i can see this thread becoming a volatile one, and perhaps with good reason . . .  i'd therefore like to forestall one potentially explosive confusion, a confusion already latent in the slippage from “video” in the initiating question to “online sources” in the first answer

 

by “video” ross meant, i suspect, to identify communication through moving images – and thus in talking about “the medium of the academy” he seemed to be talking about moving images as a “medium” . . . “online sources” on the other hand are hardly a “medium” in the same sense since online sources can deliver moving images or still images or words . . . it therefore would make much more sense – or at least save lots of confusion – to talk about the web not as a medium but as a delivery system

 

by the same token, i suspect that “revolutionary” MLA policy change takes it for granted that the material being cited will be verbal material – words – and the change simply asks that citations   specify different ways of accessing words  -- and does not deal with different information media per se

 

we unfortunately have tended to use the word medium for both of these clearly separable functions  and i’d like to see some protocol for separating them as film-philosophy purses the question of the status of new media in academe

 

mike

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Film-Philosophy Salon [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brian Keith Bergen-Aurand (Asst Prof)
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 9:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Medium of the academy

 

Hi Ross,

 

Interesting timing on the question of the "medium of the academy." Last Friday, I received my new 7th edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.  In an attached letter, the Modern Language Association announces one of it biggest changes in years.  I quote:

 

The seventh edition introduces student writers to a significant revision of MLA documentation style.  In the past, listing the medium of publication in the works-cited list was required only for works in media other than print (e.g., publications on CD-ROM, articles in online databases); print as considered the default medium and was therefore not listed.  The MLA no longer recognizes a default medium and instead calls for listing the medium of publication in every entry in the list of works cited.

 

Not exactly about video per se, but a larger shift due to the increased usage of online sources, no doubt.

 

cheers,

Brian

 

 

 

 

 

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