DogbertA, 30.05.11, 13:25
Einer der angeblichen für das geistige Klima und das gute Funktionieren der Demokratie hierzulande emiment wichtigen gemeinnützigen Vereine, der Verband Österreichischer Zeitungen (VÖZ), veranstaltet derzeit seine jährliche Vernebelungs-Klausur, über die - auch wie jedes Jahr - die einzige regelmäßige österreichische Medienberichterstattungsbeilage recht und schlecht zu erzählen weiß.
Während der VÖZ auch gerne und immer wieder Publikumsveranstaltungen mit Titeln wie "Digital Media Day" auszurichten weiß und die auch auf seiner Homepage bewirbt, veröffentlicht er im Web zu seinen so genannten Klausuren eher nichts. Egal, dafür gibt es ja den Fidler, die APA und den Etat.
Dieses Jahr hat die VÖZ-Leitung anscheinend Medien- und Digital-Future-Kapazunder von der Klasse eines Herrn Ametsreiter, dem Herrn über die meisten in Österreich herumsausenden Audio- und, wie er hofft, bald auch Video-Bits und von Renate Köcher, der Geschäftsführerin des jedem sich für die "Sonntagsfrage" interessierenden Deutschen sehr gut bekannten Orakels vom Bodensee (IfDA - Gesellschaft zum Studium der öffentlichen Meinung mbH) eingeladen.
Analysen, Forderungen und Prophezeiungen
Auf dieser Veranstaltung wird dann wie narrisch analysiert, projeziert, innoviert und inventiert, gerne und vor allem freihändig und aus der Hüfte.
Hier ein paar Schlüsselerkenntnisse:
- "Vor allem junge Männer mit einfacher Schulbildung verabschieden sich zunehmend vom Lesen."
Die Tageszeitungen müssten Visionen entwickeln, um vor allem junge Leser wieder stärker zu gewinnen.
"Es spricht einiges dafür, dass man mit kostenlosen Angeboten größere Teile der Jugend erreicht. Ich frage mich aber, ob jemand, der eine Zeitung gratis bekommt, später auch bereit ist, für eine Zeitung zu bezahlen."
"Das Fernsehen der Zukunft wird Internet-Fernsehen sein, und die Zukunft des Fernsehens ist non-lineares TV"
Meistbenutzte Medienplattform der Zukunft wird das Handy werden.
Bandbreiten würden weiter steigen und "irre Möglichkeiten" bieten. "In Zukunft wird jedes Auto, jede Kamera, jedes Diktiergerät eine Sim-Karte haben."
"Sie haben keine Chance gegen iTunes. Der nächste Battle-Markt sind Filme."
Angeblich wird ja auch Herr Zeiler den Eigentümern, Verlegern, Herausgebern und Chefredakteuren noch die Großhirnrinde mit Trockeneis massieren dürfen und wird dabei hoffentlich heimischen Medienelite wahrscheinlich beiläufig erklären, wie man endlich mittels billiger Clips, vielfältigem longtail-UCG, echten Internet-Foren und Video-Chats aus der Zukunft so richtig smart die durch die letztjährige - nach 12 Jahren endlich erfolgreiche - Zurückdrängung des "übermächtigen" ORF-Monopolisten die den Privatmedien zustehenden qualitätsfördernden Gelder im Tagebau herausschaufelt.
Wir hier bei tiny begnügen uns damit, ein von unserem Exkanzler einem deutschen Exkanzler geklautes Zitat zu wiederholen: Wenn in unserer Redaktion ein Mitglied eine Vision hat, muss es aber sofort zum Arzt.
Post Scriptum
Wir haben wieder einmal viel zu lange für ein lächerliches Blogpost gebraucht. Zeiler hat natürlich über die Zuschauerbeteiligung nix, jedenfalls nichts Veröffentlichtes, gesagt. Vielmehr hielt er einen - wahrscheinlich so bestellten - Vortrag, wie "öffentlich-rechtliches" didschitäl TV seiner bescheidenen Meinung gehen könnte: Die explosionsartige Verbreitung von Smartphones, Internet-fähiger TV-Geräte und nichtlinearer Fernsehkonsum auf Abruf würden den Markt in den kommenden Jahren revolutionieren. Eingeführte Medienmarken könnten dabei durch ihre Orientierungsfunktion reüssieren, und die Medien müssten weiter an der "Flexibilisierung der Kosten" arbeiten.
