W7-W12 Power, Culture, Invidual

Condition of Exhaustion

• Exhaustion of spatial perspective and temporal distance in Virilio's screen
• 1st window: door-window
• 2nd window: light-window
• 3rd window: television and computer terminal as historical successors and departures from prior windows

Simulacra

• 1st order: counterfeit
• 2nd order: mechanical reproduction transforms status of product
• 3rd order: simulation with digital reproduction, questions of originality and reality drop out altogether

Hyperreality

• Culture where fantastical creations of media, film, and computer technologies are more real than reality
• No distinction between object and sign
• No difference between reality and its representation

Baudrillard's Simulation

• No longer access to reality, only clash of simulations
• Culture without any reference to reality, only simulations

Nation State and Community

The Peace of Westphalia

• States not allowed to interfere with other states
• Found in Europe

Nation-State as Imagined Community (Benedict Anderson)

• Nation is an imagined political community
• Nationalism complicated, viewed in terms of religion and kinship rather than ideology

Nationalism and the Nation-State

• Nation-state formed due to loss of religious community and wane of monarchy
• Simultaneity is necessary
• Print-capitalism involved

Hybridity

• Definition: network of information flow or communication grids within and outside national boundaries
• Can media create a community, contributing to solidarity among members?

Ritual and Symbolism

• Politics expressed through symbolism and ritual
• Symbolism helps recognize who is powerful
• Manipulating symbols reinforces authority
• Rituals change, new ones arise, old ones fade
• Organizations exist through symbolic representation
• Symbols can be objects, people, or heroic leaders

Political Spectacle

• Lavish public performance or display
• Shaping modern society, politics, and social life
• Mediated through media culture and consumer society

Guy Debord: Society of the Spectacle

• Live in a society organized around production and consumption of images, commodities, and staged events
• Embodies contemporary society's basic values

Characteristics of Spectacles

• Infotainment society
• Transfixed by packaging, display, and consumption of commodities
• Includes sports, film, television, fashion, pop music
• Invades every aspect of experience
• Enters new form of technocapitalism

The Ecstasy of Communication (Jean Baudrillard)

• Basic structure of society is consumption, not production
• Mass media enables consumption of all possible spectacles

Speed and Acceleration (Paul Virilio)

• Speed overlooked in history
• Geography subordinated to communications technology
• Screen technologies ubiquitous
• Division between public and private spaces altered
• Private home increasingly deterritorialized by transnational media

Atopia and Diaspora

• Technology's role in viewing community
• Media technologies enable diaspora members to retain ties to their homeland

Cultural Impact of Globalization

Cultural Differentiation

• "Clash of civilizations"
• Cultural convergence and homogenization
• "Global spread of American values"

The End of History

• Thumos: human beings driven by recognition
• Liberal democracy must leave room for difference
• Predicts liberal democracy, but cultural differences will remain

Clash of Civilizations

• Nine civilizations: West, East Europe, Greater China, Islamic belt, India, Japan, Latin America, Buddhist zone, Sub-Saharan Africa
• Conflicts will accumulate at fault lines between civilizations
• Western power will decline over time### The Sporting Spectacle
• The proliferation of sports coverage in North America has created a "society of spectacle" where sports and media are intricately linked.
• Guy Debord's concept of "society of spectacle" refers to a society organized around the production and consumption of images, commodities, and staged events.
• Media spectacles, such as the Super Bowl, have common elements such as symbolic representations of participation and dramatize controversies and struggles.
• Television is a medium of spectacular programs that tell us how to appear and behave.

Media and Sports

• The relationship between sports and media can be viewed as symbiotic, with each relying on the other for survival.
• The NFL's relationship with television is a prime example, with American television contracts from 2022-2033 earning the NFL over $100 billion.
• The Super Bowl is a perfect example of mediatization, where media becomes an integral part of other social institutions.
• The Super Bowl pre-game show has become increasingly spectacularized, with networks using synergy to promote themselves and integrate into the content of the program.

Alternative Media

• Alternative media provides different frameworks for newsgathering and interpretation, normalization of access for marginalized voices, and covers stories ignored by mainstream media.
• Alternative media can be seen as a response to mainstream media's characterization of certain events and provides a different perspective.
• There are different ways of viewing alternative media, including as a blanket term, dealing with opinions of small minorities, and expressing attitudes hostile to widely held beliefs.
• Alternative media can also be viewed as a way to politicize "repression of events" and provide a platform for people who don't have a voice in mainstream media.

Spectacle and the Super Bowl

• The Super Bowl is a spectacle that breeds more intense spectacles, blurring the line between content and promotion.
• The Super Bowl pre-game show is an example of synergy, with networks using it to promote themselves and integrate into the content of the program.
• The Super Bowl embodies American values and consumerism, and is subject to media logic.

More on Spectacle

• Spectacles, such as the OJ Simpson trial, disrupt ordinary and habitual flows of information, fixating attention on events that distract people from pressing issues of everyday life.
• Spectacles can define entire periods of culture and politics, and can be argued to be generated by media to attract audiences.
• The OJ Simpson trial was a media-mediated spectacle that revealed social conflicts, dominant values, and politics.

Movies and the Military

• The movie industry is influential globally, and American movies can potentially serve as a powerful form of propaganda for the national security establishment in the US.
• The US military has had a long-standing relationship with Hollywood, with the Pentagon's Motion Picture Production Office working with Hollywood filmmakers to co-produce war scripts and provide access to military equipment and personnel.
• The partnership between Hollywood and the military has led to the creation of "militainment" products that glorify the Department of Defense at war.