• Pre-internet McLuhan said the world is similar to a village, connected by communication.
• When we moved away from printing with woodblocks (1450 onwards) printing is more available to the masses.
• Newspapers and books become a media for info and knowledge.
• Computers have changed the way we exist and take in info.
• You can now read newspapers online, this creates a whole new type of experience as forums allow the reader to discuss and comment on his/her thoughts on the story.
• Democratic technology allows us to change the information we receive.
• New technology gives one a false sense of freedom and control.
• Hypermedia can stimulate many senses at once, however some pages can be too busy and ‘dizzying.’
• With books you engage on every piece of information recorded, however hyperlinks on the net allow the reader to skip through and find exactly what they are looking for.
• Only a small group are actually in control of what is released to the public on the web.
• New technology allows for superficial reality tv programs such as the x-factor to be produced.
• Voting on the TV gives the audience a sense of control.
• Radio’s where the viewer calls in allows the caller to put their views across, but the producer can cut these calls off at any point.
• However with technology advances, it allows more information to reached by the masses.
• It means art is no longer elitist.
• The Benetton campaign is more about politics than advertising. (Dead soldiers uniform.)
• Leeds 13 Scam - A group of art students pretended that they used their university grant for a drinking holiday and leaked the story to a newspaper. They used mass media to gain status.
• Pollock's art is supposed to have no agenda or politics surrounding it. However there is a theory that the CIA payed Pollock off to create this Art to promote Americas superiority over Russia.
• Picasso used mass media to his advantage.
• Warhol highlights Monroe being a product of society more than her being a person. Marilyn’s face is printed in the same was a Coca-Cola bottles another commodity.
