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

Wed Apr 24 10:45:44 PDT 2019

Hi Thomas,

thanks, and forgive me for being somewhat vague in this regard.
I'm reluctant to provide specific examples because my intent is not to 
develop or direct a critique against specific authors / colleagues, or 
even give the impression thereof.  It is rather, as stated, a genuine 
concern that I've missed something somehow and am curious about the 
history of the trope.

So perhaps a generic description will do?  An author/s seek to build a 
case that criticisms of a specific new media technology / use are 
somehow off the mark or misleading as the these criticisms can rather be 
understood to fit the model of a media panic.  E.g., Tindr and other 
hook-up apps are not necessarily the end of real romance and deep 
relationships; these reactions are rather a media panic - one that 
overlooks several positives uncovered by more careful / empirical analysis.

To be sure, such an account can be built - and, in my reading, often so 
- quite carefully and successfully.

Often, these accounts (rightly) draw on Kirsten Drotner's Dangerous 
Media? Panic Discourses and Dilemmas of Modernity, Paedagogica 
Historica: International Journal of the History of Education, 35:3, 593-619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0030923990350303
To be explicit, Kirsten does _not_ invoke Plato or the Phaedrus, but 
rather begins her exquisite account with panics surrounding print media. 
  In addition, building in part on the work of Stanley Cohen (1972), 
Kirsten develops a very helpful taxonomy of primary criteria of such panics.

At least on occasion, however, as the argument continues, in providing a 
few examples of earlier moral / media panics to helpfully illustrate 
what these are, an author will further invoke the mythos of the 
invention of writing in the Phaedrus as just such an example of a media 
/ moral panic.  Doing so aims at establishing a (broad) conclusion to 
the effect that we always panic with the emergence of new media - but 
this is more or less absurd, i.e., look at Plato's critique of writing. 
By the same token, critiques of new technology X (e.g., Tindr, but the 
list is all but endless, of course) are (ridiculous) media / moral 
panics and so critiques  of new technology X can be easily dismissed.

(There's a second logical problem in at least some examples of this 
argument - namely, the fallacy of affirming the consequent.  Roughly:
If you have a strong example of a moral / media panic --> (then) you 
will find X out of Y criteria (as listed by Drotner and/or others).
SO: if I find X out of Y criteria surrounding media coverage of new 
technology x --> THEN I can conclude the criticisms included here are 
but instances of moral panic and, by implication, deserve no further 
attention.
This is a variation of the social science chestnut that correlation does 
not equal causation.)

I hope this helps give a better sense of the argument strand / trope I'm 
curious about?

Again, many thanks
- c.

On 24/04/2019 18:50, Thomas Ball wrote:
> Dr Ess-
>     This is a challenging query. One thing that might help orient 
> potential respondents would be for you to cite one or two articles 
> exemplifying "moral / media panics that
> consistently invoke Plato's _myth_ of the invention of writing."
>     As it is, we're left guessing what you have in mind.
> Thank you,
> Best regards,
> Thomas
> 
> On Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 12:37 PM Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess at media.uio.no 
> <mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>> wrote:
> 
>     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 <mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>
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-- 
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