Month: September 2018

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Week 3 Response

The Roser article describes the different effects, impact, and causes of a global shift towards each country becoming more literate. Max Roser describes that in the last 120 years the world has seen it’s literacy rate change from 12% to 83%. However, he does describe many impoverished countries that are well below the 83% mark of literacy. Niger, for example, is boasting a 36% rate. The most interesting point that Roser discusses is about the difference in gender literacy rates. He uses the continents of Africa and Asia as examples of how gender literacy is becoming more even. It is clear by 2015 that India, China, and South Africa have nearly the same rate of literacy among their 15-24 year olds, despite gender. However gender is but one of the many factors that a country has to consider when dealing with literacy rates. Some others are, race, socioeconomic status, and age.

An interesting piece of information that Roser indulges on is how many experts collect and interpret data on literacy. He describes the use of a census in the 1940’s as being able to accurately compare the number of years of schooling to literacy rates in the U.S. The census concluded that there was nearly a 70% difference between 4 years of schooling and no years of schooling, relating to literacy rates.

Another important fact that Roser describes is the generational difference in literacy rates. He uses the Middle East and Northern Africa as examples of this. Stating that, “only less than a third of the older generation is literate – while in contrast, more than 90% of the younger generation is literate” (Roser, ourworldindata.org). The reasoning behind this is simple, most countries don’t want to stress literacy for their citizens over middle age, whereas the younger generation has been socialized with a new appreciation for literacy.

Now the most important aspect of the article is how Roser analyzes the methods of collecting literacy data. The most interesting aspect of this is that in 2010 less then 30 countries in the world took an actual test for literacy. Most of the other countries in the world used a ‘self-reported’ model, where either heads of households or individuals described if they, or their household, were literate or not. Not to say that they aren’t accurate, but it seems a literacy test, directed by the government, would be the ideal way to understanding a countries literacy rate.

Finally, although seemingly obvious, Roser concludes that individuals, despite race, gender, or economic status, who have more years of schooling are boasting higher rates of literacy.

Works Cited:

Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2018) – “Literacy”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/literacy’ [Online Resource]

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Isaac Espinoza Blog post #3

James W. Carey in “Communication as Culture” writes ” these essays aim collectively to demonstrate how media of communication are not merely instruments of will and purpose but definite forms of life: organisms, so to say that reproduce in miniature the contradictions in our thought, action, and social relations”. I found this to be quite interesting because I’ve always thought of the different forms of media of communications an essential tool in an evolving society. Being able to document every last thought that run through our heads and consequently distributing this to a mass audience has proven to be quite useful in educating, entertaining, etc. However, I never thought of the media of communication as an organism created by us until I read this line. This got me thinking, and after some time I realized what Carey is trying to say: our modes of communications after created by us, are out of our control. At that point, they are open to interpretation and thus can be quite dangerous if they have unintended consequences. They are their own entity that we can only try to control. This is because they are a reflection of our imperfect minds.

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Marshall McLuhan on TV

Class!

As we enter the domain of Marshall McLuhan — the hot and cool media — the terms might seem a little whacky and hard to follow. It’s important to know that his arguments were relatively shocking for scholars of the 60s AND they were extremely popular (in the sense that he was a household name — not just in academic circles).

In fact, he was famous enough to warrant this cameo in Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall (1977).

His major works include The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), Understanding Media (1964), and The Medium is the Massage (1967), an collage book which illustrates his ideas through experimental design.

McLuhan_The_Medium_is_The_Massage (here’s a pdf!)

Like many media theorists, McLuhan states ideas boldly and sometimes polemically — argumentative in order to stir up a “new” way of thinking.

For tomorrow, we are going to think about how this notion of media evolution may or may not continue the colonial advance. McLuhan addresses a notion of a global village in his writing, and also responds to generalizations about gender. While one might argue that he would be the first to say that cultural understanding is context specific, might our contemporary ways of knowing undo some of his claims? Do you think we currently pattern match or define categories?

In class we will be doing an activity to consider how our ideas get to us and how we change ideas.

-Jojo

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Marisa Brincat NYPL Oral History Project

After looking over the NYPL Oral History website, I became  overwhelmed with the amount of transcripts there were to choose from. However, after looking through some of the categories I decided to edit “Soho Stories” by Angela Marinaccio and interviewed by Nina Wallace.

I thought this project was very interesting and a fun concept. Being the perfectionist that I am, I actually enjoyed correcting the errors that were made by the software system. I also thought this was a interesting way to really listen to the conversation and watch how it all came together. I will admit, as much as I love correcting errors, I did find it a little complicated to go back and forth and edit the piece. Being that I had two windows open, I had to keep going back and forth to edit the trascription. I also had to be mindful of when there were pauses and “uhs” being said because that is something to include in the transcription as well. Another hard part of this project was the fact that the audio kept freezing everytime I went to edit a sentence.

However, even though that there were some challenges to this project, I really enjoyed doing this project because I enjoyed listening to the story. I think its key to listen to where other people came from as well as their experiences to really keep yourself well-rounded. I never heard of the NYPL Oral History Project Transcript Editior before this project, but I have to say that this was a very interesting and enjoyable experience overall.

