Sociological and Technological Interdependencies of New Media

Abstract

Somehow I got assigned to create a faculty bulletin board, with photos of each faculty member along with answers to several questions students had asked. Someone started on it about two years before, but there were photos and quotes from only about a third of the faculty. This seemed unnecessarily tacky–just who were the rest of the faculty, and why weren’t they included? So, the Chair of the department, wisely realizing no one but me really cared, told the faculty during one meeting that I was now in charge of completing the board, and I had authority to harass them for photos and a short interview. That was actually fun, as I got to spend some time with old and new faculty, learned how to use my new little digital camera and transfer the photo files to a CD, and get them printed through online ordering–learning about and using digital media. After I finished the faculty bulletin board (using all my high-level skills of formatting, using colored paper, and stapling, but also reducing a bit the potential of my doing further harm to the discipline or my university through writing or analysis), two faculty asked if I could use a different photo, meaning I needed to get just two new photos printed. Certainly not worth using the online service again, with transaction costs geared toward 36 photos, wait time, and a long trip to the pic place. So I decided to use one of the self-serve kiosks in a nearby drugstore–always on a mission to force myself to learn about new media technology. Well, there were several warning signs right there: a simple task, intended to help others, motivated by the potential for learning, communicating with service personnel, and using new media technology. After cropping and adjusting the photos using the standard Microsoft Picture Manager (nothing fancy for me!) I copied the two photos onto my USB flash memory (sort of like my own memory–not fast, but it disappears in a flash) drive. I went to the pharmacy, and, as it was early in the day, all the kiosks were free and the person behind the photo counter had only one customer. I sat down by the one for self-service, individual prints–not the large-volume kiosks that sent the orders to the photo processing department for later pickup.