NOVA: Hunting the Elements

In the classroom, one of the main goals of ecomedia studies is to make visible for students the seemingly invisible ecological footprint of media texts and industries. To that end I recommend taking a look at the 2012 Public Broadcasting NOVA special Hunting the Elements, hosted by David Pogue (the New York Times technology correspondent who also hosted the PBS series “Making Stuff”). Hunting the Elements emphasizes that the stuff that makes up the human body and the stuff that make up media are pretty much the same, part of the same table of elements. While this basic lesson in chemistry makes sense on an intellectual level, seeing and hearing the elements interacting and combined in different ways really makes the basic argument that all things are interconnected palpable. Included on the NOVA website are links to the full video of the episode, an iPad app, and additional videos and web links related to this very interesting program. For media scholars the highlight of the show is perhaps the section on smartphones.