The reading for this week is “Who Controls Digital Culture? By Mark Poster, he discusses multiple issues of control in our technologically enhanced digital culture. In this reading, Poster addresses controlling information and its hazards, the politics of control, or politics as control, fixed vs. variable cultural objects, copyright law, authors, artists, creators, innovators, peer-to-peer networks, the music industry, and lastly the politics of digital music. Furthermore, in today’s society, many things such as books, movies and music are made accessible online and are accessible for free, through peer-to-peer networks and online programs which allows users to reformat music and videos on YouTube for free. This brings up the main point of the reading, which is, who really controls the digital culture in today’s society.
Poster discusses how everything has become commodified, meaning, that culture is now an industry to sell and promote. In this cultural industry, corporations face issues concerning the control of “production, reproduction and distribution of texts, sounds and images” (1). He also explains that because technology has become quite advanced, how much more advanced can technology become and what affects will they further have on control are questions to be asked. Complex information machines, provides us with the ability to interact online, communicate, search, produce, and to download through the Internet. When Poster uses the Matrix analogy on information machines, he explains that although we have the ability to turn off our machines, many of us don’t because we are so attached to the capabilities these information machines offer us. We may be the ones who control these machines in terms of its usage, but in a w...
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...r-to-peer networks will diminish the amount of music in circulation” (2). However, I don’t believe that this will be the case, like the video show in class on copyright, I don’t think the peer to peer file sharing will cause less music to be made, but it helps to spread music more, which also aids the music industries who use work of art by people they find through peer-to-peer networks, which contradicts their need to control the flow of information in terms of the capitalist view for profit. I also believe that just as many people will continue to buy music as others download from peer-to-peer networks. Furthermore, peer-to-peer networks allows creativity to flourish rather than consumption, and it combines production and consumption, dissolving the line between them. Overall, I liked this reading and I found it very informative and I learned a great deal from it.
The introduction of the printing press changed society permanently. Along with this invention came the emergence of mass production of texts. Suddenly, information could be efficiently replicated, thus facilitating the dissemination process. Widespread alphabetic literacy, as Havelock states, could finally become a reality. Print media, however, are fundamentally restricted by their physical nature. Enter the Internet, arguably modern society’s greatest technological advancement, with its ability to digitally recontextualize the written word. Again, forever changing the nature of communication. This paper will focus on the web’s functional, social, and cultural remediations of print media. It can be argued that the Internet is a modernized version of the printing press. The web created an explosion in production, self-published content, and new forms of machine art. Through contrasting physical and digital print media, it will be shown that the Internet enhances aspects of the printing press in defining itself.
Are technology and the media shedding the very fabric of the existence we have known? As technology and the media spread their influence, the debate over the inherent advantages and disadvantages intensifies. Although opinions vary widely on the subject, two writers offer similar views: Professor Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, in her article “Can You Hear Me Now” and Naomi Rockler-Gladen, who formerly taught media studies at Colorado State University, with her article “Me Against the Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class.” Turkle asserts that technology has changed how people develop and view themselves, while at the same time affecting their concepts of time management and focus (270). Similarly, Rockler-Gladen believes media and its inherent advertising have had a profound effect on the values and thinking of the public (284). I could not agree more with Professor Turkle and Ms. Rockler-Gladen; the effects technology and media have worried and annoyed me for quite so time. The benefits of technology and media are undeniable, but so then are the flaws. People are beginning to shift their focus away from the physical world to the virtual world as they find it easier and more comfortable. The intended purpose of technology and media was to be a tool to improve the quality of life, not shackles to tie people to their devices. I no longer recognize this changed world and long for the simple world of my youth.
...been put on the technological platform itself and the infrastructure of it, and too little on the social and cultural context of the citizens and users. Communtes basically can not be created with technology if the social and cultural networks are not there, and if users do not see the benefit or are not motivated for using the technology” (Bondebjerg 9)
When it comes to the definition of technology in their articles, both Carr and Cascio have similarities and differences. Both authors are debating about the use of technology in today’s society. Both of their articles touch base on the ideals of “what technology is” in their perspectives. Carr believes that technology is making us want the quick path to information or common knowledge and says the Internet is “a machine designed for the efficient and automated collection, transmission, and manipulation of information”. Cascio also believes th...
People all around agree that technology is changing how we think, but is it changing us for the better? Clive Thompson definitely thinks so and this book is his collection of why that is. As an avid fiction reader I wasn’t sure this book would captivate me, but the 352 pages seemingly flew past me. The book is a whirlwind of interesting ideas, captivating people, and fascinating thoughts on how technology is changing how we work and think.
