Modernization of Media with Industrial Revolution

 "Modernism is the umbrella term we give to the way that human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution." (Creeber p.12 2009) modernism which started with industrial revolution was changed lots of human human behavior and mind.when God-centerede and theocratic system was completely defeated , people tried to find different system and method for doing something. this trying was for doing better human life.when happend this things,  worker class gained some right and possibility for leisure time and activity.Afterthat showing up"everyday culture" to be found in pulp novels, the cinema, television, comics, newspaper, magazines and so on. Andreas Huyssen point out, modernism was almost consistently 'relentless in its hostility to mass culture'(1986.238)

 When Frankfurt School evalute modernism with marxists approach, they highlighted fordism effect on mass culture. Fordism was a term coined to describe Henry Ford's succes in the automobile industry, his improvement mass production methods. (Creeber p.12 2009) on the other hand, ford producted car which is fast manufactured and cheap was culture industry. Because lots of people can afford to buy this car and buying car was very common and popular for lower to upper class people.

 Post modenism  means that economic transition has taken place from a manufacturing based economy to service based economy. "Consumption and leisure now determine our experiences rather than work and production." For example company symbol and slogan  are meaning making. 'Goverments or offical ' can not do everything but companys and brand effects people with postmodernism. For instance lots of people don't know leaf represent which tree but this people know fastfood , music, technology or other brands logo easily in the current word.

Bibliography

Creeber, G and Martin R. 2009, Digital Cultures Open University Press.

Digital Cultures

Creeber starts of by stating that the study of New Media is a 'Complex and Diverse' field. In his work 'Digital Cultures' Creeber takes about Modernism and Post-Modernism and how they lead to and relate to New Media theory.

'Modernism is the umbrella term we give to the way that human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution.'(Creeber, 2009: pg 11).

When Modernism came about in the late 19th century it was received by the majority of society to be this scientific way that would take the human race forward and be revolutionary in the production process, and with the rise of Modernism came Industrialization.
Industrialization brought about arguably the most important production invention of all time, the printing press. The invention of the printing press gave birth to a way of relaying news to the masses in a way that was never done before.
Many Modernists believed the introduction of Industrialization to be the looming down fall of originality, that 'modernists came to perceive industrialization as the enemy of free thought and individuality' (Creeber, 2009: pg 12).
The best example of this being true was in Henry Ford's case. Henry Ford profited significantly from industrialization when he made adjustments to the assembly line method, this allowed him to produce auto mobiles faster and cheaper and this also meant that they were more accessible to ordinary Americans. However because they were all mass produced this meant there was no discernible difference in the final products.

'when asked what colours his cars came in, Ford famously replied, any colour as long as its black'. (Creeber, 2009: pg 13)

'There are many examples that reflect modernism's disdain for the media,' (Creeber, 2009: pg 12). The best example and most famous of theorists that took a stance against this was The Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School consisted of a group of Marxists that where exiled from Germany during the second world war and came to America. The Frankfurt School seen the media culture in America as a prime example of a culture that had become a 'standardized product of industrialization' (Creeber, 2009).

After the industrial revolution there came Post-Modernism. With the coming about of post-modernism came the society of consumers, in this era products where starting to made to fit the consumers needs rather than the product being made for manufacturings sake. From the point when this cultural change started it hasn't changed it has just become more demanding and now products are created to fit our every need and this is a result of the consumer society being embraced as it has been. The way of consuming has come on some much that even when your watching television your not passively consuming it your more evolved and you interact with it. New media is interactive.

'New media is interactive. In contrast to traditional media where the order of presentation was fixed, the user can now interact with the media object.' (Manovich, 2002)

Bibliography: 

Creeber, G & Martin, R. (2009). Digital Theory: Theorizing New Media

Creeber on Digital Culture

The rise of New Media can first be traced back to a number of movements beginning in the late nineteenth century. Modernism was one of these movements, and it was optimistically promoted by its followers as a way to change human society for the better. Creeber specifies modernism as being an umbrella term for how society responded to change during the industrial revolution. Developments in science and technology during this era were equally reflected by developments of artists and intellectuals. This period is arguably where the origins for new media lay. 

The Frankfurt school was a by-product of the modernist movement. They compared the rise of mass culture to the mass industry that dominated working society. Parallels were especially drawn with Fords production lines. Whilst he was issuing cars that were "exactly the same," and accessible to anybody, so to, argued the Frankfurt school was the "identical" mass media, irrelevant as to whether it was a novel or a television show. The growing homogeny was seen as an attack on "high culture," BBC Director General, John Reith argued.  Although the Frankfurt school's views were mainly negative, they were still willing to recognise the significance of new media forms. After WWII, analysist Barthes' used a system of semiotics and structuralism to study mass culture and media forms. He concluded that audiences were powerless, merely consuming  the output. 

