畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)外文資料翻譯-4.3日常生活的科技形態(tài)

1、畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)外文資料翻譯學(xué) 院： 專業(yè)班級(jí)： 學(xué)生姓名： 學(xué) 號(hào)： 指導(dǎo)教師： 外文出處：(外文）New Media: a critical introduction Second Edition （254-260） 附 件：1.外文資料翻譯譯文； 2.外文原文 指導(dǎo)教師評(píng)語(yǔ)：沈沖同學(xué)的翻譯與畢業(yè)論文的內(nèi)容相關(guān)，并且語(yǔ)句通順，和英文原文基本達(dá)意，大約翻譯了七千字，翻譯工作量適當(dāng)。同意通過(guò)。簽名： 年 月 日1外文資料翻譯譯文4.3日常生活的科技形態(tài)正如我們所看到的，日常生活與消費(fèi)的焦點(diǎn)，尤其是來(lái)自文化媒體研究會(huì)的假設(shè)和方法，往往不利于流行新媒體研究中的科技機(jī)構(gòu)的構(gòu)想。這方面的研究是基于顯式或隱式的

2、科技論題的社會(huì)形態(tài)（SST）,首先特別是，技術(shù)設(shè)備和系統(tǒng)的生產(chǎn)、消費(fèi)它們競(jìng)賽性質(zhì)的前景。其次是，對(duì)于科技、技術(shù)系統(tǒng)能夠影響或改變?nèi)祟愂澜绲倪@個(gè)概念的明確阻力。比如說(shuō)，Roger Silverstone在電視上的一本書中寫到，我們必須“給予社會(huì)特權(quán)”，他的意思是一般的人類機(jī)構(gòu)：在歷史、經(jīng)濟(jì)、文化和政治上的表現(xiàn)：“真的必須這樣做，因?yàn)樽匀皇侄?、?jīng)濟(jì)手段和科技手段有頑固延展性，除了通過(guò)社會(huì)手段，其他沒(méi)有任何作用”(Silverstone 1994: 85)。在更詳細(xì)地描述這些狀態(tài)前，我們將會(huì)探討社會(huì)構(gòu)建的方法和它在計(jì)算日常新媒體技術(shù)的形態(tài)和用途時(shí)的效用。因此，從“技術(shù)的社會(huì)形態(tài)”的角度來(lái)看，不僅是包

3、括任何新黑色XBox設(shè)備的特定技術(shù)特征的選擇決定了它的商業(yè)成功、它象征性的地位，被William Boddy稱為“有用幻想”的東西，也至關(guān)重要：案例4.2：黑色XBox與視頻游戲的社會(huì)形成 最近，游戲機(jī)和DVD的黑盒技術(shù)已經(jīng)對(duì)國(guó)內(nèi)電視媒體這樣的新形式形成了強(qiáng)大沖擊。也許索尼從其在80年代時(shí)，Betamax視頻格式與JVC的VHS之間競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的失敗中學(xué)習(xí)到，要利用它最新的操縱器-Playstation 3來(lái)幫助自己建立優(yōu)勢(shì)，2008年初，它的高清DVD、藍(lán)光格式已經(jīng)超越東芝圖4.7 微軟的禮貌XBox 第一代XBox游戲機(jī)的出現(xiàn)是媒體設(shè)備社會(huì)形成的一個(gè)實(shí)例。微軟游戲機(jī)最初的成功不僅取決于其營(yíng)銷策略的

4、細(xì)微差別，也同樣離不開(kāi)游戲機(jī)的技術(shù)規(guī)格和游戲的質(zhì)量。從索尼90年代游戲站營(yíng)銷策略的巨大成功上，微軟了解到不得不改變它（以及它的創(chuàng)始人比爾蓋茨）保守的形象。因此，游戲機(jī)的設(shè)計(jì)是十分重要的，并且需要模仿高保真組件：“真正深入設(shè)計(jì)中的人們說(shuō)，他們不期許微軟中有炫酷時(shí)髦的東西，認(rèn)為微軟能捕獲游戲帶來(lái)的熱情興奮?！?邊緣 2001: 71)在采訪過(guò)5000名玩家、拜訪過(guò)130名玩家的家來(lái)研究XBox的設(shè)計(jì)后，他們竭盡全力使它成為桌面電腦的對(duì)照。而不是定位在學(xué)習(xí)工作的米黃色盒子，該游戲機(jī)被升級(jí)為一個(gè)時(shí)髦的機(jī)器，這使得它在客廳里能好看些。 (Flynn 2003: 557)微軟對(duì)“嚴(yán)肅”游戲有過(guò)承諾，在一個(gè)

