18. Constituents of a Theory of Media, Enzensberger, 1974

• New media makes encourages us to act, not to think, or even to think about acting
• There is no sense of a stop - time.  Time = "eternity'
• Enzensberger employed Marxist theories of "base" and "superstructure"
• Base = "forces and relations of production"
• Superstructure = All the things that are created by the base relationships (i.e. media, social conventions, governments, etc)
• Enz.  looks at media business - he believes it supports an unjust system and convinces us to accept unjust society
• His essay is, in part, a proposal of a new way of thinking about the organization media
• Media is "the pacemaker for the social and economic developments of societies..."
• New types of technology are always interacting with one and other as well as with past technologies
• Media has a "mobilizing power" - the ability to get people to act
• Media like T.V. and film, during the time of the article, limit feedback - there is no way for the creator and the viewer to interact with one another - "no action between the transmitter and receiver."  This is not because it is technologically unable to occur, but because it is purposely not being done for political reasons 
• Social divisions - ruling class vs. the subordinate class, consumer vs. manufacturer
• George Orwell - media is "undialectical" and "obsolete"
• electronic media has allowed for a larger spread of information
  
• issues of censorship become very different in this new electronically oriented media world.
• Leftist Theory of "Manipulation"
• The New Left views new media as a manipulation device -- a defensive view
  
• Electronic media is seen as "dirty"
  
• Who is doing the manipulating?  
• Anyone can be part of new media -- anyone can create/edit/alter/add
• New Media does away with the concept of "intellectual property"
• "None of the characteristics that distinguish written and printed literature apply to the electronic media"
• It is not likely, according to the author, that writing or the printed book, will disappear