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Music Businesses Media Apple

Professor iPod Discusses Device's Social Impact 375

Posted by simoniker from the not-really-his-name dept.
PurdueGraphicsMan writes "There's an interesting story over at Wired News, involving an interview with UK university professor Dr. Michael Bull, apparently the 'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices,' according to The New York Times. The piece also mentions: 'Bull, a lecturer in media and culture at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, is the author of 'Sounding out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life', a book Bull calls the 'definitive treatment' of the impact of the Sony Walkman and its descendants.'"
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Professor iPod Discusses Device's Social Impact More

Professor iPod Discusses Device's Social Impact

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  • I think the Prof's name is a hint.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:25PM (#8393720)
    ...very fitting for people who proclaim themselves the "world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices."

    I'm sure it's quite flattering to the elitist Apple snots, though. ;)

    • Re:I think the Prof's name is a hint.... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Sporkinum ( 655143 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:31PM (#8394126)
      Not really..

      home > people > departmental faculty > Dr Michael Bull
      Dr Michael Bull

      Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies
      Location: ESSEX HOUSE 209
      Email: M.Bull@sussex.ac.uk

      Telephone Numbers
      Internal: 8788 or 2574
      UK: 01273 678788 or
      01273 872574
      International: +44 1273 678788 or
      +44 1273 872574

      BSc (Bristol), MA (Greenwich), PhD (Goldsmiths)

      Research Interests

      Mobile comminication technologies and their use, Music and sound in urban culture. New directions in Critical Theory (The Frankfurt School).

      Selected Publications
      Books
      2000 Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life. Oxford. Berg.
      2003 The Auditory Culture Reader (edited with Les. Back,). Oxford. Berg

      Journal Articles
      2001 The World According to Sound: Investigating the World of Walkman Users. New Media and Society. Sage London.
      2002 The Seduction of Sound in Consumer Culture in Journal of Consumer Culture
      2003 "Towards an Aural Epistemology of Proximity and Distance. Mobile Technologies and their Use" in Space and Society (forthcoming)
      2003 "Alone Together: The Culture of Mobile Listening in Automobiles" in Social Studies of Science. (forthcoming)

      Chapters in Books
      2001 "Space, Place and Music: A Critical Ethnography of Automobile Habitation" in Car Cultures. (ed D. Miller) Berg. Cambridge.

      "Personal Stereo Use and the Aural Reconfiguration of Representational Space" in New Technologies and Spatial Practices (ed S. Munt) Cassell. London.

      2003 "To Each Their Own Bubble: Mobile Spaces of Sound in the City" in Place, Space and Culture in a Media Age (ed N. Couldry and A. McCarthy) Sage, London. (forthcoming)

      2003 "Thinking about Sound, Proximity and Distance in Western Experience. The Case of Odyssius's Walkman" in New directions in the Anthropology of Sound ( ed V.Erlmann.) Oxford. Berg. (forthcoming)

      Translations
      2003 Sounding Out the City is published in Japanese by Hituzi Sybo, Tokyo.

      Book reviews

      Theodor W, Adorno, Metaphysics: Concept and Problems, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000 Sociology 2002, David Morley, Home Territories: Media, mobility and Identity, London, Routledge, 2000. New Media and Society. 2002

      Recent Conference Papers and International Workshops
      March 2002 Rethinking Networks: Fluid Networks, Fluid People. Helsinki, Finland.
      Towards an Aural Epistemology of Proximity and Distance: Mobile Technologies and their Use.

      April 2002 "Hearing Culture": New Directions in the Anthropology of Sound. Oaxaca, Mexico.

      Thinking about Sound, Proximity and Distance in Western Experience. The Case of Odyssius's Walkman

      April 2002 "Musica Urbana" University of Bologna.

      The Aural Privatising of Urban Space and its Social Implications.

      November 2002 Sound Matters. New Technology in Music. University of Maastricht

      The Culture of Mobile Listening: From Walkmans to the Automobile as an Acoustic Theatre.

      Teaching

      Michael teaches undergraduate courses in: Music and Media, Media, Technology and Everyday Life, The Media in the Era off Globalisation.

      • Re:I think the Prof's name is a hint.... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by deanj ( 519759 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @01:29AM (#8394716)
        ok....so he's been at it for three years, going on four now.

        The point the first poster was trying to make is be wary of folks that are called "experts" on topics like this.

        Academia has a strange way of annoiting people with "expert" titles for things. You'd be shocked how many of these so called "experts" are bluffing their way through. I'm not saying their ALL like that, but seriously, there are a lot. I mean really, look at the guy they refer to. He's been at it for THREE YEARS. There are other people that have been at this for much longer, who are likely more worthy of the title "expert".

