RE: What is it good for?

From: Vincent Campbell (v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Jun 05 2000 - 17:14:22 BST

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    From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
    To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Subject: RE: What is it good for?
    Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 17:14:22 +0100 
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    Haven't you ever seen a religious conversion? Epiphanies are known.

    As to me, I'm still a newcomer to the profession of academia (I have just
    had a book proposal about journalism accepted, which will be my first book),
    which is why I ask for further insight into your perspective on these
    issues.

    My discipline, as I've said is media studies, I work in a film and media
    studies department, teaching courses on media theory/history, film,
    journalism studies and political communication (undergrad and postgrad).

    My publications record is small at the moment (I finished my PhD last year),
    and if anyone's interested I did some research into television documentary
    and pseudo-science, which has appeared in the Media Education Journal
    (Scotland), and as a chapter in a forthcoming book on documentary.

    Vincent

    > ----------
    > From: Chuck
    > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Sent: Monday, June 5, 2000 10:40 am
    > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Subject: Re: What is it good for?
    >
    >
    >
    > Vincent Campbell wrote:
    >
    > > > You don't seem to be persuading anybody of your position,
    > > >
    > > > How do you know that? You yourself confess that you don't how to
    > assess
    > > > the
    > > > effect of the media on people, so why do you think you got this one
    > right?
    > > >
    > > Touche.
    > >
    > > I'd make a distinction, to some extent between media that allow for
    > > interaction, like e-mail, and those that allow little or none (TV, the
    > > press, films etc.). One of the interesting things is that very few
    > media
    > > researchers study things like e-mail, or telephone use as media that
    > have
    > > effects. With convergence the gap between media studies and
    > > telecommunications work is going to have to close.
    > >
    > > I haven't seen anybody going 'My god you're right, this memetics stuff
    > is
    > > rubbish and a total waste of time!'
    >
    > Of course not. People usually don't change that way, especially when they
    > have
    > investments. In fact, very often when the make the change, they won't even
    > see
    > it happening. They get sudden amnesia about how they used to think!
    >
    > >
    > >
    > > Any of your references in the interest of furthering knowledge?
    > >
    >
    > I presume you mean my publishing record. I have articles out there through
    > the
    > years on various subjects. The common thread to most of it is sexuality.
    > Frankly, they aren't worth reading because they were originally done from
    > a
    > purely cultural perspective -- which is entirely too narrow to understand
    > much
    > of anything. I haven't published anything I would call significant since I
    > have
    > discovered sociobiology around 1987 while I was at the same time trading
    > with
    > the Brazilian indians. I am working on a book tentatively titled "Sex,
    > Technology, and Economy in American History." Unlike Richard Brodie, I
    > have had
    > to work at finding the pop angle to my book. It seems to get right up to
    > the
    > very top of the editorial board before they realize there is no
    > preexisting
    > marketing niche. My "trouble" is that I can't stay bounded by the usual
    > discplinary lines. But -- I may have found the balance in this current
    > attempt.
    >
    > I am an odd person because I devote at least half my leisure time to the
    > behavioral sciences even though I left academia a generation ago. So I
    > never
    > think up anything that doesn't either emerge from practical experience or
    > get
    > tested by it. That's why you can't find my perspective replicated in its
    > entirety anywhere in academia. That is, besides the disciplinary lines
    > they are
    > bound to respect to some extent, they aren't involved in a wide range of
    > practical experiences.
    >
    > And so, that said, who are you?
    >
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    >

    ===============================================================
    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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