Post-modernism is connected to the changes that have taken place in society post-industrialisation. Innovations towards the latter half of the twentieth century sped up the processes that would lead to mass media as we recognise it. McLuhan was one theorist who understood the potential for mass media. 

"Much of his work anticipated the power of New Media to enhance and audience's interactivity with electronic information as a whole"  

(Creeber, 2009: 15) 

Postmodernism celebrates popular culture for its lack of depth or value, instead embracing its "shallow" content, which places aesthetic and image above all else. This can be compared to the modern internet culture, where cult-like status is applied to generally meaningless memes. Increased interactivity allows anyone to become a producer, shunning the constraints of past decades where the majority of the population were voyeurs. 

Bibliography:

Creeber G & Martin R | Digital Cultures, 2009 | Open University Press 

Creeber: Digital Culture

Creeber puts forward that New Media is so complex and diverse that any approach to identify any sort of "Digital Theory" couldn't be viewed as definitive. (Creeber, 2009, p.11). Rather than completely replacing old theoretical approaches Creeber states that this is "inevitably a development and reaction to the way media has been understood and theorized in the past" (Creeber, 2009, p. 11). To gain a better understanding of New Media we must first look at it in relation to Modernism.

"Modernism tended to challenge the theocratic and God-centered notion of the world that helped define human society in the past" (Creeber, 2009, p. 11). The advent of Modernism in the pre-industrial world changed people's perceptions of religion, as many aspects of Modernism gave birth to ideas which attempted to explain the Universe in Scientific ways.

Modernism drew a line between Mass Culture and 'High Art', it was assumed that only this 'Advant-garde' art could bring forward cultural meaning that comes with social and aesthetic criticism. (Creeber, 2009, p. 12). The most famous group of people that reflected this view where known as 'The Frankfurt School'. The Frankfurt School viewed the media as a standardized product of industrialization, often connecting mass media with aspects of 'Fordism'. Henry Ford used mass production to make his cars more accessible and cheap however this resulted in all his cars looking exactly the same. "The Fordist philosophy was also evident in all aspects of mass culture" (Creeber, 2009, p.13). Creeber states that all forms of produced media is identical, offering up a form of 'Standardized Culture'.

There then came a paradigm shift in the form of Post-Modernism, with this also came a shift in ideology from The Frankfurt Schools overly pessimistic view of mass culture. In this postmodern world consumer culture dominates the cultural landscape, with leisurely activities taking priority in determining our experiences rather than work."First signs of such a critical shift can detected in the work of McLuhan" (Creeber, 2009, p.15). McLuhan theorized that audiences are influenced by how information is presented rather than the actual content being presented, he believed that the power of New Media would enable an audience more interactivity with electronic information transforming us from "Voyeurs to participants" (Creeber, 2009, p.15). McLuhan was stating that New Media turns everyone into active participants, each of us having a say in how this media gets created.

Bibliography

Creeber, G., 2009. Digital Cultures. [Online]
Available at: https://learning.ulster.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-1811419-dt-content-rid-4330022_1/courses/67641_1314/Digital%20Cultures%281%29.pdf
[Accessed 21st October 2013]

Lister, M., 2003. New Media: A Critical Introduction. [Online]
Available at: http://hp2.philol.msu.ru/~discours/uploadedfiles/courses/poselyagin/textbooks/New_Media.pdf
[Accessed 22nd October 2013]

Digital Cultures

Digital Cultures - Glen Creeber

To study and understand New Media, we also have to analyze analog media and modernism. As Creeber states "Modernism is the umbrella term we give to the way human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution." (Creeber, 2009: 11).

Industrialization began at the end of the 19th century, which modernists seen as "the enemy of free thought and individuality; producing an essentially cold and soulless universe." (Creeber, 2009: 11). As a result of this, modernist artists tried to reflect the chaos of this process. "Because of all this mass produced manufacturing there was an up rise against it and this spawned the Arts and Crafts movement, a statement to human interaction and the quality of handmade products to put to shame the shoddy, poor quality mass produced items." (Crowder,2013) 

Not only this but modernism challenged and revolutionized the religious mysticism of the pre industrial world. It gave people the chance to question what was believed and created such ideas as evolution in biology and the theory of relativity in physics.

The Frankfurt School who were a group of Marxist theorists, believed that mass culture shared many similarities with mass production. The 'Fordist' philosophy was put under scrutiny by the school as they states "instead of stimulating audiences, these media ‘products’ were designed to keep the masses deluded in their oppression by offering a form of

homogenized and standardized culture."

