Mediacology

Poor Steven Johnson got smacked around by the so-called progressive left for claiming that media make us smarter. I haven’t read his latest tome, Everything Bad is Good for You, but I plan to because I thought his book Emergence was amazing (it examines “emergence” theory as it relates to cities, ants, brains and computers). I’ll reserve judgment until I finish the book, but already I think he says a lot more about systems than I’ve heard from any media literacy activists.

Anyhow, here is a column he wrote for the London Times on the great ABC series, Lost, one of the few shows I actually watch for fun. It’s a good introduction to many of his themes:

What’s going on? Don’t ask me, I’m lost… - Student - Times Online:

“The drama Lost has turned the conventional wisdom of American prime-time TV on its head: it’s smart, complex and many-layered. Our correspondent says it’s part of a new genre of “intelligent” television that seriously threatens cinema”