McLuhan: “Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools and yesterday’s concepts.”

Discuss.

I. INTRODUCTION

A. THE GAME’S THE SAME BUT IT’S A LOT BIGGER AND FASTER

B. WITH ONE MAJOR (AND RECENT) DIFFERENCE: INTERACTION

II. BACKGROUND: STORIES AND NARRATIVES

ALWAYS PROJECTING AND REINFORCING AUTHORITY?

III. THE EXPANSION OF THE “COMMUNAL”

A. THE NEWSPAPER (17TH CENTURY-NOW)

B. THE CONTESTED PUBLIC SPACE?

1. REGULATION
2. PROJECTION
3. MOBILIZATION

C. THE “ILLUSTRATED” PUBLIC SPACE

http://www.homeofheroes.com/wallofhonor/spanish_am/images/02_journal.jpg
http://www.iln.org.uk/iln_years/year/images/1914/1914%20cover%20of%20sept%205th.JPG

IV. THE BIRTH OF THE “MASS”: FILM AND RADIO

A. FILM AND NEWSREEL FROM 1890s: THE SIGNS OF THE POLITICAL

B. RADIO FROM 1920s: THE POWER OF THE IMMEDIATE

V. EXPANDING THE “MASS”: TELEVISION (FROM 1940s)

A. FROM “ENTERTAINMENT” TO INFORMATION

B. THE ENTRY OF THE “DOCUMENTARY”

C. A “GLOBAL VILLAGE” IN THE 1960s?

McLuhan: “The new electronic independence re-creates the world in the image of a global village.”

VI. GOING GLOBAL, GOING 24/7 (FROM 1980s) —
EMPOWERMENT OR EXPANDED CONTAINMENT?

A. THE DOMINANCE OF THE “NATIONAL”

B. THE EXPANSION OF “TALK TELEVISION”

VII. AN INTERNATIONAL, INTERACTIVE MEDIA (2000s)

A. BEYOND THE NATIONAL FRAMEWORK

B. THE “WEB” OF THE INTERNET

C. SOCIAL, IMMEDIATE MEDIA

D. INTERACTION V. MANIPULATION AND CONTROL

E. FRAGMENTATION OR EMPOWERMENT?

F. “REAL” v. “FAKE”

VIII. THE EVER-EXPANDING WEB

A. DECENTRALIZATION V. ORGANIZATION

B. INFORMATION V. MANIPULATION

C. “HYPER-REALITY”, “HYPER-SPEED”

IX. POLITICS

A. POLITICIANS SPEAKING THROUGH MEDIA

B. MEDIA SPEAKING BACK TO POLITICIANS?

C. “GATEKEEPING” AND THE ELITE

D. GROUND UP OR TOP DOWN?

E. THE KEY: “OPENING THE GATES”

1. WITHIN COMMUNITIES

2. BEYOND COMMUNITIES — THE INTERNATIONAL/TRANS-NATIONAL/GLOBAL

F. RESOLUTION? (NO. THIS IS AN ONGOING PROCESS.)

X. EMPOWERMENT — A LEVEL FIELD?

A. NO. THERE ARE INSTITUTIONAL FIRST AMONG EQUALS

B. BUT, REMEMBER, THIS IS A “WEB” NOT A SEE-SAW

1. CHOICES OF CONTENT
2. CHOICES OF NETWORKS
3. CHOICES OF “SPACES”

XI. CONCLUSION: POWER IS “RECOGNITION”

RECOGNIZING AND BEING RECOGNIZED