When the latest Emmy nominations were announced two weeks ago the lineup mostly comprised the usual suspects of buzzy TV titles that have dominated online discourse over the past year. However, one nominee stood out to me precisely because it had been entirely absent from my media awareness radar: something called Jury Duty, which apparently … Continue reading Rehearsals part 2: TV Trials & Consumptive Complicity
Tag: debord
Critical perspectives on the Isla Vista spree killer, media coverage
Immediately following Elliot Rodger's spree killing in Isla Vista, CA last month Internet users discovered his YouTube channel and a 140-page autobiographical screed, dubbed a "manifesto" by the media. The written document and the videos documented Rodger's sexual frustration and his chronic inability to connect with other people. He specifically lashed out at women … Continue reading Critical perspectives on the Isla Vista spree killer, media coverage
Watching (and reading) the Society of the Spectacle
Youtuber Azorek79 has a video in 2 parts based on The Society of the Spectacle, narrated with excerpts from Debord's book as well as selections from McLuhan's The Medium is the Massage and John Berger's Ways of Seeing. Also, I just stumbled across a subreddit organized for a book-club-style reading of Society of the Spectacle. … Continue reading Watching (and reading) the Society of the Spectacle
Understanding Videodrome: Extensions of the New Flesh
"Might not our current translation of our entire lives into the spiritual form of information seem to make of the entire globe, and of the human family, a single consciousness?" - Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media Today would have been the 100th birthday of Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 - December 31, 1980). McLuhan gained … Continue reading Understanding Videodrome: Extensions of the New Flesh