‘The media are not so much ‘things’ as places which most of us inhabit which weave in and out of our lives.’
– Branston and Stafford 2010, The medias student’s book 5th ed, NY: Rout Ledge
In the lectorial we discussed the different sources of media and the debate between mediated and unmediated communications. In modern society today we experience the social world predominately through texts, books, media and newspaper, which many of us now find through a screen device. In pre-modern society it can be seen that the social world was predominately experienced through face to face interactions and direct experience rather then second-hand sources. If I think back to my childhood before I owned a mobile phone (which I received in the fifth grade) in order to socialise with people I would either call them on the home land-line or chat on the old ‘MSN’. This does seem rather similiar to today’s culture, however the key difference is catching up with people face to face relied solely on trust that the other person would actually show up, since there was no phone to text them or instant message them. I realise that now it is a lot easier to change plans with easy access to wireless on phone or simply planning different actives on the go by simply googling. I don’t think this new ‘era’ of technology is ultimately a BAD thing, but rather human society’s progression in technology.
Next we discussed noticing media in everyday life. There are many forms of media that we pass every single day and either consciously or subconsciously we don’t really notice it at all. After the lectorial a group of us went on a little trip to consciously observe the media in Melbourne Central which can be read about in this post.