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What's Being Said About Transparency
I have collected information documenting some of this on this page, as a way of letting you know that the site has credibility and that my work is worth attending to. But it turns out much of this information -- and many of the quotes they take from the website -- also provides a good overview of what you may find of interest on Transparency. First let me give you some quick facts about myself. My name is Ken Sanes and I live in the Metro Boston area. I worked in the newspaper business from about 1978-1989, where I held various positions, including editorial writer and columnist. Over the years, I've published a handful of pieces in prominent publications, including the Boston Globe, the Nation, Newsday, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Herald. In addition, my writing has been referred to by other news organizations, such as the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com (which is now part of the main Journal website). That said, here is information on how the site has been used and what has been said about it. It should be noted that none of these comments mean the authors endorse things I've written (except where they specifically say so), or that I endorse everything on their web sites. And please keep in mind that some of the websites that are referred to may no longer be online, and other changes may have taken place since some of these items were written. Here are the examples: Howard Aldrich, Professor & Department Chair, Sociology, and Adjunct Professor of Management in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, lists Transparency on a page of "Web Sites That Will Help You Research and then Write Your Paper." He says, "the site is linked to probably by more than a thousand sites around the Internet, including college sites for classroom use, online magazines, and web indexes of the best resources on the Internet." * Transparency was recommended as a resource on the web
site of the Channel One Network. It described Transparency as: "Media critic
Ken Sanes remarkable web site, full of thoughtful essays about the
challenges and delights of living in a media saturated society." * Steve Campsall at Beauchamp College in Oadby, Leicester, England, wrote: "I have used a number of essays from your site to help my A-level Media Studies students understand various aspects of the media industry.... For myself, I continue to be amazed - am almost in awe - at the quality of the essays on the site. Very well done indeed." Mediateca. CaixaForum Barcelona, a media library at a prominent cultural and arts center in Barcelona, says this about Transparency: "A magnificent theoretical area which contains a careful selection of critiques of the mass media, politics, and popular culture. It tries, as its slogan indicates, to aid understanding of and reflection on various aspects of cinema, television, news, political rhetoric, theme parks, advertising, video games, and the Internet. It contains the following essays and books: The Age of Simulation, Simulation & Postmodern Society, The Landscape of Fiction, Analyzing Media, Media Criticism, Image and Action and Deconstructing the News, among others. Professional, exhaustive. and to the point. Simply outstanding." * Zeff Bjerken, a teacher in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the College of Charleston, planned to use my essay on the Truman Show in a class on Peter Berger's ideas on the social construction of reality. " Your essay on this film does a wonderful job describing many of the themes that I would like my students to see," he wrote in an email. " Thank you for creating such an excellent site and for promoting the kind of critical analysis of popular media. Excellent work!" * Sumana Harihareswara used a number of essays
from the site to teach a class at UC Berkeley on "Politics of the Mid-Life
Crisis". Students read the essay
Truman As Archetype while watching "The
Truman Show" and the essay
Contemporary
Storytelling: Tales of Life Way After the Fall while watching the movie "Dave". "In general, I think I was
informed by your point of view, and used it consciously and unconsciously in
leading class discussion on many or all of the films, which included
'Pleasantville,' 'Election,' 'Bulworth,' 'The Matrix,' 'American Beauty,'
and 'AntZ,' Harihareswara wrote. "I encouraged students to read your essays
to provoke new ways of thinking about these films, especially when it comes
to power and personal transformation. Thanks for writing such insightful
essays on the ideas behind the movies." *
Giorgos Epitidios, President of the Hellenic Association of Internet Professionals in
Greece, says
on his web site: "If you are interested in media criticism you
can learn a lot about this and many other subjects from a site called
Transparency. Give it a try and you will not regret it." * A class by Peter Holmes at the University of North London used essays on Disney and Sherry Turkle. "In IT290 we meet in a seminar for advanced level undergraduates at the University of N. London, situated close to the centre of London; currently about 30 students are taking this semester long course..." Holmes wrote. "The topic of hyperreality and postmodern culture figures in a couple of weeks discussions, and Sherry Turkle has obviously relevance in this domain, given her ability to identify worlds in creation. Disney is a further aspect... .Many of the students found your work offered an accessible entry into these general questions, and they were thankful that someone could address the issues without descending into abstruse academic jargon." * A piece by me summarizing some of these writings ran in the Focus section of the Sunday Boston Globe in 1992. It inspired a program on Chronicle, a TV news magazine in New England, which briefly discussed some of the ideas now contained on the site. * The
Archeology and Material
Culture site by Paul R.