        Those of you with jobs at universities will know what I'm talking about.

  • Professor iPod? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bobdoer ( 727516 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:25PM (#8393726) Homepage Journal
    Is he anything like Dr. Pepper? If so, I want to see his credentials.

    • Re:Professor iPod? (Score:4, Funny)

      by craXORjack ( 726120 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:31PM (#8393768)
      UK university professor Dr. Michael Bull, apparently the 'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices

      How does a professor get a reputation like that, downloading a buttload of mp3's?

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:32PM (#8393775)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Why question his credentials? (Score:5, Funny)

      by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:44PM (#8393865) Journal
      Why are people suddenly questioning Professor iPod's, uh, I mean Dr Bull's credentials? I'm telling you, that guy is so misunderstood.

      Just let go of your suspicion and paranoia and put your trust in someone for a change. What's the worst that can happen?
    • Last week at BestBuy I found a CD player for $20.00 that reads MP3 files on CD-Rs and CD-RWs.

      I got one and it plays my 15 cent CD-Rs with ten hours of music just fine. (although slow to start MP3 disks).

      I had to replace to weird AC adapter connector though, because it was impossible to find a cheap AC adapter that fit the custom connector on it.
      • And according to Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com], you don't have to worry about yours skipping, either.

      • Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:5, Insightful)

        by btlzu2 ( 99039 ) * on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:31PM (#8394130) Homepage Journal
        Good for you! However, I've got 4000 CD quality songs on my 4.1 x 2.4 x .62" iPod with tracking of my favorite songs, play counts, custom playlists without re-burning CDs. It works WAY better for my needs than your CD MP3 player, so $400 is not too much for all those functions. If you want to bring all your contacts with you and transfer files between sites using firewire or USB 2.0, there's even more reason.

        It's always a favorite thing of anti-iPod folks to say that it's only a "personal radio", but you sound like my Dad bitching at me when I was 15 for liking that "new-fangled acid rock". A bit outta touch....
        • However, I've got 4000 CD quality songs on my 4.1 x 2.4 x .62" iPod with tracking of my favorite songs, play counts, custom playlists without re-burning CDs.

          Your point is interesting, but the cost issue still is most important for me.

          The MP3 CD player is about three times larger than the iPod, still small but not shirt pocket size. The internal media storage of the iPod is a real plus, but storing 4000 songs on DVD-ROM takes only five disks. Assuming about five megabytes per song, it is about 28

        • O, the persecution! (Score:4, Funny)

          by Zhe Mappel ( 607548 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @02:37AM (#8394981)
          It's always a favorite thing of anti-iPod folks to say that it's only a "personal radio", but you sound like my Dad bitching at me when I was 15 for liking that "new-fangled acid rock".

          It's OK. Feel the pain of that trauma. This is Slashdot. You can cry here.

        • Re:$400 is too much for a personal stereo (Score:4, Informative)

          by shepd ( 155729 ) <slashdot.org@gmai l . c om> on Thursday February 26, 2004 @04:26AM (#8395417) Homepage Journal
          Okay, here's the list of benefits for an iPod (correct me on what I miss):

          - Lots of music in one place, at your fingertips
          - "Mix" on the fly
          - Use it as a portable hard disk
          - Some PDA functionality
          - Good battery life
          - Not much skipping
          - Fast file transfer on a new PC
          - Files can be transferred on anything with USB or Firewire
          - iTunes compatible

          And the list of non-plusses:

          - If charged daily [ipodbatteryfaq.com], $99 yearly battery replacement fee
          - Battery replacement takes longer than one day.
          - Storace space cannot be increased through standard methods.
          - When the battery goes flat, you have to charge it.
          - Also, when the battery is flat, the units data contents are not-transferrable
          - Cannot use iPod's music (or data) with anything that doesn't have a USB or Firewire port.
          - High initial MSRP cost.
          - Cannot play music bought at record store without intermediate steps
          - Cannot play your friend's CDs without intermediate steps
          - Data format not car stereo compatible

          Benefits of a CD/MP3 player:

          - Low initial MSRP cost.
          - Infinite storage space
          - Can mix data and music
          - Can reload with fresh batteries if ones in unit die
          - Fresh batteries are available anywhere, anytime and take under 10 seconds to replace
          - Choice of rechargeable or non-rechargeable batteries
          - Files can be transferred to anything with a CD player
          - Fast file transfer with any age of computer
          - Does not require batteries to transfer data
          - Can play back music on many DVD players
          - iTunes compatible (if using recoded CD)
          - Can play music bought at record store instantly
          - Can play your Friend's CDs instantly
          - Data format car stereo compatible

