This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a ...

1 This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a creative Commons attribution -NonCommercial-ShareAlike License without attribution as requested by the work's original creator or licensee. Saylor URL: 1. Image Credits Library of Congress, Chronicling America: Figure , Historic American Newspapers :Le_Voyage 193/1892-12-10/ed-2/seq-1/ Figure Figure , :Birth- The National Archives and Records Administration Figure , Cathode Ray Tube, Vector: Interiot, Figure , Figure Raster: Theresa Knott, :Cathode_ra Angela R. Bratton, PhD, Augusta State University ); Licensed under a creative Figure Commons attribution -Share Alike Unported Library of Congress license, Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure (third), Figure Michael Boggs. Courtesy of Carmichael's , Figure , Figure , Figure ,Figure Bookstore.

2 (top), Figure Figure Pandigital 7-inch Multimedia Novel, courtesy of iStockphoto/Thinkstock Pandigital Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure Figure , Associated Press Javier Micora, ( European Press, . Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure Department of Defense photo by Master Sgt. 24/); Licensed under a creative Commons Jerry Morrison, Air Force/Released attribution Generic license, Figure National Cancer Institute (NCI) Figure Figure Hemera/Thinkstock Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Figure Collections Division, Alfred Whital Stern Courtesy of Dena Collection of Lincolniana Leichnitz, Figure m Courtesy of Denis Kitchen Art Agency archives. Figure Used with permission. Darren Klimek/DigitalVision/Thinkstock Figure Figure White House Photo by Susan Sterner Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Figure Literature, Special Collections, University of By kind permission from the Shoults Collection, Virginia Library Special Collections, University of Otago, Figure Dunedin, New Zealand Library of Congress, American Treasures of The Figure Library of Congress Laufer Media, Inc.

3 Figure Figure Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Meredith Ward Figure , Figure :Spicy_Dete Courtesy of Wikipedia Figure , ( Great Migration in the , by J. Figure , intela, :Greatmigrati ); Licensed under a creative Commons attribution -Share Alike Unported license, Figure , :Areopagitic Courtesy of Concord Music Group, Inc. Figure Figure , :Saturday_e The Nielsen Company Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure , Figure Figure , Figure , :Kineto The NPD Group, Inc. Figure Courtesy of Saylor URL: 2. Figure "Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Outlet,". Bobbejaan Schoepen Archive, Belgium, Dec. 23, 2008). ( Bobbejaan Schoepen Grand Ole Opry 1953, Figure :Bobbej Image courtesy of the VRoma ); Project, Licensed under a creative Commons attribution Figure (third). Generic Courtesy of Internet Archive, license, 00john Figure (Reference not Michelle C.

4 Pautz. Graph from The Decline in found in Book) (second). Average Weekly Cinema Attendance: 1930- Jupiterimages/Creatas/Thinkstock 2000. Issues in Political Economy. 11 (Summer (Reference not 2002): 54-65. found in Book) (last). Figure Courtesy of Sears Brands, LLC. National Media Museum/SSPL Figure Figure Kraft Television Theatre image used with Digital Vision/Thinkstock permission by Kraft Foods Global, Inc. Figure Figure LLC Reproduced with the kind permission of Unilever Figure , Figure PLC and group companies Jupiterimages/Pixland/Thinkstock Figure Figure Transform Drug Policy Courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory Foundation , http://transform- Figure Courtesy of Harmonix Figure Figure Courtesy of Figure , Figure Figure Courtesy of One Laptop per Child Thinkstock Images/Comstock/Thinkstock Figure Figure Courtesy of McDonald's Taiwan Kathy Schrock (RL)/Kathy Dryburgh (SL), Figure Lighthouse Learning Island founder Photography by Rachael Muszkiewicz, Valparaiso Figure University Zynga Figure Figure , Figure White House photo by Pete Souza People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Figure ( ) Photo courtesy of Army.

