Week 07 Agenda

Tasks Due Today from Week 6

• Review Week 6 Agenda
• Revise/review your Reading Response Response #4
• Review Context and Representation concepts and vocabulary
• Complete first draft of Research Essay – Stereotype in Advertising
• Submit Week 6 Agenda Checklist

This Week’s Topics

• Checkin
• Freewrite – Art of Noticing
• Research Essay- Feedback/Discussion
• The Medium is The Message
• Social Media is The Message
• Research Essay – Stereotype in Advertising
• Week 7 Agenda Checklist

Check-in (10 min)

Freewrite – The Art of Noticing (10 min)

Activity: Turn to the person sitting next to you and create a contour drawing of their face or hands (whichever they prefer). Notice! (3 minutes)

Prompt: In your language of choice, write continuously in your notebook for 10 minutes about what you noticed this week when completing the task. Don’t edit, or correct, don’t stop, just write. Feel free to share or not.

This week’s task brought to you by Andre:

Notice the weirdest thing in the room and ask about it…

Whether you are in someone’s home, office, or business, determine which is the most inexplicable and unlikely object you can see. Then ask, “So what’s the story with that?” Chances are, a memorable tale will follow.

ART OF NOTICING

Next Week’s Prompt by Malika :

Hunt for a Sound

The places we think of as merely “quiet” are of course filled with sounds, which are just subtle or distant or spread out. Search for the source of a sound or ambient sounds – those that we normally tune out; like the rustling of a plastic bag in a tree or the call of a bird or the hum of an air conditioner.

ART OF NOTICING

Activities

Below, find the information covered in this session. Complete all of the following activities, videos, and assignments.

1. Research Essay – Stereotype Feedback and Discussion (30 min)

Let’s take a closer look at the Research Essay Guidelines and address any questions.

In groups of three, take 20 minutes to share the first draft/outline of your essay and give feedback to your colleagues.

If you’d like additional feedback from me or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

2. The Medium is the Message (1+ hours)

This week we will examine Marshall McLuhan’s theories about media, as television became the dominant medium during the 1960’s, His theories were radical at the time and have been influential in the study and practice of design and media theory. They are relevant now with the persuasive advertising model used by social media and the rise of AI.

Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian professor and philosopher. He is known for coining the phrase, “The medium is the message.” This statement first appeared in his book “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man – The Medium is the Message, published in 1964.

And in his more experimental text, “The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effect, “co-created by McLuhan and Quentin Fiore in 1967. Note that the cover design was created by David Carlson aka the ‘Godfather of grunge’. Grunge was inspired by underground rock culture, and was all about breaking the rules of traditional graphic design (more on that in a couple weeks).

McLuhan died before the birth of the internet, but many believe that his theories about electronic media were prophetic, that he envisioned the internet decades before its arrival. He spoke about communication technologies as having the ability to create a “global village” and the increasing loss of privacy as a result.

McLuhan argued that we should focus on the medium of communication itself and he defined media as a technological extension of the body. He used the term “media” in a very broad sense, including the spoken word, the written word, the printed word, telephone, films, radio, television, etc.

There are many excellent interpretations and critiques of McLuhan’s ideas. Let’s watch a few videos to help us to understand his ideas in the context of today’s contemporary media.

Marshall McLuhan – A film by Daniel Savage

The media has the power to transform human nature and furthermore, no matter how powerful or persuasive the message, it’s the media that has changed our thought patterns and behavior. What does this mean for the “electronic environment” we inhabit? How do we decipher what media is fact and which is fiction? Discerning the difference is crucial now, more than ever.

Daniel Savage: The Medium of the Message – ADC LAUREN FESTA

What does “The Medium is the Message” really mean?

“The idea is that the mediums have a far greater impact on the fundamental shape and nature of society than any message that is delivered through that medium. What has had a greater impact on society and the way that we interact with one another, all the content of every Youtube video ever made or the existence of Youtube itself? All the conversations that you’ve ever had, the existence of your cell phone?… How do the mediums that you use help shape the world?”

