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Blue Skies and Strange Bedfellows
Why do you think that Thomas Streeter titles his essay the way he does? What do “blue skies” and “strange bedfellows” have to do with 1960s discussions about the possibilities of cable television? Does the language used around cable at that time sound similar to the way new media technologies are discussed today? Explain.
The “Blue Skies” that streeter refers to in his title is the optimistic, space-age utopian tone of the discourse surrounding communications technology around the time cable TV was in its infancy. He argues that the key themes of this discourse were a faith in new technologies to solve societal problems and bring about a final era of hope and change. The “Strange Bedfellows” he refers to is the “contradictory unity” of the vast array of academics, “experts,” and cultural commentators who superficially banded together to engage in optimistic discourses about the future of technology at the time. Cable television, in particular, represented a technology that both physically and culturally unified americans.
ReplyDeleteStreeter deliberately aggregates discourse that is shockingly reminiscent of discourse around the early internet and other new media technologies. He finds a writer that argues for a government-built “highway” for the exchange of information - a concept very similar to our modern understanding of the internet - back in 1970. The similarities are not merely technical, however, as much of the discourse he aggregates calls to mind the optimistic tone of commentators on the early internet who believed that it was a force of justice and equity, opening up information to those who previously did not have access to it.
Thomas Streeter deliberately entitled his essay “Blue Skies and Strange Bedfellows” in order to emphasize what happened during the rise of cable television and the impact it had compared to the impact it was expected to have. The “blue skies” refer to our tendency as a technologically-driven society to expect each new technology to have the ability to overcome our social and material constraints. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the publication of many reports exploring the possibilities for cable television, but the language used was unquestionably utopian. The reports suggested that the technological revolution that would come about at the hands of cable television would actually be a part of a bigger revolution that touches all corners of society, but they did so without even attempting to influence or call for policy change.
ReplyDeleteStreeter uses “strange bedfellows” to refer to the unexpected alliance that was made possible by the discourse surrounding the rise of cable television. The goals, interests, and philosophies of those that often spoke about the new technology were greatly varied, but these people did not see their collaboration as a compromise between groups with overlapping interests but instead a consensus of opinion among objective experts. The inter-group talks about cable were often characterized by a systemic avoidance of central issues and assumptions related to the topic. Their disagreeing viewpoints were often glossed over and united by their shared sense of awe and excitement for the new technology and the sense of opportunity.
This faith in the unknown to magically solve all of our problems, aka the “blue skies”, has been around since the invention of the telegraph and still exists today. The way these people treated cable television is very alike the way many treated the rise of the Internet or the smart phone--both were predicted to be new ways to bring about social justice and change. The “strange bedfellows” have certainly not disappeared either, as we’ve seen in the modern age of technology and the tendency of opposing organizations to find themselves showing similar support for new technological inventions. While the creation of new technology has and probably always will bring about feelings of unease and fear, it also has and probably always will inspire feelings of optimism and excitement.