Post modernism is a term that is commonly associated with changes that have taken place after the industrial revolution. Postmodernism involves the consumer to have more authority. Products are produced with the consumer in mind, for example are we encouraged to ring in to a show or 'hashtag' on twitter. Not only this but shows like 'Goggle Box' have allowed the consumer to be such an integral part of the media. "Reality and unreality are not mixed like oil and water; rather they are dissolved like two acids"(Creeber, 2009, Pg 17),

Bibliography

Creeber, G and Martin R. 2009, Digital Cultures, Open University Press.

Matt Crowder . (2013). INDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERNISM. Available:

http://crowderdesign.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/industrialization-and-the-beginnings-of-modernism/. Last accessed : 23rd,Oct,2013.

Digital Theory, Creeber

'Modernism is the umbrella term we give to the way that human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution' (Creeber pg:12 2009) As the industrialization began many people were opposed to the idea of the revolution. Although there was some benefactors of the industrial revolution such as Henry Ford. His techniques made his product (car's) very popular among consumers. (Creeber 2009) The Frankfurt School were a group of German theorists that took a stance claiming that mass production was linked to it's mass culture. (Creeber 2009) They developed a term they named 'Fordism' (Creeber 2009) This refers to Henry Ford's distribution of his cars. They felt that the techniques that Henry Ford used to sell his cars was apparent in many areas of mass culture. 'These changes in post-industrial society have clearly influenced the way that critical theory now understands and conceives the role which which the media currently plays in society.' (Creeber pg:24 2009)

After the Industrial revolution had finished came the period of post modernism which involves products and technologies that are still being used today. Modernism was a period were people were passive consumers to media. Post modernism forces you to interact with the media which is called active consumption. New technologies that have been developed have changed the way we interact with media. Technologies such as Television, mobile phones and the internet. They have changed the way we live our lives. Social networking has became a huge part of today's society. 'websites such as YouTube, Myspace and Facebook appear to reflect this recent understanding of participatory culture; not only creating virtual communities but also allowing audiences to become producers as well as receivers of the media'. (Creeber pg:20 2009)

Television also forces the viewer to actively consume the media outlet. Shows such as Britain's Got Talent and The Voice put the viewer in control or give them a say as how the show continues. Even advertisements on television are starting to get the consumer active such as the BT adverts. They had viewers post in how the next adverts story line would finish. Interactivity is used among television and the internet. On certain television shows hastags will appear encouraging the viewer to mention the show on twitter.

As active consumers we have much more control over media outlets and can interact with fans of our favorite television shows, movies and music. Consumers are more at one with the media than they have ever been.

Bibliography

Glen Greeber, digital theory: theorizing new media, 2009 Pg's:11-22



 

Digital Cultures : Glen Creeber

Creeber starts of by stating that this field of study is a "complex and diverse one"(Creeber, pg.11, 2009). In no way is he incorrect because of the vast amount of methods and theoretical approaches that New Media contributes.

I understand that Creeber has divided the 'New Media' up into different historical timeline changes, such as Modernism and 'old media', which took place during the industrial revolution and the invention of the printing press, where upon a new form of media was born. The first people to take an ideological stance upon modernism was 'The Frankfurt School' and in particularly, Adorno. They highlighted the new phase of the industrial revolution that was mass production and they often perceived the media as product of industrialization(Creeber, pg.12,2009), where upon they came up with the term 'Fordism', referring to Henry Fords first mass production system of the automobile.

This perception of mass production of the Media, called the 'Fordist Philosophy' was apparent in mass culture, where it seemed that every TV show, film and magazine were identical. (Creeber, pg.13, 2009). This group of Marxists and their theories led them to clearly distaste these 'industrialized' products, and the fact that they were only to keep mass audiences deluded in their oppression.

The next theory of the Media is Postmodernism, which brought about changes after the industrial revolution. This brought about the rise of new information technologies, leading up to the ones which we are using and producing today. Creeber refers to other writers, such as Levinson(1999), and how much of his work anticipated the power of New Media to enhance an audiences interactivity with electronic information as a whole - transforming us from voyeurs to participants.(Creeber, pg.15,2009).

This means that as far as this new information technology age has came along, we as the participants now have a more active role in what is being produced throughout all forms of New Media. If we are the participants and the producers then we responsible for what the consumers after us are being shown.

