Theory and Cultural History of 20th Century Media
ENGL 236 - Winter 2002, William Warner
Mon, 1/7
Introduction: media theory versus the cultural history of media
1) The traits of particular media: what would you say are the essential traits of radio?
1st complication of the question: a medium is constantly changing in its physical form. 2nd complication: in order to ascribe traits we find ourselves thrown into comparisons with other media. This consideration of media history transforms our question. Now we might ask: Do media have essential traits, or can a medium only be understood through a historically informed study of media ecology?
2) Media and the aesthetic: how do we access the aesthetic value of different media? If you choose one over the other, on what basis do you do so? What factors contribute to the creative use of media?
3) The political question about media: The issue to question of media power and media self-determinism in what ways do media determine culture?
In what ways is the media a site of inscription and agency for us, it what ways does it write us into its systems and networks, against our will?
4) Social agency and media: who has the most influence over media, those who produce and disseminate them, or those who use them? How do users makes themselves central to the cultural institutions of media?
5) Media and Digital Cultures: Has the digitizing of media extended the media paradigm, or has it changed the terms for thinking about media in some fundamental way?
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