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]
The relationship between the individual reader of the Phoenix and the larger community of Phoenix readers presents a paradox fundamental to this analysis of the role of the publication in the larger Providence community. The reader of the Phoenix is isolated from immediate social interaction because the paper itself blocks his face from other people in his environment. However, the Phoenix is not such that it can only be absorbed in private, in a quiet space behind closed doors. By reading the Phoenix in a public space such as a coffee shop or a bus station, the reader contributes to the social landscape. In fact, the Phoenix can be used as a tool to explain an individual's presence in a crowded place. While the solitary gentleman at a cafe table may attract sympathetic gazes and knowing sighs from other cafe patrons, the solitary gentleman with a newspaper looks neither lonely or out of place. Focused on the print before him, he appears to have a set task. Whether or not he is reading the articles is beside the point.
Refer back to image of man reading in a park under I the individual reader.
Also, as is suggested in how does the darn thing use us?, the power of the Phoenix to create a community out of individuals cannot be underestimated. Especially with the availability of the internet as an extension of the printed Phoenix, space is no longer the main factor in determining social arrangements. Wide-spread communities can form on the basis of common interests. Because the Phoenix has such clearly defined demographics, it is easy for the individual reading the Phoenix to be assigned by his peers to specific groups defined by social and physical characteristics. Just by holding the Phoenix, the individual becomes a member of a community of like-minded readers.