Mullins, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Indiana
University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, says that Transparency offers a
"brilliant theory and critique on everything from Baudrillard to Gilligan's
Island." Disney's Distorted Mirror was also an assigned reading in Dr.
Mullins' class, "Popular Culture," at the university. * The essay
Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome: Salvaging the Future was a reading assignment a number of times in the
Myth and Film course
in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Richmond. * Mark Davis, a teacher at Sacred Heart Preparatory in San
Francisco, wrote the following: "I teach a class called Apocalyptic
Literature at Sacred Heart Preparatory, and two of my students included
essays by you in their term projects: anthologies of apocalyptic literature
around a central theme. Of all the works we've discovered on the Web, yours
have been the most lucid. Indeed, that seems to be the point of
Transparency...." Richard Burman, a student at the University of North London, used the essays on The New Culture War and Disney World: Cities of Simulation as Postmodern Utopias for his essay on "Popular Culture and the Logic of Consumption." "So what is it we are looking for from the ‘consumer experience'? Some kind of 'phony transcendence,' as Ken Sanes puts it....Advertisers (capitalize) on humanity's 'deepest dream' of transcendence, our need for something of significance larger than our own lives...." Jane Chang, a student at Grinnell College in Iowa used the Transparency essay, The Fake Heaven of Claritin as a source for her paper, "Drugs, Money and Advertising" in a class on Biomedical Technology and Human Perfection. "Sanes also claims that the (Claritin) commercial goes beyond selling the image of the good life and suggests that, 'by using the product we will achieve transcendence from the weighted down world of mundane life,'" she writes." * Assistant Professor Kimberley Lund planned to use essays
on the media from Transparency, including
Society as a
Simulation Machine,
as assigned readings for classes at the School of Architecture & Design,
American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. * Professor James R. Elkins, who teaches a course on Lawyers and Literature at West Virginia University, has used Transparency as a source of ideas and recommended it a number of times to students and other readers. On one page he wrote: "Ken Sanes, who has a website called “Transparency” (where we find a far more instructive commentary than we do in the work of most legal film critics) talks about 'a master plot of existence,' a plot in which, 'we are all stranded in nature and society, and in ourselves, yearning for things to be made whole. Everything else is subplot.' [Ken Sanes, 'Contemporary Storytelling: Tales of Life Way After the Fall,' Transparency.] Sanes argues that much of what we find in popular fiction and film reflects our 'moral yearnings.' He goes on to say: 'It [fiction] is an expression of our drive to meaning, in which authors temporarily lift themselves out of the mysterious world and create their own mysterious worlds, in an effort to make manifest what is hidden in the original.' ” On a page titled Archaeology of Criticism, Elkins quotes Transparency: "All of us contain within ourselves an inherent knowledge that we are in a fallen state and a state of exile. We know intuitively that humanity is lost in a maze of forgetting, trapped in neurotic selves, societies of violence and power, cultures of manipulation, and a realm of nature that is experienced as something alien to us." On a page titled "lawyer as storyteller," Elkins says: "I'd
like you to consider the essays I provided you by Ken Sanes in this context.
I stumbled on to Ken Sanes website, Transparency, some years ago and I've
found Sanes's essays useful and instructive." Popular
Fiction and the Quest for Freedom * Here is what an online service in the UK, which included the site in a list of recommended destinations, said about Transparency: "The place where New Age meets psychoanalysis to deconstruct classic American situation comedies such MASH, I Love Lucy, Gilligan's Island and The Mary Tyler Moore Show as well as other vehicles of multimedia. Each scholarly point made seems to indicate that we are trapped within our daily lives and are yearning to break free. This, of course is a simplification of the ideas explored on this site, but pretty much sums up its general philosophy. Worth checking out if you are in the mood to be enlightened." (I lost track of the identifying information on this one, and the page apparently no longer exists.) * The web site for the class, "Holocaust and Other
Genocides," taught by John Foreman at Father Ryan High School in Nashville,
TN, included a link to the Transparency essay, Hate Becomes a
Commodity. It was on a page titled, "The Study of Hate" and said: "'This
essay explores a new variation on this endless historical game of
dehumanization and degradation. Now, we have a political system and media
that gain much of their profit and power by turning public figures into
