Tony Schwartz reading assignment

Class-

Over the course of the next two weeks, please plan to read the following chapters from "Media: The Second God"

Ch. 1 - The Second God
Ch. 2 - The Post-Literate Society
Ch. 3 - The Age of Reception
Ch. 7 - How Commercials Work

I apologize for any confusion as I did not have my copy of the text on me this evening to confirm in person. I encourage people to continue reading Schwartz if this interests you, particularly if you are interested in pursuing political communication for your final paper. This is on of Schwartz's specialities, and he offers some sound, practical examples in the later chapters. For the sake of class, we will focus on his basic theories in the first 3 chapters, then segue to commercials in chapter 7, which should connect to our discussion of realism vs. propaganda next week.

Please email me if you have questions.

-Alex

Cinema of Attraction response

           The main purpose of this article was to show what's happened in the past 3 decades to film, which also happen a century ago on a micro scale. What I'm speaking of is the decaying of  art in film narratives. Between the 50's to the 70's you have a mass of narratives created with the soul purpose to tell a story. Movies filmed by Hitchcock are prime example, they told a story not through just dialogue but through the world. As time progressed you get less and less of this. Films gradually transition into wowing people instead of making them think. In the article this happen on a more micro level from 1907-1913. Films went from being narrative and non-narrative art to wowing the viewer through imagery not immersion. The question the article stands, is why? Why has film become this, not only quickly but indefinitely. My answer upfront would be progression, we as species progress. It'll always happen.

Cinema of Attractions

Class,

As you are reading Tom Gunning's articles on "cinema of attractions" for next week, I highly recommend searching for the film titles on YouTube as you go through the reading. They are all short, and most of them are available on YouTube (you may want to try the Library of Congress website as well). We won't have a chance to look at them all, so this may be helpful.

-Alex

Plato: The power of Language

Last class we had read a paper on Plato's description of an ideal society and compared the the society he lived in now, which opened the eyes of the listener and made him and pushed him far out of his comfort zone and made him think. This is a scenario that has echoed throughout history, literature and cinematography (and a few video games too.) The idea that finding out the world you live in is much more larger than you have thought and more possibilities that leave you daring to find out. But once you discover them it can possibly change how you view everything.

Examples in literature are in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings, with characters Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins. Both characters were average hobbits whose lives changed by one simple invitation, left their home The Shire, and by the time they returned they were not the same. Some critics say they were left in a state of trauma.

Their movie adoptions portray this just the same, however the movie trilogy of Lord of The Rings made a better illustration of the theme than its more recent prequel trilogy.

The Digital Age vs Orality

In class we talked about the differences between Orality, Literacy and digital. In 2015, we focus on visual presentation of media. Not only 20 years ago, we had no internet, cell phones, or anything that kept us connected any day at anytime. We have a great advantage to what we have in our lives. We have the power of the world at the tips of of fingers. We can't abuse that and can't be taking it for granted.

Even know it's important, the digital age has crippled some other factors of humans. Younger generations are not learning at early stages how important one on one conversation is. The older people get the more they have to learn how to deal with people. College students can't find jobs because they don't know the first hand experience of how to deal with people. It takes people longer to learn these skills and to adapt to the people around them. Generations from one to the next are so different and all people are forced to adapt to the situations around them.

Film Screening #1

    Recently in media and society class we screened a film called Cave of Forgotten Dreams by the one and only Werner Herzog. This memorable film documented a team of scientists who traveled into a cave to research the oldest known man-made engravings. The cave perfectly preserved these figures over 30,000 years. Just the thought of witnessing something so historical and so significant to human beings is enough to give one the chills of amazement, but to visually see the paintings and people experiencing them first hand was even more astonishing.

    In relation to media and society, these wall engravings symbolize the first possible example of media. Media is defined as a means by which something is communicated or expressed. These paintings were exactly that. An ancient human being thought of an idea, went into the cave, and expressed his idea through a tool onto the wall. Due to the perfect preservation, us human beings can still visually interpret the same meanings as the people did 30,000 years ago. Due to the ability to interpret, we know the paintings show animals of the time, and one portrait of a woman. If you think about it, that is beyond amazing.

    The film was not only amusing mostly due to Werner Herzog's style and entertaining voice overs, the content was literally incomparable because there are no older cave portraits. Great film, and even better content.

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

Can media exist if there is no one around to hear it? Can painting on a wall deep within a cave-even if it is somewhere that may only have been seen by a few handfuls of people over the past 32,000 years- be considered media if it is not public?