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Milagros’ NYPL Project

I decided to listen to one of my co workers’ (Barbara Lovecchio)  interview. The interview was “Voices from East of Bronx Park” conducted by Donna Holloway. The interview was about Barbara growing up in the Morris Park neighborhood in the Bronx and just really describing how the neighborhood has changed over the years. She started off talking about her grandfather and how he built the family home she now lives in  and goes into detail about some memories with her family in the neighborhood. What was easy about this project was just knowing what she was referring to because I was born and raised in the Bronx, so just really sitting there and listening was the easy part for me. The not so easy part was having two tabs open and pausing and playing the audio over and over again to get the correct words. There was already lots of words and the whole interview was transcribed but there were a lot of mistakes that I found while listening to the audio. I think I spent like an hour and 15 minutes correcting the transcription. It was annoying to me to like go over things and words that are pretty easy to understand but the other person got it wrong.  Just the fact that I had to keep on going back and forth with the audio and never getting it to the correct place where I left off was also pretty hard as well. But overall,  thought that this project was really insightful and interesting.

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Jailene Mangome, Week 3

The reading I chose to write about this week is Plato’s “Thamus and Theuth”. Although we already went over it in class, this part of the reading really stuck out to me most out of all the readings. In the story, Plato writes:

Soc.​ I cannot help feeling, Phaedrus, that writing is unfortunately like painting; for the creations of the painter have the attitude of life, and yet if you ask them a question they preserve a solemn silence. And the same may be said of speeches. You would imagine that they had intelligence, but if you want to know anything and put a question to one of them, the speaker always gives one unvarying answer. (pg. 275)

The reason this stuck out to me is because this very thing happens to every one every single day, including myself. I find it very interesting- and I question this everyday- how we’re able to hear, read or take in information in any way but we aren’t able to fully understand it or able to grasp the concept of something in particular. Have you ever read an entire page in a book and then when you’re questioned on it, you just can’t? This is exactly what I believed Plato is saying here. The information is all in our head and in our memory, but when questioned, we never know what to say. Another thing is that- personally- I believe that there is never just one answer because everyone has a different take and perspective on everything. It doesn’t matter if it’s a painting, a song, a reading, a quote, a concept itself, etc., there is never really just one answer.

 

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Alassane Diop 9/17

The first page of “Communication as Culture” by James W. Carey brings up a good point about how modern technology has changed the way we communicated. Carey even stated, “perhaps the most important single change in human consciousness in the last century, and especially in American consciousness, has been the multiplying of the means and forms of what we call ‘communication'”.  Communication is a basic action all humans perform on a day to day basis. Communication comes in multiples form, from speech to body language. We communicate in order to express how we feel and our ideas to other people. Body language is not usually easy to point out unless you focus but we also communicate subconsciously through that manner.

In Carey statement, he is saying that modern technology gives us more options in the way we communicate with others.  In the article, he mentions that in the past long-distance communication was harder to achieve. It also takes into an account when you want to spread the word for your business as an advertisement or if your a politician and you want to speak the biggest audience possible.  With modern forms of technology like telephones, you are now able to talk to friends and family in other parts of the world. Even with the internet, it makes it easier to broadcast your ideas, advertisement social life.

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Clary Capellan, Blog Post #4, 9/17

For this week’s blog post I chose to reflect on Marshall McLuhan’s piece, “Understanding Media”. Throughout this reading Mcluhan writes about his idea of the “medium is the message”. One quote that stood out to me was when he states “This fact merely underlines the point that the “medium is the message” because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale of human association and action” (McLuhan 24) In order to convey this idea he uses an example of the electric light, and how it works as  the medium for other functions to be able to exist. Therefore, there would be no message if the medium did not exist. This emphasizes Mcluhan’s idea of how the medium is the message. This quote also explains how the medium effects  society. McLuhan also uses the examples of how railroads and airplanes and how although they did not establish  movement,  transportation, wheels or the road to the human society. These mediums have shaped and improved our lives. As he states the “message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs” (McLuhan 24).

References:

McLuhan Marshall, “Understanding Media”, Seminal work about media, 1964

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Frida Barolli post #3

For this weeks reading I am reflecting on Marie Battiste “Decolonizing the University Indigenizing ¨. We face many challenges everyday which include social, economical and technological issues. This article highlights many interesting points about how “Eurocentric thinking” is viewed. I am an education major and it made me think about how students from foreign countries feel when they come to America and must adapt to the language and the American culture. I have seen foreign students who are very bright academically especially in Math but fail in other subjects because they cannot read or write the language. It is unfortunate how society has taught us to be afraid of knowing more then one language. English is not the only main language in the world. We have students from different backgrounds and cultures and we must learn to accept them. We can’t view things from only one perspective. We must be open minded. Imagine how frustrated people and students feel when they don’t know the language they want to get it but they cant.

 

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Anthony Dyce 9/17 Blog 3

For this weeks blog post I decided to respond to Marie Battiste “Decolonizing The  University” which I found to be interesting and something I’m not used to reading about. Battiste writes about regarding the days of early Europeans taking over the Indigenous people because they were illiterate.  Battiste states “The differing conceptions also imply different modes of transmission and different modes  of human consciousness.  These understandings reject the older illiterate and literate dichotomization  of language skills.” (Battiste, 120) When I read this quote I thought about how many students and academics are challenging and resisting colonialism inside and outside the classroom.  For instance, many students that come from different countries with accents are taught to transition themselves to speak English. It’s very difficult because learning a whole news language takes a long time before you are comfortable speaking to others.  The education system in our society have students separated based on they way to speak and learn. This reading has me questioning America’s education system.

Work Citied

Marie Battiste. “Print Culture and Decolonizing the University: Indigenizing  the Page: Part 1.” The Future of The Page.  University of Toronto Press, 2004.