MEA Awards
Award-winning Books (Some Political)
Article Award. Erik P. Bucy and Kimberly S. Gregson. “Media Participation: A Legitimizing Mechanism of Mass Democracy.”
Book Awards
Kevin G. Barnhurst and John Nerone. The Form of News: A History.
Jack Lule. Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism.
Susan B. Barnes. Online Connections: Internet Interpersonal Relationships, and Stuart Biegel. Beyond Our Control? Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace.
Douglas Rushkoff for Coercion: Why We Listen to What “They” Say.
On June 22 at Marymount Manhattan College, the Media
Ecology Association presented awards for work published during 2001, including
several of interest to Political Communication scholars. The awards and their
recipients are listed below:
Walter Benjamin was the author of several outstanding books and essays, most notably, of course, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” one of the most influential articles in media ecology. The award recognizes the outstanding article in the field of media ecology.
The 2002 award went to Erik P. Bucy and Kimberly S. Gregson for “Media Participation: A Legitimizing Mechanism of Mass Democracy.” Their article invites us to think about participation in new ways in an age of interactive media. They move beyond the initial hype of how the Internet was to give everyone access to everything, and point out that in fact politics in cyberspace is managed, polished and stratified. Despite these limitations, they argue that new media do legitimize mass democracy in new and interesting ways.
Susanne Langer is well known
for her work in philosophy and aesthetics, and her books Philosophy in a
New Key and Feeling and Form are important components of a media
ecology curriculum. The Langer Award is given to a recently published book or
article that makes an outstanding contribution to the understanding of language
and symbolic form and its relationship to communication, culture and consciousness.
This year’s award went
to Kevin G. Barnhurst and John Nerone for The Form of News: A History.
Barnhurst and Nerone have written a fascinating history of the interplay of
media change and economic forces in the evolution of what constitutes news.
They present both the impact of these changes on the way news is conceptualized
and the forms of audiences it invites. Their work offers new ways of imagining
the impact of the Internet on news that moves beyond instant good or bad reactions,
to thoughtful predictions based on the history of the form of news.
Lewis Mumford is the author of over 30 books, including Technics and Civilization and the Myth of the Machine. His pioneering work on the history and criticism of technology makes him the first comprehensive media ecology scholar. The Mumford Award is given to a recently published book or article that makes an outstanding contribution to the understanding of technology’s role and impact on society.
The 2002 award went to Jack Lule for Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism. Lule’s work addresses journalism as technics, and notes how journalists, perhaps unwittingly, select factual information to re-create ancient and enduring myths. His observations should be, but probably won’t be, disturbing to practitioners of journalism. this book will, however, be of great use to those of us who teach journalism so that students may gain an understanding of the techniques which affect the very stories they report.
Dorothy Lee served on the anthropology faculty at Vassar College and Harvard University where her scholarship focused on culture in relation to language, symbols systems, and modes of communication such as orality and literacy. Her book, Freedom and Culture, was extraordinarily influential. She was also a frequent contributor to Explorations in Communication and an influential force on the development of the Toronto School of media ecology. The award recognizes outstanding scholarship in the ecology of culture.
This is the first year for the Dorothy Lee Award, and the first year with a tie in the judging. The two winners were Susan B. Barnes for Online Connections: Internet Interpersonal Relationships and Stuart Biegel for Beyond Our Control? Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace.
Sue Barns offers a much needed map of the rules and patterns of development of interpersonal relationships on the Internet. She takes cultural approach to this environment and explains the communities it creates. Her work will clearly become a staple of every student of computer mediated communication.
Stuart Biegel explores the complications of importing legal structures across media environments. He makes clear that new media regulation requires legal reframing and new technology will not necessarily conform to the boundaries of old legal frameworks. Nevertheless, the concept of law remains and must be renegotiated for this new environment.
Marshall McLuhan was the central figure in the history of media ecology, and his book, Understanding Media, is the foundation for all of the work that has followed in the field. The award recognizes the outstanding book in the field of media ecology.
The 2002 award went to Douglas Rushkoff for Coercion: Why We Listen to What “They” Say. Rushkoff takes an ecological approach to the web of personal clichés, social truisms, political common wisdom, and cultural commonplaces to reveal the structure of the production of our belief system. Like McLuhan, he is a great popularizer of media ecology principles and this book may make many people more aware of the process of manipulation of belief and opinion. He reveals the invisible machine behind the system and lays bare the technics that comprise our society.
—Mary Alexander, Marist College
<Missy.Alexander@marist.edu>
For more information, consult the Web site: http://www.media-ecology.org/