Ja, ja, die ungestümen Weltverbesserer, sie sterben einfach nicht aus. Immerhin enthalten Untertitel und Text des Etat-Artikels und wahrscheinlich auch des Vortrags mehrmals den Begriff "Gut" an den Stellen, wo seit Bill Clinton und Tony Blair sonst immer fälschlicherweise "Wert" steht. Dafür gibt es ein dickes Lob von der Redaktion hier.
Kommen Sie morgen wieder, da gibt es eine Analyse der Strategie des ORF.
plink, nix, praise or blame!
StefanL, 12.05.11, 09:18
For the questions and answers of this installment the staff of tinytalk plc. has recruited outside help. You will get to know these helpers over the course of this episode.
We now need to draw your attention to the fact that we can of course not aspire to know or check all of the McLuhanistic bullshit that has been published on the web in both of the common senses of the expression, much less the nonsense that has been applied to paper by means of dust, color, lasers or rotating drums.
1st of all, we need to substantiate a bit more what we said last time a medium was, in our set of environmental conditions, intentions and purposes and blah blah blah, that is. Let us take a quick look at wikipedia:
en:
In communications, media (singular medium) are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data. It is often referred to as synonymous with mass media or news media, but may refer to a single medium used to communicate any data for any purpose.
de:
Zwei Verwendungen des Begriffs sind unterscheidbar:
- Medium als stofflicher Vermittler: Ein Medium ist zunächst ein zwischen individuellen Körpern befindlicher raumerfüllender Stoff mit bestimmten Eigenschaften. Meist ist ein solcher Stoff ein chemischer Stoff. Das Medium eines Schwimmbeckens ist beispielsweise Wasser, jenes einer Sauna Luft oder Dampf. Weil Stoffe Impuls und Energie übertragen, können sie auch Information übermitteln. Die Übertragung von Schall benötigt z. B. einen vermittelnden Stoff wie Luft.
- Medium als Übermittler von Informationen: Ausgehend von der stofflich vermittelten Informationsübertragung ergibt sich eine Verallgemeinerung, bei der die stoffliche Qualität eines Mediums in den Hintergrund tritt. Der Begriff Medium kann auch ein Kommunikationsmittel beliebiger Art zwischen Sender und Empfänger bedeuten. Verwandte Bedeutungen treten in der Philosophie und Soziologie auf. So werden auch Personen, die behaupten, mit geistigen Wesen kommunizieren zu können, als „Medium“ oder „medial“ bezeichnet. Heute werden alle technischen Massenkommunikationsmittel zwischen Menschen allgemein als „Medien“ bezeichnet, etwa der Rundfunk, die Printmedien, das Internet etc.
fr:
Le terme média désigne dans l'acception la plus courante tout moyen de diffusion,
- naturel (comme le langage, l'écriture, l'affiche)
- ou technique (comme la radio, la télévision, le cinéma , Internet)
permettant la transmission d'un message, la communication ou l'échange d'informations.
We could now diagnose how stupid frenchies are (l'écriture = média naturel) but will abstain from following that particular train of thought in favor of getting our idea of media half right. From the above definitions it becomes pretty clear that in our world "media" is used in 2 different ways. Scientifically, for the carrier "materiél" of messages/content/communication/whatever and journalistically, to signify the carriers inclusive the messages and more then all else for such that are meant to be received by many.
So, in English media are
- storage and transmission channels or tools ;
in French they are
- tout moyen de diffusion, naturel ou technique
and in German they are
- ein stofflicher Vermittler oder ein Übermittler von Informationen.
On can easily see that we have a set of clear and concise, internationally agreed definitions of what media are, scientifically.
L'Académie française, conscious of language as ever, informs us that modern usage of the term originated from US English: XX e siècle. Abréviation de l'anglais des États-Unis mass media, de même sens. Tout moyen de communication servant à transmettre et à diffuser des informations, des œuvres. La presse, la radiodiffusion et la télévision sont des médias.
English Wikipedia with reference to Briggs & Burke who in turn refer to the Oxford English dictionary tells us: The phrase "the media" began to be used in the 1920s, but referred to something that had its origins much further in the past.
In C.E. Shannons seminal 1948 paper A Mathematical Theory of Communication medium is a closer (or farther) classification of the middle part in a list of 5 abstracted parts of a communications system:
3. The channel is merely the medium used to transmit the signal from transmitter to receiver. It may be a pair of wires, a coaxial cable, a band of radio frequencies, a beam of light, etc.