At its core, media is the exercise of storytelling. Whether that story is told in 3D on a screen at your local multiplex with a $200 dollar budget, or done with a stick on an empty rock wall the goal is the same- to share your life experience with others. To entertain and inform people going through the same human emotions that we all share and evoke them in a way that we hope will stand the test of time should be the goal of any great storyteller.

On a fundamental level, the Chauvet cave paintings may be the purest form of storytelling that we humans will ever achieve. The stories told in depictions of horses, rhinos and mammoths were of sheer survival. Done by a group of people trying to survive in an environment harsher than any  that a Hollywood screenwriter could ever fathom, these stories told the most simple and basic of human truths- how they found and killed food to survive, how they sometimes lost the battle with wild beasts and how they tried to pass the knowledge of both on to those coming after them is storytelling at its simplest roots. No Hollywood blockbuster or best-selling novel created in the 21st century will ever give you the knowledge so fundamentally necessary to live that was expressed in these paintings.

Have they stood the test of time? 32,000 years later they are still fascinating humans, so that is obviously a resounding yes. If the Chauvet cave paintings are not media, than the human race has no hope of ever truly creating anything worthy of the name. 

Orality vs. Literacy vs. "Digitality"

In class, we examined the contrasting aspects of societies based upon primary orality and those based upon literacy. In terms of communication, prior to the construct of written language, primary orality implies that all information (social, cultural, scientific or otherwise) is passed through the spoken word. The beginnings of literacy, the written word, it's passing of information and means of communication began in the Western world with the Greek Alphabet. The transition allowed for the transfer of valuable information across greater time and space as well as allowing for the spread of ideas and innovation.It also is a more isolating means of communication, literate peoples and cultures receive information through text which reads indie their own heads. It is however more sophisticated than primary orality because more information and knowledge can be written and distributed than could have ever been only spoken through memory. Both are means of communication are associated with sound whether it is spoken out loud or sound connects to meaning while reading in your head. This is what makes both orality and literacy so vastly different from "digitality" which
seems to have taken over western culture within the last several years. With the vast and normalized use of computers, smart phones, and tablets, we have access to unfathomable quantities of information, but much of the "reading" that goes on here is purely visual... and instantaneous. This brings up the question; Are we more sophisticated in our "digitality" than those in our past who's communication relied on literacy? In terms of technology, there is no question. We can access and process more information as well as distribute it on an unprecedented scale. But in terms of what we can do as individuals with our minds, we have fallen far behind our predecessors. Take for example, the McGuffey Reader books, which were used to teach children how to read and write originally published in the 1830s. These books were some of the most widely used teaching materials in America for decades for grades 1-6. If we take a look at eh complex and involved teaching plans and passages in these books, we might see our present day children falling far behind the grade level set in the books. I believe this is partially to do with the instant accession of information in picture or visual form available to today's children. If they want to know something, they can just do a quick google search on the topic and can almost always find exactly what they need to know in a condensed form often with visual aid. This discourages in-depth reading and information seeking about a topic in my opinion and gives less incentive for students and young people to rely on their own resourcefulness for knowledge about a topic.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

In class last week we watched the movie "Cave of Forgotten Dreams". This film documented ancient cave paintings found in a cave in Europe. The significance of these paintings is that they're some of the oldest most preserved paintings found so far in history. It creates a strange sensation for the people who witness these paintings first hand, and even for the people watching the film. These cave paintings are something that could be considered some of the oldest media known to man. I would agree with such a statement because these paintings told stories. Within each image a tale of what the world must have looked like is told. The movement of the animals portrays what humans would have seen as they went about surviving. The reason that someone wouldn’t consider it just art is because you would imagine as they painted these they were telling stories along with the images. In a way it could be considered a film in the fact that with visuals and audio they are story telling. Although that is surly a bold statement. To be human is to create your story. Every life is their own individual story intertwining with one another’s. Every relationship is to experience another person’s story and thoughts. To learn from them. On an individual level you’re learning, remembering, and creating your story. Every experience is a new paragraph in your story of life. Some stories are short and insignificant, while others can take up whole chapters of your lives. That’s why media is so important in society. Expressing stories and ideas to others in the most important part of life. Stories to help you shape your life, or one’s that can relate to past events of your lives. People love movies that tell a story they can laugh, cry, be angry, feel excited about because they can relate. Each story has a lesson to teach. Since the beginning of time and till the end of time stories play an important role in life. One should never forget to share their story, or keep it documented. 

