SOCIAL WEB MEDIA CONSTITUENTS OF A THEORY OF THE MEDIA HANS MAGNUS ENZENSBERGER - 1970 AL LARSEN SPRING 2010.

SOCIAL WEB MEDIA

CONSTITUENTS OF A THEORYOF THE MEDIA

HANS MAGNUS ENZENSBERGER -1970

AL LARSENSPRING 2010

Page numbers refer to the essay as published in The New Media Reader.

Enzensberger – b 1929

German

poetcriticetc.

Marxist perspective

base & superstructure

SUPERSTRUCTURE

BASE

“The base

is traditionally said to consist of the

forces and relations of production. [...] The

superstructure is traditionally said to be made

up of things like political systems, religion –

and the media.”

introduction Wardrip-Fruin / Montfort

(Habermas'sdiscussion of the

bourgeois public sphere arising in the 18th Century)

CULTURE--------------

PRODUCTION

CULTURE--------------

PRODUCTION

QUESTION: relationship between:

changes in the last 50 years in the image of a “normal” family

--------------changes in workplace demands

THE MEDIA BUSINESS

“THE CONSCIOUSNESSINDUSTRY”

WHAT DOES IT PRODUCE?

HOW?

Everett Collection/Rex Features

image: Life

“Constituents of a Theory of the Media”

Electronic media circa 1970

new satellitescable tv

cassettesvideotape

videotape recordersphotocopy machines

timesharing computers

Emancipatory potential of the

electronic media.

Emancipatory potential of theelectronic media.

Sees this potential as being held back because it is politically threatening.

Emancipatory?

see p. 261“The Mobilizing Power of the Media”

“The Mobilizing Power of the Media”

(p 261)

mobilityfreedom

p. 261

“Anyone who thinks of the masses only as the object of politics cannot mobilize them. He

wants to push them around. A parcel is not mobile; it can only be pushed to and fro. Marches, columns, parades,

immobilize people. Propaganda, which does not release self- reliance but limits it, fits into the same pattern. It leads to

depoliticization.”

For Enzensberger the potential lies in participation.

For Enzensberger the potential lies in participation.

“For the first time in history the, the media are making possible mass participation in a social

and socialized productive process...”

(p 262)

For Enzensberger the potential lies in participation.

“For the first time in history the, the media are making possible mass participation in a social

and socialized productive process, the practical means of which are in the hands of

the masses themselves.”

(p 262)

“In its present form, equipment like television or film does not serve communication but

prevents it.”

(p 262)

IMAGE

“circuit reversal”

“REFLECTIVE OF A

SOCIAL DIVISON

BETWEEN PRODUCERS

AND CONSUMERS”

PRODUCERS / CONSUMERS

RULERS / RULED

image: buycostumes.com

ABC / CBS / NBC

-

REPUBLICANS / DEMOCRATS

ABC / CBS / NBC-

REPUBLICANS / DEMOCRATS

“In both cases marginal differences in their platforms reflect a competitive relationship

which on essential questions is nonexistent.”

(p 262)

“Minimal independent activity on the part of the voter/viewer is desired.”

(p 262)

“Societies in the late industrial age rely on the free exchange of information...”

“Quarantine regulations for information, such as were promulgated by fascism and

Stalinism, are only possible today at the cost of deliberate industrial regression.”

(p 262 - 263)

Wikipedia Image:

“The Rhodesia Herald of 21 September 1966 shows the effect of censorship imposed by Van der Byl's ministry.”

“The Soviet bureaucracy [...] has to deny itself almost entirely an elementary piece of

organizational equipment, the duplicating machine...”

TOPICS TO COME BACK TO:

Filtered Internet (China, others)

Facebook as described in NY Times article

“cute cat theory of digital activism”

MEDIAMANIPULATION

image: adbusters.org

For Enzensberger all media productions are manipulative...

For Enzensberger all media productions are manipulative...

it's largely a problem of the limitations on who gets to do the manipulating.

“The question is therefore not whether the media are manipulated, but who manipulates them. A revolutionary plan should not require the manipulators to disappear; on the contrary

it must make everyone a manipulator.”

(p 265)

“The contradiction between producers and consumers is not inherent in the electronic

media; on the contrary it has to be artificially reinforced by economic and administrative

measures.”

(p 266)

Radio telephony (many-to-many media)

is technically achieveable but lacking in

licensed bandwidth (1970)

Broadcast television (centralized media)

is given more spectrum.

(p 266)

Screenshot: zyra.org

https://microphones.audiolinks.com/Articles/images/MicDiagram2B.jpg

Implications?

ISOLATED USE OF MEDIA:

HOBBYIST / TINKERER

HOME USE

ISOLATED USE OF MEDIA:

HOME MOVIES

HAM RADIO

QSL CARD

(CONFIRMATION OF RECEIVING

TRANSMISSION)

“...the individal, so long as he remains isolated, can become [...] at best an amateur

but not a producer.”

(p 266)

“Any socialist strategy for the media must, on the contrary, strive to end the isolation of the

individual participants from the social learning and production process.”

(p 267)

Think in terms of the “SOCIAL”

AUDIENCE...

COMMUNITY...

PARTICIPATION...

By what standards is the work of

the amateur judged?

“The poor, feeble, and frequecntly humiliating results of this licensed activity are often

referred to with contempt by the professional media producers.”

LO-FIAESTHETICS?

EMANCIPATION?

HOW?

organized

not just transmitting and receiving

Cameras, recorders, in the workplace, school, etc.

“...everywhere where there is social conflict.”

“...a mass newspaper, written and distributed by its readers,

a video network of politically active groups.”

(p 267)

Indymedia

open publishing

collectively-produced alternative journalism

Indymedia

started:

1999 – Anti-WTO Protests in Seattle

local sites / collectives all around the world

COPWATCH

1991

Police abuse of Rodney King caught on

videotape by

George Holiday

(Police officers acquitted)