Re: [Air-L] A Sunday morning curiosity: Marlon Brando and Medium Theory in 1953?
the fear that a new medium will totally displace older ones, including speech itself
Plato put forward an argument of this kind, arguing that the medium of writing was inferior to the spoken word in dialogue, and believing that the act of writing made people loose their capacity for memorizing and ability to speak well (or something along that line). This is in "Phaedrus" and one of the letters I think. Now, whether or not Plato is the cause for Jimmy's medium panic in 1953, I couldn't say… Regards, Anders Sundnes Løvlie Gjøvik University College english.hig.no
The Cinema Dreams Its Rivals<http://books.google.com.proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/books?id=ywQODsKnRKQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=cinema+dreams+its+rivals&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TE8bUtvhCYmW2QXn9oCAAQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=cinema%20dreams%20its%20rivals&f=false>(Young, 2006) is a book that deals with the film medium's fear of new or emerging media. The argument is not that this 'medium panic' is part of the larger culture, but that TV challenged film to differentiate itself from the new audiovisual kid on the block. In other words, claims for 'moral panic' come from particular cultures with particular goals, values, and interests. In the early history of any new medium (I like your critique of the * Phaedrus*, Charles, but it is still a type of 'medium panic,' even if for theatrical reasons) we can find claims for 'medium panic' from users, professionals, academics, or, in the case of *The Wild One*, those working in an older medium (for a more recent example, think about the Recording Industry's reaction to mp3 distribution on Napster during the early days of the Internet). Good Weather, Ben Morton Communication Studies The University of Iowa On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 2:50 AM, Anders Sundnes Løvlie <anders.lovlie@hig.no
wrote:
the fear that a new medium will totally displace older ones, including speech itself
Plato put forward an argument of this kind, arguing that the medium of writing was inferior to the spoken word in dialogue, and believing that the act of writing made people loose their capacity for memorizing and ability to speak well (or something along that line). This is in "Phaedrus" and one of the letters I think.
Now, whether or not Plato is the cause for Jimmy's medium panic in 1953, I couldn't say…
Regards, Anders Sundnes Løvlie Gjøvik University College english.hig.no _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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participants (2)
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Anders Sundnes Løvlie -
Ben Morton