1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,229 [Villanova University Ignite Change Now] 2 00:00:01,410 --> 00:00:02,850 [Fatal Amusements Nov 3, 2014 Garey Hall - Villanova University] 3 00:00:02,850 --> 00:00:03,806 [Contemplating Contemporary Media] 4 00:00:03,806 --> 00:00:05,416 [Dr. Lance Strate Harron Family Chai in Communication] 5 00:00:05,416 --> 00:00:06,683 [Villanova University does not endorse and assumes no liability for the materials apearing or opinions expressed in this video] 6 00:00:06,683 --> 00:00:08,167 (Applause) (Lance Strate) Well thank you 7 00:00:08,167 --> 00:00:10,350 I don't think, I don't know, does it matter? Do we need the microphone? 8 00:00:10,350 --> 00:00:11,920 do we need them 9 00:00:12,784 --> 00:00:17,312 Can you hear me, you hear me OK? 10 00:00:17,860 --> 00:00:25,670 OK, so we will set aside this prop and thank you very much I am indeed honored 11 00:00:25,670 --> 00:00:29,837 to have been chosen as the Haron Family Chair for this year 12 00:00:29,837 --> 00:00:37,755 and I'd like to thank the NBC family, Provost Mcginty Dean Landmeyer Maurice Hall, of course, (check) 13 00:00:37,755 --> 00:00:43,360 the chair of the department Heidy Rose and Cheryl Bowen and the rest of the 14 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:47,670 Department of Communication, including the ones who really run the place, 15 00:00:47,670 --> 00:00:49,149 Loretta and Maria. 16 00:00:49,774 --> 00:00:54,040 It's been a great pleasure to be part of this faculty this semester 17 00:00:54,049 --> 00:00:56,223 and especially to spend time 18 00:00:56,223 --> 00:00:59,015 with the wonderful graduate and undergraduate students 19 00:00:59,015 --> 00:01:01,674 that attend here at Villanova. 20 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:08,980 So I think it's, no doubt, it's something of a cliche 21 00:01:08,980 --> 00:01:13,430 for visitors to begin by making reference to our close proximity 22 00:01:13,430 --> 00:01:16,629 to the birthplace of the US. 23 00:01:16,629 --> 00:01:19,519 And far be it from me to break with tradition. 24 00:01:20,294 --> 00:01:25,150 So let me begin by posing the question: If Benjamin Franklin we're here today, 25 00:01:25,150 --> 00:01:29,519 what do you think he would make of the possibility of Donald Trump as president? 26 00:01:29,899 --> 00:01:31,359 (laughter 27 00:01:31,359 --> 00:01:34,689 Or to put it more generally, what would the founders of the American Republic 28 00:01:34,689 --> 00:01:39,271 have to say about the State of the Union in the 21st century? 29 00:01:39,479 --> 00:01:44,409 Now, I hasten to add that when I speak of the Founders, I want to set aside 30 00:01:44,409 --> 00:01:47,554 all that racism sexism all the other awful isms 31 00:01:47,554 --> 00:01:52,035 that were part and parcel of their times. 32 00:01:52,035 --> 00:01:55,979 I just want to consider them as embodiments of the ideals 33 00:01:55,979 --> 00:01:58,200 that they set forth in their writings. 34 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:02,001 And you can say I'm being a romantic but this is my thought experiment 35 00:02:02,001 --> 00:02:07,327 so you'll have to bear with me, and so I ask you to imagine what these champions 36 00:02:07,327 --> 00:02:12,483 of reason and rationality, freedom and equality, justice and democracy 37 00:02:12,483 --> 00:02:15,785 would make of contemporary American culture? 38 00:02:15,785 --> 00:02:18,274 What would they make of a culture that's been shaped 39 00:02:18,274 --> 00:02:23,144 by instantaneous communication, that's dominated by the video image, 40 00:02:23,144 --> 00:02:28,011 transformed by the internet social media and mobile devices? 41 00:02:28,011 --> 00:02:31,317 What would they make of the ways in which public discourse 42 00:02:31,317 --> 00:02:36,206 has been altered and influenced by our electronic communications? 43 00:02:36,660 --> 00:02:40,030 Well, let me suggest to you that some of the words that might come to mind 44 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:47,100 might be: disturbed, disappointed, maybe even disgusted. 45 00:02:47,100 --> 00:02:48,669 And don't get me wrong: 46 00:02:48,669 --> 00:02:52,213 I do think they'd be duly impressed by all the progress that we've made 47 00:02:52,213 --> 00:02:56,318 in science and technology over the past 230 years. 48 00:02:56,318 --> 00:03:01,449 I also think they'd recognize the progress we've made regarding human rights 49 00:03:01,458 --> 00:03:03,640 over the past two centuries, 50 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:06,239 but I do believe that our founders would express 51 00:03:06,239 --> 00:03:09,658 grave and profound concern about our future 52 00:03:09,658 --> 00:03:14,670 When Benjamin Franklin uttered the ominous reply regarding the kind of government 53 00:03:14,670 --> 00:03:18,912 they had created "A republic, if you can keep it," 54 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:25,150 The danger he foresaw was a return to some form of authoritarian government 55 00:03:26,022 --> 00:03:30,674 but what George Orwell depicted in his novel 1984, 56 00:03:30,674 --> 00:03:34,330 that would have been more extreme than anything that Franklin had known 57 00:03:34,340 --> 00:03:40,090 but he would easily understood the basic premise of coercion oppression and fear 58 00:03:40,101 --> 00:03:43,550 under which totalitarian regimes operate. //// 59 00:03:43,550 --> 00:03:48,579 what franklin never imagined in his wildest dreams that the reports that 60 00:03:48,579 --> 00:03:51,010 wrote the Republic might be lost 61 00:03:51,010 --> 00:03:57,200 not by force of arms but by fulfillment of our desire to have fun and he 62 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:02,280 therefore would have been baffled by the kind of dystopia depicted in Aldous 63 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:07,690 Huxley Aldous Huxley in his novel brave new world but I believe that he would 64 00:04:07,690 --> 00:04:13,440 agree that Huxley was more prophetic the Norwell a point that Neil Postman 65 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:18,988 observed in his best-known book amusing ourselves to death so let me quote to 66 00:04:18,988 --> 00:04:24,250 you now from the opening of that book postman wrote 67 00:04:24,250 --> 00:04:29,160 what orwell feared was though where those who would ban books what Huxley 68 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:32,880 feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book for there would be no one 69 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:38,890 wanted to read one or welfare those who would deprive us of information 70 00:04:38,890 --> 00:04:42,650 Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to 71 00:04:42,650 --> 00:04:49,090 passivity and egoism orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us 72 00:04:49,090 --> 00:04:55,090 oxley fear the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance orwell feared we 73 00:04:55,090 --> 00:05:01,000 would become a captive culture oxley feared we would become a trivial culture 74 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:07,200 preoccupied with some equivalent of the Feelies the orgy porgy and the 75 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:14,340 centripetal bubble puppy as Huxley remarks in brave new world revisited the 76 00:05:14,340 --> 00:05:20,430 civil libertarians and rationalists failed to take into account man's almost 77 00:05:20,430 --> 00:05:28,479 infinite appetite for distractions in 1984 Huxley added people are controlled 78 00:05:28,479 --> 00:05:33,470 by inflicting pain and brave new world they are controlled by inflicting 79 00:05:33,470 --> 00:05:40,870 pleasure in short orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us Huxley feared 80 00:05:40,870 --> 00:05:48,060 that what we love will ruin us now as you may have noticed the title of my 81 00:05:48,060 --> 00:05:53,810 talk fatal amusements is a tribute to the book that post published thirty 82 00:05:53,810 --> 00:05:58,610 years ago and in my thought experiment I'd like to think that Franklin 83 00:05:58,610 --> 00:06:02,710 Jefferson and company would find a glimmer of hope and postman's 84 00:06:02,710 --> 00:06:09,390 explanation of how public discourse is shaped by our media of communication and 85 00:06:09,390 --> 00:06:14,110 since this is my thought experiment I'd also like to imagine that they gain some 86 00:06:14,110 --> 00:06:19,160 additional encouragement from the footnote and follow-up to post mean that 87 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:24,150 I published last year a book entitled amazing ourselves to death in the old 88 00:06:24,150 --> 00:06:28,490 postman's brave new world revisited I want to believe that 89 00:06:28,490 --> 00:06:32,509 and in all fairness to benjamin Franklin he certainly would have been familiar 90 00:06:32,509 --> 00:06:38,800 with the old saying Nero fiddled while Rome burned which is a popular metaphor 91 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:44,389 for irresponsible and foolish action in the face of serious events fiddling 92 00:06:44,389 --> 00:06:49,150 while Rome burns has been used in particular to refer to inaction on the 93 00:06:49,150 --> 00:06:54,280 part of political leaders in the face of a crisis but as citizens in a democracy 94 00:06:54,280 --> 00:07:00,210 responsible for governing ourselves there are no solo acts when it comes to 95 00:07:00,210 --> 00:07:06,319 fiddling around we're all playing in the band fiddling while Rome burns might 96 00:07:06,319 --> 00:07:11,120 well have been an alternative title for amusing ourselves to death which postman 97 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:18,449 wrote not in puritanical condemnation of all pastimes and leisure pursuits nor is 98 00:07:18,449 --> 00:07:22,800 an elitist screed promoting the poor taste of youth today or the loss of 99 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:28,039 manners or moral standards the problem that post man identified is not that we 100 00:07:28,039 --> 00:07:32,659 seek pleasure