John Horvat II, from “Five Ways Technology Is Taking Over Your Life,” is an illustrator, researcher, international speaker, and a contributor to “The Blaze” website, and also an author of books. The main point from this article is that technology is a bigger problem now, technology is supposed to be a beneficial resource but not to the point that we get handled by it. The author strongest asset is the use of pathos to get to the audience emotions and make them believe that he’s right. The audience of this article are people who use technology in an excessive way, which is majority of the people, so he is basically referring to everyone who have a relationship with technology.
An “analyst” was quoted in the case (in 2002) as saying that “people will pay for music on the Internet, eventually.” This person was skeptical of the willingness of consumers to pay for
In The Matrix, technology dominates society. The push to automate and link the world is a perpetual theme of modern society. As technology rapidly advances, implementation of computer-driven robotic devices and software programming has inundated the world and changed human perspective. There is a cost to pay when redefining the population with AI technology. This cost is identified in Barlett and Byer’s, “Back To The Future: The Humanistic Matrix” “The Matrix metaphorizes our willingness to fantasize that the ‘freedom’ rhetoric of e-capitalism accurately reflects our
Virtual and digital technologies are rampant in American culture and thoroughly utilized in entertainment mediums like television, movies, magazines, and video games. Our capitalist economy creates a fertile environment for these mediums to prosper by feeding off the public's hunger for entertainment. Because these industries are in such high demand and accrue billion dollar revenues, new technologies are often conceived in and funded by these trades: "For, in essence, all socially relevant new image media, from classical antiquity to the revolution of digital images, have advanced to serve the interests of maintaining power and control or maximizing profits" (Grau 339). That being the case, new technologies "hardly ever…advanced solely for artistic purposes" (Grau 339). Because "power" and "profits" are the central means of motivation in our culture; art, in the classical sense, is often an afterthought. In an age where entertainment and art intertwine, however, distinctions between the two based upon their creation are impossible. With advances in technology and, in turn, art, our ideas and traditions of comparison should also develop to justly analyze new media: "Although art history and the history of the media have always stood in an interdependent relationship and art has commented on, taken up, or even promoted each new media development, the view of art history as media history…is still underdeveloped" (Grau 4). In order to embrace virtual art as a valid outlet of artistic expression, its relationship to media and unique position in the history of art must first be acknowledged.
Steve Jones in the article "Music and the Internet" suggests that popular music as well as academic articles relating to popular music were created and distributed by people who didn’t completely understand the idea of the "music industry." He ultimately suggests that today compared to the introduction of popular music, a growing number of consumers are using the Internet to attain music. The internet has drastically changed the distribution systems also creating many ethical problems that weren't found in the music industry before the internet. Because the internet started making a presence in almost every single business, it was almost no question that the internet is bringing about some changes in the music industry; a billion dollar industry. Steve Jones ultimately knew the inversion of the internet would create dominant change in the music industry; one that many popular music artists during the early years didn't think was possible. The article was written in a lot information paragraphs that gave insight to the extreme lack of strong distribution during the early times of popular music compared to modern day. Strong and insightful syntax showed the way many musicians felt that about the way their music was performed and distributed during these times, but had nothing to do about it.
According to John Horvat, an author in The Wall Street Journal, " The proper use of technology is that it should be a means to serve us and make our lives easier. A key requirement is that we should be in control." Although, the problem with today`s society, is that we are not in control. Instead of technology serving us, it is now the other way around. Society has been more dependent on its technology in recent years, than it has ever been in the past. Those who are against the up rise of the technology industries, believe that technology has taken away ...
...uld emphasize the negative aspects of downloading music for free, research shows that the benefits will greatly conquer the drawbacks. By letting people download music for free, the artist will have a better chance to have his music out faster and have his music gain popularity quicker. The local bands can be heard by having free songs. Also, you’ll have your favorite song in the palm of your and. Now it’s up to the record labels and artist to not be greedy and let the music be free.
Production companies took a bold step forward by uploading their content online. People now are not obliged to buy a full album to listen to one song, for a minimal fee you can buy the track you want, the same goes for movies and electronic publications. The downloaded files though will be digitally protected so that only the person who downloads them can use them, and he can’t share them at home or with friends. Even with this step from production companies, a large portion of people who download music still do it for free. Moreover hackers came up with new ways to remove the digital copyrights so the same as before one downloads music and distributes them around.
The music industry started in the mid 18th century with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Through the decades there has been a great increase in this industry; however, the revenues for this industry have declined by half in the last 10 years. This has been caused by music piracy, which “is the copying and distributing of copies of a piece of music for which the composer, recording artist, or copyright-holding record company did not give consent” . After 1980’s, when the Internet was released to public, people started to develop programs and websites in which they could share music, videos, and information with...
Hence, any debate of the future becoming digital must take into consideration the reaction of the media to the technological innovations of the world, from the Personal Computers (PC) to the smallest Smartphone. Although mass media has increased with technological innovations, what driv...