Media, Power, Technological Determinism
University of Washington CMS Graduate Conference June 4th, 2022, Seattle and Online
9:00am-5:30pm(PST)
Location: Padelford Hall Room B536
Keynote Speaker (Online): Nicole Starosielski (NYU)
Does the modern office floor plan of the skyscrapers redefine the division of labor? Does the thermostat in a documents archive secretly manipulate what we can read? We have little doubt in that Google shapes how we search for information, but does Google shape how we think too?
These perennial debates can be traced to Marshall McLuhan’s claims about the unstoppable force of media technologies in shaping our mind, body, and environment. Raymond Williams labels McLuhan as a “technological determinist”, condemning his disregard for the historical development of technology. But does this label of “technological determinist” give the right to abolish the way McLuhan understands media technologies? Indeed, like Williams, many have pointed out that technological objects do not independently exist among us, but are embedded in a cultural and political network. However, when we open the socially constructed “black box”, as Pinch and Bijker described, what is revealed may only be what Langdon Winner calls a “hollow inside”—void of power relations.
“Media, Power, Technological Determinism” graduate conference at UW Department of Cinema and Media studies aims to once again invoke the debates around “technological determinism.”
The conference will be a hybrid event with in-person and online components.
Full conference schedule available here.