Hush : media and sonic self-control
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Hush : media and sonic self-control
（Sign, storage, transmission / a series edited by Jonathan Sterne and Lisa Gitelman）
Duke University Press, 2019
- : pbk
Available at 1 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-260) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
For almost sixty years, media technologies have promised users the ability to create sonic safe spaces for themselves-from bedside white noise machines to Beats by Dre's "Hear What You Want" ad campaign, in which Colin Kaepernick's headphones protect him from taunting crowds. In Hush, Mack Hagood draws evidence from noise-canceling headphones, tinnitus maskers, LPs that play ocean sounds, nature-sound mobile apps, and in-ear smart technologies to argue the true purpose of media is not information transmission, but rather the control of how we engage our environment. These devices, which Hagood calls orphic media, give users the freedom to remain unaffected in the changeable and distracting spaces of contemporary capitalism and reveal how racial, gendered, ableist, and class ideologies shape our desire to block unwanted sounds. In a noisy world of haters, trolls, and information overload, guarded listening can be a necessity for self-care, but Hagood argues our efforts to shield ourselves can also decrease our tolerance for sonic and social difference. Challenging our self-defeating attempts to be free of one another, he rethinks media theory, sound studies, and the very definition of media.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction. Hearing What We Want 1
Part I. Suppression 29
1. Tinnitus and Its Aural Remedies 31
Part II. Masking 73
2. Sleep-Mates and Sound Screens: Sound, Speed, and Circulation in Postwar America 75
3. The Ultimate Seashore: Environments and the Nature of Technology 116
4. A Quiet Storm: Orphic Apps and Infocentrism 148
Part III. Cancellation 175
5. Bose QuietComfort and the Mobile Production of Personal Space 177
6. Beats by Dre: Race and the Sonic Interface 198
Conclusion. Wanting What We Hear 220
Notes 235
References 245
Index 261
by "Nielsen BookData"