or like to have fun or amusements are part of what make us 101 00:07:32,659 --> 00:07:33,870 human 102 00:07:33,870 --> 00:07:39,840 the problem instead is one of context in the context of a city on fire 103 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:46,030 we ought to expect to serious response from our leaders not a musical one in 104 00:07:46,030 --> 00:07:51,219 the context of certain activities such as a courtroom trial religious ceremony 105 00:07:51,219 --> 00:07:56,550 or classroom we ought to expect a certain measure of decorum and behavior 106 00:07:56,550 --> 00:08:02,199 appropriate to such situations at the very least to prevent their destruction 107 00:08:02,199 --> 00:08:06,710 and in the context of the vital matters that must be dealt with within a 108 00:08:06,710 --> 00:08:12,630 democratic society we ought to expect some serious discussion and debate as a 109 00:08:12,630 --> 00:08:15,150 basis for making decisions 110 00:08:15,150 --> 00:08:20,229 understanding context is at the core of postman's message and understanding 111 00:08:20,229 --> 00:08:26,229 eloquently expressed in ecclesiastes to everything there is a season and a time 112 00:08:26,229 --> 00:08:32,219 to every purpose under heaven postman's argument and is that there's a time for 113 00:08:32,219 --> 00:08:37,520 amusement and it's time to be serious and as our media and technology of 114 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:42,020 expanded our ability to amuse ourselves we've lost the ability 115 00:08:42,020 --> 00:08:46,770 to distinguish between the two and this blurs the boundaries in favor of 116 00:08:46,770 --> 00:08:51,600 amusement as a consequence we find ourselves suffering from too much of a 117 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:57,400 good thing we know quite well that too much of the food that nourishes us leads 118 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:03,120 to obesity that too much of the exercise that strengthens the body can cause it 119 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:08,010 damaged that too much of a dose of medicine that cures disease can be 120 00:09:08,010 --> 00:09:09,240 deadly 121 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:14,820 the primary value for any ecological system is balanced and post man 122 00:09:14,820 --> 00:09:20,180 identified late twentieth-century American culture as dangerously out of 123 00:09:20,180 --> 00:09:24,860 balance his reference to death in the book's title amusing ourselves to death 124 00:09:24,860 --> 00:09:31,170 was no mere hyperbole but an indication that our loss of balance had called into 125 00:09:31,170 --> 00:09:36,490 question the very survival of our culture of liberal democracy and even of 126 00:09:36,490 --> 00:09:42,320 humanity as a species so whether the tune we imagine Nero playing was a 127 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:44,640 raucous fire on the mountain 128 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:51,220 rendition of hearts and flowers in the face of such nihilistic soundtracks we 129 00:09:51,220 --> 00:09:57,020 might invoke an altogether different more hopeful musical that of Fiddler on 130 00:09:57,020 --> 00:10:02,560 the Roof Inn at musical texture the main character says of himself and his fellow 131 00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:07,620 villagers that every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch 132 00:10:07,620 --> 00:10:13,100 out a pleasant simple tune without breaking his neck and while he goes on 133 00:10:13,100 --> 00:10:18,050 to sing about tradition the theme of the play is the need to cope with change 134 00:10:18,050 --> 00:10:24,120 with modernization in the face of events that would have otherwise been entirely 135 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:29,490 demoralizing disorienting and destabilizing tradition served as a 136 00:10:29,490 --> 00:10:32,370 much-needed counterweight again 137 00:10:32,370 --> 00:10:37,370 context is essential under other conditions and unchecked emphasis on 138 00:10:37,370 --> 00:10:42,560 tradition might lead to a rigid inflexible culture unable to adapt to 139 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:49,240 changing circumstances so context and balance or two fundamental elements of 140 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:54,130 an ecological approach to understanding media which is to say that they are 141 00:10:54,130 --> 00:10:55,410 fundamental 142 00:10:55,410 --> 00:11:01,990 to the field of media ecology a postman introduced the phrase media ecology back 143 00:11:01,990 --> 00:11:08,879 in 1968 defining it as the study of media as environments and noting that he 144 00:11:08,879 --> 00:11:12,970 was not inventing the field that it was already in existence and that he was 145 00:11:12,970 --> 00:11:18,269 just naming it and to this side at that the best known most frequently cited 146 00:11:18,269 --> 00:11:23,819 media ecology scholar would be Marshall McLuhan and its famous maximum the 147 00:11:23,819 --> 00:11:28,819 medium is the message can be considered the first axiom or rather the first 148 00:11:28,819 --> 00:11:34,170 aphorism of our field to put it succinctly the medium is the message 149 00:11:34,170 --> 00:11:40,899 asks us to pay attention to how we do things because the way that we do things 150 00:11:40,899 --> 00:11:46,279 as much to do with what we end up doing and with the results of our actions and 151 00:11:46,279 --> 00:11:51,709 with who we are and who we become idea has been expressed in many different 152 00:11:51,709 --> 00:11:59,139 ways winston churchill said we shape our buildings there after they shape us and 153 00:11:59,139 --> 00:12:04,819 the Koolance associate John culkin expanded that as we shape our tools and 154 00:12:04,819 --> 00:12:10,279 thereafter they shape us back in the nineteenth century Henry David Thoreau 155 00:12:10,279 --> 00:12:17,170 remarked we do not ride on the rail wrote it rides upon us and Mark Twain 156 00:12:17,170 --> 00:12:20,259 quipped that when you have a hammer in your hand everything else looks like it 157 00:12:20,259 --> 00:12:26,500 now you know my mother was fond of saying how you make your bad so you 158 00:12:26,500 --> 00:12:32,860 shall sleep which has its origins as a 15th century French proper course the 159 00:12:32,860 --> 00:12:38,279 English version is you made your bed go sleep on it which is more go sleep in it 160 00:12:38,279 --> 00:12:45,019 which is more judgmental s media logical but also in the 15th century the English 161 00:12:45,019 --> 00:12:50,309 rider and pioneering printer William Caxton published a retailing of Aesop's 162 00:12:50,309 --> 00:12:55,449 fables that had the first English version of the same ask a silly question 163 00:12:55,449 --> 00:13:00,920 get a silly answer and it's a fundamental idea and media ecology that 164 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:06,759 the kinds of questions we ask have quite a lot to do with the kinds of answers 165 00:13:06,759 --> 00:13:07,900 that we obtain 166 00:13:07,900 --> 00:13:11,970 pain but you can find this idea in the Bible as well in the New Testament 167 00:13:11,970 --> 00:13:18,210 Gospel of Matthew Jesus declares all that live by the sword shall die by the 168 00:13:18,210 --> 00:13:23,780 sword and in the hundred fifteen psalm of David there's a passage about the 169 00:13:23,780 --> 00:13:29,640 worship of idols that concludes they that make them she'll be like onto them 170 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:36,790 yay everyone that trusteth in while the basic idea is an ancient 11 of the 171 00:13:36,790 --> 00:13:42,060 direct sources of inspiration from the Coons famous saying came from the 172 00:13:42,060 --> 00:13:48,080 anthropologist Ashley Montegut who wrote that and I quote in teaching it is the 173 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:53,280 method and not the content that is the message and not Montacute went on to 174 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:57,930 declare that the quote that education quote does not depend upon the 175 00:13:57,930 --> 00:14:02,490 transmission of knowledge but upon the manner in which the knowledge is 176 00:14:02,490 --> 00:14:08,600 transmitted by the teacher so from the media ecology perspective a teacher's a 177 00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:12,970 type of medium and the student is the message or to put it another way the 178 00:14:12,970 --> 00:14:18,940 relationship between teacher and student is the medium relationships are media 179 00:14:18,940 --> 00:14:23,910 and the teacher-student relationship is the most important medium of education 180 00:14:23,910 --> 00:14:29,840 of all at this point let me acknowledge them trying to provide a brief 181 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:34,060 explanation of the field of media ecology but I've already exceeded the 182 00:14:34,060 --> 00:14:40,070 time limit and given for what's come to be known as an elevator speech is also 183 00:14:40,070 --> 00:14:45,100 known as an elevator pitch the concept is based on the way in which in elevator 184 00:14:45,100 --> 00:14:49,740 ride shapes our relationships and discourse given the fact that it's 185 00:14:49,740 --> 00:14:53,940 characterized by a captive audience a relatively intimate space in the 186 00:14:53,940 --> 00:14:58,990 relatively brief duration we might contrasted then to the ways in which our 187 00:14:58,990 --> 00:15:04,280 relationships and forms of discourse are influenced by the characteristics of a 188 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:09,660 classroom or a living room or a bar room we might also note how all of these 189 00:15:09,660 --> 00:15:14,840 instances differ from the relationships we enter into and the forms of discourse 190 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:20,070 we encounter when we read a book or go to the movies or you 191 00:15:20,070 --> 00:15:25,110 use social media as you probably have noticed I'm using a much broader 192 00:15:25,110 --> 00:15:31,370 definition of the terms media and medium and scholars in other fields use it 193 00:15:31,370 --> 00:15:36,640 incorporates all of the ways in which we communicate that means and methods we 194 00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:41,550 use the many modes and codes of communication available to us the 195 00:15:41,550 --> 00:15:47,940 situations and spaces the contacts and relationships all of the ways in which 196 00:15:47,940 --> 00:15:53,780 we mediate between each other and with our environment and this includes all 197 00:15:53,780 --> 00:16:00,190 manner of technology and technique not just those associated with communication 198 00:16:00,190 --> 00:16:06,220 but communication is a particular focus because it's central to the human 199 00:16:06,220 --> 00:16:07,550 condition 200 00:16:07,550 --> 00:16:11,320 language and simple uses what distinguishes us from other species 201 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:16,750 giving us what Alfred Krzyzewski referred to as the capacity for time 202 00:16:16,750 --> 00:16:20,960 finding for preserving knowledge transmitting it to future generations 203 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:27,740 and evaluating what we know in order to make progress so media ecology 204 00:16:27,740 --> 00:16:32,530 scholarship's are often concerned with the differences that distinguish one 205 00:16:32,530 --> 00:16:37,060 medium or form of communication from another which in turn means that 206 00:16:37,060 --> 00:16:41,800 different media affect us in different ways as the influence and shape the way 207 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:48,660 that we think he'll act use our senses organize ourselves collectively and 208 00:16:48,660 --> 00:16:53,710 create and maintain cultural continuities this means that the 209 00:16:53,710 --> 00:16:58,980 introduction of a new medium can have profound effects on individuals and 210 00:16:58,980 --> 00:17:05,520 societies and that's because media constitute environments that shape and 211 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:10,240 influence us in the same way that biological and geological environments 212 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:17,920 shape and influence organisms and species it follows that media ecology is 213 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:22,140 concerned with the process of change when you introduce a change into an 214 00:17:22,140 --> 00:17:28,439 interdependent system its effects can give rise to secondary effects and those 215 00:17:28,439 --> 00:17:33,180 two church sure you effects and so on through many generations of interactive 216 00:17:33,180 --> 00:17:37,930 facts that's why we understand that the introduction of a new medium has an 217 00:17:37,930 --> 00:17:43,700 ecological effect not simply added to the old system plus the new medium but 218 00:17:43,700 --> 00:17:48,900 transformative resulting in a change to the entire system throughout the entire 219 00:17:48,900 --> 00:17:54,240 system and because of the complexity of ecological strange we should understand 220 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:59,020 that some of the effects will be unanticipated on an unpredictable that 221 00:17:59,020 --> 00:18:03,550 we'll never know for certain all of the consequences of any given innovation 222 00:18:03,550 --> 00:18:07,800 this means there'll always be negative effects that accompanied the positive 223 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:13,960 effects that every benefit will come with a cost and it may well be that the 224 00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:19,160 benefit is worth the cost but does it really make sense to buy into an 225 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:25,390 innovation without first looking at the price tag the old sales slogan buy now 226 00:18:25,390 --> 00:18:31,030 pay later pretty much sum saw our contemporary approach to technology and 227 00:18:31,030 --> 00:18:35,770 much like buying on credit we never really know how much will pay for our 228 00:18:35,770 --> 00:18:38,670 purchases in the end 229 00:18:38,670 --> 00:18:43,640 given the concern with change media ecology provides us with the way to 230 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:45,950 understand human history 231 00:18:45,950 --> 00:18:50,920 simply put language and speech are basic to the human condition 232 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:56,670 systems of notation and especially writing systems are intimately connected 233 00:18:56,670 --> 00:19:01,900 to the transition from tribal societies to more complex forms of social 234 00:19:01,900 --> 00:19:09,690 organization cities kingdoms and empires alphabetic writing and particulars what 235 00:19:09,690 --> 00:19:14,740 gives Western culture what gave Western culture its distinctive characteristics 236 00:19:14,740 --> 00:19:20,910 the invention of the printing press with movable type is closely associated with 237 00:19:20,910 --> 00:19:26,600 the shift from the medieval to the modern era in Europe and the electronic 238 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:33,180 media brought the modern era to a close moving us into a new era some refer to 239 00:19:33,180 --> 00:19:38,770 as postmodern of course the spells the end not only of modernity but of almost 240 00:19:38,770 --> 00:19:44,860 4,000 years of alphabetic culture and that's why mcluhan once pointed out 241 00:19:44,860 --> 00:19:46,419 pointed to a TV set 242 00:19:46,419 --> 00:19:52,369 and he said the following this is from one of his biographies quoting do you 243 00:19:52,369 --> 00:19:57,799 really want to know what I think that thing if you want to save one shred of 244 00:19:57,799 --> 00:20:02,970 her breakup greco-roman Medieval Renaissance enlightenment modern Western 245 00:20:02,970 --> 00:20:11,090 civilization you'd better get an ax and smash all the sex is being a bit extreme 246 00:20:11,090 --> 00:20:17,109 you might say hi and even postman who was often labeled and died would agree 247 00:20:17,109 --> 00:20:22,230 but the important point is that all the benefits that we've gained from our 248 00:20:22,230 --> 00:20:27,059 electronic media come with the cost we need to know what the cost has been and 249 00:20:27,059 --> 00:20:32,340 what it yet might be so we can start by noting that the first form of alphabetic 250 00:20:32,340 --> 00:20:38,590 writing the Semitic alpha put it as used by the ancient Israelites went along 251 00:20:38,590 --> 00:20:43,730 with the introduction of monotheism and religion based on a sacred texts with 252 00:20:43,730 --> 00:20:49,019 the first historical narrative in the first system of codified law and what 253 00:20:49,019 --> 00:20:53,289 went with it was a generalized conception of justice and human rights 254 00:20:53,289 --> 00:20:58,419 and this was followed by the Greek alphabet which made possible rhetoric 255 00:20:58,419 --> 00:21:04,460 and philosophy theater and theoretical science the first monetary system in the 256 00:21:04,460 --> 00:21:10,399 first form of democratic government the shift from a reality to literacy vastly 257 00:21:10,399 --> 00:21:15,859 increased our capacity for time binding opening the door to significant progress 258 00:21:15,859 --> 00:21:22,980 in all aspects of human life now the printing press amplified the impact of 259 00:21:22,980 --> 00:21:28,169 the written word well introd introducing new effects of its own so given the fact 260 00:21:28,169 --> 00:21:33,149 that Villanova is an Augustinian University you no doubt are thoroughly 261 00:21:33,149 --> 00:21:40,169 familiar with the confessions and what augustine says about the reading habits 262 00:21:40,169 --> 00:21:45,529 of British Bishop Ambrose but just in case you slipped slipped your mind let 263 00:21:45,529 --> 00:21:54,009 me remind you quote from it when he was reading his I glided over the pages and 264 00:21:54,009 --> 00:21:58,640 his heart searched out the sense but his voice 265 00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:05,610 tongue where I rest we see the fact was that silent reading was greeted with 266 00:22:05,610 --> 00:22:13,240 incredible astonishment and it's an indication that reading out loud was all 267 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:18,360 that people knew about for the almost entirely until the advent of the 268 00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:25,470 printing is highly legible typefaces which made the process of decoding taxed 269 00:22:25,470 --> 00:22:30,560 easier and faster print media also amplified the written words biased 270 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:35,820 towards individualism and Privacy Act of reading and writing especially when it's 271 00:22:35,820 --> 00:22:42,260 silent requires a high degree of social isolation as opposed to speaking and 272 00:22:42,260 --> 00:22:48,000 listening which is a collective group centered activity printing increased 273 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:53,320 access to information dramatically leading to a knowledge explosion as well 274 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:58,800 as increased specialization and standardization and easy access to the 275 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:04,720 accumulated knowledge of centuries past facilitated scholar ship it spyridon 276 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:09,220 research and it led to the rise of modern science and with it what became 277 00:23:09,220 --> 00:23:14,160 known as the age of reason the Enlightenment and printing created a 278 00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:20,010 reading public which constitutes the basis of democracy increased access to 279 00:23:20,010 --> 00:23:24,630 political information made it hard to argue that individuals don't know enough 280 00:23:24,630 --> 00:23:29,670 to govern themselves so the breaking of the state's monopoly of knowledge 281 00:23:29,670 --> 00:23:35,040 resulted in the democratic