Speaker addresses myths dealing with communication technology

By Gus Bode

Beginning with the invention of the telegraph, modern communications technology continually improved civilization on practical levels. However, the “myths” associated with new advances hold the power to con generations.

Vincent Mosco, author of “The Digital Sublime:Myth, Power and Cyberspace,” presented the historical pattern of society hyping up technology, from the advent of the telegraph to the more recent cyberspace, up to the “sublime,” or mythic proportions.

“I also contend that these stories, these myths matter,” Mosco said. “They matter a great deal. Not just for our conception of culture but for our practices in everyday life.”

Advertisement

Mosco, who spoke Tuesday at the Dean’s Conference Room in the Communications Building, is one of several presenters the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts brought for the semester-long MCMA Colloquium series.

To illustrate the extent of past society’s expectations on its technology, Mosco cited examples of scholars and commentators who espoused unrealistic hopes in electricity’s creation.

“In the minds of many, [electricity] would eradicate crime,” he said. “Who could commit a crime where the streets were lit by the sun in the day and by electricity at night?”

One of the immediate societal hopes for what the telephone’s invention would bring included women’s liberation. Later, the inventions of the radio, TV and computer communication repeated the similar revolutionary rhetoric for each new arrival, Mosco said.

“The notion of liberation through technology surfaces throughout and is manifested through specific ways, given particular historical periods, particular configurations of technology,” he said.

Gayathree Achu, a graduate student in media management, said the presentation raises relevant considerations for students studying media communications.

Understanding how the past generations perceived the inventions with great expectation offers modern society a grounded perspective on the ever-changing nature of technology.

Advertisement*

“Young people, and I was young once, wanted to believe in my generation that cable TV would bring the revolution in our experience,” Mosco said after his presentation. “I think today, young people want to believe that they are the Internet generation.

“We all want to believe that our generation is absolutely unique and will lead not to banality but to the sublime. Part of the message is directed to my students to help them to cut through the myths, make use of the technologies in productive ways, but not to believe that they are going to find salvation through technology.”

The subject drew a crowd from diverse mass communication faculty members and students.

“Our college is intensely technological whether you’re a journalist or a filmmaker,” said MCMA Dean Manjunath Pendakur. “Your tools of trade are not only how you collect information but how you process the information. In that sense, the work that he’s doing on digital technologies and how they’re created and for who’s purpose and to what effect are quite important.”

Advertisement