Notes from Lecture : Media and
information, Living Information
11 September Week 2: Living Information
⁃ What we do in media, what world are we making in and through media?
Life in a day
⁃ Was it constructed? Yes and no
⁃ Was it real? Yes
8 Lessons of life in a day:
⁃ Media are persuasive and ubiquitous
⁃ Media is everywhere and you cannot switch it o . Even when turned o it’s
still online somewhere.
⁃ Eg the son that passed away in the second movie from covid
⁃ Eq. Skibbidy toilets - web series : people in toilets ghting for freedom from
people with media for heads 12 billion views.
⁃ Media have long (complex) histories
⁃ Devices used are on one hand brand new but it is the same technology just
upgraded. Screens have been around for 100 years but it’s the same
technology. Eg. Typing and typewriters.
⁃ Nothing we do in media is new.
⁃ National Novel writing month faces backlash over allowing AI: what to know
by Washington post. - image of a typewriter to remind people of authenticity
and creativity, this is a decade long discussion about writer authenticity.
⁃ Media raise ethical issues
⁃ Ethics of caring about the people who make media, many people say that
their work is impacting their mental health. Pressure over the algorithm.
⁃ Media are a source of pleasure and fun
⁃ Dancing to music, watching a nice movie, playing games with friends.
⁃ Media is a non utilitarian good. We can survive without it.
⁃ People are comfortable with media
⁃ The more people talk about media the more media becomes necessary for
our survival. People become comfortable with its presence.
⁃ When media becomes intuitive that’s when we start asking questions
⁃ People are con dent about media
⁃ People understand how to use devices however we do not understand the
exact technology behind how media happens. Eg face time and how it
actually works. People are okay with this
⁃ People accept surveillance
Page 1 of 24
fi ff fi ff
, ⁃ Security service, cameras everywhere, IDs, yet we are okay with being
monitored. Be curious, surveillance is interesting, people act di erently
unconsciously when they are being surveyed.
⁃ “New evidence claims google, Microsoft etc could be listening to you on your
devices” by Matt Binder 2024 Article.
⁃ People work for media
⁃ Truman Show. What would happen if Truman knew about the show and
decided to stay? How do I deal with it and make it work? Participate in a
world with surveillance capital.
⁃ Everything we do in media, somebody somewhere earns money from this. We
are “makers” (helpful consumers) when we use media we make something,
we make audiences for shows, salaries for others.
⁃ When humans use tools to help them we feel powerful yet at the same time
we feel as though we are loosing our humanness.
Week 2: Lecture 2, 13 September
⁃ Black myth Wukong: misogyny, unfriendly towards female colleges.
⁃ Decentering media, people become obsessed with media. Look behind the
initial media and dig deeper.
⁃ Deepfake porn crisis engul ng Korean schools. This shows us about gender
relations around the world. Creates unease and gender inequality tensions.
1. Everything is mediated
⁃ There’s no aspect in human life that doesn’t involve media, because
everything we do is to some extent shaped by media.
2. Media are di cult and complex
⁃ Every PHD student all start with the same mistake “nothing like this has been
studied before”
⁃ Every debate is thousands of years old.
3. Media involve profound ethical dilemmas
⁃ Think about how something you love may hurt or a ect others.
⁃ AI as a form of media, if will change everything, we are trying to gure out its
e ect. Why are we outsourcing to AI?
⁃ We begin to ask ourselves what’s real? What’s to signi cant about things
being real?
What is Media?
⁃ “Media are infrastructures with three components: The artefacts or devices
used to communicate or convey information, the activities and practices in
which people engage to communicate or share information, and the social
arrangements or organisational forms that develop around those devices
and practices.”
Page 2 of 24
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, Media as artefacts:
Devices that we use on a day to day basis.
When we start to think that something is not a big deal, is when it becomes
interesting and truly powerful as you use it without realising
⁃ Remote control : Zenith space commander 200. 1950’s. There’s no o switch
on the Remote. They have changed from wired to wireless to voice activated
or motion censored.
⁃ Video recorder : tape recorder VCR, Devices marketed as easy and simple to
use when they actually become more di cult. Tape to disk to cloud. Object is
gone but the functionalities are still there.
⁃ Joystick: rst in a ghter jet. Most devices have their origins from the military.
Now VR the body became the joystick.
⁃ Computer mouse: 70’s old wooden mouse. Moved to laptops or touch
screens. Eye tracker.
⁃ Mobile phone: Motorola 1980’s. How do you train consumers who cannot
imagine what it is or think it’s stupid? Phones were not originally made to
make calls they were originally made for ships due to the titanic. Next to its
use for the sea it was used to broadcast advertisements and test if these
connections were stable. Women gured out how it worked and started
calling each other. This resulted in a pro table use of the phone (charge by
the minute). None of our technologies are inevitable, the best and none of
them are new . The bigger the screen gets the more information there is on
the screen, our brain cannot process all of this information we can only focus
on a small part and imagining the rest. Appreciate their disappearance, they
become ambient.
⁃ Interface: In order for computers to work you had to type commands. All
computer commands are still present today but we cannot see it. “Making the
technology disappear” (making it so easy to use we do not have to think
about it anymore)
The history of these artefacts and how they are disappearing as we do not have to
think about them anymore. YouTube is an example pf technology becoming
ubiquitous. The moment we stop thinking about technology it starts running our
lives.
Week 3 : 18 September: Lecture 3
⁃ Media is the promise of what is coming next
Media Disappear
⁃ Remediation Theory: All that media do is that they are trying to disappear but
at the same time are trying to tell us they are still there. This can become
quite literal, a lot more intimate. Eg. Biochips.
⁃ Media starts as these big bulky machines and becomes who we are.