revolutions of the modern era as Thomas Carlyle Road 282 00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:41,460 in the nineteenth century he who first shorten the labor of copyist spy device 283 00:23:41,460 --> 00:23:48,060 of movable types was disbanding hired armies and cashiering most kings and 284 00:23:48,060 --> 00:23:54,780 senate's and creating a whole new democratic world I wish I could do in 285 00:23:54,780 --> 00:24:00,430 English accent is that's really what that requires but printing also fostered 286 00:24:00,430 --> 00:24:07,060 it did foster centralized political economic and social control and the 287 00:24:07,060 --> 00:24:09,170 building of colonial empires 288 00:24:09,170 --> 00:24:13,080 it also made possible the Enlightenment ideals of political emancipation 289 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:19,390 self-determination equality before the law along with a new emphasis on 290 00:24:19,390 --> 00:24:26,590 individualism rationalism and scientific method so out of the typographic media 291 00:24:26,590 --> 00:24:30,820 environment come we came the Enlightenment and out of the 292 00:24:30,820 --> 00:24:35,530 Enlightenment result we have resulted in the creation of the American republic 293 00:24:35,530 --> 00:24:41,070 which is the first nation to be founded on the basis of a reason 294 00:24:41,070 --> 00:24:47,960 logical argument has put forth in the Declaration of Independence now the 18th 295 00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:52,270 century media environment was one in which the spoken and written word 296 00:24:52,270 --> 00:24:56,410 achieved a fruitful but a delicate balance which is why they're given 297 00:24:56,410 --> 00:25:02,050 special protection in the first amendment freedom of speech freedom of 298 00:25:02,050 --> 00:25:07,320 the press so what happened to public discourse over the past century and a 299 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:13,530 half but we could boil it down to three factors the first involves images from 300 00:25:13,530 --> 00:25:17,880 the invention of photography to subsequent developments and graphics 301 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:26,100 film television and video we do take it into an image culture one in which 302 00:25:26,100 --> 00:25:31,970 images have replaced and displaced words as the philosopher Susanne Langer as 303 00:25:31,970 --> 00:25:37,380 explained images do not make claims they don't make arguments they don't put 304 00:25:37,380 --> 00:25:42,990 forth statements or propositions if I say that it's raining outside right now 305 00:25:42,990 --> 00:25:48,590 you can look out there and determine whether that's true or false you can 306 00:25:48,590 --> 00:25:54,700 gather the evidence and image if I show an image though what is it it's a 307 00:25:54,700 --> 00:26:00,950 concrete representation if I show you a picture of a ring of rain out there it's 308 00:26:00,950 --> 00:26:06,560 neither true nor false it can be used as evidence but it makes no claim about 309 00:26:06,560 --> 00:26:07,960 anything 310 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:12,430 a picture can be tampered with it can be airbrushed photoshopped but it's not a 311 00:26:12,430 --> 00:26:18,470 fake until it's attached to a statement the bias of the image as a symbolic form 312 00:26:18,470 --> 00:26:21,810 favors gut feelings over rap 313 00:26:21,810 --> 00:26:27,790 coherent organization of ideas it evokes emotional reactions rather than rational 314 00:26:27,790 --> 00:26:33,750 thought that's the first factor the second is information and the problem is 315 00:26:33,750 --> 00:26:39,220 that our capacity to transmit and store information has continued to expand over 316 00:26:39,220 --> 00:26:45,770 the past two centuries so that we find ourselves in a time of TMI too much 317 00:26:45,770 --> 00:26:52,440 information otherwise known as information overload media professionals 318 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:57,140 are well aware of the problem of cutting through all the noise and clutter but 319 00:26:57,140 --> 00:27:02,320 for audiences the problem is making sense of so much stimuli evaluating the 320 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:08,360 messages determining what small amount of them is really relevant to us and 321 00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:14,760 what small amount of those are actionable the third factor is immediacy 322 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:20,180 beginning with the Telegraph electricity made instantaneous transmission of 323 00:27:20,180 --> 00:27:25,320 messages possible this contributes to information overload and incoherence 324 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:29,940 there's no time to sort things out especially as the acceleration of 325 00:27:29,940 --> 00:27:35,730 communication favors rapid turnover against any type of contextualization 326 00:27:35,730 --> 00:27:41,310 and speed gives us an abbreviated form of discourse the sort we associate with 327 00:27:41,310 --> 00:27:46,730 the telegram the newspaper headline the advertising slogan more recently the 328 00:27:46,730 --> 00:27:52,770 text message status update in tweet contemporary critics such as Nicholas 329 00:27:52,770 --> 00:27:56,820 Carr know that there's a significant amount of reading the takes place online 330 00:27:56,820 --> 00:28:01,660 but it's not that deep reading associated with print culture instead 331 00:28:01,660 --> 00:28:06,700 it's a kind of rapid scanning and skimming accompanied by a good deal of 332 00:28:06,700 --> 00:28:12,670 linking and clicking speed also places a new emphasis on efficiency which is 333 00:28:12,670 --> 00:28:17,650 essentially a numbers game based on measurement and statistical analysis and 334 00:28:17,650 --> 00:28:22,750 in this sense the balance between the spoken and written word comes under 335 00:28:22,750 --> 00:28:28,660 assault from another direction in the form of counting and calculation were 336 00:28:28,660 --> 00:28:33,740 caught then between two extremes of image and number of the irrational 337 00:28:33,740 --> 00:28:39,320 and the hyper rational so images information and immediacy come together 338 00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:44,570 as never before with the medium of television with television language 339 00:28:44,570 --> 00:28:49,550 takes a back seat to the image as the medium allows us to see what is 340 00:28:49,550 --> 00:28:55,809 happening for ourselves as it is happening the verbal report is no longer 341 00:28:55,809 --> 00:29:00,210 the main source of information as it was previously it 342 00:29:00,210 --> 00:29:06,130 newspaper reports and even with radio but now the purple report is reduced to 343 00:29:06,130 --> 00:29:11,610 commentary coming after the fact of the live image the difference between a 344 00:29:11,610 --> 00:29:16,270 televised experience in the report can be seen especially in the sports program 345 00:29:16,270 --> 00:29:22,130 as Walter on pointed out the voice on a live television sports broadcast lags 346 00:29:22,130 --> 00:29:28,490 behind the audience's perceptions on also argues the sense of immediacy is 347 00:29:28,490 --> 00:29:34,470 central to the television forum I quote not all television presentations are 348 00:29:34,470 --> 00:29:41,200 simultaneous with reality but in a way to pull television presentation seem to 349 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:46,590 be the fact that the instrument is capable of such presentations defines 350 00:29:46,590 --> 00:29:52,990 its impact so whereas for example the motion picture always communicates in 351 00:29:52,990 --> 00:29:57,620 the past and it's always something that has happened already 352 00:29:57,620 --> 00:30:03,970 the television broadcast communicates in the present tense instilling in a very 353 00:30:03,970 --> 00:30:10,940 strong form of present mindedness now over the three decades that followed the 354 00:30:10,940 --> 00:30:15,890 publication of amusing ourselves to death Tirmidhi environment has evolved 355 00:30:15,890 --> 00:30:20,070 through the vast expansion of the cable and satellite and through the 356 00:30:20,070 --> 00:30:24,440 popularization of the internet the introduction of the web social media 357 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:30,280 media mobile technology and some had hoped that our new media would counter 358 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:35,190 the negative effects of television but I want to suggest that in many ways they 359 00:30:35,190 --> 00:30:41,919 have much in common and as further elaborations of electronic media but 360 00:30:41,919 --> 00:30:46,970 let's consider our longest running reality 361 00:30:46,970 --> 00:30:51,780 shun series you know the one that with the slogan that goes outwit outplay 362 00:30:51,780 --> 00:30:59,710 outlast you know that one if you think I'm referring to survivor the mistakes 363 00:30:59,710 --> 00:31:04,200 understandable when actually referring to could be called who wants to be the 364 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:08,080 president it's easy to confuse the two 365 00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:14,970 both conclude with all but one player being voted off the island and when so 366 00:31:14,970 --> 00:31:19,159 much of our political campaigning is played out on television is it any 367 00:31:19,159 --> 00:31:23,700 wonder that the host of another reality series The Apprentice could be our next 368 00:31:23,700 --> 00:31:28,480 president this is despite the fact that donald Trump has no government 369 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:34,500 experience offers platitudes in the place of campaign platform and is not by 370 00:31:34,500 --> 00:31:40,020 any traditional standards eloquence or even all that coherent but he has a 371 00:31:40,020 --> 00:31:45,860 decade of experience hosting The Apprentice and long before that can 372 00:31:45,860 --> 00:31:52,100 spent considerable time and effort on publicity and