5 Photographer: Figure Craig Coleman Stockbyte/Thinkstock Figure Figure Pew Internet & American Life Project, a project of Pablo Molinero- the Pew Research Center (from Demographics of Fernandez, Internet Users ). tching/ Figure Figure Courtesy of Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Figure Web Consortium, White House photo by Eric Draper Figure Lee/WorldWideWeb Dept. of Commerce, National Figure Telecommunications and Information Pew Research Center for the People and the Administration, Press, a project of the Pew Research Center (from /2010 Figure Saylor URL: 3. Chapter 1. Media and Culture The Lost Cell Phone Figure A New York City woman lost her cell phone in the back of a taxi cab. Sasha Gomez, 16, of Queens, ended up with the phone. She decided to keep it and use it.)

6 She did not realize the consequences. She was humiliated, harassed, and arrested. And she became the subject of a public shaming ritual only possible by today's media in today's culture. The phone was an expensive model, a T-Mobile Sidekick that sold for $350. Sasha began using the phone to take photographs and send instant messages to friends and family. The woman who lost the phone thought she would never see the phone again. She bought another Sidekick, logged onto her account and found that the old phone was being used. She saw photographs and messages by Sasha. The woman wanted her old phone back. She had a media-savvy friend, Evan Guttman. Evan was able to track down Sasha by her instant messages. He contacted Sasha and asked her to return the phone to his friend.

7 [1]. Basically, she told me to get lost, Evan later told The New York Times. Evan decided to fight for his friend's phone through the media. He put up a web page that told the story of the lost cell phone. He put up the pictures of Sasha and her family. The story spread. Evan began getting dozens and then hundreds of sympathetic emails from other people who had lost phones and understood his frustration with Sasha. Two technology blogs, Diggs and Gizmodo, linked to the story and Saylor URL: 4. web page. Evan then got thousands of emails, some from as far off as Africa and Asia. Lawyers and police officers contacted Evan about property law and told him how to approach the police. Some people went further than writing supportive emails. They found Sasha's MySpace page. They sent Sasha and her friends messages demanding the return of the phone.

8 Other people learned her home address in Queens, drove by her apartment building and shouted thief.. Sasha and her family were outraged and alarmed. They contacted Evan. Sasha still refused to return the phone. Her brother too communicated with Evan. He said he was a military policeman, and he warned Evan to leave Sasha alone. Evan posted those comments online. He soon heard from others in the military. They told him that the brother's threats were a violation of military policy. They said they would report the threats to the brother's superiors. Armed with all this information, Evan contacted Sasha one more time. He said he and his friend would next go the police. Evan said he was threatened again. He and his friend went to the police who then arrested Sasha. The charge was possession of stolen property.

9 Sasha's mother came forward and said she had bought the phone for $50 on a subway platform and given it to Sasha. Police confiscated the phone for the original owner. And Evan became a minor cultural celebrity. The story appeared in The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune and was broadcast on MSNBC and other outlets. It was a modern morality tale caused by, and then made possible by, the intersection of media technology and culture. I thought the story of the lost cell phone would be a great introduction for a text on understanding media and culture and used The New York Times story to write the previous paragraphs. Long after, when I. showed the introduction to a colleague, he looked at me and said, Are you kidding? He showed me a then-recent book by media scholar Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, a book on the power of organizing through new media.

10 Shirky begins his book with the same story of the lost cell phone. With some wry amusement over fate, I decided that I would keep my introduction as well. In some ways, the movement of the lost cell phone story from Evan's website through The New York Times through MSNBC. through Clay Shirky's text through my book on understanding media and culture is symbolic, as we will see, of the multitude of flows between media and culture. Saylor URL: 5. Understanding Media and Culture This book's title tells its intent. It is written to help you understand media and culture. The media and culture are so much a part of our days that sometimes it is difficult to step back and appreciate and apprehend their great impact on our lives. The book's title, and the book itself, begin with a focus squarely on media.