[Air-l] questioning authority

[Ted M Coopman]

All,

I'm all for critical. If anything we are not critical enough.

My point is the difference in critiquing a media outlet for what it is or is not (easy) as opposed to critiquing the policies of government and/or the practices of an industry (more difficult).

I may not share the underlying neo-liberal ideology that drives the Economist, but that does not mean that their analysis is faulty or lacks value. You just have to adjust for ideology/bias. While Wired is certainly not in the same league, it is still (IMO) a valuable resource.

-TED

Ted M. Coopman
Department of Communication
University of Washington

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007, Heidelberg, Chris wrote:

> Ted:
>
> You are absolutely correct in opinion. Many of the journals simply did
> not have the information that I needed when I began my research back in
> 2001, and many of the books are just beginning to catch up within the
> past two years. The point is this: once the technology has been employed
> in most, but not all cases, the critical analysis is often way too late.
> Where has the criticism been for the systemic erosion of individual
> rights versus strengthened corporate rights that has been going on since
> literally 1984 since the AT&T break up.
>
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Ted M Coopman
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 1:13 PM
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] questioning authority
>
> All,
>
> Ultimately, Wired is a just tech industry rag that reflects that
> industry's agendas, philosophies, and enthusiastic support of a
> particular form of global capitalism. If a researcher is interested in
> the impact, consumption habits, and trends of technology and culture in
> that sphere, then this is good place to start.
>
> Honestly, I find more worthwhile information and perspectives on the
> state of high tech in Wired than in most journals. After all, those
> individuals, companies, and products highlighted have a significant
> impact on how technology  is developed and packaged, which has a huge
> effect on the development of culture, social practice, and the economy.
> The bias in their representation should, like in all media, be taken as
> a given and a matter of degree.
>
> The critiques of Wired, as excluding alternative perspectives that
> represent critical analysis, excluding voices that don't adhere to its
> proto-libertarian philosophy or that challenge its Utopian approach to
> technology, and is at times sexist or classist, are valid, but not
> particularly surprising in the context of commercial trade or popular
> media.
>
> It seems obvious such a commercial enterprise would ignore these
> perspectives as antithetical to its basic philosophy and self-interest
> and those of its target readership. Virtually all commercial media,
> especially special interest/trade magazines, ignore systemic critiques.
> Why would Wired be any different?
>
> -TED
>
> Ted M. Coopman
> Department of Communication
> University of Washington
>
> On Thu, 29 Mar 2007, Peter Timusk wrote:
>
>> Of course and what the internet could become is almost meaningless
>> (through repetition) asked all the time. How do pop magazines mesh
>> with technology progress over time? How real are these next steps or
>> really different.
>>
>> Are there any models of this idea of the next step in the pop media or
>
>> technical press or even the academic press and consumer prices for
>> technology or Moore's law of decreasing processor size.
>>
>> As a further critique and why I am trying to do internet impact
>> studies I believe there was very little new written about the internet
>
>> in academia in the late and middle 1990's most was repetitive
>> scholarship.
>>
>> Wired has been well critiqued by women scholars that I know
>> of...mostly for sexism but also racism and abilist writing and being
>> highly pro capitalist. What is missing is the plain none hyped impacts
>
>> of the net.
>>
>> Witness my systems science course where we are studying bio-
>> evolutionary models of economics and evolutionary algorithms and not
>> one female scholar on our reading list. Very cool systems science
>> views NOT.
>>
>>
>> Peter Timusk,
>> B.Math statistics (2002), B.A. legal studies (2006) Carleton
>> University Systems Science Graduate student, University of Ottawa
> (2006-2007).
>> just trying to stay linear.
>> Read by hundreds of lurkers every week.
>>
>>>   In fact, I imagine there are significant, perhaps
>>> impossible-to-overcome, methodological hurdles for one who would
>>> attempt to decide or measure what the Internet "is [for]."
>>>
>>>
>>> Kevin
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>
>
>
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