5、早期為說(shuō)服持懷疑態(tài)度的消費(fèi)者的策略中，并未被允準(zhǔn)XBox作為電影DVD播放器（不同于最近發(fā)布的游戲站2）。因此，生產(chǎn)多動(dòng)能消費(fèi)娛樂(lè)系統(tǒng)的驅(qū)動(dòng)力，一個(gè)潛在的賣點(diǎn)是平衡對(duì)匹配設(shè)備的目標(biāo)受眾的態(tài)度和偏好的象征性地位的需求（微軟后來(lái)改變了這一策略，XBox也允許播放DVD光盤了）。 每個(gè)電子媒體產(chǎn)品的發(fā)布或網(wǎng)絡(luò)推出都會(huì)攜帶它在國(guó)內(nèi)消費(fèi)的隱含幻想場(chǎng)景，它的本體作為一個(gè)媒介，一個(gè)社會(huì)功能的思想理論基礎(chǔ)。 (Boddy 1999)XBox的發(fā)展表明一個(gè)商業(yè)上成功的數(shù)字媒體技術(shù)的創(chuàng)造取決于它社會(huì)形式和象征性地位，也同樣取決于它的技術(shù)能力。這里要提及兩個(gè)更重要的點(diǎn)。一個(gè)是新媒體技術(shù)很少，就是有，也是完全新的。X

6、Box是個(gè)特定現(xiàn)有技術(shù)的組合（電腦硬件、DVD播放器等）正如我們今天理解的電視電影一樣不是“發(fā)明”，而是Raymond Williams說(shuō)的，電視是個(gè)復(fù)雜的發(fā)明新產(chǎn)品，一個(gè)所有階段的綜合產(chǎn)物“部分的實(shí)現(xiàn)依靠其他本來(lái)已提出的結(jié)果產(chǎn)生的發(fā)明” (Williams 1990a: 15)。數(shù)字技術(shù)的絕對(duì)靈活性，數(shù)字化提供的不同媒體形式之間的集合（例如USB的混雜）強(qiáng)調(diào)了媒體技術(shù)發(fā)展的復(fù)雜本質(zhì)。游戲機(jī)也可以作為DVD播放器或者網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲通信的機(jī)器。手機(jī)也能作為游戲機(jī)、文字通信設(shè)備、相機(jī)以及網(wǎng)絡(luò)瀏覽器。制造商和零售商在生產(chǎn)過(guò)程中有個(gè)關(guān)鍵任務(wù)，就是確定他們技術(shù)可能的用途或業(yè)務(wù)以及將這些技術(shù)嵌入到消費(fèi)者的設(shè)備中

7、去。這似乎促成了社會(huì)形成的論題。然而，正如我們將會(huì)在隨后的部分中更詳細(xì)地討論的那樣，雖然圍繞任何媒體設(shè)備模型的發(fā)布的幻想，以及在日常使用中它可能獲得的象征性地位，都塑造了它的科學(xué)和技術(shù)研（見(jiàn)下面4.3.3），暗指如音響和電視機(jī)的消費(fèi)媒體設(shè)備，使用術(shù)語(yǔ)“黑盒子”來(lái)討論這個(gè)在任何特定設(shè)備或系統(tǒng)中構(gòu)件、技術(shù)和功能的曾經(jīng)唯一的臨時(shí)固件。這個(gè)詞也在控制論中被使用，指分析一個(gè)系統(tǒng)或設(shè)備的效果而不是它的內(nèi)部運(yùn)作。STS分析“打開(kāi)黑盒子”的目的并揭示其偶然性和異質(zhì)性，而控制論已經(jīng)使用這個(gè)詞來(lái)指一個(gè)系統(tǒng)其運(yùn)行也已被分析，或者它的運(yùn)作比它的輸入、輸出和影響具有更少的即時(shí)娛樂(lè)性。（維納1961：Xxi）價(jià)值和用途，

8、但它們并不是完全地限定了這些價(jià)值和用途。各種混雜技術(shù)的“黑拳”由當(dāng)下的科技和社會(huì)（經(jīng)濟(jì)、歷史和政治）因素推動(dòng)形成。實(shí)際上，所有視頻游戲控制器都是用被黑過(guò)的電腦作為游戲裝置而不是更“公共”的電腦（詳見(jiàn)下面4.3.2）。特別是XBox是建立在電腦架構(gòu)和微軟操作系統(tǒng)上的，因此也成了黑客進(jìn)攻的目標(biāo)，釋放其他潛在但受限制的用途，從其長(zhǎng)期建立的控制器實(shí)踐“碎片”（嵌入裝置來(lái)繞過(guò)防火墻，允準(zhǔn)復(fù)制的或其他區(qū)域的游戲進(jìn)入）來(lái)用作媒體中心（播放CD、VCD和MP3等），來(lái)解鎖個(gè)人電腦所有功能。我們?cè)谶@里看到的是，在重要方式上不同于已建立消費(fèi)觀念的活動(dòng)或解碼：XBox成形的產(chǎn)品，運(yùn)用（試圖限制）它技術(shù)布置的物質(zhì)本質(zhì)

9、和容量。釋放它的技術(shù)潛能比懷疑它的“價(jià)值”更能闡明它的“消費(fèi)”。4.3.1 “開(kāi)放式”個(gè)人電腦對(duì)于個(gè)人電腦重要性的不同闡述，見(jiàn)3.6用戶是一個(gè)不可靠的生物。相當(dāng)于80年代早期家用電腦的主人會(huì)怎么做一樣，不管參與它們的生產(chǎn)和銷售有多興奮，這也是不清楚的。它們經(jīng)常被當(dāng)做信息技術(shù)來(lái)賣（供急于給孩子準(zhǔn)備“信息革命”的父母購(gòu)買），但卻被當(dāng)做游戲機(jī)器廣泛地銷售（一旦孩子們上手了）。正如Haddon和Skinner的研究表明，“生產(chǎn)商和消費(fèi)者在它被開(kāi)發(fā)推出后不斷地尋找和嘗試構(gòu)建這個(gè)大規(guī)模市場(chǎng)產(chǎn)品的效能”(引用自Haddon 1992: 84)。所以，不管個(gè)人電腦的制造商和零售商“黑盒”意圖，這個(gè)機(jī)器（或者更

10、準(zhǔn)確地說(shuō)，歸為基于電腦的信息、通信和娛樂(lè)技術(shù)）已被廣泛地視為一個(gè)獨(dú)特多功能的“開(kāi)放式設(shè)備”(Mackay 1997: 270271)，在它的應(yīng)用和可能中“像變色龍一樣”變換 (Turkle 1984)。個(gè)人電腦的多功能性和娛樂(lè)性植根在電腦的發(fā)展歷史中了。關(guān)于它用途的多種解釋可以追溯到它的起源，20世紀(jì)50年代末在美圖麻省理工和斯坦福大學(xué)的學(xué)生的黑客文化。這種文化被視為通過(guò)黑客的實(shí)驗(yàn)活動(dòng)和計(jì)算機(jī)代碼信息的自由共享，圍繞數(shù)字信息主機(jī)在大學(xué)在Levy 1994中可以看到，新媒體歷史這個(gè)重要方面的一個(gè)娛樂(lè)敘述。應(yīng)該注意的是，“黑客”這一詞最初并不意味著今天所熟知的有害或惡意的人物。參見(jiàn)4.5.2研究和

11、商業(yè)應(yīng)用中的用途的死板規(guī)矩的斗爭(zhēng)。黑客實(shí)時(shí)交互的信息處理的發(fā)展引領(lǐng)了20世紀(jì)70年代的第一批商場(chǎng)上可購(gòu)買的家用電腦的出現(xiàn)。首先，黑客“自己動(dòng)手做”行為準(zhǔn)則意味著，首批家用電腦用戶需要從配套工具開(kāi)始自己構(gòu)筑機(jī)器，即使家用電腦已經(jīng)是個(gè)成品，有時(shí)他們還是保留了他們業(yè)余愛(ài)好者的形象和市場(chǎng)。在70年代末和80年代初，使用家用電腦的人必須學(xué)習(xí)編程。事實(shí)上，如果家用電腦除了學(xué)習(xí)編程、探究這個(gè)機(jī)器和它的系統(tǒng)以外，沒(méi)有什么其他的作用和娛樂(lè)性，至少最初商業(yè)生產(chǎn)的軟件和服務(wù)不會(huì)被消費(fèi)。更多關(guān)于個(gè)人電腦的游戲前史，見(jiàn)4.5.2這些早期家用電腦的用戶更近乎是早期晶體收音機(jī)的業(yè)余愛(ài)好者，而不是像Ted Nelson的夢(mèng)想

12、一樣的電腦自由活動(dòng)家，支持“自由主義理想的可達(dá)性和振奮”(引用自Mayer 1999: 128)。然而，Leslie Haddon在他對(duì)上世紀(jì)80年代初英國(guó)家用電腦的論文的研究中指出，在客房里擺弄這些新設(shè)備離不開(kāi)一種興奮的感覺(jué)，這種感覺(jué)源自這臺(tái)機(jī)器展現(xiàn)了信息革命的證據(jù)。通過(guò)對(duì)這些神秘機(jī)器的探索，一些用戶感覺(jué)自己參與在一個(gè)變化的現(xiàn)代世界的偉大科技推動(dòng)力中(Haddon 1988b)。正如Klaus Bruhn Jensen所說(shuō)，“個(gè)人電腦.是這個(gè)信息社會(huì)的標(biāo)志和試金石”(Jensen 1999: 192)。上世紀(jì)80年代末，蘋果或IBM兼容式個(gè)人電腦從辦公室到家里的遷移促成了大量家用電腦形式的支

13、配平臺(tái)的建立，這標(biāo)志著業(yè)余愛(ài)好者時(shí)代的結(jié)束。如果說(shuō)家用電腦促進(jìn)了一個(gè)新媒體軟硬件制造商的小產(chǎn)業(yè)，那么個(gè)人電腦則標(biāo)志著這一技術(shù)作為一種大眾媒介的商業(yè)發(fā)展的開(kāi)始。通過(guò)廣告和促銷渠道的個(gè)人電腦市場(chǎng)擴(kuò)大到多義機(jī)器這更復(fù)雜的程度。Jensen在20世紀(jì)80年代的個(gè)人電腦的廣告中看到了一個(gè)矛盾的論述，它論述了通過(guò)社會(huì)革命的技術(shù)和概念的個(gè)人授權(quán)。他指出，蘋果的電視廣告的靈感來(lái)源于George Orwell的一九八四，還有1984年的新聞周刊的特選期上標(biāo)題“人手一電腦”下面的平面廣告。因此，個(gè)人電腦適合個(gè)性化家庭消費(fèi)的現(xiàn)有模式，但Jensen認(rèn)為，在信息革命中關(guān)于個(gè)人電腦的欲望和渴望可能仍然威脅著這消費(fèi)主義的

14、準(zhǔn)則(Jensen 1999)。無(wú)論是作為玩具還是工具，家用電腦都已經(jīng)做到了令人興奮的事，它表明了作為不同于普通電子設(shè)備消費(fèi)者的意圖。它一直被視為我們可以在里面看見(jiàn)或創(chuàng)造人工“微觀世界”的設(shè)備(Sudnow 1983)。在一般層面上，這可能意味著計(jì)算機(jī)的私人訂制：改變桌面“壁紙”、添加獨(dú)特的屏?；蚵曇簟Ｔ诟羁痰膶用嫔?，這啟示著，在處理我們與技術(shù)的關(guān)系時(shí)需要一些根本的轉(zhuǎn)變。尤其是，電腦引起了與人類大腦的比較，還啟發(fā)了流行的人工智能以及不流行但實(shí)際的人造生命應(yīng)用，例如電腦游戲的生物(引用自Kember 2003)。Sherry Turkle在她對(duì)編程文化的研究中講起了這些方面。編程的時(shí)候，計(jì)算機(jī)

15、是一個(gè)“部分自身的投射，思維的寫照”(Turkle 1984: 15)。她引用了一個(gè)學(xué)生的言論：“將一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)你的想法輸入計(jì)算機(jī)，然后你就能看見(jiàn)自己的想法了”(ibid.: 145)。當(dāng)你創(chuàng)建了一個(gè)程序化的世界后，你就在里面工作，在里面試驗(yàn)，在里面生活。事實(shí)是你編程的時(shí)候，計(jì)算機(jī)變化萬(wàn)端的能力就變成了你的工具，使得它成為一個(gè)構(gòu)建各種各樣私人世界的理想媒介，通過(guò)它們自我探索。計(jì)算機(jī)不僅僅是展現(xiàn)個(gè)性的屏幕。它們已經(jīng)成為新一代人成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中的一部分了。 (Turkle 1984: 6)而計(jì)算機(jī)和自我的關(guān)聯(lián)也能夠成為一個(gè)焦慮的問(wèn)題。在 Andrew Ross（1991）上可以看到艾滋病病毒的流行和電腦病毒，

16、在 Turkle (1984:14)上可以看到父母對(duì)于他們孩子和電子玩具的親密關(guān)系的憂慮，或者 Pryor (1991)對(duì)計(jì)算機(jī)和大腦聯(lián)系的分離概念的批判。她認(rèn)為計(jì)算機(jī)技術(shù)給予這代人去體驗(yàn)和操作不僅是信息和圖像，更有用戶的品味、個(gè)性和興趣(Turkle 1984: 15).。藝術(shù)家Sally Pryor稱，這樣的試驗(yàn)給我們提供了一種“把自己想象成計(jì)算機(jī)”的思維方式(Pryor 1991: 585)。由于在上世紀(jì)90年代計(jì)算機(jī)的到來(lái)作為一種流行新媒體的形式，家用計(jì)算機(jī)的發(fā)展被卷入一場(chǎng)媒體技術(shù)市場(chǎng)的紛爭(zhēng)中。萬(wàn)維網(wǎng)的出現(xiàn)和推廣引進(jìn)了一套新的價(jià)值和預(yù)測(cè)，尤其是個(gè)人電腦本身的“死亡”，被網(wǎng)絡(luò)上的無(wú)聲終端

17、替代為更小的（最近）發(fā)行物，如PDA和手機(jī)一樣的移動(dòng)設(shè)備。另外，家用媒體技術(shù)的新集合圍繞個(gè)人電腦和它的功能發(fā)展著；不管是失敗地（數(shù)字電視系統(tǒng)提供的電子郵件和互動(dòng)服務(wù)）還是成功地（例如個(gè)性和新媒體的進(jìn)一步討論，見(jiàn)4.4多人在線的網(wǎng)絡(luò)游戲機(jī)）。然而，發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家寬帶連接的廣泛采用，將家用計(jì)算機(jī)變成了一個(gè)廣泛分享的家用媒體中心，它的使用不再依賴編程，而是在線信息的訪問(wèn)，以及從音樂(lè)到電視節(jié)目、從博客到社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的獲取、分配和共享的媒體文件。無(wú)線技術(shù)不僅使得個(gè)人電腦從臥室中釋放出來(lái)，更成為了筆記本電腦群體在咖啡館或圖書館的無(wú)線網(wǎng)綠洲。4.3.2 寓教于樂(lè)，寓教于樂(lè)，寓教于樂(lè)正如我們所看到的，家用電腦的購(gòu)買和使

18、用以及家里的新媒體，直到最近，往往是廣泛教育的原因。不管是樂(lè)觀的網(wǎng)絡(luò)文化言論，還是更多電腦對(duì)日常生活的影響的謹(jǐn)慎分析同樣都認(rèn)為，數(shù)字技術(shù)不能僅僅被理解為本地的國(guó)內(nèi)的水平，而要通過(guò)個(gè)人的使用以及全球的力量和關(guān)系來(lái)連接的。因此，如果我們用“知識(shí)”來(lái)理解下：在本地水平上，電腦可能能與人類大腦匹敵，但在“全球”水平上，更寬泛意義上的信息或網(wǎng)絡(luò)被用來(lái)解釋當(dāng)前的經(jīng)濟(jì)社會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)型。然而，從20世紀(jì)80年代早期的微型計(jì)算機(jī)到當(dāng)代的個(gè)人電腦和筆記本電腦，已經(jīng)陷入矛盾的利益和正確家庭運(yùn)作的使用和意義的話語(yǔ)中了。這場(chǎng)沖突導(dǎo)火線明顯是介于教育和娛樂(lè)之間：是家用電腦教育機(jī)器（按教育的說(shuō)法是，ICT）還是游戲或玩具？ICT和

19、計(jì)算機(jī)娛樂(lè)媒體之間的分界線或是介于教育軟件和游戲之間盡管不斷被談判和重建但并不是太模糊。澳大利亞parentconsumer雜志上Helen Nixon對(duì)家庭軟件的研究演示了，一個(gè)出版物怎樣依靠幫助家長(zhǎng)區(qū)分教育和娛樂(lè)的承諾，被大規(guī)模地建立起來(lái)。被這些雜志重新評(píng)定的教育軟件的種類代表了一個(gè)調(diào)解兒童計(jì)算運(yùn)作這個(gè)歷史矛盾的商業(yè)策略，這個(gè)策略有時(shí)被稱作“寓教于樂(lè)”，寓教于樂(lè)的使用使得玩具和游戲成為學(xué)習(xí)的一種方式。案例研究4.3：晶體雨林4.8 Sherston軟件有限公司許可轉(zhuǎn)載的來(lái)自晶體雨林2000的圖當(dāng)讀者或玩家點(diǎn)擊熱點(diǎn)和導(dǎo)航標(biāo)志時(shí)一個(gè)動(dòng)態(tài)戲劇就會(huì)在一個(gè)多媒體故事中展現(xiàn)出來(lái)。一個(gè)外國(guó)雨林部落的國(guó)王

20、被一家航空公司的代理人用毒箭射中。當(dāng)國(guó)王在醫(yī)院里的時(shí)候，玩家就指向通過(guò)一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的命令串金字塔引導(dǎo)一個(gè)小機(jī)器人。這游戲通過(guò)圖形學(xué)、動(dòng)畫序列、拼圖和照片的集合來(lái)展現(xiàn)它的秘密和故事。這樣媒介的知識(shí)同樣是不拘一格的-盡管表面上這并不主要是關(guān)于環(huán)境的故事，而人類學(xué)的，生態(tài)學(xué)的元素都含有環(huán)?？苹?幻想。這游戲從兩個(gè)層面上運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)：故事、圖形和拼圖的樂(lè)趣吸引著玩家，設(shè)計(jì)真實(shí)的教學(xué)項(xiàng)目-通過(guò)與機(jī)器人的玩耍玩家能學(xué)習(xí)編程語(yǔ)言。這里面有演說(shuō)的層次：編程的精確用語(yǔ)（和不經(jīng)意間流行的幻想風(fēng)格）超越了地理和社會(huì)政治?！霸⒔逃跇?lè)”的雙重內(nèi)涵表明了新媒體與教育之間的矛盾之處。一方面它是一個(gè)貶義詞，一個(gè)對(duì)知識(shí)和學(xué)問(wèn)的“降低”或者

21、說(shuō)商業(yè)化。流行新媒體形式和學(xué)問(wèn)的融合等同于其他提供商業(yè)和/或者虛構(gòu)形式的知識(shí)信息的混合的媒體：“社論式廣告”、“信息娛樂(lè)片”、“肥皂文件”。另一方面，寓教于樂(lè)現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)被教育軟件行業(yè)本身采用。然而“寓教于樂(lè)”的使用暗示了一個(gè)廣義的信念，那就是教育和商業(yè)化的媒體之間的分界線正在慢慢消除。這種現(xiàn)象并不局限于新媒體，百科全書的光盤以及教學(xué)性游戲的數(shù)字多媒體形式似乎是重要的關(guān)鍵。為家用電腦教育軟件的推廣以及政府政策的目標(biāo)都共同嘗試著重新定義家庭體系，使得呆在家里的時(shí)間不再與學(xué)校分離，而是相互連接關(guān)聯(lián)的。這不僅僅是一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單傳統(tǒng)作業(yè)的技術(shù)轉(zhuǎn)化而是：寓教于樂(lè)的軟件同時(shí)被制造商和政府的教育政策推廣為新興“知識(shí)經(jīng)

22、濟(jì)”的核心，在這種形式中工作、娛樂(lè)、家庭和學(xué)校之間的分界線越來(lái)越不重要。這些媒體技術(shù)和文本是用來(lái)使年輕人的家庭休閑活動(dòng)轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)椤案行省钡?，激發(fā)性的學(xué)習(xí)。案例研究4.4：基礎(chǔ)視覺(jué)吸入！研究人員認(rèn)為，年輕計(jì)算機(jī)用戶作為知識(shí)經(jīng)濟(jì)中的“未來(lái)工作者”的主導(dǎo)離題話語(yǔ)給他們表達(dá)他們?cè)诜鞘跈?quán)為主的方式下使用電腦的娛樂(lè)性留下了盡管不完全 的博弈的一點(diǎn)空間。以下的交流中，父母正在討論的他們鼓勵(lì)在家使用電腦的議程被他們“偷聽(tīng)的”的十幾歲的兒子打斷，捕捉到這些更廣泛的話語(yǔ)和政策（還有他們的矛盾）在普通家庭關(guān)系中被爭(zhēng)辯過(guò)的方式： 爸爸：但我們確實(shí)由于孩子使用電腦得到了一些東西。 媽媽：我們得到了一些給孩子的教育軟件，

23、在這一點(diǎn)上我們確定他們不會(huì)玩游戲。哈哈我想讓Steven參與到其他事情里面。我已經(jīng)嘗試過(guò)幾次吸引他做各種各樣的事，然而只有游戲絕對(duì)地影響到他的電腦使用。 Q：好的。所以這是一個(gè). 媽媽：Steven，有什么問(wèn)題嗎？ Steven：我只是想說(shuō)我要上床睡覺(jué)了。這是游戲規(guī)則！ Steven：基礎(chǔ)視覺(jué)吸入！ （Facer等 2001a：103）他指出，Steven如同及時(shí)行樂(lè)的計(jì)算機(jī)博弈的爆發(fā)，破壞了“教育性的”計(jì)算機(jī)使用這一未來(lái)回報(bào)的話語(yǔ)。2.外文原文4.3 The technological shaping of everyday lifeAs we have already seen, a fo

24、cus on everyday life and consumption, particularly from Cultural and Media Studies assumptions and methods, tends to militate against conceptions of technological agency in the study of popular new media. Research in this area is underpinned explicitly or implicitly by the Social Shaping of Technolo

25、gy thesis (SST), in particular, first, the foregrounding of the agonistic nature of the production and consumption of technological devices and systems. And second, the explicit resistance to the notion that technologies and technological systems could have agency or effects in the human world. For

26、example, in a book on television, Roger Silverstone argues that we must privilege the social, by which he means human agency in general: in its historical, economic, cultural and political manifesta- tions: indeed one must do so, since the natural, the economic, and the technical, in their obduracy

27、or their malleability, have no significance except through social action (Silverstone 1994: 85). Before we address these positions in more detail, we will explore this social constructionist approach and its effectiveness in accounting for the shape and uses of everyday new media technologies. So, f

28、rom the social shaping of technology viewpoint, it is not only the choice of particular technical features included in any new black box device that determine its commercial success, its symbolic status, what William Boddy calls instrumental fantasies, is also crucial:CASE STUDY 4.2: The black XBox

29、and the social shaping of video game technology The development of the first XBox videogame console is an example of the social shaping of a media device. The initial success of Microsofts console depended as much on the nuances of its marketing strategy as on the consoles technical specifications a

30、nd the quality of its games. Learning from Sonys tremendously successful marketing strategies for the Playstation in the 1990s, Microsoft had to battle against its (and its founder Bill Gatess) staid image. The cosmetic design of the console was therefore very important, and was modelled on hi-fi co

31、mponents: People are really into the design, and theyve said they werent expecting something as cool or as sleek from Microsoft, and that they thought it captured the enthusiasm and excitement behind gaming (Edge 2001: 71).More recently the black-boxing of videogame console and DV D player has ha d

32、a Powerful im pact on new for matsfor domesti c television med ia. Perhaps learn ing from its fail ure in the war be tween its Bet am ax video for m at and JVCs trium phant VHS in the 1980s, Sony use d its latest cons ole, the Pla ystat ion 3, to help it establish the do minance, by ear ly 2008, of

33、its o wn high defi nit ion DVD format, Blu-Ray, over To shibas HD DVD4.7 XBox.Courtesy of Microsoft After interviewing 5,000 gamers and visiting 130 gamers homes to research the design of the XBox, they went to great lengths to establish it as the antithesis of the desktop computer. Rather than the

34、beige box located in the study and associated with work, the console was promoted as a sexy machine designed to look good in the living room. (Flynn 2003: 557) One early strategy for convincing sceptical consumers of Microsofts commitment to serious game playing was to not allow the XBox to be used

35、as a DVD player for films (distinguishing it from the recently released Playstation 2). Thus the drive towards producing a multifunctional consumer entertainment system, and a potential selling point, is balanced against the need to match the devices symbolic status to the attitudes and preferences

36、of the target audience (Microsoft later changed this strategy and XBoxes were allowed to play DVDs).Every electronic media product launch or network debut carries with it an implicit fantasy scenario of its domestic consumption, a polemical ontology of it as a medium, and an ideological rationale fo

37、r its social function. (Boddy 1999）Science and Technology Studies (see 4.3.3 below), alluding to consumer media devices such as hifis and televisions, use the term black box to discuss this only-ever- temporary fixing of components, technologies and functions in any particular device or system. The

38、term is used in cybernetics as well, denoting a system or device analysed in terms of its effects rather than its inner workings. STS analyses aim to open the black box and reveal its contingency and heterogeneity, whereas cybernetics has used the term to refer to a system the workings of which have

39、 either yet to be analysed, or whose workings are of less immediate interest than its input, output and effects (Wiener 1961: xxi)The development of the XBox demonstrates that the creation of a commercially successful digital media technology is dependent at least as much on its social form, its sym

40、bolic status, as on its technological capabilities. There are two further important points to raise here. One is that new media technologies are rarely, if ever, entirely new. The XBox is a particular assemblage of existing technologies (PC hardware, DVD player, etc.) just as television and cinema a

41、s we understand them today were not invented as such, but rather were, as Raymond Williams says of television, a com- plex of inventions and developments, a complex which at all stages depended for parts of its realisation on inventions made with other ends primarily in view (Williams 1990a: 15). Th

42、e sheer flexibility of digital technologies, and the convergences between different media forms that digitisation affords (for instance the promiscuities of USB) accentuate this complex nature of media technological development. Games consoles can also be DVD players or networked for online play and

43、 communication. A mobile phone can also be a games console, a text-based communication device, a camera, a web browser. A key task for manufacturers and retailers then, in the process of production, is to identify possible uses For a different account of the significance of the PC, see 3.6or practic

44、es for their technologies, and build these into the consumer device. This would seem to support the social shaping thesis. And yet, as we will argue in more detail later in this section, while the fantasies spun around the launch of any media device shape and the symbolic status it may accrue in its

45、 everyday usage, shape its meanings and uses, they by no means wholly determine these uses and meanings. The black-boxing of heterogeneous technologies is driven by factors that are at once technological and social (economic, historical, political). All videogame consoles are effectively computers b

46、lack-boxed as games machines rather than as more open PCs (see 4.3.2 below). The XBox in particular is built on a PC architecture and Microsoft operating system and so became the target of attempts to reverse-engineer or hack it, freeing up other potential but restricted uses, from the long-establis

47、hed practice of console chipping (inserting hardware to get around security measures, allowing the playing of copied or other region games), to use as a media centre (playing CDs, VCDs and MP3s for example), to unlocking something like full PC functionality. We see here activities that are in import

48、ant ways distinct from established notions of consumption or decoding: the produc- tion of the XBox was shaped by, exploited (and attempted to limit) the physical nature and capabilities of its arrangements of technologies. Its consumption then can be predicated more on freeing up its technical pote

49、ntial than challenging its meanings.4.3.1The open PCSee Levy 1994 for an entertaining account of this important aspect of new media history. It should be noted that the term hacker did not originally mean the mischievous or malicious figure familiar today. See also 4.5.2The user is an unreliable cre

50、ature though. It was not clear for example, despite the excitement that attended their production and sale, quite what the owners of early home computers in the 1980s would do with them. They were often sold as information technologies (bought by parents anxious to prepare their children for the inf

51、ormation revolution), but were widely consumed as games machines (once the children got their hands on them). As research by Haddon and Skinner shows, producers and consumers constantly searched for and tried to construct the “usefulness” of this mass market product after it had been developed and l

52、aunched (cited in Haddon 1992: 84). So despite the black box intentions of PC manufacturers and retailers, the machine (or perhaps more accurately, grouping of computer-based information, communication and entertainment technologies) has been widely seen as a uniquely multifunctional open device (Ma

53、ckay 1997: 270271), chameleonlike in its appli- cations and possibilities (Turkle 1984).The multifunctionality, and playfulness, of the PC is rooted in the history of the development of computing. Ambiguity around its use can be traced back at least to its origins in the hacker culture of students a

54、t the US universities MIT and Stanford from the late 1950s. This culture has been seen as a struggle against the rigid rituals developed around the use of number-crunching mainframes in university research and business applications, by theSee 4.5.2 for more on the playful prehistory of personal comp

55、utinghackers celebration of experimentation and the free sharing of computer code and information. The hackers development of real-time, interactive information processing led to the first commercially available domestic computers in the 1970s (Levy 1994). At first the hackers do-it-yourself ethic m

56、eant that the first domestic computer users had to build the machine themselves from a kit, and even when home computers became available as completed products they retained their hobbyist image and market for some time. To use a home computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s the owner had to learn

57、 programming. Indeed, if nothing else the purpose and pleasure of home computers lay in learning to program, exploring the machine and its system, not, initially at least, consuming commercially produced software and services. These early users of home computers would seem closer to the hobbyist ent

58、husiasts of early crystal radio than Ted Nelsons dream of Computer Lib activists espousing libertarian ideals of accessibility and excitement (cited in Mayer 1999: 128). However, as Leslie Haddon pointed out in his research into the discourses of home computing in Britain in the early 1980s, the spa

59、re room tinkering with these new devices could not be separated from a sense of excitement about this machine as evidence of an unfolding information revolution. Through the exploration of these enigmatic machines, some users felt a sense of participation in the larger technological forces of a chan

60、ging modern world (Haddon 1988b). As Klaus Bruhn Jensen puts it, The personal computer . . . offers both a symbol and a touchstone of the information society (Jensen 1999: 192). The migration of the Apple or IBM-compatible personal computer from office to home in the late 1980s served to establish d