I'm Ben. 20. @BennSt
BA Media & Communication at Birmingham City University. I make websites and design for print, produce and present radio as well as take photos. Among other things.
Hear me every Wednesday 2-4pm on Scratch Radio.
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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
First off, let me explain, from today you’ll start to see a load of posts tagged with mc513 or media culture - as part of my undergraduate course at BCU, tagged posts relate to media culture theory seminars.
When this question was posed, any number of things popped into my head. With such an enormous range of media consumption everyday it appears as though this question is the hardest thing anyone could ever ask:
Which media text do you see as expressing or belonging to ‘your culture’?
There are so many texts that I could choose, from my endless consumption of Facebook to the the daily torrent of adverts that bombard the commuter. Instead I’ve chosen something seemingly more abstract…
…the train departure board.
What on earth is he on about? You’re probably asking yourself. Well, everyday I wait under the platform sign patiently respecting it’s knowledge - however inaccurate it almost invariably will be - before my day can commence. Today, as I wait for those LEDs to tell me that my train would arrive imminently, I realised how appropriately it sums up part of my culture.
As a person, I regard myself as fairly career focused and hard-working. The departure board never stops; whatever time of day you pass it, it will always have new knowledge. Whilst I don’t pretend to be working 24/7, like the departure board I have a need for knowledge and information.
It may appear as though the solitary sign on Selly Oak platform one is alone in it’s quest for eternal knowledge-transfer, you’d be wrong in thinking that it was working on it’s own. How does it get it’s information? What is it’s purpose? That single sign is part of an information super-network, drawing it’s knowledge from a vast array of sources and passing only the relevant knowledge to those who need it.
Again I don’t pretend to be a brain-surgeon or a super-computer but I’d like to think that everyday I learn a little more as part of a knowledge-bound network of friends and colleagues. Together, like the platform information signs along the Litchfield-Reddich line, we work to share knowledge and information and effectively pass it to those who want it.
There you have it, next time you’re stood underneath the sign telling you your train is going to be 13 minutes late, appreciate how that solitary purveyor of information may be reflecting your culture.
