[Air-L] history of Plato's Phaedrus as example of moral / media panic?

[Charles M. Ess]

Dear AoIRists,

Please be kind and patient with me, recalling that my formal academic 
training was in history of philosophy, German literature, and ancient 
Greek.  I am comparatively still a little wet around the ears with 
regard to media and communication studies - or so it seems in this instance.

I keep encountering discussions of moral / media panics that 
consistently invoke Plato's _myth_ of the invention of writing.

This seemingly standard invocation puzzles me greatly for a long list of 
reasons.  I include a short list below for anyone with time and interest 
in looking them over.

The upshot is that I'm left wondering: who - and when - introduced what 
has apparently become received tradition in these domains that the 
mythos (see "2" below) of the invention of writing in the Phaedrus is a 
prime or supportive example moral or media panic?

This is, as they say in administration-speak, an appreciative inquiry. 
I'm genuinely curious for the sake of better understanding how this 
trope first appeared, etc - as well as genuine worried that I may have 
somehow missed something that is considered elementary and obvious for 
those of you with academic training more directly within media and 
communication studies.

Many thanks in advance for any enlightenment and eludation!
best,
- charles ess

PS: The short list includes:
1) the account is taken (bloody and screaming) out of the context of the 
larger dialogue in the Phaedrus. When read within the larger context - 
beginning with (the young) Phaedrus' effort to impress (perhaps seduce) 
Socrates by memorizing a speech he has copied down on a scroll and 
initially tries to hide from Socrates - the mythos works much more 
immediately as a lightly veiled (and hence, pedagogically speaking, 
likely more successful) chastisement of Phaedrus' efforts at 
dissimulation.  By no means a wholesale critique of writing per se.
2) The account is explicitly delivered as a _mythos_ - too easily 
translated as a "myth." But: a _mythos_ in Plato is a technical / 
philosophical form, going well beyond and in some ways directly 
contradicting more everyday notions of "myth" as a false story; a mythos 
is specifically an _oral_ story, with its own set of distinctive 
strengths and limitations. It is often used in Plato when interlocutors, 
attempting to pursue a reasoned argument (logos), come to an impass. 
The relation between mythos and logos is hence often complementary, not 
contradictory.
3) It would seem very odd for an author of multiple dialogues, of 
sometimes staggering sophistication and literary nuance, to sincerely 
believe that writing is somehow an entirely suspect technology. 
Different from orality, certainly, as is suggested by the consistent 
presentation of Socrates as an oral teacher, the careful use of mythos 
vs. logos, etc. - but hardly an example of media / moral panic.
And so on.
Again: what am I missing?

Again, many thanks,
- c.
-- 
Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>

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