          Lowlights of a CD/MP3 player:

          - Cannot remix between discs
          - Requires charging more often when using rechargeable batteries
          - Bulky
          - Not compatible with anything lacking a DVD or CD-ROM.
          - Lacks PDA capabilities
          - Older units had skipping problems
          - Slow seek times

          As you can see, there's strong points on both sides of the debate. As you can imagine, being a car stereo owner, I have a CD/MP3 player.
        • rule of thumb: you should pay about the same for your stereo
          system as you pay your whole music collection.

          example: say you've the kind of person who's only bought 10 CDs.
          at ~CDN$15/each, that's about $150 - so you shouldn't buy a stereo
          worth more than about $150 - a cheap gheto blaster will do you fine.

          on the other hand -- say you're the kind of person who's really
          into music, and you've bought yourself about 300 - 400 CDs - at the
          same rate, that's about $4500 - so you shouldn't feel bad about going
          out an
      • Target had the 10GB 3G Ipod for 150$, on clearance. Went like hot-cakes. Check at a Target near you!!

        Good thing you didn't tell them it was $400!!

        So let's see, I got a 10GB portable hdd + mp3 player for 150$ (7.5 times what you paid), 10GB/800MB = 12.5 times the capacity, along with tremendous extra functionality.
      • Me, I'm not going anywhere without my portable gramophone.

  • Of course iPod is successful (Score:5, Funny)

    by Deraj DeZine ( 726641 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:26PM (#8393729)
    Even Mr. T thinks you should buy one [somethingawful.com]! And with advertisements like this one [somethingawful.com], all the fans of Dude, Wheres My Car will want one. Those two should take care of most of the US population, I'm sure.

  • Leading expert on WHAT?! (Score:3, Funny)

    by gilrain ( 638808 ) <gilrainNO@SPAMlunarpolicy.net> on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:26PM (#8393732) Homepage
    Sounds like a load of Bull to me.

  • From the article (Score:5, Funny)

    by Atticu5 ( 693001 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:26PM (#8393734) Homepage Journal
    Half the people I've talked to so far download music illegally.

    He must be new at this.

  • Social Impact (Score:5, Funny)

    by physicsboy500 ( 645835 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:27PM (#8393736)
    why yes... it causes the user to turn entirely black with white headphones showing.

  • Walkman (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:27PM (#8393737)
    Back in the 80s, I wanted to buy a Walkman, but I couldn't find one with OGG on it. Stupid closed-source fascists!

  • Devices and Their Tools (Score:5, Insightful)

    by qw(name) ( 718245 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:28PM (#8393748) Journal

    Dr. Bull's work reminds me of Sweden's social engineering efforts. How we use something, how far do we go to utilize the device(s), etc.

    Dr. Bull says, "It gives people totally private worlds." While that may be true, it also removes people from social interaction, which is vital for mental health.

    • Re:Devices and Their Tools (Score:5, Funny)

      by tsunamifirestorm ( 729508 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:33PM (#8393790) Homepage
      it also removes people from social interaction, which is vital for mental health.
      apply that to /. and that explains why we are so weird..
    • ...but if what this guy says is the truth, suddenly I'm very scared.
      Or you use it to control thoughts. A lot of people don't like to be alone with their thoughts. The best way to avoid that is to listen to music.
      Wow. So people put these things (and by "these things", I mean any headphoney-musicy thingie...iPod, Walkman, whatever) to block out their own thoughts. Auto-mind-control. That is friggin' sad.

      • Re:I've never understood the phenomenon... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by venicebeach ( 702856 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:14PM (#8394021) Homepage Journal
        Auto-mind-control. That is friggin' sad.

        There's nothing wrong with "auto-mind-control"; in fact it may be one of the gems of evolution. We all practice self-mind-control all day long, directing our thoughts to what it most important, monitoring our progress and allocating mental resources. We also do things like drink caffeine to self-regulate our arousal and some practice meditation to affect their mental functioning. I certainly use music to either help me focus on my work when its time to do that or to help me forget it when its time for that. Thank goodness for the prefrontal cortex!

    • Not all social interaction is good (Score:5, Insightful)

      by swb ( 14022 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:43PM (#8393864)
      Social interaction is vital, but it's not all mentally healthy. I used to be a regular bus commuter, and I was forced to interact with all kinds of people on the bus and at the bus stop, many of whom were unpleasant to be forced into close proximity.

      A good Walkman was *vital* for my mental health.

