TELE 3010 1nd Edition Lecture 17 Outline of Last Lecture I Ideology II Ideological Analysis of Media Outline of Current Lecture I Play II Performance Current Lecture Play and Performance Silverstone 7 8 PLAY Play is counterpoised to enlightenment discourse of sober rationality So much of society is governed by this conception that through rational thinking society can be advanced Play is frivolous and it s imaginative it s not in the same realm It can be rational like chess The enlightenment prioritized humanistic thinking This is about human as governed by laws Human beings are capable of arriving at these truths of the laws This is rational Play as a core activity of daily life Play as central to media engagement When we engage in play we cross a threshold we leave one kind of order and rationality defined by its own rules and terms of trade and action We participate within a shared structured space distinct from ordinary life It is unproductive whats the goal of play It s governed by rules that suspend ordinary laws Involves make believe Freedom Childhood Play this is where reality is tested There s a symbolic world of meanings and securities that come from these meanings within this play there are symbols like saying arghhh if you re a pirate and wearing a patch etc It s a place we can explore the boundary between self and other when playing We have a license to explore and create These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Play May Involve Competitiveness Chance a guy fumbling a ball ex Surrender one gives in to the mystery can t control circumstances Mimicry like pretending you re a pirate Play can also surface as political candidates competing with one another within media demonstrates a type of play Media Play Examples Television talk shows game shows soap opera reality shows they re supposed to be realistic but not so much Internet Video Games Crossword Puzzles Comics Popular Culture Pop culture is always about play Assumptions of regulation by state religion and community within reality Class example is Elvis Presley Elvis became a moment of public play and display Groups and individuals can suspend the regularities of daily life Engage in pleasure Play with categories The reality during the 50s is structured by race fear from the Cold War Christianity and assumptions that people are all about family and church Elvis was shaking his hips in sexual ways people didn t want to show that of him because of the sexual connotations This new form of rock and roll challenged society Pop culture has always done that it has always challenged our society through play Play as Re enchantment The grind of daily life is very redundant and media gives us the ability to be drawn in and be rechanted with our lives Enlightenment rationality s emphasis on reality work seriousness education progress These are the moments when you hear a song or certain music and you feel inspired and encouraged PERFORMANCE Reality is brought into being through performance Normality Ordinary Security Identity Erving Goffman Theres front stage and the back stage The front stage is The face you put on for the world It s how you demonstrate to the public sphere who you are and what you believe in It s for show How you impress others Define and maintain our sense of selves The back stage is everything else It s when the front stage is turned off Modernity and Performance We perform a range of identities for different audiences in gender and race for example Gender is a performed role not sex Performance and News Journalism has always been about storytelling In performativity theory there are 2 speech acts constative speech journalists see reality as constituted by utterances that describe report find and discover performative speech words can be actions in themselves They bring into being that which is spoken