what he said
I’m not a follower of Noam Chomsky by any means, but boy has he ever got a point in this video. Via Glenn Greenwald, who said, this “explains a great deal about many things,” whether you’re liberal or conservative or whatever.
My apologies for the way the video appears on this page. My layout is 400 pixels wide, while the video is 425 pixels wide. God knows what Internet Explorer (possibly the worst web browser in the world) will do to my layout as a result. Anyway, click on the YouTube logo to see it on that site. Or you can live without the rightmost 25 pixels. In any case, I think the video makes an extremely important point.
Comments
We use IE at work. Layout looks fine! Video looks slightly smaller than your column.
Posted by: Andrea | December 10, 2007 04:23 PM
On my IE it does have the right end cut off. I get YouT. Though here on this page for entering comments the whole thing shows with space to spare.
Posted by: Ellen K. | December 10, 2007 06:51 PM
Thanks, Andrea and Ellen! I have IE6 on Windows when I run it on my MacBook Pro, and it cuts off the right side just like Safari and Firefox do on the Mac. That's really the preferred behavior--I don't want the browser to decide that it should resize the video on its own (very Microsoft of it).
What I can't figure out is why IE6 sometimes decides to put my right sidebar at the bottom of the page on the left instead of at the top on the right like it's supposed to. But then, since I don't pay myself to maintain this blog, figuring that stuff out is not a terrribly high priority. I should probably redesign the blog home with a wider center column, since it's unlikely YouTube is going to change its default video size. Uh huh. That's a real high priority, too.
Ellen, the comments page has a different layout with a longer line length. Hmm, if I wasn't an idiot I'd just put any videos after the jump, wouldn't I?
Okay, that's enough stream-of-consciousness commenting from me. For now.
Posted by: pat | December 11, 2007 10:09 AM
I'll be bookmarking this YouTube url for use in some of my media classes; thanks! I regularly talk about how the structure of news media shapes what is "news" and this provides a vivid example.
About IE: I apparently stunned some folks at work recently; in a meeting with the policy wonks who were showing me and other faculty leaders the new policy web site (which really is pretty slick) and the process for web input on new policies, etc. The new site wouldn't load at all in Firefox, and the policy/web genius who created the whole deal told me to use IE. I said, in genuine surprise, "People still use Explorer?!?"
He didn't take it well.
Posted by: Elle | December 12, 2007 09:01 AM
Thanks, Elle! I do think this is extremely important. Just as language influences the structure of thought, the format of the medium itself tends to structure discourse in certain ways. It's likely to be a lot more productive to look at media through this lens than to scream endless platitudes about a liberal or right-wing conspiracy to control thought. Though recent Russian history does provide a cautionary tale there, doesn't it?
As for IE, I still find it mind-boggling that people can design for only one browser and call themselves professionals. There ought to be a term for the kind of web designer who thinks what they see on their monitor is going to be what everyone sees. Sure, most of my clients are like that, but designers are supposed to know better.
Posted by: pat | December 12, 2007 10:21 AM