SNEAK PREVIEW For more information on adopting this title for your course, please contact us at: [email protected] or 800-200-3908 MEDIA ENVIRONMENTS Using Movies and Texts to Critique Media and Society THIRD EDITION Edited by Barry Vacker Temple University Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher John Remington, Executive Editor Carrie Montoya, Manager, Revisions and Author Care Kaela Marting, Project Editor Alia Bales, Production Editor Jess Estrella, Senior Graphic Designer Alexa Lucido, Licesning Supervisor Natalie Piccotti, Director of Marketing Kassie Graves, Vice President of Editorial Jamie Giganti, Director of Academic Publishing Copyright © 2019 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. 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ISBN: 978-1-5165-2110-4 (pbk) / 978-1-5165-2111-1 (br) Acknowledgments xi CONTENTS Introduction 1 ONE Four Media Models Chapter 1: The Meme 9 The Nature of Infection 16 Douglas Rushkoff Memes 22 Richard Brodie Chapter 2: The Global Village 27 A Dialogue 34 Marshall McLuhan Hot and Cool in the Media(S)cene 37 Julia M. Hildebrand and Barry Vacker Chapter 3: The Spectacle and Hyperreality 51 The Age of Show Business 62 Neil Postman Media Culture and the Triumph of the Spectacle 68 Douglas Kellner The Precession of Simulacra 80 Jean Baudrillard TWO Media and Culture Chapter 4: News and Celebrities 87 Welcome to the Infotainment Freak Show 98 Marty Kaplan Answering/The Big Question 103 Ellis Cashmore Chapter 5: Social and Mobile Media 117 Mobile Media Life 122 Mark Deuze Discovering the @World by #Flashpacking 130 Julia M. Hildebrand CONTENTS Chapter 6: Surveillance and Freedom 137 “Surveil Ordinary Citizens” and “Infiltrate Citizens’ Groups” 158 Naomi Wolf Surveillance Environments: Google and Facebook 166 Jan Fernback “Consent and Sovereignty” and “Building a Netizen-centric Internet” 173 Rebecca MacKinnon Chapter 7: Capitalism and Counterculture 187 Globalization and the Restructuring of Capital 198 Steven Best and Douglas Kellner “The Revolutionary Impulse” and “Demarketing Loops” 204 Kalle Lasn THREE Our Species, Planet, and Cosmos Chapter 8: Gaia and the Anthropocene 217 What Mark Will We Leave on the Planet? 223 Jan Zalasiewicz Hollywood and Climate Change 231 Stephen Rust How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction 244 CONTENTS Annalee Newitz Chapter 9: Media, Science, and the Universe 251 Mapping the Milky Way Galaxy 267 Brian Cox Science and Hope 273 Carl Sagan “Explosion of Awareness”: Kubrick, Nietzsche, Hubble, and the Starting Points for a 21st Century Philosophy 279 Barry Vacker Chapter 10: Possible Media Futures 289 Avengers in the Void: Nietzsche, Nihilism, and Why We Need Superheroes 304 Abigail Moore Our Future? Star Trek or Not? 315 Stephen Hawking Black Mirrors, Hot Media, and Spectral Existence: Our Only Future? 319 Barry Vacker and Erin Espelie Index 329 Media Index 337 RECOMMENDED FILMS ONE Four Media Models Chapter 1: The Meme Arrival 2016 The Hunger Games 2012 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 A Face in the Crowd 1957 Network 1976 Pulp Fiction 1994 Memento 2000 Waking Life 2001 Whatever Works 2009 Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2010 Chapter 2: The Global Village The Circle 2017 Black Mirror 2011– The Fifth Estate 2013 Hackers 1995 The Matrix 1999 TRON: Legacy 2010 Chapter 3: The Spectacle and Hyperreality The Spectacle Network 1976 Money Monster 2016 Ace in the Hole 1951 A Face in the Crowd 1957 Privilege 1967 Quiz Show 1994 Slumdog Millionaire 2008 Invictus 2009 No 2012 The Hunger Games 2012 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 PoliWood doc 2009 The Hyperreal Black Mirror 2011– The Incredibles 2 2018 Ready Player One 2018 The Matrix 1999 The Truman Show 1998 eXistenZ 1999 Vanilla Sky 2001 Her 2013 Westworld 2016– ** The editor’s recommended films are listed first for each chapter. TWO Media and Culture Chapter 4: News and Celebrities News The Post 2017 Ace in the Hole 1951 All the President’s Men 1976 Network 1976 Broadcast News 1987 Wag the Dog 1997 The Insider 1999 Good Night, and Good Luck 2005 Celebrity Quiz Show 1994 The Hunger Games 2012 A Face in the Crowd 1957 Privilege 1967 To Die For 1995 Celebrity 1998 Almost Famous 2000 S1m0ne 2002 Frost/Nixon 2008 RECOMMENDED FILMS Chapter 5: Social and Mobile Media Black Mirror 2011– Her 2013 The Circle 2017 The Social Network 2010 You’ve Got Mail 1998 Chapter 6: Surveillance and Freedom The Circle 2017 Black Mirror 2011– The Incredibles 2 2018 The Fifth Estate 2013 V for Vendetta 2005 The Matrix 1999 Minority Report 2002 Fahrenheit 451 1966 1984 1984 Enemy of the State 1998 The Lives of Others 2006 TRON: Legacy 2010 Terms and Conditions May Apply doc 2013 RECOMMENDED FILMS Chapter 7: Capitalism and