Funnily enough, paper, clay and the ether are not in the list of Mr. Shannons examples of media. His essay though starts with a description of its motivation, which is the interest in a general theory of communication intensified by the recent development of various methods of modulation. Modulation in "Shannon" is not a part of the medium. Modulation and hence necessarily demodulation are handled by 2 & 4 of the list, called the transmitter and receiver. #1 by the way is an information source (human maybe) and
#5, the destination, is the person (or thing) for whom the message is intended.
source - transmitter - channel (medium) - receiver - destination
That a technically and mathematically interested person like our Mr. Shannon would abstract in such a way should not surprise, and be it only for the reason that IRL the modulator device is physically easily distinguishable from the medium substance. In our world of proactive agents and passive enduring then we would rather see modulation as a tool of the actor than perceive it as a potential or - once implemented - an attribute of the medium.
Excursion: Modulation in Comtemporary Theology
A certain french theologian, Mr. Pierre Babin, most probably only of interest for the more fanatic McLuhan explorers used the term "modulation" to create an oppositional theological pattern and make a distinction between "modulation" and "alphabet" churches. It is well known that Mr. Babin was influenced by Marshal McLuhans writing, collaborated with him in the 1970ies. The two of them held quotable conversations on church and faith and even produced correspondence. The way Mr. Babin uses the term modulation though, that has never become a very popular term outside music and is neither extremely scientific nor metaphorically convincing. Now that digital discrete encoding permeates vast territories of communication that oppositional usage has become even more obsolete. In our superficial knowledge of Prof. McLuhan's serious writing the term modulation seems to be rather minor importance.
Caveats
Keep in mind though that without modulation media are not that much of a communication, just stones or rags or - worse still- invisible, untouchable, unhearable tasteless and scentless beams. "Media Research" in the sense of what it signifies as a tag here and what it stands for in the non technical faculties would be quite without any point in regard to those wholly unmodulated media.
Keep in mind also that every medium allows for just certain modulations, prefering some over others, or as Prof. Douglas Brent of the University of Calgary's Department of Communication and Culture has formulated in his famed "Brent's Law" on the Effects of Media:
The true power of a new medium lies not in what it makes possible. It lies in what it makes easy.
That last quotation of course was pretty sloppy and double minded. From what we had noted before readers are pushed to think, that we meant to apply the quote to the fact that all “new” media (paper following vellum, "ether" following wire ...) make some modulations easier and others less so. Prof. Brents law of course applies to a medium, one step further in the process, thus medium inclusive the modulation process, in Shannon talk an arrangement or set composed of transmitter, channel and receiver or, as we could also say, modulator, medium and demodulator. And of course that constitutes what “medium” means in the context of the human sciences.
We can stop right here for the time being and still be confident that we have a preliminary productive notion of what media are and a definition of the term that is useful in our actual context:
Modulation - Medium - Demodulation, all condensed into MEDIUM
(inclusive the modulation structure)
This definition is linguistically satisfactory for it is still fits the between the (at least 2) participants of communication.
Be careful though, for modulation includes the process and its end. With print that could encompass the process of writing and/or the string of pictures, symbols and white space, with TV the chain of pixels or sequence of oscillations that have been intertwined into the "material between" by modulation.
plink, nix, praise or blame!
StefanL, 10.05.11, 17:50
In the last 2 weeks we have looked at a 1950ies synaesthetic concept and, using Prof. McLuhan's mindfigure of "hot and cool media" as an example, examined if metaphoric reflection and aphoristic communication still made sense at all in scientific and daily thinking and acting.
To do that has been pretty easy to perform, because we had nothing more to enact than provide and understand some very simple objects and correlations that have already been reflected upon and even been written down. Take some snippets from those tons of written material, connect them loosely and you get a basic positive answer.
Later on we will try to apply the metaphor to new media to see if we can use them with profit. For that process to go half right we have to dig a little more into definitions and update ourselves on the contemporary usage of some terms in our little field of exploration.
First, the most basic question: What is a medium?
In daily usage a medium is regularly conceived as the carrier of bits of information. Hence the conception of paper, clay, stone, electromagnetic wavery and the likes as a medium. Needless to say that this kind of usage is a bit shortsighted or should we say narrowminded or even venture for bandwidth limited.
Our guess would be that a more extended conception of medium that includes modulation will help us on. Carrier and modulation viewed together make for a broader set of features, possibilities or bias tendencies of any one medium. Surely the substantial quality of the carrier has great influence on possible modulations it can be burdened with. But then again, modulation techniques change with time and so carrier will allow or suffer new kinds of modulations. Conceive of a slab of stone that could once be painted with say mineral colors, could then be ciseld by harder stone, then by formed steel and can today be imprinted with the help of devices that emit LASER beams of different wave length and is controlled by a sophisticated array of sand based transistors which in turn and in the end ist controlled by some code that is automatically translated from some gibberish formulated in say Turtle Graphics LOGO. I guess everybody can go for the next steps themselves (layers of possibilities of modulation on electromagnetic wavery through the digital domain).