      And when I was in college walking to/from class or wherever, a good walkman made the walk more enjoyable. It's not like I was going to have a social interaction with 99.9999% of the strangers I walked past in the first place.
    • While that may be true, it also removes people from social interaction, which is vital for mental health.

      Indeed, and when you play your boom box on the bus or your cell phone goes off in the theater you are likely to be subsequently engaged in social interaction for the mental health of of the public weal.

      You arent' guarunteed much mental, or other, health out of the deal though.

      KFG

    • Re:Devices and Their Tools (Score:5, Funny)

      by Chris Tucker ( 302549 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @01:10AM (#8394635) Homepage
      "Dr. Bull says, "It gives people totally private worlds." While that may be true, it also removes people from social interaction, which is vital for mental health."

      Bullshit!

      There is plenty of social interaction in the average day. The Walkman/iPod allows you to use it as a gateway to that interaction.

      "Being Morally Opposed To The Walkman Carries With It Certain Responibilities"
      by Penn Jillette

      I was leaving my business manager's office. The elevator arrived right away and I got on to find there was another passenger. She was black, she had a beautiful smile, her headphones blended with her hair, and she was listening to some pop love song on her Walkman. It was loud, but I couldn't make it out. Maybe I'd never heard it before, but it was a love song. I smiled, slipped on my super-cool candy-red headphones, and turned the Clash's London Calling way up.

      We had ridden together for several floors when we were joined by one of those bicycle delvery guys. He had a little hay, the tight black bicycle pants with the reinforced crotch;he was Hispanic and had the little tiny headphones that fit right in the ear so you can only see a couple little spots of blue and some wires coming out of the ears. He looked at us, wrote something on a manila encelope, put it in his backpack, and turned up his music. I have no way of knowing what he was listening to, because "Revolution Rock" was filling my head. But whatever it was he was enjoying it. We swayed our heards together in different rhythms.

      The three of us rode a few more floors, then we were joined by a businesswoman type. She had on one of those female biz suits, and her hair and makeup were soft and natural. I think she ran every morning or at least took a dance class. Through the light tint of her glasses, I saw her look at each of us and roll her eyes up. Then she started shaking her head like we wern't going to notice. My fellow passengers didn't notice, but i slipped my headphones down around my neck and said, "It must sound like Charles Ives out here, huh? Is it too loud for you?"

      She gave me this little condescending smile through her tastefully lipsticked mouth and said, "You people just cut yourselves off from everybody, don't you? I mean, it's really bad enough that no one even makes eye contact anymore, but you people just walk around in your own little worlds. We're a culture of very lonely people. It's sad. It's really very sad."

      Since the other two people in the elevator were in their own respective little worlds, I appointed myself spokesperson for us three lonely people. "You were really dying for some human contact here, wern't you? Huh? You walked on this elevator and said to yourself, 'Oh, Jiminy Cricket! I really wanted to talk to this delivery boy, this receptionist and this big ugly sone of a bitch with a square head. But, alas, they've cut themselves off from my personal contact. I guess I can't have any meaningful dialouge with them. Darn!' You don't give a yuppie-tweed fuck about the three of us! You just need something sensitive and humanitarian to talk about over your fuckin' power lunch... I'll make a deal with you - we'll take our headphones off and we'll listen to you, but you better have something to say. And when you ask him what kind of bike he has and he tells you, you better really care. And you better keep us entertained... do a little fuckin' dance if you have to! When each of use walked onto the elevator, we smiled at one another and you just rolled your fuckin' eyes. So, you want personal contact? Shoot!"

      So, this was another elevator ride in the big city during which I didn't fall in love, make a friend or even set myself up to get laid.

      But I do enjoy the Clash.

  • I bought an iPod Mini (Score:5, Funny)

    by joshua404 ( 590829 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:28PM (#8393750)
    It's blue and it plays music real good. I walk around with it and listen to music. It's pretty.

    Thank God there are scientists researching this shocking phenomenon.

  • "Safety" can come at a price (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:32PM (#8393776)
    "There's a lot of studies in the literature that demonstrate with the urban space, the more it's inhabited, the safer you feel. You feel safe if you can feel people there, but you don't want to interact with them."

    When I use my iPod in public, I often realize that by avoiding that interaction, I may feel more 'safe' but I am also missing out. Usually I take my iPod headphones out when I'm in a situation where I could interact with people. I like my music, but I think the sense of security is very false.

    • I think so as well. That "safe" feeling often leads to what psychologists call Crowded Lonliness, i.e., to be surrounded by many people yet not interacting with them (except to divert your vision from them).
    • First off, I don't own an iPod - I'm basing my comment here on having a Discman. Same difference in the end - we're both listening to music.

