructivist theories. Who could not like student-initiated learning? Warner Brothers, man others mentioned in chapter. P. 185--good stuff in school? Kids think they can only do school work with school books. Maybe if they start with Harry, etc., the tools they learn with transfer. Several people spoke on using pop culture for this kind of transfer (SpongeBob). Public schools also have the problems of censorship, etc., in the chapter.