It was insulting to see the levels this administration has had to go to to reach their unattainable demographic. I am pretty sure there are other ways they could have gone but to go for not only comedy but also insulting and mocking this adminitsration to interest the youth was as condescending as it gets. The worst past was that it was done by Obama himself.
This could be seen as a reflection to how little overall support this president has from young people and how desperate he is to be able to reach them. Someone did mention that if we critic advertisements today as being obscene and insulting then why in the world would our president, one of the most influential and respected people in the world, scoops down to insulting and mocking himself and his administration to reach the youth.
It is expected that as young people we are striving to be better educated and for this reason we attend high school and then move on to college and continue our educations. Having this in mind then don’t try to buy my vote and my interest by treating me like some statistic that proves that humor sells. If we are going to say humor sells then lets just make a man and a women have sex in TV while the logo of healthcare.gov is featured on the corner or make them go for an STD test because after all, sex sells right?
It is understandable that he had to look for new alternatives to advertise but it is not acceptable the way he chose to go about it.
Class Notes
Semester Review for Final
I thought I’d try to compile a few posts as I develop the final this week. Here are my early class lectures, most of which have audio:
Alternative & Activist Media – Introduction, and New Media: A Critical Introduction, Part 1.1-1.2
New Media: A Critical Introduction – Part 1.3-1.6
Alternative & Activist Media – Commons Knowledge
Also of course, read back over the chapters from Alternative & Activist Media on Participatory Journalism and Mediated Mobilization.
As for The Wisdom of Crowds, here are the presentation summaries by chapter (If it’s not linked, the studetn still needs to post the chapter):
Introduction—Waynika Wint
Chapter 1: The Wisdom of Crowds—Alyssa Munro
Chapter 2: The Difference Difference Makes—Marina Adese
Chapter 3: Monkey See, Monkey Do—Tamer Rasamny
Chapter 4: Putting the Pieces Together—Paul Masbad
Chapter 5: Shall We Dance?—Mia Alicata
Chapter 6: Society Does Exist—Francesca Savella
Chapter 7: Traffic—Christina DiGrandi
Chapter 8: Science—Melissa Goncalves
Chapter 9: Committees, Juries, and Teams—Dominic Pitasi
Chapter 10: The Company—Sarah Camarata
Chapter 11: Markets—Cameron Graham
Chapter 12: Democracy—Kyle Evans
Afterword—John Bucci
Modern Surowiecki articles—Sarah Nisbeth
Oh, and I thought I’d include Christna’s interesting post on House and the Wisdom of Crowds as well.
Revised Syllabus
I’ve revised the syllabus to account for the Midterm, which has of course been moved to the week after Spring Break. Also take note of the revised schedule for our reading.
2/20/12 Audio and Notes
| Alternative & Activist Media, Ch7 |
| The internet – from “library” to “festival” – 177-8 |
| Commons Knowledge defined – 178 |
| Social media wedded to information – 178, 180 |
| Open-source collaboration vs centrally located information systems – 181-2 |
| 3 main problems cited with commons knowledge – 182-5 |
| The development of Commons Knowledge – 185-201 |
| The Alexandrian Ideal – 186-190 |
| “Folksonomies” vs taxonomies – 190-197 |
| Distrust of knowledge authorities – 197-201 |
| Wikipedia as an example of commons knowledge – 201-209 |
| How commons knowledge fits in as a genre of alternative media – 209-213 |
| QUESTION – What do you thinkabout “democratization” of knowledge? Does this undermine true knowledge/wisdom? By challenging existing “systems of knowledge,” are we changing the nature of knowledge, and rules of discourse? |
| CASE STUDY – On the Media this week, “The Changing Nature of Knowledge in the Internet Age |
Class Notes and Audio – 2/6/12
SourceURL:file:///Macintosh%20HD/Users/John/Desktop/Class/Teaching/Mville/2012%20Spring%20Schedule.xls
| 75min | New Media: A Critical Introduction, 1.3-1.6 |
| What is “new” in new media? – 44-45 | |
| Revolution vs business as usual – 45-46 | |
| The importance of critical and historical perspective – 46-48, 51-52 | |
| Progressive/teleological historical accounts of new media – 52-55 | |
| The limits of this outlook – 55-58 | |
| Foucault’s genealogical view of the history of media as overlapping spheres – 58-59 | |
| New media and modernism – 60-62 | |
| Nice summary of progressive historical perspectives – 62 | |
| The new media as throwbacks to antiquarian media – 62-65 | |
| New media as solution – 66-77 | |
| The Technological Imaginary – 66-68 | |
| Discursive construction of new media – 68-69 | |
| The Frankfurt School and leftist critique of old media – 74-77 | |
| McLuhan vs. Williams – 77-99 | |
| McLuhan – inductionist, star; Raymond Williams – deductionist, much more accepted | |
| in the media studies establishment – 78-80 | |
| McLuhan’s starry-eyed optimism for visual culture – 80-85 | |
| Williams’ view of media as social shapers – 89 | |
| More on McLuhan, not that important to us – 89-99 |
Monday, 1/30 Class Notes
Again, I apologize for the equipment malfunction on the class audio. Looks like I’ll have to start plugging in my iPod so I don’t have to rely on the battery. But, as promised, in lieu of audio I’m pasting below my lecture notes, with corresponding page numbers.
| 75min | New Media: A Critical Introduction, 1.1-1.2 |
| What are the established media? – 9 | |
| Examples of the shift in media – 9-10 | |
| 3 justifications for the term “New Media” – 10 | |
| Indications of change in both media and culture – 10-11 | |
| Connotations of the “new” – 11 | |
| Alternatives to “New Media” – 11-12 | |
| New as Digital – 12 | |
| Kinds of New Media – 12-13 | |
| Characteristics of New Media – compare these to Lievrouw’s 4 factors that distinguish new media – 13-44 | |
| Digital – 16-21 | |
| Interactive – 21-25 | |
| Hypertextual – 25-30 | |
| Networked – 30-35 | |
| Virtual – 35-37 | |
| Simulated – 43 | |
| Alternative & Activist Media, Ch1 | |
| Empowerment of New Media – 1-2 | |
| Summary of the book’s structure and purpose – 3 | |
| Defining New Media – 6-7 | |
| Distinguishing factors of New Media – 8-15 | |
| Hybrid or recombinant technologies – 8-9 | |
| Networking, even networks of networks – 9-12 | |
| Ubiquity – 12-13 | |
| Interactivity – 13-15 | |
| What makes online media alternative/activist? – 16-19 | |
| What makes media alternative/activist? – 16-17 | |
| What distinguishes alternative/activist new media from a/a “old media”? – 17-18 | |
| Summarized answer to the question – 19 | |
| “Genres” of alternative new media – 19-27 | |
| QUESTION – How do we define genre? | |
| Genre defined – 20-22 | |
| 5 genres of Alternative Media discussed in the book – 22-27 | |
| Culture Jamming – 22-23 | |
| Alternative Computing – 23-25 (We won’t be discussing this) | |
| Participatory Journalism – 25 | |
| Mediated Mobilization – 25-26 | |
| Commons Knowledge – 26 |
Welcome, Spring 2012 Students!
I’ve attached here the syllabus for this semester, as well as a link to Thursday’s reading, Zadie Smith’s “Generation Why?”
See you this week!
Convergence Culture Presentations
Class Audio 4/11 & 4/18
Class Audio 2/21/11
Especially for those who got stuck in the weather…
Convergent Media | Divergent Voices 