After learning about structuralism and post-structuralism, I found Barthes and Foucault's emphasis on language and the media very important in today's society where different media outlets are always competing for the attention of its consumers. Cell phone companies upgrade to 4G networks so we can access the internet anywhere, but without that people can bring their laptop in a wi-fi hotspot and access the internet there. How we even receive our news and learn about different opinions on the same issues has evolved throughout the years. our language has even accommodated to new technologies with words like "Googled/Googling" and phrases like "Let's Wikipedia it."
Foucault's emphasis on the written word and especially the characterization of an author are fascinating. In today's age, many celebrities write books but they are known as actors, reality tv stars, athletes and other labels. After receiving fame in their areas of expertise, they become authors. Nearly everyday the Colbert Report features a new writer or a new book. Did all these individuals envision themselves as authors/writers from a young age? Also, Foucault's point about how much to include as a part of a particular individual's "Papers" or "Thoughts" reminds me of the number of historical figures' diaries were published. Napoleon, Elizabeth I, Princess Diana, Tsar Nicholas II all kept diaries and the majority of their thoughts were published in some form or another. It seems Foucault would not deem these men and women as authors because their intention for writing their thoughts was not for publication or for the sake of being a writer.
For me, I think that there are signs and messages that have influenced my values. I learned the importance of responsibility, education, and compassion not only from interactions with my fellow preschoolers and playmates but also from shows like Barney and Friends and Sesame Street. As I got older and learned to read, many children's books emphasized imagination, positivity and romantic notions of life (herein I think of the plethora of fairy tales and Disney movies). It may have been my love of stories and storytelling from around the world that made me interested in history. I saw the stories of people and places and their origins very fascinating. Social interactions were taught from personal experience but shows like "Saved by the Bell," magazines like "seventeen" and "teen vogue" both first introduced me to the angst that I would look forward to as I became a teenager and entered high school. Today, people complain about how fast children are growing. I can see where these complaints come from due to easy access to mature content. The media does play a role in what society values and though fundamental values like freedom, compassion, kindness and justice remain.
Jinan,
ReplyDeleteYour post has got me thinking! I hadn’t thought of what Foucault might think of diaries! I wonder what he would say about the “author function” of a diary. It definitely refers to the person who wrote it since it most likely contains the pronoun “I.” Foucault seems to exclude objective texts like scientific theories and focuses more on literary works. The way he treats these works and defines elements of the “author function” makes me wonder if he was thinking more of the ‘canon’ than just any literary work. The work seems to require a certain historical backdrop and discourse before we can start assigning definitions and theories to it. Though he talks about the separation of text from author, his definitions of “author function” seem, in part, to rely on the history and intent of the author.
The media and the accessibility of mature content certainly do give adults the perception that children are growing up faster. Even in highschool, I noticed a difference between my senior class and the incoming freshmen class. They were a lot more liberal in clothing choices and lifestyles. Because technology is getting more and more high tech faster and faster, it makes this media and content more widely available. Therefore it seems to infiltrate a younger audience faster than before. Now when 13 year olds hear a phrase they don’t understand, they can google it on their smart phone and have instant feedback. I wonder if any sociological experiments or statistics have been conducted on cultures that have highly censured their technology, such as China, in comparison to low censured cultures like the USA. I wonder if these cultures complain as much as we do that children are growing up too fast.
I find your thoughts very interesting on the impacts of media on our values during the childhood years. I hadn't thought about that during my reading. How would my life and values be different if I hadn't watched the shows I watched as a child or read the books I read? Would we still expect every story to end in "and they lived happily every after?"
ReplyDeleteOr maybe a different question would be better to ask. How would my life and values differ if I had watched different shows and read different books? My parents were always very picky about what I got to watch on television. Shows like "The Simpsons" were banned from our home.