      Second off, I use my Discman, it's on the commute. I really can't say that I'm missing out on anything while sitting on the train. No one interacts on the train. I'm not missing out on the walk from the station to work either - who would I interact with anyway?

      I could see how your comments would make sense if you were using your iPod in a bar or restaurant, but I

    • Re:"Safety" can come at a price (Score:5, Interesting)

      by daviddennis ( 10926 ) <david@amazing.com> on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:55PM (#8394245) Homepage
      I bought the iPod as a personal stereo and as a backup device, so that it would be easy and painless for me to do backups, to a device I was unlikely to forget to take with me.

      It's a great backup device, and it's a great personal stereo.

      I stopped using my iPod outside of the car when I realized that I was feeling a lot less grounded in the real world than I'd been before. I realized that I was closing myself out from interactions with other people. As a nerd, I have too few of those in any event, so I recognized the unit as a gant step backwards.

      However, it's great in the car, and I can't wait until I get an iPod compatible car stereo so I don't need to wear those awful earbuds.

      Oddly enough, until that time, I've actually wound up using it more as an audio source for my home stereo. It works great there too, and I don't have to bother with earbuds. I suspect that will be its primary use until I get a car stereo compatible with it.

      Leaving it at home ruins it as a disaster recovery backup, though, which is a bummer ...

      D
      • Headphones in the car aren't a good idea, and as sibling poster pointed out, probably illegal. Your better off getting a tape adapter if your car stereo has a tape player (mine does, but i wish it just had RCA ins, no loss...), or an FM adapter. I'd recomend a digital one, because otherwise they're a bitch to tune and the signal will drop annoyingly in the middle of traffic.
    • I think you misread the statement. It's not using your iPod that makes you feel safe, it's the presence of people.

      However, the presence of people has downsides. Using your iPod lets you escape those downsides, while still retaining the safe feeling.

  • Apple "gets it right" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FunWithHeadlines ( 644929 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:33PM (#8393784) Homepage
    "In terms of usage, Apple got it intuitively right."

    Whether it's intuition or hard research, more often than not Apple gets it right. The other computer companies usually go for "good enough" and as cheap as they can make it, and that got them market share but not that much loyalty. Now that the computer companies are being forced by reduced margins into the consumer electronic space, they are going to be faced with a different mindset. People who buy electronic widgets do not say, "Hey, who cares if it's a beige box, I don't care what it looks like, I just want cheap!" Instead people want stereos and televisions and DVD players that have quality features and look good with the rest of their stuff. Low price works to some degree here, but high-end does quite well too.

    Apple has been there all along. There's a reason Apple users tend to be loyal despite the occasional hiccups from Apple and historically higher margins: They get it right. And boy does that matter in the consumer electronic marketplace. For proof of that, just walk around any large city and count the iPods. They got it right.

    • Re:Apple "gets it right" (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The really interesting thing is that Sony once had it right. I remember in the 1980's... if you wanted to by great stuff, you couldn't go wrong with Sony. It was cool. Sure, there were better brands that cost lots more. But if you wanted good stuff for a reasonable (but perhaps slightly expensive price), Sony was the company for you.

      Now? I haven't bought a Sony product in years.

  • (not) Impressed... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:39PM (#8393829)
    'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices,'

    Wow... I'll bet that one was a highly-contendted for title....

  • Some good points (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:41PM (#8393844)
    I think he makes a point when he says that there is some music that is personal, which you claim as your own for listening. As a listener of different genres of music, with a strong experimental streak, I prefer the option of not subjecting my room-mates to my experiments. The music we share is different from what I listen to on my own. Being not from the US (I'm Indian, as in a brown one), I really can't expect my hindi song-fan friends to share my enthusiasm for Chemical Brothers or Fatboy Slim.

  • My iPod Prof (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tiro ( 19535 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:44PM (#8393866) Journal
    I have to mention my great constitutional law professor who is extremely tech able and uses MP3/the internet to promote understanding of a part of the government that is not as understood as much as it is influential: the Supreme Court.

    This man has used computers to teach for a long time.. He used to make hypercard stacks with his students, to store key cases and biographical information of justices.

    More recently, he's made oyez.org, where users can listen to oral arguments on all these Supreme Court cases that get argued over on /.! Jerry Goldman got his picture in the NY Times holding his iPod, and he was thinking about its teaching potential way before it was the hip/ubiquitous gadget on campus.

    What a great guy. Best thing is, he sends out syllabi in PDF, unlike the idiot PhDs who use Word docs, which bothers me because I'm using an ancient linux laptop.

  • for those of you who are interested (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:47PM (#8393879)
    Cultural Studies is very particular in the UK compared to the US version. Also Cultural Studies is more dominant than it's US counterpart.

