After today’s class, write a 250-word summary of your reading from Lisa Gitelman’s Always, Already New and our discussion of it during lecture. Think about how Gitelman’s argument connects to the other readings by McLuhan, and Bolter and Grusin. Submit your summary as a comment to this blog post.
Folklore.org: The Original Macintosh
Thomas Edison’s R&D: Edison and Menlo Park
Museum of Art and Design film series on “Plastic Futures and Millennial Tensions.” It includes some great films including Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, The Fifth Element, Hackers, and Strange Days. Student tickets are only $5. More info is available here:Â https://madmuseum.org/series/plastic-futures-and-premillennial-tensions.
Lisa Gitelman’s “Always, Already New” she also reference different things about using technology. She also brings up the NASDAQ which is a stock market for people who likes to earn money through their technology. This is also an influence in the world and those companies, and other companies are using these technologies are helping them create more money for their companies. She talks about how photography is also helping with a different representation of the subject that also help with the media because all of these photos, video, and etc are used to help people understand more about how this can change the language in people lives. She brings in the historical issues into this to let people have a better understanding of how technology has involved over time and that our language also has improved for the better too. This also brings a better understanding of the technology and helping us understand the hardware and software are working on the computer that we use in our present time. She wanted people to understand the technology we are using are always being developed every day and that it changes over time. We can see that technology is changing because there is always some new technology that is out and everyone would go and get it because they want to be up to date with all these new inventions. While all of this technology is being created so are the software and people would need to learn how to use them because the software is no longer that same and that it has changed over the years.
In class, we have considered different views of media, and what it is comprised of. We have most recently discussed the idea that new media is made of old media. Marshall McLuhan says that the “Medium is the Message”. Lisa Gitelman, who is a media historian, gives us an expansion of the definition of media, based upon and deconstructing other writers’ views. In her piece “Always, Already New”, she sees media as an outcome of social structures, where it is engraved in our culture. For her, to understand media, we need to understand the social and historical aspects of any individual media we are studying. Also, for Gittelman, media is a technology which comes in between other technology. The example used in class was a phone, where the phone is the medium by which I can communicate with the person on the other line. It mediates communication in a way which our voices can be heard by each other instantaneously. We can also say that media represents something else, and with the example just given, the voice on a phone is the representation. Gitelman also says that media follows Friedrich Kittler’s “Logic of Escalation”, where tech isn’t an extension to man, rather it is left behind in history. Overall, with the transparency of modern media, where we don’t realise it is in our everyday lives, we can say that media influences how we see, think, and how we communicate with each other. In many ways, we can actually say it is doing these thing literally, rather than figuratively through the lens of a school of thought.
Lisa Gitelman’s “Always, Already New” kind of have some similarities to the previous works, we have done before such as “The medium is the message” by McLuhan—which brings the social and historical structures of our understanding of media. This essay made us question the reality of what new media actually is. Since it has been living with us in the past few centuries. She used the examples of early recording sounds and digital networks. She recognizes technology based in the way we use and develop it. Referring of how we would ask for a computer using cultural perspectives to illuminate how we would also use it; in order to show that it’s dependence is associated with people. She demonstrated how media is technologies of representative to represent other things such as “ideas” based on the way we use it. She talked about the way in which these technologies that influence how we interact with each other, impact language because it is how we communicate with one another. The fact that technology is
changeable and it changes over-time, it gave us a brief summary of what Gitelman was trying to demonstrate. Old media is also the new media except it develops with the development of people’s culture as well as time. As discussed in class that, this particular essay didn’t talk about language itself but in order to look at it this way we would have to look about previous aspects of technology and how it would either influence technology or improve it in one form or another.
Lisa Gitelman is a media historian who traces pattern with new media and older media. She discusses the history of media where she explains the separation of culture. Her book brings the social and historical meaning behind technology. She views media as a “Socially realised structures of communication and complicated historical subjects. Gitelman believes that technology forms and have associated protocols that we need to understand, and the complexity of social and historical forces of media. I agree with this statement because we need to understand the technology we use and its complexity in order to operate it precisely. In her writing “Always, Already New”, she views media as result of our current social structures, where it is considered part of our culture. She believes mediums are technology because they mediate us with the technological world. I agree with her statement because this generation tends to give immense acknowledgement and priority to media. Whatever news media portrays we end up believing it weather it is fully accurate or not. Adolescents, teens, and adults follow trends broadcasted by media which are overly popularized by famous celebrities, social media influencers, and socialists. Technology usage is also popularized by the way we use and present it. For example a laptop or smartphone, two very important and popular technical devices; the way we use it and prioritize it conveys its importance in our lives and its negative/positive impacts of it in our lives. Media and technology greatly impacts what we perceive, how we value things, and communicate with one another whether we realise its impingement on our everyday lives.
