erin's blog

PART I:  The communication technology I chose for this case study is the Cardboard Record Player from The Tailenders. 

 

PART II:  The audience I chose for my case study is Evangelists.

 

PART III:  In my case study, the set-up is as follows:

Background/Goals: The cardboard record technology is a simple, more primitive record player, comprised of cardboard with a metal tip on the edge on one side that works as the needle.  The records used are special and only can be played on this particular type of record player.  They are somewhat smaller, and adapt to the turn table built onto the cardboard base.   The movement of the record is then made possible by the manual rotation, made possible by the use of a pen or pencil inserted into a hole in the center of the record.

 

Problems(Succeses/Failures): The use of this technology is effective for the use of Evangelists, whose intent is on spreading the word of God and Christianity.  The technology is extremely cheap since the main component is cardboard.  It is also extremely simple to use because all the pieces of the technology are connected with the exception of the actual record and pen.  Due to the benefits of cost efficiency and simplicity, the technology is appealing and is especially useful in third world countries.  The cardboard record player was therefore especially effective in playing recorded messages about God and Bible stories that were replayed ad nauseum by the natives of the third world countries.  The more the record played, the more they believed it.  Sometimes a charge was afforded, which made the people appreciate the technology more.  This could be viewed as a form of cultural imperialism, the forcing of a dominant culture upon that of a weaker or developing country.  Depending on how you look at it, this could either be a positive or negative consequence.  The main objective of spreading Christianity is still accomplished.  However, the means or way of reaching this goal might be slightly skewed.   An aspect of the cardboard record player that doesn't work is the fact that the record needed to be played is a special type, made just for this particular record player.  This could have negative long terms effects, especially if the cardboard record player breaks, becomes obsolete, or is upgraded.  In any of these events, the records could not be played on a new or more sophisticated machine, thus prohibiting the message from being spread.  The manual rotation of the record also might work against the success of this technology, because actually having to physically make the record play could become tiresome or irritating after awhile.

 

Discussion:  Evangelists can learn that this cardboard record player has more positive effects than negative.  The machine can be easily produced and distributed in each third world country visited.  As mentioned previously, the cost involved in production is relatively cheap and economic.  Therefore, the Evangelists and other missionaries will not be set back financially.  The natives will also find it easy to use, especially since formal training to operate the record player is not necessary.  This record player can help spread the word of God, but Evangelists should beware that, as I mentioned before, their efforts may be viewed as a type of cultural imperialism.  Even critics of globalization, the unification of global peoples and ideas creating a smaller globe due to the deletion of borders, might have a difficult time with such a feat, claiming it will create exploitation of third world peoples. 

                        As a well-read literary critic, I completely disagree with the New York Times review concerning the literary masterpiece 1984, written by George Orwell.  In my opinion, the communication technology discussed in 1984, published in 1949, is extremely relevant today, 59 years later.

 A major component of 1984 is the technology of surveillance.  In fact, the "telescreens " discussed in the novel appear so frequently that one might argue that it is a motif, reappearing over and over again.  The surveillance in the novel violates the privacy of the characters, however, only Winston, Julia, O'Brien, and other members of the secret organization fighting the Party notice the intrusion and are not affected by the brainwash of Big Brother.  Privacy, a privilege many Americans take for granted today, was such a luxury that when O'Brien turned off the "telescreen" due to his membership in the inner party, "Winston was much too taken aback to be able to hold his tongue.  "You can turn it off" he said."  (Orwell, 150).  Winston, along with other members of the authoritarian society he lived in were used to being monitored 24/7.  Their every move was closely scrutinized, and sometimes the involunatry twitch of an eye could be deemed as "thought crime", rebellion against the Party.  The surveillance was so intense that your own nervous system's involunatry actions could be noticed give you away.   As I mentioned, sometimes we take for granted our privacy, while others rebel against privacy violations. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) prescribes procedures for the collection of physical and electronic surveillance that violate U.S. law or relate to espionage.  FISA even established courts that meet in secret to approve or deny requests concerning search warrants.  Bush's revised Patriot Act enables wire tapping and other forms of spying to capture terrorists. If President Bush were to implement some form of "Big Brother" surveillance, the outcry would be overwhelming, and the very idea of using "telescreens" to spy on United States citizens would be considered absolute ludicrous and would never pass Congress.  However, the surveillance techniques currently being used and developed do scratch the surface of what was experienced in 1984, and we must use the novel as an example so we do not let surveillance technology get too out of hand and let one thing lead to another.  We should perhaps take a lesson from history so it does not repeat itself. 

