Neil, look at Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse

in the Age of Show Business, Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media,

Walter Ong's Orality and Lliteracy, and Susan Sontag's On Photography.

Susan Kelly

 

On Mon, 6 Nov 1995, Neil Pollock wrote:

 

>      The next Industry Event at the Australian Film TV & Radio School is

>      going to look at the relationship between the 'word', the 'idea' and

>      visual representation - with particular reference to popular visual

>      culture.

>

>      The premise to be tested is this: WHY ISN'T TELEVISION GENERALLY

>      PERCEIVED TO BE AN APPROPRIATE VEHICLE FOR IDEAS?  Why are the realms

>      of the written (published) or spoken (radio) word seen to be the more

>      obvious, comfortable places for ideas?

>

>      Think of popular culture & you get - TV, cinema, comix, pornography

>      (if visual; erotica if written).  It feels as if unless the word is a

>      'womanword' like gossip, babble, chatter etc etc, the word is valued

>      more highly than the visual.

>

>      Compare the televisual treatment of news and current affairs; e.g. CNN

>      vs Australian Broadcasting Corporation's News Radio.

>

>      Is this because western European culture has always been very wedded

>      to the notion of the visual, in fact, as Plato's Cave points out, a

>      PICTURE IS only a picture and NOT THE REAL THING.

>

>      And what are the implications of this for Australia, with an

>      indigenous culture that has no history of the written word, but with

>      a strong tradition of oral and visual representation.

>

>      I would think my first port of call would be Walter Benjamin - to

>      explore the differences between writing & visual literacy & what the

>      implications of this are for social & political questions about seeing

>      and thinking.

>

>      But where to next??????

>

>      ANY ASSISTANCE TO POINT US IN APPROPRIATE DIRECTIONS FOR READING/

>      UNDERSTANDING would be greatly appreciated.

>

>      Neil Pollock

>      Library Manager

>

>      on behalf of

>      Jane Mills

>      Head of Screen Studies

>

>      AFTRS

>

> ----

> To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L

> in the message.  Problems?  Contact [log in to unmask]

>

 

----

To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L

in the message.  Problems?  Contact [log in to unmask]