Networks and New Media & How We Process the Media
Last week, we read one article and viewed a media clip that again addressed the question of new media, what college English should be, and networks. We also viewed a media clip that addressed some of the same questions.
The writing, by Jeff Rice, was very though-provoking. It addressed questions that I had on the previous readings, but was also a more realistic piece addressing what the new curriculum might be.
One of the most memorable lines of the text was the statement Rice makes in which he states linking is a new form or type of connection. I agree with this statement and believe that this is precisely why we have to change the English curriculum to entail these types of new media. This new media is different then simply sending a letter or a paper memo out in a business. It is a new form of communication, where interaction and networking are key. It is important to teach these types of new media, because later in life, you will rarely send someone a letter. You will email, or text message or something such as that. In a business meeting you will not simply lecture, but you will give a powerpoint presentation, make a webpage, or use some other new media form. If we are not taught the proper way to incorporate this new media and still be professional, we will be in the dark just as much as our parents were when computers became widely adopted.
But as the other readings, Rice still brings up some criticisms. For example, will the rise of the network just further globalization and therefore lessen equality? Furthermore, he brings up the point that networks also impose a new wave of intellectual stagnation "as dominant holders of intellectual work establish larger chains of control." Isn't this what we saw in the early '90s as computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel were on the rise? And what will the effect of this be not only economically, but on the intellectual community?
Thus we are still left with the question: will the rise of networks connect us more? or cut us off from one another and leave us more alone? Will it further the gap between the haves and the have nots? Will it create repercussions that we still haven't seen? And how will these networks change our socialization process? Are they just more responsive, open-edited, and open-ended? And what's the benefit of that?
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3 comments:
I completely agree that if students are not taught how to use new media now, they will be left behind. I also liked the connection you made to the Microsoft monopoly. I didn't pick up on that idea in the reading and I never really considered the consequences of who will control new technologies in the future.
I also agree with your question about if new media will bring us together or bring people further apart. I think that in soem ways it will bring people together but not as a face to face interaction which I think in turn would push people apart. Its a hard question to have an exact answer.
I really appreciate your closing questions. Too often, I think, networks and new media are theorized as purely emancipatory means to achieve a just and equal democratic society (you see this a lot in mid/late 1990s writings about the web, blogging, and the so-called global village).
Certainly, networked media can begin these conversations, but they can't initiate change by themselves. In fact, the very logic of the network suggests that as various nodes are linked and integrated into a complex web of relations, other nodes can (and often are) bypassed and networked around, effectively cutting them off from the relations taking shape in the new network. What happens to those nodes therefore makes a huge difference in how we theorize the uses and values of networks and new media.
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