PART I:  The features of Civilization IV that I have decided to investigate further is missionaries, great artists, and inventors.

PART II:  In my opinion, not all aspects of cultural imperialism are simulated in Civilization IV. Some aspects are, such as the spreading of religion via missionaries, the spreading of technology made possible my traveling scientists, and the introduction of culture such as Hollywood and Rock 'n Roll to other cultures.  However, while investigating these features, I came to the realization that one aspect of cultural imperialism, the forced spread of a more powerful culture to that of a less developed, more flexible culture, was not simulated at all.  The game allows your civilization to spread religion, technology, and culture as I previously mentioned, but you do not have the ability to spread political ideologies.  You can decide what kind of government you want your society to have, such as hierarchy or authoritarian, but you do not have the opportunity to impose such practices onto the other civilizations.  This seems peculiar, since cultural imperialism is obvious in the other aspects that are simulated.

 

(This screen shot shows the game's potential for one civilization to impose religion on another) 

 

PART III:  I think it would be important for Civilization IV to better simulate the spreading of political ideologies because it is a crucial component of cultural imperialism.  I believe this could be done in a similar manner as to how religion, technology, and culture are spread in the game.  Instead of a missionary, for example, an ambassador could be born into your civilization.  Since you have the option of changing your government set up and politics, this ambassador could have significant value because he could enable you to convert your culture to a new form of government that you do not have the option of choosing yourself without the birth of this ambassador.  The ambassador could then be sent to other civilizations, similarly to how the missionary can be sent.  From here, he could be gifted or attempt to convert the civilization with the use of elections, thus influencing another civilization based on the politics your civilization has the option of practicing. 

PART I: For this blog assignment, I chose to investigate the concept of the 'scapes' or other features of globalization (C&T Ch. 16).

 

PART II:  In The Culture and Technology textbook, chapter 16 focuses on globalization and the five different aspects or "scapes" of it, including ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, finanscapes, and ideoscapes.  These are the five flows of technology that Appadurai introduced.  Civilization IV has many aspects that relate to most of these 'scapes'.  For example, the spreading of different religions from one civilization to another via a great priest is an example of an ethnoscape.  The spreading of Hollywood and Rock 'n Roll was made possible by "gifting" a civilization with the creation of either, or through trades with other civilizations that incorporated hit singles or hit movies.  Such a trade introduced media to the other culture, thus representing mediascapes.  Finanscapes were represented with the spreading of currency from one civilization to another, especially evident when making a trade.

 

PART III:  Civilization IV does a good job representing a majority of the 'scapes' of globalization, but two 'scapes', technoscapes and ideoscapes, were not simulated well and were therefore not able to be mentioned in part II.  Ethnoscapes, the moving and placement of people, bringing culture, language, and ideas with them, was shown accurately in the game, since a priest brought the new religion to a different civilization, similar to how the missionaries in The Tailenders brought new ideas and religion with them.  Mediascapes, the movement, production, and display of mediated images from Hollywood and CNN to media centers like Hong Kong and Brazil, were accurately simulated.  In real life, the U.S. developed Hollywood and Rock 'n Roll, and it spread globally, just as it was spread to different civilizations in the game.  Finanscapes, the movement of money, of global capital, both in stock and currency markets and in the World Bank loans and other financial investment, was also accurate to real life.  Trades in the game between two civilizations that included gold coins (currency) paralleled the transfer of currency and goods in our society.  Technoscapes, the movement of technology, especially the investment in industrial technology and factories globally, were not simulated in the game.  Perhaps this could be achieved if the game had the option of enabling one civilization to build a factory in another.  Also, ideoscapes were not simulated. Ideoscapes, the movement of political ideas such as democracy, freedom, rights, etc.  could have been simulated if one civilization had the option of imposing democracy or authoritarianism, for example, onto another civilization. 

example of an ethnoscape: the great prophet converts Moscow.

 

 

example of finanscapes:  a trade between two civilizations with money.

 

 

PART I:  The component of the game I chose was borders of my territory.

