Built in or socially constructed? Speed, reach, and other feature

1. Built in or socially constructed?Speed, reach, and other feature Soyoen Cho Rhet 8550 Feb 6, 2006

2. Carey, James (2005) • Carey, James (2005). Historical pragmatism and the internet. New media and society 7(4). pp.443-455. • “It is easier to see old boundaries coming down than to see new ones being erected.” • While the technology overcomes many boundaries (of space and time, politics and economics), other social borders may be created at the same time.

3. Carey, James (2005) • The literature describing the internet revolution in the 1990s suffered from three fatal flaws (The internet as an agent of an unprecedented social transformation: a new economy, a new politics, a new world order, indeed a new and advanced species of men and women.) • It is not sufficiently grounded in the historical development of technology • It viewed the internet in isolation, failing to consider the wider technological context • It failed to examine the internet in view of the social, economic, religious and political circumstances of its user.

4. Carey, James (2005) • For example, Musical Literacy • In the absence of a system of notation, melody could be only be carried in memory, in the trained minds of priests and choirboys. Enormous discipline over a long period of time (10 to 20 years) was required to store the medieval musical library in memory. • An 11th century Italian, Guido of Monaco, invented the clef and the staff and the arrangement of the notes around them. • The developments allowed composers to create an architecture of music of increasing richness, complexity and experimentation. • These changes have altered not only musical capacity, the mode in which music is learned and the relationship between audience and performers and composers, along with the desacralization and secularization of music, but they also created vast generational differences in music.

5. Carey, James (2005) • The enormous gains in musical capacity should not obscure the world that has been lost in the process, particularly the loss of sacred tradition. • Every fundamental change in technology – whether the invention of written literacy or of printing or the telegraph or whatever – every fundamental change in the system of production, dissemination and preservation of culture simultaneously borders and deborders the world. • So then the question becomes “How is the world being rebordered?”

6. Carey, James (2005) • While the world has been made borderless in many ways, the most significant developments of recent times have been the weakening of the nation-state, the emergence of transnational political, social and economic organization, the withdrawal and violence of traditional ethnic groups, the revival of religion in its most fundamentalist forms and the growth of new borders separating social classes. • Rather than being swept by utopian or dystopian enthusiasms, interesting discoveries are to be made in locating the subtle social shifts taking place as a consequence of technological change.

7. Fredrick, Christine A.N. (1999) • Fredrick, Christine .A. N.(1999) Feminist Rhetoric in Cyberspace: The Ethos of Feminist Usenet Newsgroups. The Information Society 15. pp.187-197. • Ethos is one of three classical appeals, along with logos and pathos. Argument from authority. • Ethos applies to the CMC model, which differs from the traditional model of communication. Halloran (1984) defines ethos generally as “a characteristic manner of holding and expressing ideas” • Newsgroups do not have central authority as does the traditional model. The ethos of the group is collectively created by individual contributions to the group discussion. • The manner of participation of members of the group defines the ethos of the group, and this ethos has the power of including and excluding.

8. Fredrick, Christine A.N. (1999) • Although no formal means of discrimination is built into Usenet newsgroup discussions, discrimination does occur through the subtle and not so subtle use of language. • The analysis reveals examples of how sarcastic questioning, strong assertions, accusatory disagreements, and sexist comments can create a hostile and noninclusive ethos.

9. Examples • Hi Soyen, • Vancouver Canucks message board with lots of flamers they are fans of • Calgary Flames (no pun intended) and Colorado Avalanche: • http://forum.canucks.com/index.php • In particular, in the "game day talk", for example, • http://forum.canucks.com/viewtopic.php?t=107356 • Greg Millen is a commentator, who is VERY biased against the Canucks • team. :)) That's why people are bashing him. • Or the topic: "And we thought the Avs (Avalanche)fans are stupid" - it's • about throwing things on the ice when your team is losing. • I hope you know standard abbreviations, like STFU (shut the f*ck up), • LMAO (laugh my ass off), ROFL (roll on the f*cking floor) etc. because • people tend to use them time and again. • The politicaltalksare in theoff-topic forum: • http://forum.canucks.com/viewforum.php?f=4 • Take care, • Nick • http://www.politicsforum.org/