[Air-L] suggestions for movies on communication technology and social change

Wed Jul 13 05:19:21 PDT 2016

Great thread indeed!
I hold the now very old view (first articulated by Robert Cathcart and Gary
Gumpert, "The Person-Computer Interaction: A Unique Source," in Information
and Behavior, vol. 1, ed. Brent D. Ruben (New Brunswick: NJ: Transaction
Books, 1985) that social robots are media and communication devices, and
hence deserve attention from the perspectives of media and communication
studies, as well as religious and philosophical studies.
In these directions - what has not been mentioned yet are the movies
Metropolis (Lang 1927) and Bladerunner (1982).  Metropolis literally sets
the stage for the theme of the robot who cannot be distinguished from a
human - and more directly, what our colleague Mia Consalvo has identified
as the trope of the "techno-femme fatale" (2004) - "Maria" in Metropolis
(who is explicitly set up to play the Whore of Babylon, among other types),
and Priss  in Bladerunner - and in these ways serve as direct ancestors of
Eva in Ex Machina.
Broadly, these new devices are generally represented as mechanical versions
of the Frankenstein monster, whose introduction into society leads to
disasters of one form or another - e.g., the revolt of the workers and the
erotically induced madness of the ruling class in Metropolis, the various
threats of replicants turning on their makers in Bladerunner, and ditto for
Ex Machina.  More specifically, they literally embody the demonization of
women, body, and sexuality that follows from Augustine's teachings on
"Original Sin"
- (i.e., a late interpretation of the 2nd Genesis creation story that
faults the woman for primal disobedience and thus primary responsibility
for "the Fall" - in contrast with more orthodox Jewish, early Christian,
and American Deist readings that foreground the woman as choosing agency,
rationality, and adult-like responsibility as part of the earthlings'
growing up, thus helping to argue for both democratic polity broadly [we
are creatures capable of self-rule] and gender equality more specifically)
- hence the "techno-femme fatale" who will likewise turn on and destroy its
/ "her" creator(s).

What is striking to me is how far this Augustinian reading continues to
undergird even more contemporary and ostensibly more secular approaches to
emerging technologies - including Gibson's construction of a body-less
cyberspace that explicitly invokes Augustinian language of "the Fall", and
certainly the Eva (Eve/Adam) of Ex Machina.
New technologies and social change? Yes, certainly - but insofar as I have
all of this more or less correctly, what is striking is how much the
Augustinian framework - often carried through a more secular Cartesianism -
still shapes foundational and thereby largely negative assumptions about
women, body, and sexuality.
Or, as the French would say, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (the
more things change, the more they remain the same, approximately).

Enjoy!
- charles ess
Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>

Editor, The Journal of Media Innovations
<https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/>

Postboks 1093
Blindern 0317
Oslo, Norway
c.m.ess at media.uio.no

On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 12:58 PM, Michael T Zimmer <zimmerm at uwm.edu> wrote:

> Yes! Other pre-digital reflections on information technology & society
> would be Radio Days, and perhaps even The Name of the Rose.
>
> --
> Michael Zimmer, PhD
> Associate Professor, School of Information Studies
> Director, Center for Information Policy Research
> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
> e: zimmerm at uwm.edu
> w: www.michaelzimmer.org
>
>
> > On Jul 13, 2016, at 3:39 AM, Joshua Braun <jabraun at journ.umass.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > Since your request includes broadcast-era media, I'm surprised no one
> has yet mentioned Network (1976). Such a brilliant satirical and hilarious
> take on the commercialization of media that also speaks to the current
> obsession with analytics.
> >
> > Josh
> >
> >
> > On 2016-07-12 22:33, Paul Henman wrote:
> >> Dear colleagues
> >> I am teaching a course on media, culture and society, and am
> >> introducing a new assessment piece - a movie review.
> >> I am going to give students a selection of movies to choose from that
> >> have as a key element the role of communications technologies
> >> (including social media) on social change, social relations and
> >> identify.
> >> I have already identified the following:
> >> *         Her - on operating systems and the self
> >> *         The Truman Show - on reality tv and public/private nexus
> >> *         The Enemy of the State - on surveillance technologies
> >> *         You've got mail (maybe) - on email and relationships
> >> *         Good morning Vietnam (maybe) - on radio and community building
> >> I welcome any other suggestions and commendations.  They can be old
> >> technologies, current or predicted new ones (ie sci fi).
> >> Paul
> >> Paul Henman
> >> Associate Professor of Social Policy and Sociology
> >> Head of Sociology
> >> Program Director, BSocSci
> >> School of Social Science
> >> University of Queensland  QLD  4072
> >> T: +61 7 3365 2765 | E: P.Henman at uq.edu.au<mailto:P.Henman at uq.edu.au>
> >> | W: www.digitalsocialpolicy.com<http://www.digitalsocialpolicy.com/>
> >> Recent publications:
> >> 'Population health performance as primary healthcare
> >> governance<http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/J7ntAVEWvxBzbChMzv4e/full
> >'
> >> Policy and Society (2016, with M. Foster et al)
> >> '"Schooling" performance
> >> measurement<https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:354448>', Policy
> >> and Society(2015, with A. Gable)
> >> 'Networks of Communities and Communities of Networks in Online
> >> Government<http://www.ejeg.com/issue/download.html?idArticle=347>'
> >> Electronic Journal of e-Government (2014, with R Ackland, T Graham)
> >> Government and the Internet, in W. Dutton (ed) The Oxford Handbook of
> >> Internet
> >> Studies<
> http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199589074.do#.USJX6Og7i_E>
> >> (2014)
> >> UQ ALLY  - Supporting the diversity of sexuality and gender identity at
> UQ.
> >> CRICOS Provider Number: 00025B
> >> _______________________________________________
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