The Doubling of Place

“place, and experiences of being-in-place, can be pluralized in and by electronically mediated communication.” – Shaun Moores.

Through this reading, Moores presents to us the idea of pluralization in terms of “experiences of being-in-place” which has been made possible via electronic media such as television, internet and mobile phones. These medias in particular have become instilled within the everyday lives of people, so much so that an extension of the concept of ‘place’ occurs. That is, that while watching television, interacting on the internet, and communicating on the mobile phone, we as individuals can essentially be in more than one place at any given time. In order to convey his key argument that this pluralisation is indeed occurring, Moores draws upon the following examples:

• Public events – in this case, Princess Diana’s funeral, where television allowed the event to be experienced by those watching within the comfort of their own home, as well as the actual physical event.
• The Internet  – this can give people the opportunity to communicate to a wide spectrum of people online, whilst communicating with those in their own immediate physical space, and undertake other offline activities.
• Mobile phone – the use of mobile phones draws upon the concepts of public and private activity, and how through technology, the lines between such have been blurred. In doing so, another pluralization of the concept of place can be understood – while one can be on the phone in a physical setting, their main communication and interaction is focused within the place of the mobile phone conversation.

As part of his conclusive comments in this chapter, Shaun Moores puts forward the question of why we feel the need for physical travel in order to interact with other people when it is so easily done through these electronic medias, as well as the issues surrounding the idea of ‘unfocused interaction’. Electronic medias have indeed allowed a pluralization of place, and have thus consolidated their role within current culture and everyday life, but electronic media cannot replace the human desire for physical interaction and proximity for those they are familiar with. In saying that, the concept of ‘civil inattention’ shows us that physical vicinity does not necessarily foster any sort of social interaction in today’s age. Social relationships are complex, and have been been made even more complex by media’s impact and role within culture and everyday life.

Dailiness

The concepts of time, dailiness, and publicness are central in Scannell’s discussion of how such concepts are intrinsic to the larger notion of media in culture and everyday life. Scannell establishes quite clearly the concept of “concern” as “engagement with, involvement in” which in turn “discovers the meaningfulness of phenomena”. It is through this established concept that Scannell places his central concern in broadcast media, its institutionalisation and analysis of its meaningfulness throughout everyday life.

The main concepts, as I understood them, were:

• Dailiness: in the context of media, it is to provide a constant daily service, that has become a vital aspect in our notions of time, and how everyday life passes by.
• Time: a largely complex concept, which can be understood as natural time, abstract time, or experiential time.
• Publicness: broadcasting allows disclosure of truth and freedom of knowledge to the wider realm of society, in public life.

I found that Scannell’s discussion of time and dailiness made me think about the way that I interact with media in my everyday life, particularly when he poses the question: “Would time feel different for us without radio, television and newspapers?” It’s somewhat peculiar to think about the way that time would be carried out for me without the media. As Scannell elaborates, the schedules of broadcast media are scheduled to the way we live out our daily lives. Media relies on the routines of our daily lives in order to serve the public in a very intricate way. I think that this scheduling has become so much more, particularly in the younger generations today – nowadays, it feels as though our lives are in fact scheduled around the media. The media has established a particular cycle of time for us, and its influence on our own activities may be stronger than we all realise.

The relationship between media and our everyday life is unceasingly complex, but the ‘concern’ that we have for worldy information and entertainment does convey the meaningfulness of such medias within society. Would we feel further removed in aspects of both time and place if breaking news was not constantly reported to us? What media do I concern myself with and allow myself to shape my own everyday schedule by?

Scannell, P. “Dailiness” in Radio, Television and Modern Life. Blackwell, 1996, 144-178

iConsume: Journalism

i) My personal consumption of journalism mainly revolves around news media and music industry publications. I do read newspapers on occasion, including my local paper and the SMH (which reminds me, I should get that subscription!), and I access news daily through the internet via Google News. Another aspect of news journalism I engage with in particular is the Sky News channel, which allows me to watch different parts of the news at whatever time I want, while reading through short articles on Sky News Interactive. To be honest though, this isn’t where my central interest lies in journalism. As an avid fan of music and everything to do with it, I breathe in free music publications such The Drum Media and The Brag every week. Go figure why I aspire to be a music journalist!

ii) I think the main language tools I use are the dictionary, usually online, and the thesaurus. Other than that, I don’t really use them, but I do feel as though I should be doing more to expand my vocabulary and improve my writing skills through language tools.

iii) As for deadlines, I find that they do add a good and very much needed amount of stress on me to actually complete a task. I have a very relaxed attitude, often times too relaxed, so deadlines are actually really useful in kicking me out of my chilled out and lazy state into doing something by a certain time! Admittedly I tend to procrastinate, but far more often than not I’m able to complete tasks by the deadline, even if with only a couple of hours to spare. I’m trying to work on getting things done way before deadlines though, I promise!