Oral Culture: Additive Style and its subtle Symbolism

I have always noticed before I took this class there was always a certain something I would call a 'Theme' which seems to have some connection to the nation/country/continent it originated from but I never thought there was an actually name to call it. As I read through this chapter I realized Oral Culture, I found components that make me think about the we speak to one another, what they represent, and how we are able to understand. For example, how an Oral Culture has different styles. Additive uses the 'and' in a introductary to give great imagery as in the Book of Genesis 1:1-5 in the additive Hebrew Original

"And God said: Be light made. And Light was Made. And God saw the light that it was Good"

I have recently have got myself into Warhammer Fantasy and the origin story of Sigmar Heldenhammer, The God-Emperor of The Empire, is riddled with additive style and even in biblical style from Sigmar's birth after a battle, childhood, adulthood, rise to power, and mysterious disappearance to the east of the Mountains. For example is regard to Sigmar's birth

"The Babe Sigmar's head was wet with the blood of many Orcs, and a twin-tailed comet was seen in the skies"

The comet was an introduction of the symbols of the Empire, and following befriending the Dwarf race in his teens, an additive style was given to what would be his known weapon

"Mighty is Sigmar, who saves a Dwarf king from dishonour. How can I reward him? A hammer of war, a hammer of Iron, which fell from the sky with two tongues of fire. From the Forge of the Gods. Worked by Runesmiths, Ghal Maraz its name, the Splitter of Skulls."

The additive narrations uses 'a', 'is', 'who', 'and', in a simplistic but rich description as it was in Genesis, so it was in the tale of Sigmar The God King. 

Also to note this also has been done in many fantasy franchises, Lord Of The Rings, Conan The Barbarian, Willow, and a few others.

When I just reached additive I already seem to have swigged a rich amount of knowledge in regards to language, and I look forward to learning more

Spoken Languages

While reading Orality & Literacy I found it interesting that Ong stated that there were around 3000 different languages spoken around the world.  I didn’t realize that there were that many languages spoken around the world, I would have guessed a number in the hundreds. Since this book is an older book I decided to look it up and see if that number is still accurate.  I found out as of  2007 there were 6909 different languages spoken according to the Linguistic Society of America. They also said “Out of Ethnologue’s 6,909, for instance, only 230 are spoken in Europe, while 2,197 are spoken in Asia. One area of particularly high linguistic diversity is Papua-New Guinea, where there are an estimated 832 languages spoken by a population of around 3.9 million. That makes the average number of speakers around 4,500, possibly the lowest of any area of the world.” I just found these facts extremely interesting.  Their website http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/how-many-languages-are-there-world goes on to break down the different areas, discussing more than the major languages and the possible disappearance of some of these languages.  As the non-major languages are not taught to the young children they end up dying out and these languages will then be lost and forgotten.

Mass Media

Mass Media communicates a message through writing, broadcasting etc... that reaches a large audience. This includes television, radio, advertising, Internet, newspapers and so on. Mass Media  has a significant role in modern culture, especially in the United States. I will use the example in Late January when CNN and Mayor de Blasio overreacted to the so called "blizzard". Just recently I have become more interested in following the news and I try to watch every night. Some stations I watch are Fox News and CNN. I remember watching CNN when we were supposed to get dumped with a lot of snow in late January and the Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio kept saying this snowstorm could be the worst ever. As we would soon realize it was a bust. The city was essentially shut down completely (mass transit was shut down after 11PM). That night I was flipping through between CNN and Fox News. Fox News was not even covering the snow storm and when they were it was only for a brief period of time. However CNN was only talking about the snow storm and did so for two days. CNN's message was basically stay in doors and don't go out. However I found something very funny while I was watching Don Lemon (an anchor on CNN Tonight) he kept saying stay off the roads, but meanwhile he was driving through New York City broadcasting the storm from his 'blizzard mobile'. CNN which is a worldwide network shown throughout the world covered the storm for days, while other top stories around the world were not covered. Two days after the storm CNN was the only network still covering the storm while beheading in Syria and other top stories were not even discussed. I realize Fox and CNN have different target audiences but CNN's coverage was a bit over the top and ridiculous. As I continue to watch CNN they always find a way to dramatize a story, cough cough Brian Williams.

Revised Course Schedule

Hi all,

Below you will find an updated course/blog schedule through mid-March. I will have hard copies to handout and go over on Tuesday. Please note that we will not be covering the Roland Barthes selection. If you are interested in photography I highly recommend reading this piece anyway. You may find inspiration for your final research paper. Also note that we will be covering the Plato handout this coming week (not next). I will have handouts in class so need to read this beforehand. Please email me if you have questions.