self-promotion simply put 373 00:31:52,100 --> 00:31:59,549 he knows and much like ronald reagan our movie star turn president from the 374 00:31:59,549 --> 00:32:06,840 eighties donald Trump knows how to look into look into the camera how to talk to 375 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:11,870 the viewers he knows what works and what doesn't work on the television screen 376 00:32:11,870 --> 00:32:16,299 and this more than anything is the reason for his early success in the 377 00:32:16,299 --> 00:32:22,000 polls along with a certain ability to use new media it's not to say that being 378 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:27,230 telegenic will guarantee victory but it is to say that anyone who's not very 379 00:32:27,230 --> 00:32:30,140 telegenic will pretty much go down in defeat 380 00:32:30,140 --> 00:32:36,250 regardless of their qualifications and this includes this now incorporates the 381 00:32:36,250 --> 00:32:42,559 use of new media and you can think back to 2008 and the Obama girl YouTube video 382 00:32:42,559 --> 00:32:48,570 and the way that Obama and now Trump has very effectively used interacted with 383 00:32:48,570 --> 00:32:53,380 campaign supporters through Twitter now it may be hard to believe nowadays but 384 00:32:53,380 --> 00:32:56,780 that was a time when appearing on an entertainer 385 00:32:56,780 --> 00:33:00,860 program was considered beneath the dignity of apollo of a serious 386 00:33:00,860 --> 00:33:06,500 politician really now it's a part of every candidate's campaign strategy 387 00:33:06,500 --> 00:33:11,510 fred thompson deter fred thompson just passed away and it's worth noting in 388 00:33:11,510 --> 00:33:19,360 2008 fred thompson whose previous career was a film and television actor went on 389 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,500 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to declare his candidacy for the president 390 00:33:23,500 --> 00:33:28,060 and he wasn't the first candidate to go that route but he did this instead of 391 00:33:28,060 --> 00:33:34,910 participating in the Republican primary debate being held that same night as a 392 00:33:34,910 --> 00:33:38,080 veteran of the big and small screen he knew that a late night entertainment 393 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:43,790 program hosted by comedian would provide him with a much better platform for 394 00:33:43,790 --> 00:33:48,570 launching his campaign than discussing issues with other politicians and who 395 00:33:48,570 --> 00:33:53,450 can blame them it's simply a matter of choosing which of two forms of 396 00:33:53,450 --> 00:33:57,380 television programming he should go with and selecting the one that has the 397 00:33:57,380 --> 00:34:02,520 bigger audience in our current election cycle being a guest on late night talk 398 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:03,330 shows 399 00:34:03,330 --> 00:34:08,230 has become a routine for candidates as routine as taking part in debates and 400 00:34:08,230 --> 00:34:14,090 running political commercials and once the election is over image politics 401 00:34:14,090 --> 00:34:19,239 persists as part and parcel of governing promoting policies and political 402 00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:24,880 advocacy he's back in March of last year President Obama appeared on the comedy 403 00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:30,830 program hosted by Zach Galifianakis right between two ferns and his 404 00:34:30,830 --> 00:34:35,550 motivation was to urge young adults to sign up for health care there's no 405 00:34:35,550 --> 00:34:41,489 question that that program was highly entertaining whole areas there's no 406 00:34:41,489 --> 00:34:45,590 question that he was able to reach his target audience the question now is 407 00:34:45,590 --> 00:34:50,070 whether the message he was trying to convey got through it all or whether it 408 00:34:50,070 --> 00:34:54,770 was lost in the context of comedy in stark has and the overarching question 409 00:34:54,770 --> 00:35:01,220 is whether the learning of entertainment and politics makes it all possible to 410 00:35:01,220 --> 00:35:07,590 engage in the serious discourse that's vital to our democracy you know thirty 411 00:35:07,590 --> 00:35:08,730 years ago 412 00:35:08,730 --> 00:35:12,830 broadcast journalists working on network news complain that they had less than 413 00:35:12,830 --> 00:35:17,580 half an hour to report on the day's events they couldn't help but be much 414 00:35:17,580 --> 00:35:22,370 more than the headline service so now we have cable news channels with 24 hour 415 00:35:22,370 --> 00:35:26,970 news cycles and we find that the coverage is not that much different as 416 00:35:26,970 --> 00:35:31,640 it turns out most people to an end to cable stations news stations only for a 417 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:36,720 limited time so rather than lose viewers they tend to provide repetition in place 418 00:35:36,720 --> 00:35:37,430 of death 419 00:35:37,430 --> 00:35:42,190 the news stories are also kept short out of concern of losing the audience's 420 00:35:42,190 --> 00:35:49,290 attention and essentially essentially Fox News CNN and Ms MSNBC of all 421 00:35:49,290 --> 00:35:54,690 discovered they can build larger audiences by providing more entertaining 422 00:35:54,690 --> 00:36:00,130 programming emphasizing dramatic confrontations confrontations that 423 00:36:00,130 --> 00:36:06,030 resemble not so much sort of pro and con newspaper op-eds but more like 424 00:36:06,030 --> 00:36:12,250 confrontations we see on televised professional wrestling programs the old 425 00:36:12,250 --> 00:36:17,650 adage in TV news was if it bleeds it leads and that perfectly sums up the 426 00:36:17,650 --> 00:36:22,360 fact that decisions on what stories to report how much time to devote them and 427 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:27,490 where to place them in the broadcast are heavily influenced by the presence or 428 00:36:27,490 --> 00:36:32,440 absence of compelling footage and this trend has been greatly amplified by the 429 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:37,240 availability of video recorded by smartphones dashboard cameras 430 00:36:37,240 --> 00:36:43,340 surveillance video and the like we find that the caught on camera genre has 431 00:36:43,340 --> 00:36:48,750 become a new kind of news program one whose only rationale is 2% entertaining 432 00:36:48,750 --> 00:36:54,340 video to attract audiences in this way journalism is reduced to a spinoff of 433 00:36:54,340 --> 00:36:59,520 America's Funniest Home Videos but why not after all 434 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:05,320 television news programs are called shows their show business they have 435 00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:08,320 theme music is music 436 00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:14,530 theme music for the newscasters wear makeup they had their hair styled their 437 00:37:14,530 --> 00:37:19,880 costumes appropriately they become celebrities they appear on talk shows 438 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:23,820 the appear in fictional movies and TV episodes 439 00:37:23,820 --> 00:37:29,210 blurring the line between fiction and nonfiction you know many viewers 440 00:37:29,210 --> 00:37:35,450 lamented the loss of Brian Williams whose main qualification as anchor the 441 00:37:35,450 --> 00:37:39,760 NBC News was the fact that he looked and sounded like a traditional network 442 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:46,630 anchor and acclaimed TV critic marvin kitman refer to Williams is Brian the 443 00:37:46,630 --> 00:37:52,020 mediocre and he called it described him as someone a quote 444 00:37:52,020 --> 00:37:56,130 who came across as a nice guy always well-dressed but more of an actor / 445 00:37:56,130 --> 00:38:02,980 model playing a newsman course it didn't matter much by that time who took over 446 00:38:02,980 --> 00:38:07,270 the anchor's chair cuz it was led by that time was longer observed that most 447 00:38:07,270 --> 00:38:12,460 young adults have been getting their news from the monologues of late night 448 00:38:12,460 --> 00:38:17,080 talk shows from Jay Leno and David Letterman at the time you know Walter 449 00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:23,500 Cronkite who anchored the CBS Evening News from 6281 was commonly referred to 450 00:38:23,500 --> 00:38:29,510 as the most trusted man in America but if anyone could claim that title in 451 00:38:29,510 --> 00:38:34,330 recent years I think it would be Jon Stewart host of The Comedy Central cable 452 00:38:34,330 --> 00:38:39,520 program The Daily Show and of course Stewart like leno letterman in others as 453 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:45,440 a comedian not a journalist which you know certain got to ask if so many 454 00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:49,960 people get their news from comedians that mean the journalism has become a 455 00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:55,110 joke and I think it's particularly telling that when Stewart announced that 456 00:38:55,110 --> 00:38:59,160 he was leaving the Daily Show earlier this year you know who want to the name 457 00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:06,680 was mentioned about who might take over forum Brian Williams I should add that 458 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:11,750 it's not at all clear that new media provide an adequate substitute Twitter 459 00:39:11,750 --> 00:39:16,240 simply gives us a new form of telegraphic discourse while YouTube 460 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:21,800 Instagram our new manifestations of image culture the internet contributes 461 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:27,020 in a major way to information overload and does not provide a forum for shared 462 00:39:27,020 --> 00:39:32,170 a shared forum for discussion and deliberation really what it does is it 