Page 3 of 24
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ffi ff
information, Living Information
11 September Week 2: Living Information
⁃ What we do in media, what world are we making in and through media?
Life in a day
⁃ Was it constructed? Yes and no
⁃ Was it real? Yes
8 Lessons of life in a day:
⁃ Media are persuasive and ubiquitous
⁃ Media is everywhere and you cannot switch it o . Even when turned o it’s
still online somewhere.
⁃ Eg the son that passed away in the second movie from covid
⁃ Eq. Skibbidy toilets - web series : people in toilets ghting for freedom from
people with media for heads 12 billion views.
⁃ Media have long (complex) histories
⁃ Devices used are on one hand brand new but it is the same technology just
upgraded. Screens have been around for 100 years but it’s the same
technology. Eg. Typing and typewriters.
⁃ Nothing we do in media is new.
⁃ National Novel writing month faces backlash over allowing AI: what to know
by Washington post. - image of a typewriter to remind people of authenticity
and creativity, this is a decade long discussion about writer authenticity.
⁃ Media raise ethical issues
⁃ Ethics of caring about the people who make media, many people say that
their work is impacting their mental health. Pressure over the algorithm.
⁃ Media are a source of pleasure and fun
⁃ Dancing to music, watching a nice movie, playing games with friends.
⁃ Media is a non utilitarian good. We can survive without it.
⁃ People are comfortable with media
⁃ The more people talk about media the more media becomes necessary for
our survival. People become comfortable with its presence.
⁃ When media becomes intuitive that’s when we start asking questions
⁃ People are con dent about media
⁃ People understand how to use devices however we do not understand the
exact technology behind how media happens. Eg face time and how it
actually works. People are okay with this
⁃ People accept surveillance
Page 1 of 24
fi ff fi ff
, ⁃ Security service, cameras everywhere, IDs, yet we are okay with being
monitored. Be curious, surveillance is interesting, people act di erently
unconsciously when they are being surveyed.
⁃ “New evidence claims google, Microsoft etc could be listening to you on your
devices” by Matt Binder 2024 Article.
⁃ People work for media
⁃ Truman Show. What would happen if Truman knew about the show and
decided to stay? How do I deal with it and make it work? Participate in a
world with surveillance capital.
⁃ Everything we do in media, somebody somewhere earns money from this. We
are “makers” (helpful consumers) when we use media we make something,
we make audiences for shows, salaries for others.
⁃ When humans use tools to help them we feel powerful yet at the same time
we feel as though we are loosing our humanness.
Week 2: Lecture 2, 13 September
⁃ Black myth Wukong: misogyny, unfriendly towards female colleges.
⁃ Decentering media, people become obsessed with media. Look behind the
initial media and dig deeper.
⁃ Deepfake porn crisis engul ng Korean schools. This shows us about gender
relations around the world. Creates unease and gender inequality tensions.
1. Everything is mediated
⁃ There’s no aspect in human life that doesn’t involve media, because
everything we do is to some extent shaped by media.
2. Media are di cult and complex
⁃ Every PHD student all start with the same mistake “nothing like this has been
studied before”
⁃ Every debate is thousands of years old.
3. Media involve profound ethical dilemmas
⁃ Think about how something you love may hurt or a ect others.
⁃ AI as a form of media, if will change everything, we are trying to gure out its
e ect. Why are we outsourcing to AI?
⁃ We begin to ask ourselves what’s real? What’s to signi cant about things
being real?
What is Media?
⁃ “Media are infrastructures with three components: The artefacts or devices
used to communicate or convey information, the activities and practices in
which people engage to communicate or share information, and the social
arrangements or organisational forms that develop around those devices
and practices.”
Page 2 of 24
ff ffi fi ff fi fffi
, Media as artefacts:
Devices that we use on a day to day basis.
When we start to think that something is not a big deal, is when it becomes
interesting and truly powerful as you use it without realising
⁃ Remote control : Zenith space commander 200. 1950’s. There’s no o switch
on the Remote. They have changed from wired to wireless to voice activated
or motion censored.
⁃ Video recorder : tape recorder VCR, Devices marketed as easy and simple to
use when they actually become more di cult. Tape to disk to cloud. Object is
gone but the functionalities are still there.
⁃ Joystick: rst in a ghter jet. Most devices have their origins from the military.
Now VR the body became the joystick.
⁃ Computer mouse: 70’s old wooden mouse. Moved to laptops or touch
screens. Eye tracker.
⁃ Mobile phone: Motorola 1980’s. How do you train consumers who cannot
imagine what it is or think it’s stupid? Phones were not originally made to
make calls they were originally made for ships due to the titanic. Next to its
use for the sea it was used to broadcast advertisements and test if these
connections were stable. Women gured out how it worked and started
calling each other. This resulted in a pro table use of the phone (charge by
the minute). None of our technologies are inevitable, the best and none of
them are new . The bigger the screen gets the more information there is on
the screen, our brain cannot process all of this information we can only focus
on a small part and imagining the rest. Appreciate their disappearance, they
become ambient.
⁃ Interface: In order for computers to work you had to type commands. All
computer commands are still present today but we cannot see it. “Making the
technology disappear” (making it so easy to use we do not have to think
about it anymore)
The history of these artefacts and how they are disappearing as we do not have to
think about them anymore. YouTube is an example pf technology becoming
ubiquitous. The moment we stop thinking about technology it starts running our
lives.
Week 3 : 18 September: Lecture 3
⁃ Media is the promise of what is coming next
Media Disappear
⁃ Remediation Theory: All that media do is that they are trying to disappear but
at the same time are trying to tell us they are still there. This can become
quite literal, a lot more intimate. Eg. Biochips.
⁃ Media starts as these big bulky machines and becomes who we are.
Page 3 of 24
fi fi fi fi
ffi ff