Counterculture Fight Club 1999 The Hunger Games 2012 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 Week-End 1967 Pirates of Silicon Valley 1999 V for Vendetta 2005 The Social Network 2010 No 2012 THREE Our Species, Planet, and Cosmos Chapter 8: Gaia and The Anthropocene Wall-e 2008 Interstellar 2014 The China Syndrome 1979 The Day After Tomorrow 2004 An Inconvenient Truth doc 2006 Avatar 2009 Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch doc 2013 Chapter 9: Media, Science, and the Universe Gravity 2013 Contact 1997 Interstellar 2014 Agora 2009 Cosmos: A Spacetime Journey doc 2014 Powers of Ten doc 1968 Cosmic Voyage doc 1996 The Known Universe doc 2009 Nostalgia for the Light doc 2010 Wonders of the Universe doc 2011 Chapter 10: Possible Media Futures Black Mirror 2011– Tomorrowland 2015 Black Panther 2018 Blade Runner 2049 2017 Fight Club 1999 Arrival 2016 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Blade Runner 1982 Ghost in the Shell 1995 Akira 1998 Star Trek 2009 The Walking Dead 2010– Inception 2010 Her 2013 RECOMMENDED FILMS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS s with any textbook, this anthology would not have been possible A without the efforts of many people. My thanks: To Johanna Marcelino, the acquisitions editor at Cognella who initially approached me about doing an “innovative” anthology. To be honest, I was very skeptical about her interest because virtually all textbook publishers are ultraconservative in their approach and meth- odologies. That is why the media and society textbooks have hardly changed in style and structure over the past forty years, despite the proliferation of media in our culture. Much to my surprise, Johanna im- mediately grasped the essence of my vision for this volume and paved the way for the first edition of this book to happen. Thanks for getting it, Johanna! To Carrie Montoya (revisions acquisitions editor) and Kaela Martin (project editor) at Cognella, who saw the merits in a revised and up- dated third edition of this book and were a pleasure to work with on this edition. To Jess Estrella and Miguel Macias, the designers at Cognella who made the cover and interior design look so great. Thank you for making it all work together. To Luiz Ferreira and Alexa Lucido at Cognella, who negotiated all the licensing agreements with the variety of publishers and authors. To all my colleagues in the Klein College of Media and Communi- cations and the Department of Media Studies and Production at Temple University: thanks to all of you who shared your ideas and offered useful suggestions for improving this anthology concept, especially Jan Fernback and Sherri Hope Culver. Thanks to Senior Vice Provost Elizabeth Leebron Tutelman for providing me with the opportunity to teach so many of the large lecture courses in media theory at Temple and for supporting my experiments with different teaching styles and methods in these classes. Thanks to Paul Swann, Matthew Lombard, Nancy Morris, and Pamela Barnett, all of whom provided helpful xi xii | Media Environments feedback for teaching large and small theory-based invaluable in helping me navigate the complexities of courses. Thanks to everyone! this project. To Julia Hildebrand and Angela Cirucci for sharing To all the teaching assistants and undergraduate their valuable insights about teaching with this book. students in my courses for your enthusiastic responses To Sheryl Kantrowitz for designing the posters for to the ideas of the films and readings that prove the the Media(S)cene essay used in Chapter 2. educational thesis of this book. To Jarice Hanson at the University of Massachusetts Finally, my thanks go to the many filmmakers and Amherst for sharing many ideas and insights during our writers included in this anthology. Their knowledge and numerous conversations. artistry have furthered our understanding of the evolu- To Gail Bower for her enthusiastic support of this tion and effects of the global media environments. We anthology. Your patience and thoughtful advice was all see further because of their visions. COLBY CHASE served as the research assistant for this book. She received her M.A. in Media Studies from Temple University and her B.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Her research explores the effects of the consolidation of media ownership, as well as the commercialization of counter-cultural movements. We become what we behold. Marshall McLuhan INTRODUCTION lack Mirror and Blade Runner 2049—a hit TV anthology and B a Hollywood blockbuster sequel. Set in the near future, both are works of science fiction that offer striking visions of our species immersed in the 24/7 media environments that surround our planet, permeate our society, and transform our consciousness.