Lisa Gitelmans’ Always, Already New essay is explaining to the readers communication is a critical factor in economics. Communication is critical in a broader sense and language specifically jargon associated with the technology is key to produce the product available to send out to the masses. But communication isn’t the way that we might think, the communication she is referring to is work cultures. The dominant manager will take the credit for the product however Lisas’ argument is majority of the time the product can not have been completed with the help of the staff who uses language to form the technology. Lisas’ view is shared by many yet not given the credit that it deserves. In our society credit is given to the “Entrepreneur”, “Investors”, and others who have capital to start a plan. But without the help of the employees the inventors plan will not manifest and even more important the lack of understanding the language of the plan will further impede the inventors plan. This theory makes logical sense because todays day and age there are so many examples like Apple, Microsoft and others who can’t physically produce all their producing without the help of others. and how are the others qualified to help industries is to study in college or self learning the techniques through language to understand plans which managers have in mind.
Language replaces distortion with logic. Ideas are shared through language. I agree.
After reading Lisa Gitelman’s “Always, Already New” her ideology closely interweaves with McLuhan and Kleins’ ideology when it comes to technology and media. In similar, in my opinion there was a stronger relationship with McLuhan simply because both closely believed that there was some form of medium being the centerpiece of a lot of our media. The way media is interpreted is from how we see things, how we use language and how we communicate with others. Media is responsible for a lot of the messaging it does with other people; we are focusing on this media technology in a method where we have been able to mediate our expansion of the world. Gitelman understands that through the history of social and cultural changes, this has allowed the continuation of new technologies to be created overtime. Also, she looks at the way we use and build technology both operating on a software level and the hardware level through electrical impulses. She believes that everything is dependent on these layers of technology. The term lore is composed of stories and mythology where we tell how things become the way they are. This was one of the beliefs Lisa Gitelman used in evaluating the media of today’s generation.
Another major point Gitelman enforced was social structure. The interaction with others and how we work with other people plays a significant role in the way innovation of new media and technology allows for great ideas to come about. Through this structure, we must use language to talk about how we want to create something, figuring out how to assemble something requires communication through oral gestures. Others may also communicate to someone through body language.
A pioneer that is responsible for much of our technology advancement was Thomas Edison. He had one of the first Research and Development Laboratories where he took it to an industrial level. A gentleman named Hugo Gernsback took notice of this individual because he was fascinated that this man could create so many inventions and patent so many inventions he just knew that he had to embrace such a genius. At the time Gernsback started selling magazines on how to build a radio or battery. These magazines helped him sell the parts for the items he discussed in his magazines. Eventually, he would ask Edison if he could take a picture of his hands because he believed those were the “Hands of a Genius,” he fed into the mythology of this inventor.
Summary of Lisa Gitelman’s “Always, Already New”
Gitelman is known for her work with tracing patterns of new media that become meaningful within and against old media. She has a PhD from Columbia and now works at NYU’s department of English. She defines media as “socially realized structures of communication, where structures include both technological forms and their associated protocols, and where communication is a cultural practice.”
Gitelman details the complexity of media and how it is not simply an artifact or technology, but the systems, effects, and channels in which make the medium possibile. This includes the lineage of emerging media, and the historical developments that have lead to the form of the new medium.
Gitelman explains that media is a technology of representation, because the much of the entirety of “media” goes unnoticed. Like lore, the most fascinating and apparent pieces stand out causing a “culture,” while the protocols and mechanisms operate broadly unsuspecting. She states that media is not due to “isolated geniuses working their magic.” Media is the convergence of a chain reaction of voice, image, and ideas. By broadening our perspective on media as a whole, we can more tactfully understand how they are applied and impactful.
Gitelman describes how media influences how we think and how we see things within our culture. Being that media is between ourselves and the outside world, it shapes how we use language to communicate with others. The language we use to send messages to others relies on the impressions already made by the media itself.
Lisa Gitelman’s “Always Already New Media, History, and the Data of Culture” examines media as historical subjects. Gitelman describes the relationship between our sense of history and our experience of inscription, of writing, print, photography, sound recording, cinema and newer digital technologies as an inseparable one. Gitelman provides an interesting outlook into how intertwined these things are with our everyday lives. An interesting example Gitelman provides is inscriptions and their importance in science. Inscription is something we take for granted. We see it and use it everywhere but yet if someone would ask us about the relevance and prevalence of inscription we most likely would not be able to provide an answer like Gitelman and Bruno Latour who describe inscription as absolutely critical to our lives. Examples of how important inscription really is can be see almost everywhere in society such as street signs and the circulation of scientific data. Gitelman describes the functionality of these inscriptions as “difficult to parse” because of the complex contextual situations surrounding each item. Aside from the differences shared by inscriptions Gitelman describes the one relationship all inscriptions have in common; the relationship with the past. All inscriptions we see relate to the past some way or another. Gitelman then talks about inscriptions in digital forms. She mentions that even though the methods behind digitized inscriptions are a mystery to her they are still there. Even with newer technologies and methodologies inscriptions are present and play a huge role in our lives. Gitelman title is witty and goes well with her content.