    As a discipline it is well respected in it's theoretical break from English Literature. I.e. we can have TV and radio and internet. "Pop culture" not just shakespeare and opera of high brow snobbery. An interesting discipline to say the least. The problem that many slashdotters might have with it is that it is not "scientific" and is overly concerned with aesthetics rather than politics.

    This problem is solved, in part, but Media Studies which is in turn a break from Cultural Studies. Media Studies not only views the aesthetic and popular culture, it examines the way in which media operate as political constructs. It also doesn't deny the possibiliy of "research" and could best be described as Cultural Studies meets Sociology meets Politics. Politics is given preference over "art", because if art is political then one can't view it in the abstract right? So "media studies" isn't some weak Public Relations wannabe cop-out subject - it is the end-point of a massive evolution from English Literature to a more relevant and theoretically grounded area in which social research can be conducted, albeit with much time devoted to questions of research in and of itself (i.e. theory, qualitative and quantitative debates).

    In other words Media Studies is something worth checking out in the liberal arts because it encompasses philosophy, politics, pop culture and studies of power all inside a carefully crafted approach to pragmatic research.

    Notes on "philosophy" vs Media and Cultural Studies
    =====================
    You will find many high brow philosophy ppl looking down on cultural studies and criticising it. But the basic difference between the two that I will put here is --- philosophy assumes the operation of logic is "given" and aspires to "truth". Whereas cultural studies says there is language, but that language is inherently unstable and therefore we cannot rely on it as a 100% pure form of communication. Cultural Studies also critically reflects on what is considered "logic".

    In other words in philosophy some things are "out of bounds" and in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory they are not --- who then is being more intellectually rigorous? Also there is little to no teaching of 20th century "postmodernism" in Philosophy departments, whereas in Cultural Studies we welcome all of the philosphical tradition and there are no "right" answers to these debates (as they are ongoing debates, how could there be a right answer just yet - if ever).... Again, who is being more rigorous and who is excluding things?

  • Dr. Bull's earlier work gives me doubts (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:51PM (#8393911)
    I'd check out his seminal 8-Track: A New Social Order before jumping to conclusions.

  • This is lame (Score:5, Insightful)

    by soft_guy ( 534437 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @10:52PM (#8393916)
    As far as "social isolation" goes, the iPod is not really any different than any other personal stereo device made in the past 20 years. Long before I had an iPod, I had a personal cassette player, a personal radio, a personal CD player, and yes, even a Rio 500. The iPod is better in the sense that it stores my entire CD collection. That fact sells iPods, but doesn't change the social relationship of the device.

    • Re:This is lame (Score:3, Insightful)

      by borkus ( 179118 )
      As far as being able to listen to music in any environment, I'd agree that the iPod is no different from a portable CD player or radio. What's different is that a moderate sized collection lets you pick the music for your down to the song. Obviously, radio gives you very little choice. I can choose what cassette or CD to put into my player, but again, my options are limited; for a commercialy made recording, I can only choose which one to play. If I make my own mix CD or cassette, I can create a specifi
  • It's not really personal now. I want a direct link into cranial nerve 8, the vestibulocochlear nerve!

  • seeing the future (Score:3, Funny)

    by abe ferlman ( 205607 ) <bgtrio@ya[ ].com ['hoo' in gap]> on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:07PM (#8393989) Homepage Journal
    I recall that the big selling point of slashdot subscriptions was that you got to see articles before they were posted to the public.

    Looks like I got the same deal with my Wired subscription!

  • Ding, ding ! - goes off bullshit detector (Score:4, Insightful)

    by frumin ( 696489 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:10PM (#8394006) Homepage Journal
    Please enlighten me, what's so different between an iPod and Discman, MD player or a shitty RCA mp3 player from RadioShak ? We get all those articles about how iPod changes social relationships and such. Take the article about some people plugging their headphones into other people's iPods. What is so different about iPod that it deserves that much attention and an article ? I am sure many people did that before iPod, in the era of MD player and Discman. Now this article. What is the point here ? That iPod is somehow special and turns people into musicheads ? How is that different than me listening to $10 AM/FM radio on the bus ? Bullshit I say.

    • Re:Ding, ding ! - goes off bullshit detector (Score:5, Insightful)

      by eyegor ( 148503 ) * on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:20PM (#8394057)
      CD or Flash-based MP3 Player:
      Because I can carry about 2500 songs that *I* like on a very nicely designed device.

      FM:
      Because I don't have to listen to idiotic DJ's or pay lots of bucks every month for Pay Radio.