463 00:39:32,170 --> 00:39:37,870 situates us in isolated silos that intensify the divisions in american 464 00:39:37,870 --> 00:39:39,450 society 465 00:39:39,450 --> 00:39:45,940 offer contrast the recent visit of Pope Francis to the united states right the 466 00:39:45,940 --> 00:39:51,110 leader of the Roman Catholic Church is a serious individual who communicates a 467 00:39:51,110 --> 00:39:57,460 strong sense of dignity compassion and moral authority he's not someone who was 468 00:39:57,460 --> 00:40:03,000 chosen because of his ability to perform for the television camera or to share or 469 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:08,610 his willingness to share personal details via social media he's not a 470 00:40:08,610 --> 00:40:14,020 celebrity not an entertainer and I want to tell you that I personally was very 471 00:40:14,020 --> 00:40:19,940 moved by the Interfaith service that he led at the 911 memorial back in 472 00:40:19,940 --> 00:40:25,790 September but I have to confess that I watched it on CNN was sitting on the 473 00:40:25,790 --> 00:40:32,510 couch in the living room wearing pyjamas sipping coffee and eating a bagel and 474 00:40:32,510 --> 00:40:36,680 when it was over I change the channel 475 00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:43,020 how different then was that experience from watching appointment moving on HBO 476 00:40:43,020 --> 00:40:49,150 what happens to religious experience when it becomes televised or tweeted or 477 00:40:49,150 --> 00:40:55,480 Instagram as Walter on the explains sound is intimately connected to our 478 00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:58,910 sense of the sacred the human voice 479 00:40:58,910 --> 00:41:04,420 the most distinct and unique element of the human person is produced by breath 480 00:41:04,420 --> 00:41:10,250 which is closely associated with life itself in hebrew the words for breath 481 00:41:10,250 --> 00:41:17,370 and winds are synonymous with spirit and soul both human and divine it is worth 482 00:41:17,370 --> 00:41:22,170 asking therefore if it makes a difference if the voices heard in song 483 00:41:22,170 --> 00:41:28,890 and prayer are breathless in a sense of being electronically disembodied the 484 00:41:28,890 --> 00:41:34,090 problem is always as one of context participating in a religious ritual 485 00:41:34,090 --> 00:41:39,490 Lisa sauce in a special context that's different from all about context it 486 00:41:39,490 --> 00:41:44,140 situates us in the distinct media environment one that asks us to play 487 00:41:44,140 --> 00:41:49,800 different roles and play by different sets of rules whether the location is a 488 00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:55,950 church a synagogue temple or mosque or outdoors religious experiences Mirchi 489 00:41:55,950 --> 00:42:02,320 Aliotti explains is characterized by a sense of sacred space and sacred time 490 00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:08,630 separate and distinct from profane space and time into the deep meaning of 491 00:42:08,630 --> 00:42:14,700 sanctification and consecration traced back to the Hebrew word Kadosh is to set 492 00:42:14,700 --> 00:42:20,980 up heart to differentiate so what happens to our sense of sacred space and 493 00:42:20,980 --> 00:42:27,470 time when congregants in the pews here a cell phone ringing receive text messages 494 00:42:27,470 --> 00:42:33,790 or even stop to answer them our experience of the sacred is associated 495 00:42:33,790 --> 00:42:40,810 with the still small voice of God as described in the Bible with quiet and 496 00:42:40,810 --> 00:42:46,770 silenced many religions incorporate some form of silent prayer in their worship 497 00:42:46,770 --> 00:42:53,850 services and silences in to grow to contemplation and meditation during the 498 00:42:53,850 --> 00:42:58,540 20th century especially in the aftermath of the second world war there was quite 499 00:42:58,540 --> 00:43:05,150 a bit of discussion about concerning what was referred to as God's silence 500 00:43:05,150 --> 00:43:11,150 and on suggested that it may not be so much that God is stop start speaking to 501 00:43:11,150 --> 00:43:16,290 us as it is that our electronic media generates so much noise that we've 502 00:43:16,290 --> 00:43:21,780 drowned out that still small voice now whether religious spiritual experiences 503 00:43:21,780 --> 00:43:26,570 conceived of as communion with something greater than ourselves whether it's a 504 00:43:26,570 --> 00:43:31,900 personal day D or transcendent understanding of the universe whether 505 00:43:31,900 --> 00:43:37,210 it's just a matter of an inner journey a soul-searching sort simply an effort to 506 00:43:37,210 --> 00:43:43,130 better understand our own minds and consciousness the loss of silence in the 507 00:43:43,130 --> 00:43:44,790 constant deluge 508 00:43:44,790 --> 00:43:50,150 of distractions can be nothing short of devastating to our collective spiritual 509 00:43:50,150 --> 00:43:56,230 health as well as our prospects for cultural survival now when it comes to 510 00:43:56,230 --> 00:44:00,110 education schooling has always been about learning to read and write 511 00:44:00,110 --> 00:44:04,540 television in the electronic media offer us a different and incompatible 512 00:44:04,540 --> 00:44:09,700 curriculum and so it's worth asking if it's in the best interests of young 513 00:44:09,700 --> 00:44:14,860 children to spend time playing with tablets and smartphones and watching 514 00:44:14,860 --> 00:44:23,350 programs such as Teletubbies poop and Yo Gabba Gabba you know cable television is 515 00:44:23,350 --> 00:44:28,380 given a specialized educational programming via the National Geographic 516 00:44:28,380 --> 00:44:32,290 Channel The History Channel the Discovery Channel this is private 517 00:44:32,290 --> 00:44:37,510 provided a wonderful avenue for the dissemination of documentaries but what 518 00:44:37,510 --> 00:44:44,220 audiences are specially drawn to our programs such as moonshiners ancient 519 00:44:44,220 --> 00:44:53,770 aliens UFO files and then Estrada mass effect on the Animal Planet channel two 520 00:44:53,770 --> 00:45:02,270 specials entitled mermaids the body found and mermaids the new evidence he 521 00:45:02,270 --> 00:45:06,380 gave the cable outlet its highest ratings in its seventeen year history 522 00:45:06,380 --> 00:45:12,500 and these fake documentaries were assumed to be real by many so many 523 00:45:12,500 --> 00:45:18,140 viewers so many viewers that they prompted the National Oceanic and 524 00:45:18,140 --> 00:45:23,450 Atmospheric Administration to issue an official statement stating that mermaids 525 00:45:23,450 --> 00:45:32,760 do not actually exist it's almost too easy it's just too easy but I'll do to 526 00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:38,390 mention the learning channel TLC which achieved its highest ratings by turning 527 00:45:38,390 --> 00:45:45,450 to reality programs such as toddlers in tiaras and its notorious spinoff here 528 00:45:45,450 --> 00:45:51,730 comes honey boo boo you know the most recent fad in higher education has been 529 00:45:51,730 --> 00:45:56,410 the massive open online course abbreviated as much 530 00:45:56,410 --> 00:46:02,080 a move can contain as many as 100,000 students that raises the question of in 531 00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:08,130 what census muka course what sense is the instructor really teaching it's 532 00:46:08,130 --> 00:46:14,660 revealing I believe that the acronym move is a variation on other new media 533 00:46:14,660 --> 00:46:23,820 terms such as mmm RPG that stands for a massive multiplayer online role-playing 534 00:46:23,820 --> 00:46:28,900 game in other words the primary connection is with gaming not schooling 535 00:46:28,900 --> 00:46:34,090 and came in can be educational but the question is can learning be reduced to a 536 00:46:34,090 --> 00:46:42,160 game or are we talking about grand theft education well as another in variation 537 00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:47,270 on the inside that the medium is the message Hannah Arendt insisted that I 538 00:46:47,270 --> 00:46:54,860 quote there are no dangerous thoughts thinking itself is dangerous so the 539 00:46:54,860 --> 00:47:00,220 question we're left with is to all of our amazing new media technologies allow 540 00:47:00,220 --> 00:47:05,870 us the space in the time to pause and reflect and think things over here is 541 00:47:05,870 --> 00:47:11,120 our ability to think drowned out in a flood of images and noise and pushed 542 00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:16,230 aside in favor of calculation and automation at this point you might 543 00:47:16,230 --> 00:47:21,290 imagine that if we could travel back in time and show benjamin Franklin how 544 00:47:21,290 --> 00:47:26,390 things turned out he might have put his kite back in his closet and not ventured 545 00:47:26,390 --> 00:47:32,400 out into that thunderstorm to unleash the power of electricity but I think 546 00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:37,010 it's more likely that he would have sat down to write up some ideas about how we 547 00:47:37,010 --> 00:47:42,490 might still be able to keep our republic what we would have to do to counter the 548 00:47:42,490 --> 00:47:47,470 bias ease of the brave new world his discovery would unleash it would begin 549 00:47:47,470 --> 00:47:53,690 with something along the lines of McCune statement mcluhan wrote there is no 550 00:47:53,690 --> 00:47:59,480 inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is 551 00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:06,050 happening with you see contemplating the contemporary media environment is one of 552 00:48:06,050 --> 00:48:08,620 the main purposes of media 553 00:48:08,620 --> 00:48:14,480 ecology scholarship and as for postin he was well aware of the flaws and failures 554 00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:20,240 of american society but as a proponent of Enlightenment ideals he believed in 555 00:48:20,240 --> 00:48:25,090 