Vistopia
Cover of Living in Media: 100 Lectures on Communication
Living in Media: 100 Lectures on Communication
Media, capital, and politics: who is competing for our attention?
Completed · 122 episodes
Buy for ¥198.00
Audio in Chinese
1. What Is a Medium? What Can We See from the Intermediary's Viewpoint? 2. Do We Live in The Truman Show? Communication Studies Decodes It 3. The Body: Source of the Explosion in Media Technology 4. From Print to Telegraph and Internet: Has Power Centralized or Dispersed? Three Stages of Media Special | The Silent Second Uncle: Why Did Opinion Reverse after the Video Left Bilibili? 5. Technological Monopoly: Are Media Making Decisions for Us? | Plato, Heidegger, Winner, and Postman 6. Media as Extension: Does Digital Media Numb the Nerves? | McLuhan, Innis, and Hall Special | Why Do Media Spread ‘Negative Energy’? On Hainan Daily versus The Paper 7. Would You Live as Code in the Future? Why Media Generalism Matters Today 8. The Medium Is the Message: Who Created the Rule of Traffic above All? 9. Why Does Anything Stop Being Cool Once It Goes Mainstream? Hot and Cool Media 10. What Did Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death Oppose? Television and Technological Totalitarianism 11. If You Cannot Stop Scrolling, Are You Being Controlled? The Internet's Art of Brain Repair 12. Why Do Celebrities Fall from Grace So Often? Life as Performance and Role Expectations 13. When Did We Sow Our Datafied Fate? A Media Archaeology of the Typewriter Bonus | Floppy Disks, CDs, and Video Stores: Remembering Dead Media 14. Why Are Young People So Hard to Mobilize? Debray's Mediology and Social Revolution 15. When the Environment Fails, Does Human Existence Change? Elements, Logistics, and Infrastructure 16. Why Do Some Countries Need a Firewall to Go Online? Social Determinism and Internet History Special | Will Success Finally Come? Sheep a Sheep, Gambler Mentality, and the Playbour Trap 17. Why Do Platforms Push Memberships and Politicians Perform? Mediatization through Popular Music Special: When Media Fail Collectively, When Will the Next Turning Point Come? | Liu Hailong × Liang Wendao 18. Domesticating and Being Domesticated: Vinyl, LOMO Cameras, and Headphones Return 19. How Did ‘The Nearby’ Disappear? Media's Compression and Representation of Place 20. Must Relationships with Robots End Like Her? Media Equation and Human–Computer Interaction 21. Why Does Chinese Communication Stress Unity? Water Metaphors and the Origins of Communication 22. Is Communication Transmission? Deadlock While Waiting for Godot 23. If Interpretation Is Open, Can Humans Finally Communicate? Dissemination and the Limits of Dialogue 24. Fear of Control and Cybernetic Rebellion: How Does Information Address a Crisis of Social Control? 25. Parody Videos and Fansubs: Why Do Internet Idlers Do Pointless Things? Communication as Play Special | ‘This’ Person or ‘Such’ a Person? Collective Memory Assimilated by Rumor 26. Who Says ‘Women Drivers’ Cannot Drive? Submission under Communication Hegemony 27. What Are We Watching in a Li Jiaqi Livestream? Communication and Identity Formation 28. Why Is Viral Spread Hard to Control? Relations and Connections in a Posthuman Age 29. Why Did Pantheon's Rebuilt Minds Fail? Networked Bodies and Embodied Networks 30. What If Humans Looked like Octopuses? The Body, Culture, and Struggles for Power 31. Am I the Clown? Self-Communication and Social Interaction 32. Why Do Social Encounters Drain You? Overattribution in Interpersonal Communication 33. Must You Type ‘Hahaha’ to Sound Happy? Internet Filler and Inflation in Nonverbal Signs Special | What Media Literacy Does Life under Algorithms Require? 34. Escaping Circular, Failed Communication: Coordinating Meaning and Managing Consensus 35. How Can You Avoid Romance Scams? Uncertainty and Relationship Research 36. Why Is Social Media So Full of Positivity? Impression Management and Role Performance 37. You Earn Your Face, but Others Give You Prestige? A Guide to Chinese Face Work Special | 2022 in Review: Surviving like a Virus 38. Repaying Favors: Moral Blackmail or Gratitude? Relational Value and Social Exchange 39. Why Do Secrets Bring Us Closer? Penetration and Exchange in Intimacy 40. Are Conflicts between People Irreconcilable? A Dialectic of Relationships 41. Can Online Romance Work? Hyperpersonal Communication, Context Cues, and Media Adaptation 42. Can Lost Reason Spread Person to Person? Crowds and Group Convergence 43. Why Does the Public Lack Conditions for Effective Thought? Two Le Bonian Views of the Masses 44. Rumormonger or Whistleblower? Rumor, Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fake News 45. Why Can't Deleting Posts Stop Rumors? Their Formula, Function, and Remedies 46. Could a Rumor of Sexual Scandal Vent Psychological Desire? Rumor and Collective Memory 47. Why Are Today's Social Movements Hard to Control? New Media and Organization without Organizations 48. In Job Hunting, Are Weak Ties Better than Friends? Social Networks and Small Worlds Special | Whose Immortality Is Digital Immortality in The Wandering Earth 2? Special | When Humans Become AI's Sensors, Will Chinese-Language Data Face Discrimination after ChatGPT? 