    • Well as for the one article you mentioned, people didn't do that often and certainly not with strangers before the iPod. Status symbol or not, the iPod creates a sense of comunity because it's easily recognizeable. You have instant common ground with a stranger now. I think that's what it's about. We see people all day long with headphones pluged in, but 90% of the time, you couldn't identify what device they were using or who made it. The iPod is very recognizeable and I think that changes something.

      Call

  • It can turn itself off! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Riktov ( 632 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:13PM (#8394015) Journal

    Bull: Right. In terms of usage, Apple got it intuitively right. People use (the iPod) as an alarm clock, and when they listen to it at night, they like the fact it can turn itself off...

    My God, those Apple engineers are geniuses!

    Let's see, I don't have an iPod, but my portable MD player can turn itself off. My $30 cassette player can turn itself off. The Sony radio-cassette player we had in our house thirty years ago could turn itself off.

    In fact, that old Sony could even turn the radio off. With a tape playing, you could turn the radio on (which would override the sound from the tape), and when it got to the end of the tape, both the tape and the radio would shut off.

  • Casual use by casual music fans (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 7759-60784-1-E ( 706154 ) <deaconblues@i[ ]x.lv ['nbo' in gap]> on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:15PM (#8394024)
    For example, a lot of people use it to go to work, for commuting. I found that they use the same music on a regular basis. They will often play the same half-dozen tunes for three months

    I find this completely inane. Why would people buy such an expensive device if they're only going to listen to the same 6 songs over the course of 3 months? Maybe it's a little more confusing as a musician and serious music listener. Personally I have a 40gb mp3 player, over 30 of those gigs taken up. I would go insane if my options were limited even in the slightest.

    • Re:Casual use by casual music fans (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Selecter ( 677480 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:27PM (#8394094)
      Theres a lot more people out there like that than you think. They really arent listening to the the music, it's just background noise to them, like white noise only better.

      I cant stand the country music stations of today for the same reason. They play a 20 song playlist over and over for sometimes 4 or 5 years. Only if a song breaks big or the star is big enough to have a payola racket going do they break that list.

      I'm like you - when I listen to music, I do it all the way.

    • Re:Casual use by casual music fans (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Dixie_Flatline ( 5077 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <hog.naj.tnecniv>> on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:43PM (#8394192) Homepage
      The most use that my iPod gets is playing a 48 minute playlist that I use for cycling. It's the same songs every time. There's a 45 second track at the beginning to give me time to get up on my bike, a 1 minute song near the end by NoFX to keep my RPMs high in my final sprint, and the song 'Sci-Fi Wasabi' by Cibbo Matto at the end for me to cool down with. I ride 3 - 5 times a week. It's important for me to listen to the same music every time.

      That said, whenever I'm not cycling, I've got my playlist on random (actually, I've got a playlist of my least played songs rated 3 - 5 that's on random). I've got an iTrip, so I listen to it on the weekends when I drive around doing errands.

      But anyway, there's lots of reasons to listen to a limited playlist.

  • social impact of personal devices in general... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bsDaemon ( 87307 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:22PM (#8394065)
    it's not so often i come across people singing in the pubs anymore. old fellows, sure, but it's not so wide spread. Playing instruments, reading, even real conversations are being sweapt aside for game boy, iPod, and mobile phones.
    It used to be only doctors had pagers and cellphones. now every schmuck in the world has them and they use them all the time with total disregard for those around them.
    screw reading the newspaper on my morning metro ride! I'm going to lsiten to my iPod and chat on AIM via my mobile phone!!
    and people wonder why the younger generation gets stupider and stupider. It may have a lot to do with hippie pot smoking parents, but i think the widespread use of mind numbing electionic devices is more responsible.
    they do make excellent substitutes for actually raising your kids though.

    • Re:social impact of personal devices in general... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cfuse ( 657523 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @12:16AM (#8394329)
      ... people wonder why the younger generation gets stupider and stupider.

      Now you finally know how your parents felt.

    • people wonder why the younger generation gets stupider and stupider.

      I dunno. "Dumber" is a tough thing to measure.

      Different skill and knowledge set, certainly.

      I can't work a slide rule or calculate a square root by hand. I can't repair much more than very simple problems with a car. In my parents' day, this wasn't the case. On the other hand, in my parents' day, people were griping about a tenancy to ignore authority, and (a bit later) drug use. In my *grandparents' day*, I suspect that people were

  • not quite on target (Score:5, Interesting)

    by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2004 @11:37PM (#8394159)
    He mentions that he found that people want to control their space, and not share the 'personal' music on their iPod, yet he has yet to identify the new aspect of personal music sharing known as 'iPod mugging', where you share your headphones with strangers and they share theirs with you.