In Gitelman’s article called Media, History, and the Data of Culture, he speaks upon how media is a “socially realized structures”. Media is a part of what social and historical understanding of the medium. Media is what is known as complicated and, but a unique form of subjects. The media that we use is what is taken from as an influence in order to see and understand how to communicate with one another as a form of language. For example, Gitelman uses the WWW otherwise known as the World Wide Web as a part of one prime example of our historical context and where it started from.
Media is what everyone now looks for information and to understand media one has to bring in social and historical facts. Media needs language to communicate between the audience and the speaker. The media changes depending on how the society changes, because of how the new media values individuality. For example, the hyperlink which caters to the user’s taste and interests. Society has changed from valuing the individuality than conformity. During the post-industrial society, people had to pick which lifestyle they wanted from what was offered but now the people are seen as individual and cater to them as themselves. Media is a technology of representation which represents someone else. Gitelman says that these technologies rely on people and culture that builds and defines them. Media can be some’s voice or image or other ideas and Gitelman informs us what and how we understand media and how we use media. The media Media is what people bring what the users experience the outside world and to themselves. Many people rely on media to get information that one themselves don’t know themselves, so media is what connects them to the outside world. New media allows one to have the same information to be different like if they are in different users. Another way that new media changes society is the constant updates that users get, also it is scalability which is how different versions of the same message can be told in many ways. Also, media is programmable and is able to be changed.
In Lisa Gitelman’s Always, Already New, she discusses the importance of how new, new media actually is. While doing so she eventually has the readers questioning how new media works. Lisa Gitelman is a media historian. She recieved her PhD in English form Columbia. She is a professor at NYU, works in the department of English and Media. She explains how new media is meaningful. She goes on to say that , “Media are socially realized structures”. Lisa Gitelman says that media are , “ unique complicated historical subjects. We can trace media back to before the 1800’s. Media is always changing which is part of the reason why it’s complicated. I guess in order to understand media or new media you would first have to understand the complexity of historical structures. “Media are technologies that mediate our experience of the world and others”. That right there is probably one of the most accurate quotes that I’ve heard. Media changes how we see each other and how we see the world. You don’t think about it but once you hear it, you start to think like oh snap you right. Many things that happen right in front of our eyes b7t we are oblivious to these things. Lisa Gitelman raises an excellent point. In which I think others might need to hear.
In Lisa Gitelman, “Always Already New Media, History, and the Data of Culture” she echos, Marshall McLuhan, ”medium is the message”, Friedrich Kittler’s “Logic of Escalation”, where technology is left behind in history. Gitelman adds her argument, that media and their publics coevolve”, to their claims. She gives two good examples and in each case, “new” media has stretched the boundaries of already extant experiences of preservation and communication, drawing on and interpreted within previous conceptions of print, text, and media while also pushing such concepts in new directions. Gitelman gave the example of how one term coined to meanings from different era’s, as media and the public coevolved so did the term and technology. Through the history of social and cultural changes, technology has evolved right along with it. This essay does not talk much on the relationship between tech and language , you have to look deeper into the technology, the people the need and etc. For example, a tablet was used to record language, it was made of stone, originally) and the writing done by a metal stylus: combining sound to visual art. The tablet today still does the same thing and so does a stylus: yet they are made of more modern materials , easier to use, portable and digitized. The term changed as humans evolved as did the technology and use.
Gitelman’s “Always Ready New”, explores the idea that new media affects media history.
Lisa Gitelman is currently a professor at New York University (NYU) in the English and Media department. She is a media historian who studies American print culture, techniques of inscription, and the new media of nowadays and of the past. New media created ontologies for us, Gitelman believes that we need to be aware of how the new medias are creating a certain ontology for us which can affect the way humans act and interact with others. She speaks about how there is so much information that the media is giving off, and they all live in a digital form, accessible at anytime and anywhere in a hidden form. The media is merely hidden, and not invisible; because it is a medium of progression, allowing for advancements in history. Dr. Gitelman is encouraging us to be cognizant of these technologies and media, much as Donna Haraway cautioned us to be aware of the tools and technologies around us. In Haraway’s case, she feared we might become oppressed by technology if not aware of its scope and power. In Dr. Gitelman’s case, she is more concerned with the impact media and technology will unconsciously have on our world views, our ontologies, if we are not making a concerted effort to be aware of them. Gitlman mentions McLuhan who we read in class and he ties in with his phrase “the median is the message.” When Gitlman talks about the “media” it’s the median and thas how we receive our information and also the media plays an important role in technological development. All together she gives us a good understanding of media and the role that it plays. She takes us on a journey while exploring the newness of new media and she certainly has us thinking.
Lisa Gitelman, Always Already New, brings social and historical to our understanding of media. She defines media as “socially realised structures of communication where communication is a cultural practice as ritualised co-location of different people on the same mental map sharing or engaged with popular anthologies of representation as such media are unique and complicated historical subjects. The histories must be social and cultural, not the stories of how one tech leads to another or isolated geniuses working on the world. Kitler says “logic of escalation” but Gitelman says it relies on people and culture to build and define those technologies. We need to understand the complexity of the historical and cultural forces by and to media in order to understand them.