Chapter 1

     While reading the first chapter of Media & Culture, I could not help but remember how new age mass media did indeed affect the 2008 election. I remember watching CNN and seeing now-president Barack Obama answering questions from youtube videos sent in from the public. I think it is very interesting how new age media is being worked into such important things as presidential elections. It makes me wonder how future elections will take it a step further. Will americans be able to vote from their living room instead of going to the polls? Will debates consist of two or three way skype calls? Will elections come down to how many facebook friends you have multiplied by your twitter followers? Now I realize these may be some crazy thoughts but I think you understand my point.
     To me the oral and written eras still have a place in todays age. I believe it is more professional and actually easier to communicate with somebody by talking face to face rather than via text or email. I found the question at the bottom of page 6 to be quite interesting when I passed by it. It asks "Do aspects of contemporary culture, such as TV talk shows and anonymous online chat rooms, cheapen public discussion and discourage face-to-face communication?". Basically it is asking if modern media frowns upon oral communication. Personally, I could go either way here. In some ways it actually does discourage face-to-face contact, like Drew Barrymore's character pointed out in "He's just not that into you", nowadays instead of going out and getting a new haircut you update your profile. On the other hand modern media can bring people together like never before. Facebook has helped many people to connect with old friends or meet new people all over the world. So like I said there is still a place for oral and written communication although they are diminishing, they are still here in some way.
     I think that culture as a map is a better metaphor for modern culture than as a skyscraper. However, the skyscraper metaphor does bring up a couple of good points. I definitely do hear every now and then about how popular culture is just not the same as back in the day. The throw-away ethic on page 18 was interesting to me because as I started to read the paragraph I thought about how a new song comes out and then about a month later you hear people saying how old and overplayed the song is. Then when I finished reading I saw that pretty much word for word what I was thinking was in the book! But I digress, back to the map. I like how right off the bat it says how "culture is an ongoing process". Right when I saw that line I could not agree more with what it was saying. Once I got down to the familiar stories paragraph which provided some much needed comic relief for myself, I was hooked on the culture as a map metaphor. I thought about how when I was watching Toy Story 3 this past summer, there was a scene when it seemed the toys were about to be incinerated at the dump and then you're thinking to yourself "wait a minute this is Toy Story that kind of thing doesn't happen" and then they are saved at the last second. It's that feeling of I know what's going to happen but I just don't know how that brings us back again and again to those situations.