One of this week’s readings was by Lisa Gitelman, Lisa. Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture.
This will be another list-y type of reading reaction because again the same old excuse exists, I have been super busy with other assignments and it was my birthday yesterday. I’m 20 and hating it.
So here are a few key points from this reading that stood out to me:
1. The word ‘media’ is used too vaguely. It is a plural term not singular. I have to say even at RMIT the term ‘the media’ is constantly used so I found this interesting. Also, because of this it becomes hard to talk about ‘media’ with precision as “specificity is key”.
2. We haven’t reached the end of media’s history and modernism isn’t complete.
3. “Old media” is still media even though it can be considered “unacceptably unreal”. All new media has come from somewhere and it’s functionality has an integral sense of past.
4. When we use media we are interacting with developments of the past. The example which I found interesting was the use of a telephone. When we call someone we don’t think about the way it works or how it was invented. What we do though, is use the context of telephoning to determine what we say and how we say it. I know that my voice definitley changes on the phone, sometimes depending on who I’m talking to. For example when my boss calls me I’m going to sound a lot more enthused than when one of my best friends do.
– Caitlin