The Medium is the Message explained by Dan Olson

This Is Marshall McLuhan – The Medium Is The Massage (1967)

“The electric age is changing you, it’s changing your family, it’s changing your neighborhood, it’s changing your education, your job, it’s changing your government, it’s changing your relationship to others. These little circuits are making our world go. The electric age is having a profound effect on us. We are in a period of fantastic change that’s coming about at fantastic speed. Your life is changing dramatically, and you are numb to it.”

This Is Marshall McLuhan – The Medium Is The Massage (1967)

Created in 1967, this strange documentary predicts a world that is eerily familiar.

While he didn’t foresee the negative effect on society, consider Marshall McLuhan’s prophetic theories about electronic media in the late 1960’s, specifically how technology is an extension of humanity.

McLuhan believed that media (in the broadest sense) is an extension of humanity, of the human body, and mind. How does media affect us? Our bodies? Our relationships? Our understanding of the world? Are we being changed right now?

If the camera is an extension of the eyes, what is the internet an extension of?

Our current attention economy, the backbone of social media, has long reaching effects and serious consequences due to our dependence on it.

3. Social Media is the Message

Tristan Harris, the founder of the Center for Humane Technology, believes social media as it exists now “is a simultaneous utopia and dystopia.” The utopia the user experiences is the dopamine hits and efficiency of on-demand everything, and the dystopia of the giant manipulative matrix that we are living in. How do we recognize the Matrix if we don’t know that we’re in the Matrix?

The Social Dilemma – Persuasive Media

In the documentary, The Social Dilemma, early leaders in social media, like Tristan Harris, have revealed that the medium of the internet, specifically social media, is becoming an existential threat to human society. They call social media, First Contact with AI. Next week we’ll look at Second Contact.

What are the existential threats caused by social media?

Ledger of Harms caused by social media:

• Today’s youth face unprecedented physical, mental, and social challenges exacerbated by fast-changing tech.
  • Why It Matters: Exposure to unrestrained levels of digital technology can have serious long term consequences for children’s development, creating permanent changes in brain structure that impact how children will think, feel, and act throughout their lives.
• Technology is extracting our attention, weakening our memory, and driving addiction, loneliness, and depression.
  • Why It Matters: Technology’s constant interruptions and precisely-targeted distractions are taking a toll on our ability to think, to focus, to solve problems, and to be present with each other.
  • Why It Matters: While social networks claim to connect us, all too often they distract us from connecting with those directly in front of us, leaving many feeling both connected and socially isolated.
• Synthetic media (deep fakes), misinformation, sensationalism, bad actors, and coordinated bots are destroying our information ecosystem.
  • Why It Matters: A broken information ecology undermines our ability to understand and act on complex global challenges from climate change to COVID-19.
• Maximizing engagement amplifies outrage, deepens divisions, and reduces empathy, which is eroding shared consensus.
  • Why It Matters: Social media platforms are incentivized to amplify the most engaging content, tilting public attention towards polarizing and often misleading content. By selling micro targeting to the highest bidder, they enable manipulative practices that undermine democracies around the world.
  • Why It Matters: Technology integrates and often amplifies racism, sexism, ableism and homophobia, creating an attention economy that works against marginalized communities.
• Our data is exploited by an industry that extracts our attention, shapes our thoughts and behaviors, and makes us vulnerable to risks – all for profit.
  • Why It Matters: Many tech leaders don’t allow their own children to use the products they build — which implies they’re keenly aware that the products from which they make so much money from pose risks, especially for young users.

What will become of society if the persuasive technology used for “for-profit” social media advertising is allowed to continue as it is now?

Resources from Human Tech

• Ledger of Harms – List of hidden harms caused by social media
• The Dark Side of Social Media – Infographic showing hidden harms
• Tech Experts speak about the existential threat of social media (Video)
• A New Agenda For Tech Presentation (video)

4. DUE NEXT WEEK: Research Essay – Stereotype in Advertising

Follow the assignment guidelines and prompts for Research Essay – Stereotype in Advertising

DUE Wednesday before the next class to allow for feedback.

Week 7 Agenda Checklist

Below are all of the tasks, big and small, for this week. The due date is Wednesday, 11:59 pm before our next Thursday class. Timely completion of these tasks will contribute to your success in this course.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

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