McLuhan's Effect on my Own Work

Marshall Mcluhan's quote ''The medium is the message'' has featured in several of my modules, especially in relation to my production piece in Creative Practice. By method of including no dialogue in our production we allowed the semiotics/medium (Shot in black and white, and with use of stand-out coloured balloons to represent emotion.) to portray to the audience what the narrative and events actually are. This was a powerful yet complex method of our narrative.

Privacy

Privacy is a huge concern in our lives, and with so much of our life being taken over by surveillance, it’s hard to relax knowing you’re under a watchful eye. Behavioural targeting refers to online behaviour tracking, for example; tracking your browsing history. The purpose behind this is to be able to implement advertising that conforms more to your own repertoire. This caused uproar amongst  campaigners and privacy activists who argued that behavioural targeting is unnecessary and should instead conform to contextual targeting, an point first argued by Westin, in 1967. Now 43 years down the line, behavioural targeting is still very much a part of our online society. An arguement in favour of behavioural targeting suggests that all online activity is communication and not just social networking. However, I would argue that typing details into a machine, for your own personal use does not count as communication, because you are not aiming your needs or requests at another person. And although i do agree it is a clever advertising technique, it still interferes with a consumer’s privacy and can certain people quite paranoid. 

Social Media

Social media has taken the web by storm in the last five years. It is part of a new generation of Media that has seen the web transform from a source of information, or web 1.0, into a more participatory web (web 2.0) which has introduced file sharing, collaborations and user-created content. Also a part of 2.0 are wiki’s and blogs. A much more social community on the World Wide Web has broken out and the main use of the internet today is based upon communication. Digital Social Networks such as Facebook and Twitter are used for friends and colleagues to communicate online. Facebook actually changed the way people connect as friends can now see what their pals are up to and how they’re feeling. Sites like these demote the need for telephones and physically spending time with people. And again it relates to privacy matters, as people can see what you’re up to, your interests, friends etc. Also a big part of 2.0 is Immaterial Labour; producing material online. An example of this is Wikipedia, a user-influenced source of information. Which is different from crowd sourcing because it is more factual, rather than being forum-orientated and self-participatory.

Surveillance

Surveillance has developed very quickly since being introduced in the 1980’s.  Kristie Ball and Frank Webster mention the risks of surveillance in their book ‘Intensification of Surveillance’.  Back when surveillance was first introduced, it was relatively low key, but through time it has become a big part of our lives. In this day in age, we are monitored throughout most of the day, whether it be on a high street CCTV or a purchase made online. Surveillance has become a huge priority, especially in the last decade because of terrorist attacks i.e. 9/11. The idea of surveillance interferes with the privacy we as people would like. Telephone calls can be tracked, text messages, time and place we last used our credit cards, job, location, phone number, email are all part of big databases. We accept this negligence towards our privacy because we believe the purpose of it is to keep us safe, but this notion can never truly be justified. 

Networks and Digitality

Networks have been around for centuries, the first being shipping trade networks. However, the first networks that would lead to today’s advanced network would be ones introduced during the 1800’s, these were simple telegraph poles which allowed communication via Morse code.

Fast forward to the 20^th century and communicating has become alot more easy and accessible. Castel referred to the ‘suppression of space and annihilation of time’ which is the notion that communication via networks demolishes the time and space variables, so now communication is instantaneous.  For example via email, text message and many other internet based facilities.

Moving on and Futurism is a concept that looks ahead to see what change may lie ahead in the future, specifically the pace of change, scope of change, and life in the future.  With networks and communication developing and improving scarily quick, what lies ahead? We already have an online identity, an electrical identity that suggests it matters more what exists of us in terms of data than who we actually are.  And with technology still at an early age, there is still alot of room for development.

Advertising

Different forms of advertising influence how each individual lives their lives each day. Such is the power of mass corporate advertising in today’s world, it basically controls the decisions we make; Which brand? From which store? For what purpose? This relates to Baudrillard’s quote ‘How free are we to choose?’ because in the modern era advertising is everywhere. No matter what you do during a day, you will see many adverts whether they be on billboards, viral, radio, television or even in films you watch. Brand reputation is huge in advertising. It’s unlikely that a company who have not yet broke into the market will make an influential ad when compared to giants such as Nike, who have a recognised worldwide slogan – ‘Just do it.’ Such is their reputation they do not have to sell their products via advertising, instead they advertise the aspiration around sport, almost as a motivating tool to make want to exercise/participate in sport, in which case the most likely sportswear they go out and buy will be Nike.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a common feature amongst much of todays Media, mainly in TV. It is the referencing of one text within another. Reasons that Intertextuality may be used include the fact that the audience get a fuller understanding of the concept/narrative/joke on display, or if used in such a widespread narrative it can attract an audience of a wider nature, for example; the concept of gameshow ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ is used as a narrative structure in the British film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.  An example of intertextuality outside of Film/TV is a music video by Gwen Stefani where she references Alice in Wonderland. The example below shows animated TV series Family Guy heavily referencing Star Wars.