49. Secrets of Influence: Persuasion, Manipulation, Imitation, Contagion, and Opinion Leaders 50. How Is Popularity Manufactured? Innovation Diffusion behind ChatGPT 51. How Is a Foolish Decision Made? Groupthink in Collective Decisions 52. From Model Employees to Gen-Z Workplace Reform: How Has the Definition of a Good Company Changed? 53. How to Hold a Good Meeting: Organizational Information Theory and Ambiguity 54. Why Did Musk's Twitter Reform Fail? Cultural Conflict through Organizational Culture 55. Are You Being Manipulated at Work? Critical Theory and Ideological Control in Organizations 56. Is Persuasion Mere Sweet Talk? Methods and Ethics of Public Expression 57. Everyone Tells Stories—Whose Is Credible? Narrative Paradigm and Fantasy Themes 58. Can Men and Women Really Not Communicate? Culture, Difference, and Intercultural Communication 59. Why Are We So Easily Offended? Three Ways to Analyze Hidden Cultural Values 60. Should Women's Expression Be Emphasized? Muted Group and Standpoint Theories 61. Different People, Different Speech? Convergence and Divergence in Cultural Adaptation 62. Behind the ‘Slanted Eyes’ Controversy: Is It the East Gazing at Itself? Orientalism 63. Will AI Accelerate Customized Information Monopolies? Propaganda and Thought Control 64. Why Be Wary of Propaganda? Brainwashing, Bullshit, and Machine-Driven Opinion 65. Persuasion Research: How Do We Recognize Persuasion, and What Works Best? 66. Are Less Intelligent People Easier to Fool? Fear Appeals, Cognitive Dissonance, and Self-Perception 67. Do Mass Media Still Matter? From Limited Effects to Institutional Penetration 68. What's Wrong with Algorithmic Recommendations? Filter Bubbles and Group Polarization 69. Do Mass Media Entrench Class? Knowledge Gaps and Social Inequality 70. Does Online Expression Make Rights Campaigns Succeed? Digital Divides and Inequality 71. Who Competes for Our Attention? Headlines, Trends, and Agenda Setting 72. How Do You Identify ‘Facts’ While Following Online Drama? Framing in a Post-Truth Age 73. Why Do Brands Hire Celebrity Endorsers? Priming in Mass Communication 74. What Happens after Long Exposure to Violent Video? Cultivation Analysis 75. Why Do Stereotypes Sink So Deep? Schemas and Fast Thinking 76. Will You Speak When You Disagree with the Majority? The Spiral of Silence 77. Everyone Has a Microphone—Why Is Genuine Public Opinion Harder to See? 78. Why Are Leaders' Statements So Often Absurd? The Third-Person Effect 79. Endless Scrolling and Gaming Addiction: Should They Be Treated as Illness? Uses and Gratifications Special | Is Film a Dream? The Fabelmans and Three Stages of Media Evolution Listener Q&A I | How Should We Face Online Abuse? Interpreting a Metro Controversy through Communication 80. Why Wear a Wedding Dress to an Idol's Concert? Parasocial Interaction and Relationships Special | Is Journalism Worth Studying? Finding Answers in Love amid Inescapable Change 81. Galas, Parades, and Disasters: When Did You Last Watch Live Television? Media Events Listener Q&A II | Can Communication Studies Build an Innovative Social Theory? 82. Official Media or Self-Media—which Is More Credible? Gatekeeping and News Acquisition Quietly Going Wild Online under the Name ‘momo’ | Vistopia Roundtable Special 83. Should Reporters Pursue Justice or Objectivity? Journalism and Boundary Work From Grand Principles to Small Stories: Can Compassion Be Overworked? | Problem Youth Special 84. Is Press Freedom Universally Just? Media Systems across Countries 85. Catching the ‘Big Fish’ with a News Net Full of Holes? How Media Routines Construct Reality 86. Rule by Algorithm: A Foucauldian Panopticon? Traffic, Recommendations, and Algorithm Games 87. When Manufactured Images Exceed Reality, Are They Real? Pseudo-Events, Spectacle, and Hyperreality Degrees Are Losing Value—So Must I Earn a PhD? | Vistopia Roundtable Special 88. Why Do Performers, Short Videos, and Attractions Become Alike? Culture Industry and Instrumental Reason 89. Copy versus Original: Benjamin on Mechanical Reproduction and the Democratization of Art Lying for the Nation: Presidential Lies | When Presidents Lie Book Event 90. Can We Still Speak Well and Understand One Another? Habermas and Rational Communication 91. Why Are Our Desires Never Satisfied? Rat-Race Competition and Burnout in an Accelerating Society Living amid Illusions, What Can We Believe? Fang Kecheng × Liu Hailong Book Event 92. Are Our Likes, Selfies, and Games Unpaid Labor for Internet Companies? Commodifying Communication 93. Is Our Work Just Tightening Screws on an Assembly Line? Mediatized and Emotional Labor 94. Why Did the ‘Sharing Economy’ Become a Trap? Platform and Surveillance Capitalism 95. What Do ‘I Miss You in X’ Signs Share with Hollywood? Cultural Imperialism and Homogenization 96. How Does Ideology Influence the Public through Media? Encoding and Decoding 97. Who Teaches Us That Pay Equals Effort? False Consciousness and Articulation Theory 98. Must Rock and Hip-Hop Promote Positivity? Youth Subculture and Moral Panic 99. Has Boys' Love Fan Fiction Broken Male Hegemony? Two Sides of Fan Studies 100. How Can We Live More Freely? Difference and Identity Constructed by Power 101. Conclusion: May You Live Clearly in a Reality Full of Manipulation Special | TikTok ‘Refugees’ Flood Xiaohongshu: A Short-Lived Internet Utopia? Is the Disappearance of Reading Really Bad? AI and the Future of Writing | World Book Day Special