its promise and potential to do agree he would agree with abraham Lincoln's 556 00:48:25,090 --> 00:48:29,770 characterization of the American experiment is the last best hope on 557 00:48:29,770 --> 00:48:36,450 earth but it also echo lincoln's concerned about a nation so on happily 558 00:48:36,450 --> 00:48:41,650 distracted but now it's not the horror of civil war that has sidetracked us 559 00:48:41,650 --> 00:48:46,870 rather we find ourselves diverted from a higher calling but a constant stream of 560 00:48:46,870 --> 00:48:52,750 entertainment information and innovation post comments argument speak to the 561 00:48:52,750 --> 00:48:58,110 future of humanity in its entirety especially in this era of convergence 562 00:48:58,110 --> 00:49:03,450 and globalization and again it comes down to the question can we think and 563 00:49:03,450 --> 00:49:09,080 can we talk about what we're doing and where we're going we live in the midst 564 00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:14,420 of a temp this by which I refer to the turbulent nature of the electronic media 565 00:49:14,420 --> 00:49:21,240 environment as it's a digital technologies wave after wave of changes 566 00:49:21,240 --> 00:49:26,280 to our mode of communication and interaction or tools for thought and 567 00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:32,080 social action have altered and continue to alter our societies and cultures as 568 00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:37,210 well as our psyches and ourselves as human beings we are certainly well 569 00:49:37,210 --> 00:49:42,670 equipped to survive a passing storm but it's far from clear whether we can build 570 00:49:42,670 --> 00:49:48,770 a sustainable way of life in the midst of permanent upheaval be a natural or 571 00:49:48,770 --> 00:49:54,200 cultural how are we to survive while keeping our humanity intact that's the 572 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:59,050 fundamental question raised by postman and by the field of inquiry he called 573 00:49:59,050 --> 00:50:04,200 media ecology now there's no turning back the clock no point in arguing that 574 00:50:04,200 --> 00:50:09,330 we abandon our media and technology and try to retrieve an earlier age or less 575 00:50:09,330 --> 00:50:15,620 advanced way of life nor does it make sense to deny that there are legitimate 576 00:50:15,620 --> 00:50:19,260 benefits that are inventions have brought us what we need to do 577 00:50:19,260 --> 00:50:24,230 then is to engage in concerted evaluation of what we're doing how we go 578 00:50:24,230 --> 00:50:29,180 about doing it to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of our technologies 579 00:50:29,180 --> 00:50:35,240 to consider what are the appropriate uses of our media and what uses might be 580 00:50:35,240 --> 00:50:40,890 inappropriate to proceed with caution understanding that our innovations will 581 00:50:40,890 --> 00:50:44,900 always result in unanticipated affects many of them 582 00:50:44,900 --> 00:50:50,170 undesirable and to provide just a few practical suggestions we need to 583 00:50:50,170 --> 00:50:56,050 strengthen our commitment to the spoken word to conversation public speaking and 584 00:50:56,050 --> 00:51:02,230 oral performance and reading out land as well we need to place greater emphasis 585 00:51:02,230 --> 00:51:07,450 on the written word on literacy and the practice of deep and sustained reading 586 00:51:07,450 --> 00:51:13,810 that requires significant periods of quiet time at which takes effort so one 587 00:51:13,810 --> 00:51:19,350 example is the pioneering efforts of the movement to observe a weekly technology 588 00:51:19,350 --> 00:51:23,510 sabbath write a day when you turn everything off 589 00:51:23,510 --> 00:51:27,640 ultimately though what's needed is cultural change and that ought to 590 00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:32,400 include strengthening the four cornerstones of the American American 591 00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:37,680 experiment all of which were products of literate culture and the typographic 592 00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:43,380 media environment that is democratic politics a free press 593 00:51:43,380 --> 00:51:50,620 religion and schooling as Shakespeare's play The Tempest includes the line 0 594 00:51:50,620 --> 00:51:55,470 brave new world that has such people in it and that's where huxley took the 595 00:51:55,470 --> 00:52:01,420 title of his prophetic novel shakespeare's main character prospero is 596 00:52:01,420 --> 00:52:07,430 a powerful sorcerer living in exile and like prospero we possessed extraordinary 597 00:52:07,430 --> 00:52:11,320 powers through the use of media and technologies that are nothing short of 598 00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:17,810 magical shakespeare concludes his play with prospero finally willing to give up 599 00:52:17,810 --> 00:52:23,830 his sorcery in order to embrace the world of rationality and reconciliation 600 00:52:23,830 --> 00:52:29,780 with family and community can we do the same perhaps not entirely abandoning or 601 00:52:29,780 --> 00:52:32,130 gifts but being mindful of their contacts 602 00:52:32,130 --> 00:52:39,290 and our need for balance to once again invoke ecclesiastes there is a time to 603 00:52:39,290 --> 00:52:44,890 weep and a time to laugh at time to mourn and a time to dance time to 604 00:52:44,890 --> 00:52:50,920 embrace and a time to refrain from embracing a time to keep silent and a 605 00:52:50,920 --> 00:52:58,100 time to speak but promised that the electronic media environment we inhabit 606 00:52:58,100 --> 00:53:06,500 in that environment the time is always a uniform 24 7 365 and the season never 607 00:53:06,500 --> 00:53:11,450 changes so can we make the time and can we create what mcluhan referred to as 608 00:53:11,450 --> 00:53:17,240 counter environments safe spaces where the biases of the electronic media to 609 00:53:17,240 --> 00:53:23,500 not hold sway such as can be found in sanctuaries and sacred spaces in schools 610 00:53:23,500 --> 00:53:30,070 classrooms and sites devoted to art and creative expression against the fact 611 00:53:30,070 --> 00:53:35,250 that we've been fiddling around as we are amusing in forming an amazing 612 00:53:35,250 --> 00:53:42,160 ourselves to death can we find the means the method the way to start speaking and 613 00:53:42,160 --> 00:53:47,910 thinking and teaching ourselves back to life that's the question I leave you 614 00:53:47,910 --> 00:54:35,660 with thank you very much 615 00:54:35,660 --> 00:54:49,240 well I think that when you talk about journalist says as people some are some 616 00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:55,450 of them are are very much on the side of cultural change some of them lament the 617 00:54:55,450 --> 00:54:56,869 situation 618 00:54:56,869 --> 00:55:01,390 postman's book amusing ourselves to death was one of five books that tom 619 00:55:01,390 --> 00:55:06,809 brokaw he was the guy who was the anchor of NBC Nightly News before Brian 620 00:55:06,809 --> 00:55:12,440 Williams the email listed five books that every journalist should read and 621 00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:17,180 amusing ourselves to death was the only book that wasn't specifically about 622 00:55:17,180 --> 00:55:23,910 journalism so I and that critique was very popular among serious journalists 623 00:55:23,910 --> 00:55:30,270 but you know the problem they face is that is organizational where they're not 624 00:55:30,270 --> 00:55:38,299 able to do what they want to do so I wouldn't put the blame on on journalists 625 00:55:38,299 --> 00:55:43,990 but I get there is this kind of technique that goes with the whole 626 00:55:43,990 --> 00:55:52,460 organization of media industries that pushes them towards working with the 627 00:55:52,460 --> 00:55:59,160 bias of the media not against it so I mean the answer from a democratic point 628 00:55:59,160 --> 00:56:04,220 of view is it's us we're the ones who you know I was a Gundy said be the 629 00:56:04,220 --> 00:56:09,289 change you want to see in the world and I think you know also echoing post 630 00:56:09,289 --> 00:56:14,829 minute and others education is very much a part of it that it starts through 631 00:56:14,829 --> 00:56:20,119 education it's what we try to do and what we try to instill in our students 632 00:56:20,119 --> 00:56:27,680 the you know anyone to hold out some hope because in some folks take from 633 00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:32,470 this you know conclude that it is hopeless I think it's difficult it may 634 00:56:32,470 --> 00:56:39,529 take something catastrophic to wake people up but at the very least there's 635 00:56:39,529 --> 00:56:45,740 the idea of let's preserve something of you know in the sense of when you have 636 00:56:45,740 --> 00:56:49,170 dark ages at least let's have some places 637 00:56:49,170 --> 00:57:29,210 those where people are still enlightened and and certainly it starts with schools 638 00:57:29,210 --> 00:57:35,670 thanks you know I I try I felt like I was saying I was writing this I felt 639 00:57:35,670 --> 00:57:41,550 like how many times should I say that there are benefits and it's i mean but 640 00:57:41,550 --> 00:57:49,710 and the problem is that the benefits are clear to people for the most part and 641 00:57:49,710 --> 00:57:57,080 the problem is recognizing the cost but certainly access to information can be 642 00:57:57,080 --> 00:58:05,460 very advantageous and can be with parading the ability for people to 643 00:58:05,460 --> 00:58:14,070 organize I think it is a very powerful benefit of the new media so that people 644 00:58:14,070 --> 00:58:19,990 who are there's a kind of empowering people who are on the margins and able 645 00:58:19,990 --> 00:58:26,210 to to organize themselves for political action so I mean I think there are 646 00:58:26,210 --> 00:58:35,760 definite benefits that what you're asking and it but I think that you know 647 00:58:35,760 --> 00:58:39,870 again I mean what we find