Month: September 2018

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Marisa Brincat Post for 9/24

”Yet if data are somehow subject to us, we are also subject to data, because Google collects so much information on users’ interests and behaviors, for instance, and the U.S National Security Agency mines fiber-optic transmissions for clues about terrorists.” (Gitelman, 2)

This quote stood out to me because there has been so much controversy surrounding the topic of companies like Google and Facebook aquiring information about their users and most users have no idea that their information is being recorded. I think its great that we have the U.S National Security Agency that can help target terrorists over the internet, however, I find it a little alarming that Facebook and Google can aquire a ton of information about you and use it to their advantage. As I had shared in class, I am starting an e-commerce clothing company and before I was able to move forward with all of the fun and exciting stuff that goes into starting a clothing company, I had to establish my Code of Ethics. A Code of Ethics basically tells the customer of what we plan on doing with their personal information, such as their credit card number, their interests, etc. A big part of my company is to not sell a person’s personal information to other companies for third party soliciting. I find it crazy that yes, data is subject to us, but the fact that we are subject to data and that people can form a paper trail of all the things that we may be interested in as well as our behaviors.

 

Sources: Plantin, Jean-Christophe. “« Raw Data » Is an Oxymoron Lisa Gitelman (Dir.), Cambridge, MIT Press, 2013.” Communication & Langages, vol. 2013, no. 177, 2013, pp. 155–156.

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Anesiya Rivera Week 5

“The significance of a basic medium to its civilization is difficult to appraise since the means of appraisal are influenced by the media, and indeed the fact of appraisal”

EMPIRE AND COMMUNICATIONS BY H. A. INNIS

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Bhabha Article Week 5_StClair

In this week’s response, I will be talking about Homi Bhabha’s article, Signs of Wonder. In this article, he talks about how European Christian values influenced the culture of books and reading(from what I have picked up). Bhabha brought up this example about the Bible. Bhabha brings up the Bible by telling a story about an Indian catechist named Anund Messeh who discovered a group of people reading the Bible. He wrote “‘These books,’ said Anund, ‘teach the religion of the European Sahibs. It is THEIR book; and they printed it in our language, for our use”(Bhabha, 1985). Bhabha mentions that since this group of people never seen a printed book in their lives before, they cherished it like it was given to them by God. However, in this case, the group of people was given a “book” by Europeans and was forced to believe that is the word of God by European religion standards aka Christianity. Bhahba goes on and writes “The discovery of the English book establishes both a measure of mimesis and a mode of civil authority and order. If these scenes, as I’ve narrated them, suggest the triumph of the writ of colonialist power, then it must be conceded that the wily letter of the law inscribes a much more ambivalent text of authority”(Bhahba, 1985). I believe he is saying that European Christians used the Bible as a contribution to colonization and used “the Word” as a way to “right their wrongs” that is the right to authorize and colonize those who need “saving”.

 

References: Bhabha, Homi K. “Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree Outside Delhi, May 1817.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 12, no. 1, 1985, pp. 144–165. JSTOR, JSTOR

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NYPL Oral History Project

For my Oral History project, I transcribed a conversation with a woman named Geraldine Scalia. I chose this person because Geraldine is an extremely rare name and it was my grandmother’s name and is also my middle name. She described her life living on West Broadway in SoHo when she moved here in the late 1980’s. She lived in a five story walk up building which she shared with a friend. She had a lofted bed and a bath in the kitchen. She ended up being robbed, which she said was due to the high crime rates in the 1980’s in New York, and she made signs saying “Stop Stealing From the Poor” that she put up around her apartment. After three years, she left and moved. She found her new apartment through word of mouth, something that is not extremely common these days.

This assignment was difficult in the fact that you have to clearly listen to the speaker. Sometimes, the audio would not be the best, but she had a very understandable voice. Also, sometimes the audio would play by too quickly. I did like the interviewer though because she let Geraldine talk without being interrupted frequently; she was just able to talk and tell her life in New York. Since I moved to New York at a young age, I related to the story because it was interesting to hear someone else’s view point on living in this city during a completely different time period.

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Brieya Walker 9/24/2018 WEEK 5 Elizabeth Einstein, Defining the Initial Shift

For this blog post I decided to reflect on Elizabeth Einstein’s Defining the Initial Shift. In this reading she discusses the shift from scribal culture to printing culture. She also explained how the printing press gave access to more books, created an easier spread of information, and how learning was assisted with reading. I learned about the birth of printing in previous history classes and remembered that the birth of printing sparked revolutions as well. This reading made me think of the connection it has to our class which has to do with how the world went from orality to literacy. In addition, it just made me think of how far we’ve come with technology. We can print out any paper as many times as we want by only pressing a button, we can make as many copies as we want, and even have the option to print out our papers in black and white or color. It’s honestly even shocking to read how hard it was for some people to make a profit off of printing when now there are companies who make profit off of just ink alone, printers, and paper. For example, there are places like Staples who sell the necessary supplies to make it all happen.

