Key Pages:
13 Things 2008
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
Granted, each individual issue of the Phoenix does not have a mind of its own, much less an agenda. However, this does not mean that the newspaper itself is not a powerful tool capable of influencing the actions of its readers. Although the "darn thing" may not actively "use" readers as a human being might, it is through the newspaper that editors, journalists and advertisers are able to exact any influence over their audience. The agenda-setting phenomenon presented in John Vivian's The Media of Mass Communication suggests that media do not tell people what to think but rather what to think about (366). It is the editor's choice of articles, and the order in which they are placed within the publication, that determines what topics will be introduced to the reader as he or she browses an issue of a newspaper. Suddenly he who does not read the Phoenix is cut out of conversations concerning the most recent cover story or the latest concert reviews. The "darn thing" then uses us to develop a community of readers who share the common experience of reading its articles.
In Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments authors Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno quote de Toqueville on the monopolization of cultural practices: "The ruler no longer says: 'Either you think as I do or you die.' He says: 'You are free not to think as I do; your life, your property--all that you shall keep. But from this day on you will be a stranger among us" (qtd. in Adorno 105). The presence of the Providence Phoenix insures that community members have more than one option when it comes to choosing a news publications. However, in any situation in which communities are fostered--whether they be communities of readers, consumers or art enthusiasts--they are defined as much by those individuals that they include as they are by those individuals that they exclude. Although the Phoenix cannot force its opinions onto its readers, and doesn't attempt to, its existence insures that those who chose not to consume it will be excluded from certain cultural commonalities.
By telling readers what to think about, the Phoenix also acts as a map. Maps lay out travel routes, and encourage navigation over way-finding. In his essay "Visualization and Cognition", Bruno Latour suggests that "We are so used to this world of print and images, that we can hardly think of what it is to know something without indexes, bibliographies, dictionaries, papers with references, tables, columns, photographs...." (13) Newspapers such as the Phoenix are so engrained in their communities, that readers begin to rely on them for information that could otherwise be stumbled upon.
Example: While the way-finder may try several different Chinese restaurants in the Providence area before finding the one with the best sesame chicken for the lowest price, the navigator may go to the Chinese restaurant that the Phoenix claims to have the best deal, and in doing so skip the entire process of trial and error.