Betamax to Blockbuster 2

On Introduction:

This is about videos as a form of print culture, not about technology as such. The story of the inception of video culture and the labor it created is bypassed, because the intermediaries Greenberg describes only participated in the culture for a short time, maybe a decade. The unpaid or low-wage labor they contributed to the scene was so ephemeral that it hardly existed in historical terms. These appear to have been members of the leisure class who joined this movement on their way to another social place. The example of Tarantino illustrates this.

There is a difference between empowerment and power. While the hobbyists or enthusiasts may have felt empowered, the power in the industry lay elsewhere. The real story is how power succeeds in hiding labor, even from labor itself.

p. 7 of Introduction:

I'm uncomfortable with the treatment of the pornographic segment of the industry. Tolerance of pornography, like that of any sex worker, is predicated on the notion that this labor is "free" labor, that is, the sex workers or performers "choose" to be employed in this industry. That is debatable, starting with the quality of the choices made.

We need to shift attention away from issues of pornography as speech to the exploitation of workers in the pornographic industry.

Chap. 1:

The crazed joy of the self-taping enthusiasts reminds me of the Cheech and Chong line: "I played Black Sabbath at 78 and I saw God." Having lived through that moment in history it's hard for me to respect it.

The reference to The prisoner is apt for a couple of reasons: the first summer (1968) the show played the picture tube on our tv went out, followed by the sound, so I saw only flashes and heard only muffled dialogue from the final episodes. I've always wanted to watch the whole thing but have never had the time.

The second reason is that if the video people had thought about it they were living through a phenomenon not unlike the predicament of #6.

Later in ch. 1, the comparison of video people to ham radio operators rings true.

More general response:

Were the video people media dupes or a class with revolutionary potential?

These are not workers, although there is work, labor, present in their environment. If the consciousness of work does not exist, what then?

This is like the Gold Rush of 1849: prospectors were not miners, but amateurs who used the moment to "transition" to a new region and a new set of opportunities. Although they faced considerable risks, they weren't around long enough to be oppressed--the word exploitation fits.

Does the video industry at this stage really fit into the category of hidden information labor we are exploring in class?