Events
April 15, 2011
Global, technological forces reshape media
The Halle Institute for Global Learning hosted Knowledge Futures Media Week, which brought thought leaders to Emory to discuss different aspects of the media and how it is changing with regards to technology and globalization.
Lance Bennett, professor at University of Washington, Seattle, tries to make sense of historic change in post-industrial democracies specifically regarding "gate-keeping institutions" such as universities and newspapers. He names several reasons for these changes including transformation and decline of leftist parties, rise of center-right governments, and openings for extreme movements.
Watch Bennett's March 30 talk on "Political Life in Late Modern Society: Communication, Citizenship, and Participation in a Time of Institutional Decline."
Lev Manovich, professor at University of California, San Diego, spoke March 28 on data mining as cultural criticism. He began by asking, "We have lots of cultural data and computers… now what?" Manovich referred to chemistry's way of deconstructing complex forms into molecules and suggested we take the same approach in making sense of empirical data.
Watch "Data Mining as Cultural Criticism, or How We Read 1,000,000 Manga Pages with Computers."
Dafna Lemish, professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, addresses children's media with a perspective heavily influenced by her Jewish and feminist backgrounds. In her Media Week talk on March 31, Lemish points out that in children's shows, 68 percent of main characters are male and 32 percent are female. In addition, female characters are depicted as emotional, weak and lacking in leadership skills, while their male counterparts are depicted as the opposite. Her research indicates that this is true even in countries other than the United States.
Watch "Culture and Gender is Children's Television Globally."