    This allows you an insight snippet into the strangers persona, and perhaps a serendipitous introduction to music you may otherwise never give a listen.

    I hope his research isn't a hardwired fallback on his first such venture with the original WalkMan. Times and man change... If he simply changes the element of study, without being ready to change the methodology, he's ripe to miss the mark.

  • 2M ipods/ 6G people = social imact? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NotQuiteReal ( 608241 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @12:04AM (#8394279) Journal
    Where is the treshhold of product penetration before you have "social impact"? 0.03% of the world have an iPod [fewer if you take into account busted and non-working units]

    I don't know anyone who even has an iPod, but I know lots of people who have portable cd players, for instance - many of which can play mp3 discs. I did see an iPod in CompUSA, once.

    I submit that the iPod hasn't had any meaningful social effect, but that digital music, in general, has had quite a bit of impact in popularizing [to joe shmo] the notion of intangible intellectual property.

  • social impact of people discussing social impacts (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 26, 2004 @12:39AM (#8394447)
    I am currently doing a study of the impact on society of people constantly discussing things that impact society.

    I don't mean to boast but I believe that I am one of only two researchers in this field. The other refuses to publish fearing that it may start more discussion of societal impact since the result of such discussions is mostly negative, at least according to his latest findings.


    After three years of detailed questionaires and the use of various statistical models I have found that most people that discuss impacts of things on society fall into 4 categories.


    Those that think the impact is negative, those that think the impact is positive, those that really don't think there was and impact at all, and finally by far the largest group is those that don't even know what you are talking about.


    I have yet to find find any exceptions to this rule. Take any set of data points, the comments posted to this article for instance, and you will quickly see that each comment easily falls into one of the 4 categories.

    Would anyone like to discuss the impact this research might have on their decision to make future posts to /. ?

    http://www.palmone.com [palmone.com]

  • what a curious major (Score:3, Interesting)

    by OhGr ( 755852 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @12:42AM (#8394474) Homepage Journal
    UK university professor Dr. Michael Bull, apparently the 'world's leading expert on the social impact of personal stereo devices' I also wonder about Professor iPod's credentials, like where he got them, and how he got them. Is there a lot of reading on this subject? That's like saying "I'm a hippo psychologist"

  • I pod "naps" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by huxrules ( 649822 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @01:24AM (#8394691)
    The biggest thing that has affected me with the ipod is to take "ipod naps" while say in line or waiting. I don't want to listen to it all the time for saftey reasons. For instance once or twice I became so lost in thought then when I finally snapped too I was suprised that I missed an important announcement, bus, subway, or approaching car. But say I'm waiting for a plane and I know that I'm not going to miss anything for the next 10 min or so. And say I'm hungover. Then the situation calls for "God send death" by slayer. A quick 5 min "ipod nap". Then say I'm waiting for lunch break to finish (or waiting for lunch break to begin) then I might listen to another song. Whatever fits my mood at the second. I think the article misses the fact that your have 2500 songs or so at your disposal. And at any second - if nothing is going on- you can select the song that most matches your mood.

  • Stupid media hype... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by iamhassi ( 659463 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @01:41AM (#8394773) Journal
    Screw my karma: someone please explain why the iPod is so revolutionary? We have a device that holds thousands of mp3s.... and? Any other reason why there's a iPod story on slashdot at least 3 times a week [slashdot.org]? Sony's MD players held hundreds of songs for years, but they almost never appeared in the news. And now they're claiming there's a "social impact" from iPods? Please.

    Ok so I don't own a iPod, I own a competeing product that's similar in size and capacity, and I only use it about an hour a day whenever I'm exercising. It's not attached to my head 24/7, and I don't understand how a simple mp3 player can have any impact on society. Cellphone sure, but mp3 player?

    • Re:Stupid media hype... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 0x0d0a ( 568518 )
      Screw my karma: someone please explain why the iPod is so revolutionary? We have a device that holds thousands of mp3s.... and? Any other reason why there's a iPod story on slashdot at least 3 times a week? Sony's MD players held hundreds of songs for years, but they almost never appeared in the news. And now they're claiming there's a "social impact" from iPods? Please.

      Two easy steps:

      * People like Apple, or at least want Microsoft to have competition. Macs were big in journalism and publishing for a lo

  • Yo professah... (Score:3, Funny)

    by ajlitt ( 19055 ) on Thursday February 26, 2004 @02:46AM (#8395029)
    If the iPod is the treasure chest for the online music pirate's treasure, then does that mean this guy is actually Professor Booty [beastieboys.com]?

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