Nevertheless, please come back tomorrow morning, when some of the questions that medium and modulation pose will be partially answered.
plink, nix, praise or blame!
StefanL, 04.05.11, 16:47
Now after the introductory installment, it is time to get a tad bit more serious and methodical.
Educational Intention
In McLuhan's mind the usage of vague terms terms like "hot & cool" is not arbitrary. He firmly believed that Francis Bacon, Viscount St.Alban's was very right when he wrote the following.
Aphorisms, representing a knowledge broken, do invite men to inquire further; whereas methods, carrying the show of a total, do secure men, as if they were at furthest.
F. Bacon, The Proficience and Advancement of Learning, 1605, Book 2, XI–XX, p. 5, quotation CP-ed from wikiquote, derived from P. Marchand's The Medium and the Messenger, p.65
We could see Marshal McLuhan as a forerunner to postmodernism and its unbelief in scientic completeness and universality. We also tend to share a certain trust in the power of elliptical analytic patterns, though stay sceptical of some of the ensuing results of that further inquiry.
A large corpus of aphoristic "wisdom" literature has furthered question formulation, problem disection and holistic reintegration in our own endeavours of learning. Aphoristic joking is actively encouraged during extended tinytalk plc. analytic sessions.
On the other hand aphoristic thinking, questioning and reintegration has led to much nonsense as best exemplified by analytical talents such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche who get hilarious at best and really painfully embarassing when they start to jump to conclusions with their incomplete and unbalanced sets of perceptions. As did Aristotle, Platon, St.Augustine and Descartes most of the time, to name but a few.
Be all of that as it may, we should keep in mind that these metaphoric terms are meant to provoke more questions and answers and leave the field open instead of tying it down in a precise way. But still, they should "mean" something and have a descriptive and structural use.
Application by McLuhan and our Interpretation
The 2nd chapter of Part I of "Understanding Media - The Extensions of Man, McGraw Hill, NY is entitled "Media Hot and Cold".
First, the concept of "hot" media and its effects are exemplified in a parapgraph about Viennese Waltz.
The first sentence in the next parapgraphs then contrasts media using the 2 terms together. It reads: "There is a basic principle that distinguishes a hot medium like the radio from a cool one like the telephone, or a hot medium like the movie from a cool one like TV", op.cit, p.22, so with
- hot radio - cool telephone
- hot film - cool television
what we have is a quadruple figure (not uncharacteristic for McLuhan) with more than one dual symmetries.
We believe it was Jazz music - already mentioned earlier and in conjecture with waltz - that delivered the template for the pair and also brought about the switch from the "cold" of the chapters title to "cool" the text's "hot and cool media".
We get confirmation of this hypothesis when we read on: The jazz of the period of the hot new media of movie and radio was hot jazz. Yet jazz of itself tends to be a casual dialogue form of dance quite lacking the repetitive and mechanical forms of the waltz. Cool jazz came in quite naturally after the first impact of radio and movie had been absorbed. (p.27)
Do not oversee this: In the days we talk about, despite what trios and quartets and big bands had already achieved in avantgardisation and the concert hall, jazz music then was not the artificial form it is today but still was predominantly popular dance music.
From the above and as an aside we can also conclude that, like Prof. Adorno in America and later in Germany, Prof. McLuhan might not have been that genuinely interested in jazz music other than as a model for watching and deriving structures from dancing movement and hence aligning expressions of souls and bodies into his ongoing reasoning. Sometimes a certain distance might help perspective.
Continueing to use the 10 and 1/2 pages of "Understanding Media"s chapter 2, we run into ever more incomplete definitions, partial abstractions and a mix of examples, some supported by ancient authority and others not.
We are confronted with tribal and feudal hierarchy, speedup, the mechanical, perception of space and time, allusions to Prof. Harold Innis and his "empires", "high definition" and "low definition", expression like "low and high participation" and the pattern of reversal.
In terms of the theme of media hot and cold, backward countries are cool, and we are hot. The "city slicker" ist hot, and the rustic is cool. But in the terms of the reversal of procedures and values in the electric age, the past mechanical time was hot, and we of the TV age are cool.
Now if you really allowed for involvement and participation your attention might be drawn to the idea of simultaneity - used with a different meaning elsewhere - and turn it from its toes to stand on its head.
Chapter 2 is followed up by chapter 3 "Reversal of the overheated medium" which is the first hint that there are cracks and ways out of the cemented square of film, telephone, radio and TVNow maybe we find ourselves able to start to appreciate the vertical nature of hot & cold.
