Ch 5-6

In fifth chapter, the visual technologies, image reproduction and the copy, the author discussed the relationship between visual technologies and image reproduction and how the relationship affects our life and social meaning. The development of visual technologies such as photography, cinema, television, and digital image techniques influenced the image reproduction. The reproduction of images affects society including the impacts on the way we see the world, and the way we use the image. The meaning and value of image will be produced instead of generated when technology, “invisible editing, manipulation”, comes into play. Sturken & Cartwright declared that “it has always been possible to fake realism in photographs”. The digital technology may change our belief that “seeing is believing”. A question come to mind is that if realism could be fake, what the value of real is. Sturken & Cartwright also discussed the relationships between value, original, and reproduction and asserted that “the easy reproducibility of the unique work of fine art in photographic era has altered the way value is assigned in the art market, but not to the degree we might have anticipated”. They also stated that despite the availability of reproduction, the value of original work still hold in art market. For instance, the reproductions of Mona Lisa’s paintings facilitate the enhancement of the value in the art market and became famous around the world. In addition, Sturken & Cartwright described that because of the reproduction of images, the issue of copyright, ownership and intellectual property have been raised. However, there is not clear distinction between the ownership and copyright and the unclear boundaries create a lot of controversial issues. The question about the nature of creativity and reproducibility is still blurred. I was thinking that if a painting imitates only some portions of Mona Lisa’s painting, will it be see a creative or plagiarism and if the copyright prohibit the reproduction of Mona Lisa’s painting, will the painting become so widespread?

In chapter six, media in everyday life, Sturken & Cartwright discussed how the mass media such as TV, radio, web media affect our everyday life and society. Some people believed that because of the rise of mass media, people lose the sense of community and interpersonal life while others argued that mass media provide more opportunity to connect with community and gain more information about local regions. I think that mass media provide privacy sphere for family and the information access to local issue connect to their communities. Moreover, Sturken & Cartwright also described the relationship between media and public sphere. Through broadcast media such as call in talk show, webcast forums, people participated in the discussion of public issue to create a public sphere that could produce social change. In addition, mass media could affect viewer as a part of national audience thinking to foster the sense of national identify. Furthermore, Sturken & Cartwright also talked about the emergence of webcast media. Without going out, people can access local, national, global information to increase the individual experience of the world simultaneously through webcast media. The experiences of global media help us to connect to geographically distant community and people. In tourism, there are a lot of researches going on how the webcast media influence traveler behavior. For instance, the webcast media like travel blog provide information for tourist to interact with others that influences on their travel decision and travel blog also can record what happen in their journey instantly to share with family or friends. For marketing point of view, I am wondering how business applies the power of web media to marketing their products and services.