Greg Niemeyer's Podcasts

These two podcasts are actually the first two class sessions for Niemeyer's course at UC Berkley. The first forty-five minute session acts as an introduction to the course, which Niemeyer states will focus on "new media," and in particular the ways in which race/gender/diversity inform or are informed by media. The second class session traces some of the beginnings of media and transmission of information, starting with the connection of the continental railroads and telegraph wiring in Utah. The class then begins looking at how media and technology is portrayed in film.

Since the podcasts total an hour and a half, I took notes on points of Niemeyer's that either surprised me or provoked thoughts. Here is a sampling:

• I did not realize that "media" derives from in media res. The etymology here allows for the definition of media to include so much more than what we commonly envision (such as the computer). It also made the notion of "media" a lot less daunting for me personally.
• During the discussion of the students' homework assignments, Niemeyer explains that their work will be anonymous, through a use of personal ID numbers instead of names, due to legalities in making homework public. This issue reminded me of the discussion from Tuesday's class when Rhodes pointed out that our methods of controlling media and new technology always begin with the constructs and expectations that governed earlier technology. Should legalities concerning "homework" still apply when the work is intended to be in the public sphere, such as with the homepage assignment from Niemeyer's class?
• The "love story" between the two telegraph operators was interesting to me since it emphasizes how our ability to "read" applies even without a traditional text. Similarly, I found myself "reading" the music from the movie clips that were played towards the end of the second podcast. Since I was not familiar with the some of the movies, and one had no dialogue (only music), I read the music to hypothesize as to what the visuals might be. That this music accompanied a visual that feminized technology was not surprising to me.