 

PART II:  The borders of my territory affect the game in a number ways, both positive and negative.  I observed almost immediately that it was unwise to cross my own borders and cross over other cultural boundaries without first establishing an open borders policy with them.  Entering without such an agreement was viewed as aggression, and I was confronted with the decision to make war.  Realizing this might actually minimize my borders in the long run, I resorted to experimenting with my borders in other ways.  I made open border agreements with the other cultures which allowed my tanks to cross into their territories while exploring unmarked territories.  The exploration of new areas helped my culture to expand.  I further noticed that sending missionaries (in my face Christian and Taoist) to other countries and spreading religion or gifting it influenced the size of my borders positively.  The development of certain cultural aspects of the civilization, such as a library and university greatly influenced the size of my borders, causing them to increase greatly. 

 

PART III:  Due to my experiences with the game, I can conclude that the border increases in Civilization IV support concepts learned in lecture.  There are a few examples of how I came to this realization.  First, when I played the game I noticed that the spreading and/or gifting of religions caused a significant border increase.  This reminded me of the documentary "The Tailenders" that we viewed in lecture.  The missionaries traveled to underdeveloped countries and influenced there beliefs with their presence and innovative technologies.  A similar experience occurred in the game when missionaries traveled to cultures that were previously unexposed to the religion.  Another example from lecture that relates to the game is that of the spreading of communication, especially through the written word.  The development of writing enabled people to record their experiences so the memory was relied on less and less as a data base, and rocks, clay tablets, paper, and eventually computers became the storage of these experiences.  In the game, the development of writing caused my civilization to grow, as did the building of a library and university because these are places the writings are stored and studied for generations, enabling free thought and creativity. 

 

 

 

 

In my Technology and Society lecture, I will focus on the certainty trough. In order for students to understand how advertising can be used for a technology to explain how technology develops, I will show two different Apple advertisements and how they relate to the certainty trough. The first advertisement is the first Apple ad introducing Macintosh from 1984. The second ad is one of Apple's most recent ads, introducing the MacBook Air. In the 1984 ad, Macintosh is being introduced for the first time. The very basic idea for this advertisement was to introduce the new technology because many people were unaware of it until the commercial. The certainty trough can be used to explain how familiar different groups of consumers are concerning a new technology. Those to the right of the graph or certainty trough are those who have not heard of a certain technology or are unfamiliar with it. The distance from production is considered high here. The advertisement describes the new technology in a clever manner, stating that the use of this new Apple product will allow you to view and do almost anything without a "big brother" figure, like the one found in the novel 1984. The very basic idea for this technology is introduced, and many people were unaware of it until the commercial. In the 2008 advertisement for the MacBook Air, a more innovative approach is used to "sell" the product. In fact, words are not used to describe the technology. A song plays instead as the computer's paper thin frame is slipped out of a vanilla envelope, showcasing its new design. While many people might not have been aware of this particular Apple model and could be represented high on the certainty trough, the computer, more specifically, the Apple computer is very familiar to many more people than it was in 1984. These people could be represented in the middle of the graph because they have few questions about it and use it on a regular basis, perhaps every day. This alone shows the development over almost thirty years of the Apple computer, from consumers hardly knowing its purpose and needing it to be explained to them, to consumers looking for the next cutting edge design.

Communication technology is awesome because:

it allows people to express themselves to eachother when they are not present with the other person,

it allows messages to be sent,

and it facilitates fast communication.

Course website

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Communication technology is <b>awesome</b> because:<lo> <li> it allows people to express themselves to eachother when they are not present with the other person,<li> it allows messages to be sent, <li> and it facilitates fast communication.</li> </ol>
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<a href="http://pactlab-dev.spcomm.uiuc.edu/classes/08SP/280/"> Course website </a>
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<img src="http://www.aiga.org/Resources/SymbolSigns/gif_large/01_telephone_inv.gif" width=650>
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<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/90m2Xw_Haj0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/90m2Xw_Haj0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>>

PART I: Cell phones allowed?

PART II: The first place I went to observe reactions when I broke a technological norm such as talking on a cell phone was the quiet section of the undergrad library.  The second place I went to and talked on my cell phone was at a nice restaurant in Wheaton, Illinois called Pompodoro's when I went home for the night this weekend.  The third and last place I talked on the phone was outside a classroom when I was waiting for my class to begin.  It was probably acceptable to talk then, but no one else was on their phone at that time.

