Seminar at York
Bonnie MacKinnon (705)748-1495
Here is a seminar that might be of interest to any of you who
studied AI/multimedia/cyberspace with Professor Regoczei.
Prof R has displayed more than a passing interest in what this
Levinson fella has to say. /Bonnie
X-URL: http://www.yorku.ca/events/listings/lec11.htm
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Lectures/Seminars
The Brownbag Research Seminars
The Brownbag Seminars Tuesday, October 26, 12 noon - 2 pm
The Harry Crowe Room, Atkinson College
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PAUL LEVINSON
Communications and Media Studies, Fordham University
Every Author a Publisher?
The Fate of Gatekeeping in the Digital Age
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The modern age emerged out of a time of strict control of
information by the Church. But the rise of national states, and the
printing press that spurred them, only substituted the gatekeeping
of monarchs and printers for the prelate. Indeed, in the centuries
that followed, the cost of paper, printing, binding, and
distribution gave econonic justification for editors with
life-and-death decision power over what texts reached the public.
They were supposed to publish quality, but, as Adlai Stevenson
pointed out, editors all too often separate the wheat from the
chaff, and publish the chaff. Radio and television made information
more available in the 20th century, but via broadcast networks that
concentrated gatekeeping power far more than in newspapers and
books. The xerox, as McLuhan saw, began to reverse this trend in
own quiet way, making "every author a publisher." Well, not quite,
because photocopied texts neither look nor feel like professionally
published works. But the tide was shifted towards creators who
could begin to disseminate their own texts. The Web is bringing
this tide to fullness, allowing authors to publish documents no
different than professional publications online. Will the world be
nurtured by a flow of new ideas, previously held hostage? Or will
we be flooded by a sea of unmediated material? My lecture explores
these and like questions that the merging of author and publisher
on the Web is inviting us to consider.
Selected References
1. Levinson, P. (1997). The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future
of the Information Revolution. London & New York: Routledge.
2. Levinson, P. (1999). Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information
Millennium. London & New York: Routledge.
3. McLuhan, M. & McLuhan, E. (1988). Laws of Media. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
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For further information, including listings of other selected lectures
and conferences in the Toronto area, please visit the Brownbag
Research Seminars web page.
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Supported in part by the offices of
* The Dean of Atkinson College
* The Master of Atkinson College
* The Atkinson College Student Association
* The Faculty of Environmental Studies
* The Science, Technology, Culture and Society Program
* The Service Bursary Programme
* The Vice-President Academic
* The Vice-President University Advancement
* The York University Bookstore
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Contact: Luigi M Bianchi
lbia...@yorku.ca