is that people really to do all those benefits i mean 648 00:58:39,870 --> 00:58:43,870 you know how many times have you heard how much access to know how wonderful it 649 00:58:43,870 --> 00:58:49,460 is that you can say hey Google and get whatever the answer to any question you 650 00:58:49,460 --> 00:58:58,690 have everyone knows that that's that's that's easy you know and I perhaps less 651 00:58:58,690 --> 00:59:03,260 obvious but I think you know certainly significant is the fact of people being 652 00:59:03,260 --> 00:59:08,400 able to connect with one another and especially for individuals who feel 653 00:59:08,400 --> 00:59:13,980 isolated from one reason or another that that's a powerful boon for the problem 654 00:59:13,980 --> 00:59:18,170 really comes down to how to find that balance and how to say no because we 655 00:59:18,170 --> 00:59:22,230 just have this tendency to just keep going in the same direction and keep 656 00:59:22,230 --> 00:59:23,820 going and keep going 657 00:59:23,820 --> 00:59:31,300 Joseph wise and pound he was the head of a professor of computing at MIT back in 658 00:59:31,300 --> 00:59:36,440 the sixties he created one of the first artificial intelligence programs little 659 00:59:36,440 --> 00:59:38,350 program called allies 660 00:59:38,350 --> 00:59:44,520 mimicked a psycho rosier aryan psychotherapist and just reflected back 661 00:59:44,520 --> 00:59:48,200 what people were saying and he found any thought that this was just like a goof 662 00:59:48,200 --> 00:59:54,160 and then he found that a lot of people in this office we're like leave me alone 663 00:59:54,160 --> 00:59:59,740 I'm talking to allies and and you know and even worse that the American 664 00:59:59,740 --> 01:00:05,670 Psychological Association hearing about this came out with this idea that 665 01:00:05,670 --> 01:00:10,680 wouldn't it be wonderful if we had computer kiosks so anyone in need to go 666 01:00:10,680 --> 01:00:16,930 to one and get psychotherapy and wise and pound said usually worry we don't 667 01:00:16,930 --> 01:00:23,090 use too much thought you said just because we can to something ought we to 668 01:00:23,090 --> 01:00:29,950 do it right and that's the question we don't so that's why I mean I think the 669 01:00:29,950 --> 01:00:36,000 question is what's appropriate what's the appropriate use and I think that's a 670 01:00:36,000 --> 01:00:38,420 reasonable question what is appropriate 671 01:00:38,420 --> 01:00:42,080 what's not appropriate 672 01:00:42,080 --> 01:00:45,950 the other side of it is what's effective and what's not effective in these two or 673 01:00:45,950 --> 01:00:51,190 not don't go together because sometimes what's effective is you know may be good 674 01:00:51,190 --> 01:01:48,730 for the immediate purpose but not in the long run so I can see that 675 01:01:48,730 --> 01:01:57,670 what's appropriate right i mean we all know the phenomenon of spending all your 676 01:01:57,670 --> 01:02:04,030 time taking pictures and not experience what's what's actually going on so I 677 01:02:04,030 --> 01:02:14,860 mcluhan in particular so are as as essential and as away as a kind of way 678 01:02:14,860 --> 01:02:20,370 way to educate ourselves about media because he believed that he argued that 679 01:02:20,370 --> 01:02:27,590 media were extensions of our senses art speaks to our senses and helps us to see 680 01:02:27,590 --> 01:02:36,340 how are using our senses so this is not so much about art but you know again we 681 01:02:36,340 --> 01:02:43,790 wouldn't expect against talk about democracy for example we wouldn't expect 682 01:02:43,790 --> 01:02:51,740 that a treaty is negotiated on a week we don't find the question of how to deal 683 01:02:51,740 --> 01:02:59,060 with Iran way out of that threw me through art I mean it's a different it's 684 01:02:59,060 --> 01:03:03,830 not the appropriate medium or the appropriate approach to do that sort of 685 01:03:03,830 --> 01:03:10,070 thing so it's not about art so much as it is about knowing when it's time for 686 01:03:10,070 --> 01:03:13,870 art and when it's time for something else 687 01:03:13,870 --> 01:03:14,870 22 688 01:03:14,870 --> 01:03:49,240 be employed 689 01:03:49,240 --> 01:04:01,100 one hand it's just a progression and it's not that newspapers where three of 690 01:04:01,100 --> 01:04:07,160 criticism they had their faults as well but then reading the news and print had 691 01:04:07,160 --> 01:04:12,869 a different set of biases than seeing it on television so it's a natural 692 01:04:12,869 --> 01:04:19,810 progression from nightly news to comedy programs because they really are about 693 01:04:19,810 --> 01:04:26,890 eliciting responses gathering audiences eliciting responses rather than trying 694 01:04:26,890 --> 01:04:35,190 to arrange things in a coherent and logical manner so it's all relative so I 695 01:04:35,190 --> 01:04:42,880 mean compared to what used to be the nightly news it's it's further sliding 696 01:04:42,880 --> 01:04:48,880 further downhill but it's not that the nightly news was that was particularly a 697 01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:54,670 great way to get news either you know there was a time when no serious person 698 01:04:54,670 --> 01:04:59,420 would say that they got their news only from television if you ever heard of the 699 01:04:59,420 --> 01:05:04,740 the novel being there by Jerzy Kosinski the movie they made out of it it was 700 01:05:04,740 --> 01:05:11,410 like the big joke in the novel was that this one fellow says I like to watch and 701 01:05:11,410 --> 01:05:15,540 that people said it's so refreshing to see someone who says they get their news 702 01:05:15,540 --> 01:05:19,420 from television actually read it into the character but I don't know if you if 703 01:05:19,420 --> 01:05:25,520 you remember or noticed a man who is this moment when Katie Couric was 704 01:05:25,520 --> 01:05:29,100 interviewing Sarah Palin and she says well where do you get your news from 705 01:05:29,100 --> 01:05:33,530 what newspapers do you read and she couldn't answer to all I read all of 706 01:05:33,530 --> 01:05:34,390 them right 707 01:05:34,390 --> 01:05:38,170 could tell she was just bullshitting right i mean that she couldn't answer 708 01:05:38,170 --> 01:05:45,890 and more recently I forget who was it someone asked a trump you know what 709 01:05:45,890 --> 01:05:49,680 who are as military involved Bazar what does he get his military advice from an 710 01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:57,580 800 i watch the shows I mean this is a problem it's also a problem by the way 711 01:05:57,580 --> 01:06:00,410 as PowerPoint which is also saw the usual 712 01:06:00,410 --> 01:06:05,030 medium no supe seriously they found this a major problem for the military 713 01:06:05,030 --> 01:06:10,090 that the pentagon there they look at the power points they don't get the 714 01:06:10,090 --> 01:06:14,760 explanation and they think they have that's what people say it's also in 715 01:06:14,760 --> 01:06:20,290 business they say oh I mister talking I C you can you know Casey your PowerPoint 716 01:06:20,290 --> 01:06:30,580 and its abbreviated its visual but they don't get the context 717 01:06:30,580 --> 01:06:44,730 condemnation 718 01:06:44,730 --> 01:08:00,140 story is the latest version and of course what can be harder than trying to 719 01:08:00,140 --> 01:08:07,470 get a young child to sit still I mean it goes completely against the grain 720 01:08:07,470 --> 01:08:12,859 you know that's why we have to learning to read and write is completely 721 01:08:12,859 --> 01:08:18,130 artificial learning to speak and listen isn't that's natural to us reading and 722 01:08:18,130 --> 01:08:23,080 writing is artificial and its fragile for that great reason to keep trying to 723 01:08:23,080 --> 01:08:29,680 find ways to make it fun and you know and get some game applications just the 724 01:08:29,680 --> 01:08:35,109 latest version of that and the problem is that with all these attempts to use 725 01:08:35,109 --> 01:08:39,810 formats whether it's that or sesame street and posting was an early critic 726 01:08:39,810 --> 01:08:45,270 of Sesame Street as being all about advertising formats you know that it 727 01:08:45,270 --> 01:08:48,450 really was more about that than anything else 728 01:08:48,450 --> 01:08:53,560 it teaches that's what it teaches that you know it's the manner not 729 01:08:53,560 --> 01:09:00,339 content so it teaches game playing and I love playing games I spent when I was 730 01:09:00,339 --> 01:09:04,910 younger I spent many a late night on computer games in and I still play like 731 01:09:04,910 --> 01:09:09,319 plants vs zombies and in some of these other games not angry birds they're 732 01:09:09,319 --> 01:09:15,920 stupid but you know but they're not that that's what they teach you they teach 733 01:09:15,920 --> 01:09:20,890 you how to play games and that's very different from learning to read and 734 01:09:20,890 --> 01:09:25,660 write I tell you when I was two years ago and posting was still alive I was 735 01:09:25,660 --> 01:09:32,319 teaching and M a class and I had him in as a guest lecturer he was my mentor or 736 01:09:32,319 --> 01:09:40,500 and really friends and I wanted to play devil's advocate so I and my son was 737 01:09:40,500 --> 01:09:46,850 just a few years old they said you know he's watching he's watching Sesame 738 01:09:46,850 --> 01:09:51,149 Street and he's learning letters and numbers from Sesame Street and postman 739 01:09:51,149 --> 01:09:56,960 said well you know lance and they're only 26 letters in the alphabet and 740 01:09:56,960 --> 01:10:01,510 children have been able to learn this for thousands of years without the 741 01:10:01,510 --> 01:10:08,590 benefit of television and that's really the case so you know i mean it's very 742 01:10:08,590 --> 01:10:09,880 hard to do 743 01:10:09,880 --> 01:10:18,060 education is very hard so you know where we love to look for technologies to try 744 01:10:18,060 --> 01:10:23,580 to make it easyer but in the end it's the teacher and the student that's what 745 01:10:23,580 --> 01:10:24,360 it comes down to