Exam Bluebooks August 11, 2010

Don’t forget to bring a bluebook to the exam on Friday, which we hope to begin no later than 1:10pm.

Coffeehouses + Wi-Fi August 10, 2010

This article about coffeehouses was on the L.A. Times recently: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cafe-wifi-20100808,0,1079612,full.story Some coffeehouses are restricting their wifi usage or removing it completely because there were too many people parking themselves at tables all day with their computers, buying very little from the establishment, and creating a non-social atmosphere. “Coffeehouses have always attracted bookish deadbeats whoView Full Page…

A.I.? August 9, 2010

“What bothers me most about this trend, however, is that by allowing artificial intelligence to reshape our concept of personhood, we are leaving ourselves open to the flipside: we think of people more and more as computers, just as we think of computers as people. “-Jaron Lanier This is an outstanding discussion of A.I. andView Full Page…

The Advent of the Computer: From Babbage to Berners-Lee August 8, 2010

Computer – A history of the information machine The chapter entitled “Babbage’s Dream Comes True” from the book Computer: A History of the Information Machine by Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray focuses on Charles Babbage’s attempts at building the first real calculating machine and the attempts of others after him to finally build and completeView Full Page…

Photography: History and Implications August 5, 2010

Today’s assigned reading, “Prints from Paper,” “Portraits for the Million,” and “The Faithful Witness” from Beaumont Newhall’s The History of Photography, merge a retelling of the history behind the development of photography as an art form and communication technology with the broader social effects of a new medium. History: As with various other types ofView Full Page…

Telegraph & Telephone August 3, 2010

Introduction The telegraph was the result of a slew of inventions from all over the world. For simplicity sake, I would like to focus on the invention of the telegraph in America and its reception by the society. Many are unaware of the fact that the telegraph actually “preceded the railroad in forging extra localView Full Page…

Radio and Broadcasting: The Advent of a New Mass Medium August 2, 2010

“Radio broadcasting added a totally new dimension to modern communication by bringing the outside world into the individual home.” – Daniel J. Czitrom The history of radio could be summarized as a long journey between military research and science-based industries. These two forces worked together to build a new technology that would breakthrough the scientific boundaries of thatView Full Page…

Berger – Ways of Seeing July 29, 2010

Thoughts on Essay 1: John Berger emphasizes the importance of vision when he states “it is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it” (7). In the past when science was not dominant, “seeing wasView Full Page…

Some Thoughts on Media Bias

 To have a further discussion about the nature of news and explore how news has been less objective and its relations with politics, I would like to discuss some arguments put forward by Michael Schudson, in his chapter, “Media Bias”, which is a relevant but not a required reading. Michael Schudson points out that “theView Full Page…

Two Throwbacks! July 28, 2010

Hey everyone!  I found these recently.  They don’t match up exactly what we’re learning about right now, but they do relate to past topics. Throwback #1: When one of my friends and I were talking about high school English classes and the different interpretations people have of books, my friend linked me to an articleView Full Page…