Media, biases, environments.

MEDIA ECOLOGY ASSOCIATION CONVENTION

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

JUNE 22-26, 2005

From June 22-26, 2005, scholars from around the globe gathered at Ford-ham University in New York City for the Media Ecology Association's sixth annual convention with the theme of "The Biases of Media." The expression "Media Ecology" is the term Neil Postman used in 1970 to designate the then newly formed PhD program at New York University. This program began to study media and communication technologies from a broad-based, multidisciplinary, and socio-historical perspective. Seven years ago, the Media Ecology Association (MEA) was founded to bring together the New York, Toronto, and St. Louis schools, along with others who shared an interest in the media ecology intellectual tradition.

This year's convention--larger than ever, including the addition of an extra day of workshops and lectures--was a high-power event of scholarly presentations, engaging discussions, and artistic productions. Convention participants met and interacted with scholars, artists, and activists from the fields of anthropology, graphic arts, philosophy, physics, theology, sociology, media, and communications. They also attended a wide range of events spanning political, theological, economic, philosophical, scientific, and artistic dimensions. Featured presentations focused on the works of Walter J. Ong, Harold A. Innis, Postman, and of course, Marshall McLuhan. Among the featured speakers were noted scholars such as James Carey, Frank E. X. Dance, Paul Levinson, Eric McLuhan, Paul Soukup, and Sarah van den Berg.

Smaller break-out sessions addressed a wide range of media ecology interests: the dimensions of faith and the sacred in communication, the study of visual communication, the relations between communication and culture, ancient and modern rhetoric, the relevance of general semantics, digital technologies, and the implications of new and emerging media. There were also more directed workshops including one on mime and McLuhan by Wayne Constantineau, a workshop on general semantics-based media literacy given by Gregg Hoffmann, and a media ethnography workshop by John Carey. Mary Ann Allison, this year's winner of the Harold A. Innis Award for Outstanding Thesis or Dissertation in the Field, offered a workshop on virtual community, Mark Dery led another on the sexual grotesque online, and Paul Guzzardo from the MediaARTS Alliance presented on art and surveillance. Patricia Keeler helped to demonstrate the labyrinth as sacred space. The convention was bookended by sessions on media authorship and creativity featuring such writers and video artists as Marleen Barr, Leslie Carroll, Michael Joyce, Andrew Postman, Meir Z. Ribalow, Douglas Rushkoff, Katie Salen, David Shenk, and Marina Zurkow. The conference also featured a few performative events, including a screening of this year's winner of the John Culkin award, a video documentary entitled A Conversation with Neil Postman (2003), and a wonderfully amusing live musical performance entitled "Media Ecology Unplugged" by Bill Bly and John McDaid. On Saturday evening, attendees were treated to a rare recording of McLuhan speaking at the 1965 Buffalo (New York) Spring Festival of the Arts.

One of the featured scholars was anthropologist Edmund Carpenter. Not only was a session devoted to his scholarly contributions and intellectual legacy, including presentations by three generations of his students, but one of the most memorable moments of the convention was the final night's feature presentation by Carpenter himself. The audience was transfixed as he gave a lecture titled "Marshall." With eloquence and genteel expression, Carpenter shared his personal memories of McLuhan. Another session of note explored the notions of info-tainment and the meaning of democracy in the United States, including first an address by Michael Delli Carpini and Bruce Williams regarding their forthcoming book, tentatively titled And The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Eroding Boundaries Between News and Entertainment, and second a thoughtful and articulate review and response by Clifford G. Christians.

Of the many strengths of the MEA and its annual convention, one that stands out is its recognition of scholarly achievement, media activism, and public intellectual activity. Also, because it is a thoroughly multidisciplinary group, the convention has been well served by the establishment of a pantheon of recognized media ecologists (Walter Benjamin, Jacques Ellul, Erving Goffman, Innis, Suzanne K. Langer, Dorothy Lee, Marhall McLuhan, Lewis Mumford, Ong, and Neil Postman). This has greatly facilitated an ongoing dialogue regarding contemporary media ecology issues such as the meaning of literacy, the role of comparative media studies, and the possibilities of postmodern democracy. Unlike many academic conferences where specialists remain seemingly hermetically sealed in their area of expertise, the MEA convention was refreshingly broad-based, interactive, and synergistic. The sessions themselves were well attended, engaging, and intimate. Scholars, artists, and media activists would be well advised to consider attending the next annual MEA convention scheduled for June 8-11, 2006 at Boston College, Massachusetts.

COREY ANTON is an associate professor of communication studies at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, and is the author of Selfhood and Authenticity (2001).

info

For more information or to submit papers to the Seventh Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association see www.media-ecology.org/.