Lasswell and Hall – Power and Meaning in Media
Harold Dwight Lasswell was one of the founding influences on the formation of the study of communication, media studies, and sociology. Stuart Hall was a Rhodes Scholar from Jamaica who helped pioneer an area of research at Birmingham Open University that was later coined British Cultural Studies. Both contributed significantly to media studies during their […]
Spreadsheets and the Rhetoric of Ratios
In this post, I examine the figuring of ratios as a conceptual technique for constructing systems of understanding in the modern political economy. The ratio is an important mathematical device for reality construction in a wide range of activities, but their role in financial and management environments are especially notable. These type of ratios are […]
Digital Spreadsheets – Techno-Epistemological Power over People and Resources
In previous posts, I wrote that digital spreadsheets had emerged as a constitutive technology that can shape perceptions, organize resources, and empower control over the lived experiences of people and the dynamics of social organizations. In this post, I look at how communicative, command, and cultural dynamics provide an important context for the use of […]
YouTube Meaning-Creating Practices
Youtube has emerged as the primary global televisual medium, attracting about 1.3 billion viewers from countries around the world with over 5 billion videos watched every day. People suck up some 3.25 billion hours of YouTube videos each month and over ten thousand Youtube videos generated over 1 billion views since they were posted. Youtube […]
We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us
One of Marshall McLuhan’s most celebrated intellectual “probes” was a paraphrase of Winston Churchill’s infamous “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” Churchill was addressing Parliament some two years after a devastating air raid by the Nazis destroyed the House of Commons and was arguing for its restoration, despite the major challenges […]
YouTube: Alice’s Rabbithole or Hypertext to Hell?
Edited remarks from the conference on YouTube: Ten Years After November 20, 2015 Hannam University Linton School of Global Business I’m happy to be a part of this commemoration of YouTube’s tenth year anniversary and thank Dr. Youngshin Cho for being our keynote speaker and enlightening us with his very informative talk.[1] Hopefully, you are […]
Expressive Values and the Creative Products of the Korean Wave
Invited Respondent Remarks at The Korean Wave: Branding Korea in the 21st Century November 25th, 2014 Hannam University Daejeon, Republic of Korea Hosted by the Linton Global College First, I want to thank Dr. Doobo Shim for his excellent keynote speech and Dr. Jean-Luc Renaud for moderating this event.[1] What I want to talk about […]
Lotus Spreadsheets – Part 3 – Identifying the Components of a Transformative Tool
I begin a formal analysis of the spreadsheet by identifying some of its component parts, a type of Cartesian reductionism, but with the intent of showing also how they all work together to create a powerful organizational and productivity tool. Spreadsheets combine a number of technologically enhanced cognition features to create, manipulate and visualize diagrammatic rationalities. In other words, spreadsheets not only appraise aspects of reality, but are constitutive technologies that can shape perceptions and empower control over the lived experiences of people and the resources that support them.
keep looking »Referencing this Material
About Me
Professor and Associate Chair at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea. Recently taught at Hannam University in Daejeon, South Korea. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, media economics, and strategic communications.
You can reach me at:
anthony.pennings@gmail.com
anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr
