David Domke You Say You Want A Revolution? Generational Change and Citizen Engagement Technological developments and impacts do not occur in isolation. When television arrived, it both crystallized the new superpower status of the United States ("that country can do anything") and extended the American cultural sensibility far wider and deeper than any military might could do. So too do the advent of 24/7 digital media shape how we understand and engage with society -- including what we think comes with the job of being a citizen. This talk will discuss how this is becoming apparent in generational changes among Americans. David Domke is a Professor and Chair in the UW Department of Communication, and the author of two books: God Willing?: Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the “War on Terror,” and the Echoing Press (Pluto Press, 2004), and The God Strategy: How Religion Became A Political Weapon in America (Oxford Press, 2008 and 2010).

1. You Say You Want A Revolution? Generational Change & Citizen Engagement David Domke Department of Communication University of Washington Seattle Arts & Lectures February 23, 2011

2. A citizenship revolution

3. Marshall McLuhan, 1969 “ Effective study of the media deals not only with the content of the media but with the media themselves and the total cultural environment within which the media function. Only by standing aside from any phenomenon and taking an overview can you discover its operative principles and lines of force. There’s really nothing inherently startling or radical about this study --except that for some reason few have had the vision to undertake it. Media technologies

4. Marshall McLuhan, 1969 “ For the past 3500 years of the Western world, the effects of media -- whether it’s speech, writing, printing, photography, radio or television -- have been systematically overlooked by social observers. … [M]ost people are still blissfully ignorant of what the media do to them; unaware that the medium is also the message -- that, all puns aside, it literally works over and saturates and molds and transforms every sense ratio. The content or message of any particular medium has about as much importance as the stenciling on the casing of an atomic bomb. Media technologies

5. Marshall McLuhan, 1969 “ By stressing that the medium is the message rather than the content, I’m not suggesting that content plays no role -- merely that it plays a distinctly subordinate role. … [In] placing all the stress on content and practically none on the medium, we lose all chance of perceiving and influencing the impact of new technologies on man, and thus we are always dumbfounded by --and unprepared for -- the revolutionary environmental transformations induced by new media.” Media technologies

6. A Timeline Printing press Photography Radio TV Personal Computers Smart phones Telegraphy Film

7. A Timeline Printing press Photography Radio TV Personal Computers Smart phones Telegraphy Film

8. Embrace of technology Smart phones (Pew, 9/10)

9. Embrace of technology Laptops (Pew, 9/10)

10. Embrace of technology Ipads/tablets (Pew, 9/10)

11. Marshall McLuhan, 1955 “ It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.” A citizenship revolution

12. Dutiful Relational A citizenship revolution Obligatory Citizenship = formal acts Selective Citizenship = everyday acts Receive media Navigate media Joiners Networkers Want security Want epicness

13. 1. News attention: on demand (Pew) Indicators

14. Indicators 2. Engagement: “Lot of thought to election” (Pew)

15. 3. Social relations: Same-sex marriages Indicators

16. Marshall McLuhan, 1964 “ We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” Media technologies