Transcript Music Video Project 742

Facebook: Medium for the
Masses?
Aimee Lau
ENG 742 Final Project
The Trio of Creators…
Mark
Zuckerberg
Dustin
Moskovitz
Chris
Hughes
From “one man in his bedroom,” incensed by the
brutality towards Columbian citizens, to “millions in
the streets” (Kirkpatrick, 2010, p.7)
A Medium for the Masses???
Setting the Scene…Writing in a
Period of Oppression
Media = Propaganda
Media = Propaganda?
Facebook as an Alternative for the Masses?
WWWBD??
What Would Walter Benjamin Do?
(Or Say?)
Taking a Look at Voices
From
The Past
Walter Benjamin (1892 – 1940)
“mechanical reproduction substitutes a
plurality of copies for a
unique existence”
Facebook – a unique medium with an
aura?
“To pry an object from its shell, to
destroy its aura, is the mark of a
perception whose “sense of the universal
equality of things” has increased to such
a degree that it extracts it even from a
unique object by means of reproduction”
Theodor Adorno (1903 – 1969)
Max Horkheimer (1895 – 1973)
“The triumph of advertising in the
culture industry is that consumers feel
compelled to buy and use its products
even though they see through them”
Facebook:
A Medium
of
Control??
But…the
question
remains
still….
Who is in control??
Once a member of the Hitler Youth…
Hans Magnus
Enzenberger
1929 - present
Now…a cautious consumer, suggesting
potential pragmatic media value:
“for the first time in history, the media are
making possible mass participation in a
social and socialized productive process, the
practical means of which are in the hands of
the masses themselves”
Facebook: Facilitator of Discursive Exchanges?
Voices from the Past…
Media Pessimism & Cautious Support
Current Perspectives….
Similar Viewpoints or
Wholehearted Support?
Positive Perspectives
Connecting People in Ways Never Imagined Before
Positive Perspectives
The National School Board Association (2007)
suggests using social networking sites is an emerging
trend, as “more than one in five districts (22%) say
their classrooms are involved in creating or
maintaining wikis, websites that allow visitors to
add, remove, or edit content” (p.5).
Negative Perspectives
Privacy
Issues
Cyber
Bullying
Phoebe Prince: Cyber-bullied & committed suicide
As members of society, it is up to us, to an extent, to choose a
trajectory for Facebook, monitoring our own individual uses.
Perhaps, as Benjamin would suggest, Facebook could be a
unique presence in society, one not just with an aura of
uniqueness, but of positivity used for the good of others.
End Credits
Group: Muse
Song: Uprising
Lyrics:
Paranoia is in bloom, The PR transmission will resume, They’ll
try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down, And hope that
we will never see the truth around (So come on..)
Another promise, another scene, Another packaged lie to keep
us trapped in greed, And all the green belts wrapped around
our minds, And endless red tape to keep the truth confined (So
come on)
Refrain:
They will not force us, They will stop degrading us, They will not
control us, We will be victorious (So come on)
(continued on next slide)
End Credits
Group: Muse
Song: Uprising
Interchanging mind control, Come let the revolution take its toll, If you
could flick a switch and open your third eye, You’d see that, We should
never be afraid to die (So come on)
Rise up and take the power back, Its time the fat cats had a heart attack,
You know their time’s coming to an end, We have to unify and watch
our flag ascend
Refrain:
They will not force us, They will stop degrading us, They will not control
us, We will be victorious, So come on
Refrain:
They will not force us, They will stop degrading us, They will not control
us, We will be victorious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KQmps-Sog&feature=related
End Credits
Special Thanks to:
Ali G.
(Fellow grad student who suggested this song when I
was having trouble finding a song that really fit this
presentation!)
Google Images
And, of course…..
All the included scholars for
their valuable perspectives!