Creeber states in his conclusion that "critical understanding of the field is essential if we are to produce a sophisticated theoretical approach"(Pg.22,2009)


References - Glen Creeber, Digital Theory: theorizing New Media, 2009, (Pgs 11-22)

Digital Cultures

To study and understand new media we need to look at the series of events, technologies and cultural conditions which gave rise to it. Creeber, in his work 'Digital Cultures' discusses modernism and post-modernism in relation to old and new media. Modernism refers to 'the way that human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution.'(Creeber, 2009, P.11)

Industrialisation was not perceived well with many modernists as they seen it 'as the enemy of free thought and individuality, producing an essentially cold and soulless universe.' (Creeber, 2009, P12) Industrialisation benefited Henry Ford who invented the assembly line which enabled the quick and easy mass-production of his car models. The famous Frankfurt School were a group of German Marxists who 'were struck how American mass culture shared many similarities of mass production.. they liked to perceive the media as a standardised product of industrialisation.' (Creeber, 2009, P12) The Frankfurt School linked Henry Ford's idea of cheap and speedy mass-production of  cars to the media, as television shows, radio programmes and magazines, like Ford's cars, were all identical. 'Instead of stimulating audiences, these media 'products' were designed to keep the masses deluded in their oppression by offering a form of ... standardised culture.' (Creeber, 2009, P.13)

This mass-produced media lead to audiences being passive, taking in everything the media was serving to them and not thinking or acting for themselves. Reith famously wrote, 'we are apparently setting out to give the public what we think they need - and not what they want - but few know what they want and very few know what they need.' (Creeber, 2009, P.13) This theory can be identified as the Hypodermic Needle Model. This is the idea that audiences are 'injected' with ideologies and beliefs from the media and they do not think for themselves.

After modernism came post-modernism which looks at the changes that took place after the industrial revolution. 'A post-industrial economy is one in which an economic transition has taken place from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy.' (Creeber, 2009, P13) Marshall McLuhan's work looks at 'the power of new media to enhance an audience's interactivity with electronic information as a whole.' (Creeber, 2009, P15) So now instead of just watching television, audience members can actively participate and get involved. This is new media and interactivity. McLuhan highlights that through interactivity audience members transform from 'voyeurs to participants.' (Creeber, 2009, P.15) If we think of shows such as X-Factor, on the live shows Tweets are read out from audience members giving their opinion of the contestants. Afterwards on 'The X-tra Factor' audiences can get even more involved by ringing in and asking questions to their favourite acts.

BOOKS:
Creeber. G. (2009) 'Digital Theory: Theorising New Media' & Cubitt. D. (2009) 'Case Study, Digital Aesthetics' in Ed. Creeder. G. & Royston. M. (2009) 'Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media' Maidenstone, Open University Press

Creeber: Digital Cultures

The words 'complex' and 'diverse' are used within the first two lines of Creeber's book attempting to explain New Media. He also states that it would be 'naive' to define it down to a single definition. Creeber explains modernism and the old media as an 'umbrella term' that is given to the human society in their response to 'the changes that took place during the industrial revolution '(Creeber 2009, pg:11) 

     This arose around the middle of the 20th century. Around this time the world was recovering from one war just as another was about to begin. Many modernists had the perception of industrialisation ‘as the enemy of free thought and individuality: producing an essentially cold and soulless universe’. (Creeber, 2009: p.12) The modernists seen the industrial age as the death of creativity.  

 

The only people to benefit from the industrialisation were the product producers. Creeber names Henry Ford as the first to do this with his product T. Fords. The whole process was based around mass producing a product in a cheaper way by reducing production and the workforce but on a larger scale for half the time. This was the beginning of the production line in contrast to single craft work. Theodor Adorno from the Frankfurt school explains this in a way that young people of today can understand and relate to by saying that music is being reproduced and sold over and over again with more care about profit than quality.(Creeder 2009, pg:13) I agree with what Adorno is saying because same can be said about films and games amongst many other forms of media in the 21^st century era.  

Post-modernism was the successor to the industrial age or Post-Fordist as it was also known as. Creeber describes the change as ‘manufactured based economy’ to a ‘service-based economy’. This was the beginning of the ‘decline of heavy industry’. (Creeder 2009, pg:15)  In this Post-modernism era we have went from ‘Voyeurs to participants’, this has first came about with ideas from Marshall McLuhan in the book Digital McLuhan(1999). (Levinson, 1999, pg:65-79) (Creeder 2009, pg:15)  An example of the viewers becoming participants in this age can be seen through reality competition shows like ‘Big Brother’ and ‘X Factor’ where the audience decide the outcome. In the recent number of years hashtaging on Twitter has become popular and live tweets are read out on the show or on a scroll bar at the bottom of the screen.
      

Bib:

Creeber, G and Martin R. 2009, Digital Cultures, Open University Press.