Radio Notes and Quick Update

Hey folks! I just wanted to let you all know that notes for this week are now posted (FYI: they will never be posted this late in the week again…sorry about that). I encourage you all to check them out and to pursue some of links I put inside the document. I also encourage everyone to take some time this weekend to watch the documentary film, Empire of the Air, which is linked on the schedule. At some point when you have time, I highly recommend Radio Unnameable, which is also linked online and offers a very different perspective about the uses and possibilities of radio (a famous all-night talk radio DJ in NYC in the 1960s and 70s).

A quick bit of info about the notes for this week:

  • Most of it focuses on how we study, talk about and think about technologies and their histories. It’s important for us to pay attention to such issues given how much time we’ll spend reading about technology this semester. So, I wanted to basically walk everyone through my approach to that material, and to draw your attention to some problems raised by the stories that are typically told about tech history. What I mean, is that the stories we’re used to hearing are ones that tend to focus on the achievements of great inventors and the wonders of their great machines. We learn about Thomas Edison and the phonograph, Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone, Guglielmo Marconi and the radio, Steve Jobs and the home computer, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, and so on. The contributions of those specific individuals, as well as others throughout media history, are important to acknowledge, without a doubt. And I encourage everyone to read up on all those folks. But the ‘Great Inventor’ history we hear so often tends to obscure a lot of important things about the ways that media technologies are developed and used, or the reasons why they become so significant in our culture. Getting at those deeper truths (beyond the story of who invented what) is certainly a lot messier and more complex. But, fortunately, it’s also a hell of a lot more interesting.

Holler if you need anything.

Best regards,
Zack

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