The Media are Dead, Long Live Media

The Media are Dead! Long Live the Media!

Why Ong’s Secondary Literacy is Dissonant

Owen Brierley - Interactive Screen 1.0 - August 2010

1Monday, August 23, 2010

Me.

...and a bunch of other stuff.2Monday, August 23, 2010

OwenGuruIxD, animation, storytelling, pep talks

Hugh MacLeod


visual art version of tweeting - comic art on the back of business cards

How we got here

Primary Orality(elders, personal,

interruptible, timely)

Primary Literacy(parchment/stone,

external, uninterruptible,

timeless)

Secondary Orality(mix of PO as PL) ?

Walter J. Ong’s idea of Orality & Literacy


Walter J. Ong’s original thesis on orality and literacya simple model that captures the essence of how orality differs from literacydoes not see one as better than the otherintroduced secondary orality to reconcile the cultural shift to recorded and disembodied projections of oral behaviours (radio/tv transmission, aural recording, video/film recordings)

How we got here

Primary Orality(elders, personal,

interruptible, timely)

Primary Literacy(parchment/stone,

external, uninterruptible,

timeless)

Secondary Orality(mix of PO as PL)

Secondary Literacy(mix of PL as PO)

Walter J. Ong’s idea of Orality & Literacy


unpublished notes on the topic of a secondary literacy where literacy exhibits oral behavioursmodel describes twitter, texting, IMing, and others secondary literacy is as dissonant for primarily literate cultures as secondary orality is dissonant for oral cultures (indigenous elders’ distrust, and rejection, of video and audio recordings of their histories).

Oral Cultures


stories are only verifiable with living stories mutate with each generationsuspicious of any external non-living sourceabstraction of literal eventsculture of town crier/wiseman

Literate CulturesSocrates Plato Aristotle

Oral Literate


stories are written downstories can’t mutate - mutation is badstories are “owned” by writersuspicious of hearsayliteralization of abstractionsculture of the newspaper reporter

Literate Oral Cultures


record living sourceirrefutable source evidenceliteral presentation of source eventsculture of radio/television anchor

Oral Literate Cultures


living source publishes immediate experiencestories re-published, re-interpreteddistrust of single source for current eventsculture of the prosumer

Dissonance


text is permanent not ephemeralsources should be verifiable not hearsaysources should not be democratizedhumour of this image is that early literacy was exclusive and reserved for religious elite, now secondary literacy is reserved for the digital native elite.

Social Media Disruptors


Skype is not really a social media disruptor, I just liked the series of ads



democratized TVeveryone can be a producerconsumers can vote, view and popularize anythingthe higher the viewership, the greater the monetization (through ads appearing near the video)



democratized families and friends (now you can stay in touch without really trying)



Twitter offers immediate information about real-time events as they happentwitter is intended to be ephemeralimportant information is repeated (retweeted)conversations can happenflexible, open, interruptible and it’s text! (which is supposed to be permanent, organized, mediated)



wikipedia offers a means for anyone to add perspectives about history

What does this mean for...

• education?

• associations?

• production models?


Education


sums up my perspective on educationstudents are light years ahead of the standard classroom environment and they know iteducation systems are letting them down by not evolvingwhiteboards are just as archaic as chalkboardseducators face a crisis of capacity as the pressure to update their models increaseslearners already look elsewhere for their actual education and just “put in the time” in the schools to get the diploma/degree

Associations


Unconferences in Edmonton:democampmediacampUXcampEdmonton Startup WeekendTwestivalYegHelp.ca

Production Models


$269.4 million over two years. This investment in the broadcasting and interactive digital media sector is contributing to the strength of the Canadian economy and supporting job creation. The Canada Media Fund (CMF) combines the CTF and the CNMF. It will allow Canadian viewers better access to Canadian programming on multiple media platforms. signifcant change? no broadcast license required.

Personal Perspective


Library of Objectsinstallation that allowed visitors to take artifacts in exchange for something of their ownseeking to find an online analogy for this exhibit


Breaking News!


This story went national and appeared in the Globe and Mailimportant because of the cultural impact that social media is having on traditional media

Conclusions?


I googled “multiplicity” and got this.Popular culture reference to a hollywood movie about cloning (bio art?)No matter what, there will always be ubiquitous thingsfragmented pieces of ourselves may not be as interesting as our whole selvesauthenticity requires a holistic view of uswe owe it to each other to be authentic in each of our fragments

@Norm - discovering relationships beyond the veil of anonymous transactions


@Luba - symphonies occur when fragmented pieces find their voice


@Caroline - empathy feedback loops that sensitize not desensitize


@Fiona - creativity is always a subversive act


@Pascale - human puppets; who manipulates who?


@Diego - a butterfly tattoo on an arm that turns a key in a car in California and islands sink into the ocean


@Zeesy - 4D hypercube printing + time = 5th Dimension = 70s band = “Let the Sunshine in”


Thanks!


The Media are Dead, Long Live Media

Education

social media

ongs idea

orality amp

media

elders

personal

monday

august 23