(Un)conscious secondary intentions
The easy question here always is, who was it that the protagonist wants to be attractive for and cannot afford to admit? The more difficult question is mostly, what was it that guided our own picking this or picking that. Biographical or autobiographical knowledge may help this or may not. 1 rule or 2, taken thoroughly seriously go a long way in overcoming the dilemma:
- Never stop asking the next question! (and then, the but)
- Turn everything inside out! (as in you as the outside and the outside as the subject e.g.)
In the end it does not matter a lot who Marshal McLuhan wanted to be popular with. Recognizable yearning for feedback and appreciation can be miserable indeed, but never is anymore for the deceased and departed. Approval from his superego and the procedure of self<-value() is for the living. Whoever likes to use the life of the author as a straight or distortion mirror, be our guests, nevertheless.
A Problem of Application and an Example
Most problems that arise with "aphoristic inquiry hooking" probably stem from uncontrollable changes in paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections (or "metaphoric and metonymic touch and similarity" as the poetry teachers would say or "les voies de déplacement et compactage" as Freudian reconstructivists would say) and arbitrary changes in neighboring signification. These changes can achieve a lot in obscuring just about everything that was meant and felt at compile time. Translation definitely does not help in this respect. Only thorough and prolonged study helps, or a leap of faith, now and then.
If we might look at a radical example: facination with but also many rows on any even half plausible interpretation of the Dao De Ching stems from exactly this elusiveness of moving grammatical patterns and structures based on what we used to call the arbitrariness of the signifier.
Funnily, this most aphoristic of aphoristic world knowledge collections gets no mention in western indoeuropean editions of the wikipedia article on aphorism, of which we checked the English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Latin versions. As regretfully we do not master a single non ie. language, not even hebrew, ancient or modern, we were and are not able to check those, but would consider reference in the chinese and nipponese version probable.)
We have to seriously consider that the forms of touch that these terms - hot, cool, village, global and so on felt differently and were connected differently in the brains of, say, '64, '74, '84, '94, '04 and '14. Provided, we keep this in mind, these terms can still stimulate and encourage further inquiry that may yet produce new insight and provide guidance on our long chosen ways to understanding, bliss and misfortune.
Q&C (Questions and Conclusions)
- Are these actual patterns of desplazamiento y condensación apt for scientific writing or only fit for the construction of delirious drama by the way of Freudian dreamwork?
- Will hot & cold wright more confusion than clarity and good for further inquiry?
- Should we stop using meta terms like them all together?
- Should we switch over to using HD and SD and the vocabulary of the scientifically minded?
- Is jazz music a productive ground for figures of ecological media research?
- Should we stop listening to the teachings of Master Yoda and Manny the Mammoth?
In our experience and hence opinion, of course these terms are still worthy of use and worthy of us. They will confuse little and clarify a lot. And so should we. Stop worrying to much is what we should do.
- We should go on using holistic figures of speech.
- We should continue to read and hear aphoristic stuff.
- We should follow on with deconstructing manifestos and cult texts and speeches but also look at the inner laws of media and their effects.
- We should still try to see the world through many looking glasses, not least through les yeux, les doigts, la bouche, le nez et les oreilles of a made up mammoth or E.T. even.
- Surly we should als use the wonderful echos from the perceptions of Prof. McLuhan.
What all the good stuff in the writings and speeches and interviews of dead gentlemen like Prof. McLuhan should help us with, is, motivate us to develop a scientific, magic and holistic kind of media ecology by all means we can come by. The world needs this as much as it needs food and energy and more than it needs new iPhone software.
plink, nix, praise or blame!
StefanL, 02.05.11, 10:27
"Hot & cool" appear to be strange and even a bit woolly metaphors in McLuhan's conceptual world. Though they constitute an opposition they are on different points in the scale. It's not "hot & cold" or "warm & cool" as one might expect. They are also not quite fully in line with the accepted basic structures of acoustic, visual and touch.
This has the effect that "cool" & "hot" somehow reverberate through the media-ecology model and disturb many readers. Hot & cool, in average parlance, denote content and style attributes of temperature (of air and water) and then people, clothing, music and other stuff. Thinking about them historically can easily blur many things. Take care.
The Sources
As has been mentioned by many, "hot & cool" most probably came to McLuhan from the vocabulary of writing about 40ies to 60ies jazz music. So, beaming back to that time might help us to get a better understanding of "hot & cool".
While african american culture turned to cool white man went darn hot and dancing.
Fast Forward to 70ies Pop
And back again.
The Ultimate Cool
The Ultimate Hot
plink, nix, praise or blame!