 

 

Eisenstein, E. (2005). Defining the Initial Shift. In The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (pp. 13-45). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511819230.005

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Milagros’ Blog Post for 9/24

This week I decided to reflect on Homi K. Bhabha’s “Signs Taken for Wonder” because at first I was very confused about what was the purpose of this reading but as I did some research and kept reading, I finally figured out how this connects to the class. “The discovery of the book is, at once, a moment of originality and authority, as well as a process of displacement that..” ( Bhabha,144)  this quote really stuck out to me because this explains what happened with colonizers and communication in one sentence to me. Once the colonizers started to use the Bible to set the standards, this is how communication started to change to how they wanted it to be. When we learn in school about how the colonizers took over everything, we hear that these native people were wild and uncivilized but in reality, what if they weren’t uncivilized at all? It just goes back to the Batiste reading of indigenous people and this reading goes in depth of how one certain book which is the Bible was used to communicate to people and was used to establish a new way of communicating by telling people that this was the only way and the right way. The quote states “process of displacement” and means that this is how they got their way and displaced the native’s way. The discovery of the Bible put everyone on the same page which was another way of communicating to them in a way that the colonizers thought to be effective.

 

Work Cited

-Bhabha, Homi, Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree outside Delhi, 1817

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Abby Potashnik- Blog Response #4

For my response this week I chose Elizabeth Eisenstein’s “Defining The Initial Shift”. Einstein argues that historians don’t truly understand the significant impact the printing press had on the world at the time of its creation and beginning stages pf production. She argues that had it not been for the printing press, concepts, theories, knowledge, and information wouldn’t have been as rapidly known or available, if hand written manuscripts had been the only option. The printing press transformed the way the world worked, and further continued its’ progression. Eisenstein discusses the significance quantity and quality had regarding production. In terms quantity, for a while folks believed that only the wise, and people worthy of divine intelligence received wisdom, and therefore the manuscripts with that, there were very few “wise” people after all, for the rest didn’t have divine intervention. Regarding quality, the amount that was able to be transformed and not studied and educated was unbelievably amazing. I really enjoyed reading this passage from a historical perspective,  because it really showcased, and  highlighted the importance of the printing press, and how much it has helped and further progressed industrial, educational, religious, and cultural views to name a few. It’s our job as humans to try and better technology to us, and make it something to better out futures, whilst not losing the people we’ve become and who we plan to be.

 

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Michael Farias blog post 4 for September 25

For this blog report I chose “The Signs of Wonder” by Homi Bhabha. What I found interesting about this article was how communication was connected to English colonization. There is a book that Bhabba talks about throughout the writing that talks about things such as he right way to act. This book has to be the Bible. The Europeans who were colonizers were known to spread (force it on the people) Christianity wherever they went. They forced people in places like India and the Americas to practice Christianity. This book (the Bible) would be used for turning “wild” or uncivilized people into to civilized people. The Europeans believed that anyone who wasn’t Christian was uncivilized. I found it interesting that the Bible was a way of communicating to others if they were civilized or not based on if they follow what it says.

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Carolyn Pena Blog Post Week #4

In Elizabeth Eisenstein book “Defining the Initial Shift” on page 233, she wrote, ” Many-valued texts were barely preserved from extinction; untold numbers failed to survive.” When I read this, it made me think of history books because of the old historical texts that we are taught. Although as you get older you realize that a lot of information is missing in these textbooks and we learn about past history more from oral communication. One major example is just simply the founding of America. You can ask children the question “Who found America?” in which they will tell you “Christopher Columbus” because that’s what it tells you in history textbooks. My whole life until high school I was taught exactly this and then I learned the truth about history and found out that none of it was in textbooks. If this is the case with a lot of the history, why aren’t textbooks rewritten? What is the value of these texts and the value of oral communication? This also makes me think about our future and how what we went through is going to be translated into the future and what is going to be important enough to be taught in the future. I just find it amazing because I don’t really know what I value more, what is shown to me via text or what is verbally told to me and why?

Elizabeth Eisenstein. “Defining the Initial Shift: Some Features of Print Culture.” The Book History Reader. eds. David Finkelstein, Alistair McCleery. Routledge, 2006.

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Clary Capellan, 9/21, Week #5

This week Homi K. Bhabha’s “Signs Taken for Wonders” stood out to me the most. This reading made it apparent how communication ties into colonization, as communication is used as a tool for colonization. One of the quotes that stood out to me was “The discovery of the book installs the sign of appropriate representation: the word of God, truth, art creates the conditions for a beginning, a practice of history and narrative. But the institution of the Word in the wilds is also an Entstellung, a process of displacement, distortion, dislocation, repetition4-the dazzling light of literature sheds only areas of darkness. Still the idea of the English book is presented as universally adequate: like the “metaphoric writing of the West,” it communicates “the immediate vision of the thing, freed from the discourse that accompanied it, or even encumbered it” (Bhabha 147). It is apparent that “The book” that is being referred to was the Bible. Although it has such a righteous significance in the western culture. It also represents a sort of darkness and oppression when enforced in the “wilds”. Correct me if I’m wrong but to my understanding the wilds refers to the “uncivilized” or nonconforming countries to the western ideals. In the guise of this civilizing mission so to speak, the Europeans stripped the colonized nations of everything, taking away their culture, beliefs, religion, lifestyle, etc and imposing their own. However, even though the bible was used for this atrocious purpose it is still “universally adequate: like the metaphoric writing of the West”.

 

Refrences:

Bhabha, Homi, Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree outside Delhi, 1817