Blog 1 due 2/10

Blog 2 due 3/3

Blog 3 due 3/17*

Blog 4 due 3/31

Blog 5 due 4/14

Blog 6 due 4/28

Blog 7 due 5/12

*Blog 3 will be due during our break to make up for the lost day

WEEK 4 – 2/10

Orality and Literacy (cont.)

Discuss Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Plato Republic (handout)

Required Reading: Ong – Chapter 3

NO CLASS 2/17 – PRESIDENT’S DAY (college open)

WEEK 5 – 2/24

Motion Pictures – Cinema of Attractions

Kino-Eye

Screenings:      The Kiss (Edison/Heise, 1896)

Black Diamond Express (Edison/White, 1896)

                        Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (Porter, 1902)

                        A Corner in Wheat (Griffith, 1909)

Man With a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)

Required Reading: Gunning (PDF)

          Vertov (PDF)

WEEK 6 – 3/3

Screenings:      Complete Man With a Movie Camera

Triumph of the Will (Riefenstahl, 1935)

Required Reading: Media: The Second God (Schwartz)

NOTE: We will return to our original schedule starting Week 7

Cave Drawings

In the video we watched in class, the ancient cave drawings was something that was asked if these drawings were media. After watching the film and evaluating it, these drawings did relate to the ancient society in 300 BC. I don't think these are forms of media. Media is a broad term but in my eyes, media is something that is active and moving. Drawings of any type are not media. These drawings did reflect a lot of who these people were like and what they did in their free time. I don't think characterizing them as media would be fair. In the early 20th century, early film producers had to work to put together a story that flowed and that was coherent and believable. Radio producers had the challenge of trying to get everything to sync up to avoid dead air. Drawings on the wall in any decade, century, or millennium will never be considered media. However they will always reflect society. How these people drew pictures on cave walls shows a lot about them. It shows that these people were very intelligent regardless of the fact of advanced technology like we see now in the 21st century. These people were artistic, creative, and had visions of their own. This is one of the first societies that shows us what they did on a day to day life. Egyptians left their pyramids behind, these people left cave drawings in places that may not be stable anymore due to natural earth deterioration. Cave drawings will always be remembered and cherished by people across the world and for generations to come.  

During our first class, we were asked if media affects the way we think? The answer is yes. It affects us all as individuals the minute we wake up and go about our day to day lives. This is a very interesting class that has opened my mind about the word media and what it truly is. Before taking this class, to me the word media meant, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the evening news. I have learned that it is anything that a human can externally use. That is very deep. I am a music producer, I enjoy taking photos, and making music videos. If I was told in the past that my music is a media, I feel I would have achieved a lot more goals that I set for myself. I would have focused more on the benefits of music and how my producing will affects people. By focusing more on the benefits, I feel it would that have put me more in a creative space maybe, maybe not. Here are a few benefits of music, therapy for pain, it reduces blood pressure, boosts immunity, music enhances intelligence, improves memory performance (I am not too sure about that one, because I play a lot of music and I will find it hard to retain things LOL) music improve body movement and coordination. So has we can see media also affects the way we feel. I feel in some situation people use media incorrectly which causes a negative effect. All the hype about a major blizzard was negative media that affect me emotionally and financially lol. My wife drove me crazy for a day looking for a snow blower, we went from store to store and then spending $750 dollars from our savings. The media had a huge influence on her and it cost us close to $900 on supplies and preparation.

Media? Society?

I was very confused of what we had to talk about in this blog because of the snow storm we've recently had. Then I read over the syllabus to see what else to talk about;however, I'll just talk about what is society and what is media. Without society, there's no media, without media there is no society. Without one of them is like a teenager without a phone, it won't function. Media is an important part of society because with media, we can post on sites like Facebook, Myspace, Instagram, Twitter, and more. By millions and even billions of people posting on those sites, we know whats going on around the world and what we should be aware of. Without media, I wouldn't have known that Osama Bin Laden was caught, I would not know when school is cancelled, I wouldn't have had as many friends as I have today without media. Media has also destroyed us in one way, and that way is because most people are afraid to go up to one another and speak and introduce themselves and make friends because we are so used to talking over the web and making friends that way. We have a big barrier that way because I can say a lot of mean stuff to hurt someones feelings that I don't know and they can't do anything about it. Also, people can compliment thousands of girls and boys on Instagram and when they see that person, they won't say a word at all. Media has blocked us from communicating in person and I am a victim of it. Without society, there is no media because why use media when you won't be communicating with other people. Basically you'll be talking to yourself looking like a fool.