 When I was on the phone in the quiet section of the undergrad library, I made a first call, but I only received a few looks from people in the surrounding area, but they did not seem very distracted and kept working.  I decided to give it a try again later and talk more loudly and a little bit more obnoxiously.  The results were very different.  People gave me extremely dirty looks and one person even came up to me and yelled. He was really belligerent and told me I was really rude and that this was outrageous. That was incredibly awkward, and I turned bright red before quickly fleeing the undergraduate library.  I wished immediately that I just used my first trial results to avoid uncomfortable tension.

                When I was at the restaurant in Wheaton, I was at dinner with my family.  We were seated dead center in the middle of several tables of high school kids having dinner before their turnabout dance.  I started to have a regular conversation on my phone in a normal voice, but all of the high school kids were rather loud and rambunctious, so no one seemed phased by my phone conversation.  I waited until the crowd cleared out a bit before attempting again.  This time, the couple at the table immediately next to us seemed very irritated, and I kept receiving deadly stares that were very uncomfortable.  After about 2 minutes of this my dad told me that I think I made my point and I was done.  Again, my experiment was very awkward.

                When I waiting for my class to begin, I made a phone call in the hallway outside my classroom.  There were a few people waiting with me in the near vicinity, but none of them were on their cell phones.  They really did not respond in anyway.  They seemed content and only looked up at me when I started my conversation, just because I broke the silence.  The only person who seemed disturbed was a girl who pulled her ipod out after a couple minutes.  Breaking this norm was easy to do. 

PART III:  I have come to the conclusion that the development of the cellular phone eventually adapted to social norms already embedded in society.  For example, people do not usually break social norms, such as talking in the quiet section of a library or having a long, obnoxious, one-sided conversation in a restaurant.  Even people waiting outside a lecture hall are usually somewhat quiet and subdued. The cellular phone follows the norms of only being used when it is acceptable to talk, which became extremely obvious to me while conducting my experiment.  People became frustrated and irritated with me when I used my cell phone in quiet places, places it is not ok in the first place to talk in.  However, while I did use my phone obnoxiously in the restaurant to get a better reaction, people were somewhat irritated even when I was just using it quietly at the beginning.  The same occurred when I used my phone before class started.  These places are acceptable to talk in, yet people were upset.  The cell phone itself demands stricter norms that leave the user with fewer places to talk. 

 

 

PART I:  The analog I choose is the song "Sleeping Lessons" by The Shins. 

PART II:  In order to digitize this song, I played the song on a record, and listened very closely to specific details in the song.  I made careful notes and played the song numerous times because the quality of the record reveals more detail such as the reverberation of certain instruments and the vibrato of the vocals, and I wanted to ensure that I have pinpointed each detail.  Knowing some of the details would be lost when the transition from analog to digital was made, I consulted The Shins and asked them to specify what small, specific details they felt were very necessary to their song that I should work to keep from being lost in translation, and they looked at the notes I took and agreed with certain observations I had made, such as the importance of the vibrations or reverberations.  The reverberations heard throughout the song were of great importance to the song and contributed greatly to the overall atmosphere of it.  Therefore, I highlighted the parts of the song on the sound waves that represented the crucial vibration parts of the song.  With assistance from the computer, I was able to pinpoint the exact second the vibration occurred.  Then, when I replayed the song on the record, I turned up the volume at these particular points.  Thus, the vibrations stood out and came across more clearly, and I was able to salvage some of these fine details.

 

PART III:  In my opinion, the process I just described could have potential drawbacks that should be considered if the process were to become especially popular.  The volume increase to emphasize the vibrations in a song, for example, might actually ruin the effect that was supposed to be expressed.  The volume might make it too intense, and defeat the purpose of having the detail as a small, almost unnoticed, dramatic effect.  I believe that the echoes and vibrations of a song might prove to be much more difficult in digitizing, than say for example, the quiet plucking of a guitar or cello string that is almost unnoticed and sometimes lost in the transformation.  Even the rustle of a music page or the cheers of an audience can become lost or disfigured if a live recording is made digital.  Through sampling performed throughout the song, one could compare the digitalization results with the analog, and determine if the frequency of the digital sounded improved or worse than the analog.