scapegoats..." * The American Indian Representations web site, by Pauline Escudero Shafer, said of Transparency, "Many very good critical analyses here on film, media, television. It is comprised of film, popular culture, post-modern and post-colonial theory and is a website that provides excellent media criticism approaches.... Definitely worth some exploration time." * Steven Dick used the essay Principles of Media Criticism as a reading assignment for a course on media at Southern Illinois University. * Richard Zake used the Transparency essays Truman As Archetype and The Fake Heaven of Claritin in a class he taught on film theory at Chicago State University. * An article titled "Is a 'real' Truman show a good idea?" in the Guardian, a prominent news website in the U.K., says, "There's an interesting Truman site by a Ken Sanes who says the Truman Show tells us that 'if we want to be free and have a chance at an authentic life, we will have to distance ourselves from the safety and comforts of our media-saturated culture and be willing to live in the world as it is'." My essay, "Advertising and the Invention of Postmodernity," appeared in the eighth edition of the textbook, "The Contemporary Reader," by Gary Goshgarian, published by Pearson Longman. * A course titled, Pop Goes Elitism*: Postmodern Discourses in the U.S., at the University of Detroit, Mercy, used a number of Transparency essays as readings. The page said: "Very smart stuff on popular culture, postmodern criticism and analyses, as well as a site on Simulation and Postmodern Society from which the following Disney essays are taken...." It quoted from the front page of a section titled The Age of Simulation, which summarizes the essay, Disney World: Cities of Simulation as Postmodern Utopias: "Like much of popular culture, Disney promises to let us escape the limits of everyday life into a fictional realm of endless happiness in which time and space no longer constrain us. It lets us do now, in simulated form, what we hope to eventually be able to do in reality, with technology. In so doing, it provides a kind of showcase for 'postmodernism.' But the promise of freedom and happiness it offers is mere illusion." It also quoted from the essay, Narcissus and Necessity: Why Are We Creating Virtual Realities? "Virtual realities are a place where our narcissism meets metaphysics, a place where we design fictional worlds modeled after ourselves. But, as we do so, we are beginning to fear that the boundary between the world of fact and fiction is breaking down." * The Transparency column, Faking It, was used in a 2011 course, Social Marketing, at The Experimental College at Tufts University. * The 2010-2011 course, Narrative Structures, in the Department of English Language & Literature at the National University of Singapore used the essay, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman as Moral Fiction. * The column, Between Rock and a Hard Drive, for Exclaim!, a music publication based in Canada, said this about Transparency: "When you tire of Suck's flippancy, visit Transparency for excellent in-depth cultural criticism. This is an impressive collection of essays by journalist Ken Sanes, concerned with finding the truths of the human experience in the stories of popular culture by making these stories 'as transparent as possible.' This includes news, television, film, (advertisements), theme parks, political speeches, everything. Put simply, each of these popular fictions and nonfictions show us as trapped within our daily lives and trying to break free into an authentic life with real values. These popular stories, according to the author, have 'the potential to be catalysts for human freedom.' In trying to use this potential, we face resistance from our fear of the truth, and from those...in power, who manipulate our fear and our progressive desire to live full lives. "A common theme in these
essays is the simulation of reality. (Television), as society's 'primary
simulation machine,' gets addressed in most of these essays, including the
deconstruction of sitcoms like M*A*S*H and. There are also a few essays
devoted to that huge 'virtual reality,' Disney World. This is great material
for teachers, and some of these essays are being read in school." * U. S News & World Report ("U.S. News Online") said this
about the Transparency essay
Disney's
Distorted Mirror: "Transparency, a Web site that critiques the
media, views the Animal Kingdom as a distorted reality. Intriguing,
pretentious, and a little bit Goofy." * A web site that goes with the Houghton Mifflin textbook "Critical Thinking, Thoughtful Writing" by John Chaffee, Christine McMahon and Barbara Stout, lists Transparency as a resource. It describes Transparency as "An extensive site, maintained by Ken Sanes, devoted to the critical analysis of media images, including those in television, movies, and advertising." (That link now goes to a page at
college.cengage.com. According to Wikipedia, Cengage Learning is the
parent company of Houghton Mifflin.) * The Age of Simulation, which is a section of Transparency,
was chosen as a top link by the German language edition of ZDNet, under the
heading, Cool Sites: Postmodern. It said that Transparency, "with a vigorous
swing of the scythe, pulls to pieces the broad field of sitcoms, Virtual
Realities, advertising and all the other Mc-delights," of contemporary
culture. (This is translated from the German.) * The Buddhist web magazine, Zen Unbound, said this about Transparency: "The webspace Transparency is sociologist Ken Sanes' look at the media and how it operates as a funhouse mirror, warping the way we see ourselves as actors in American culture. The articles -- which I believe are all written by Sanes -- are sort of a merry composite of the the intellect and passion of Calvin Trilling, Ralph Nader, and Joseph Campbell with a little Pauline Kael thrown in". It also said, sometime later: "Ken Sanes's
Transparency website is about becoming aware of the meaning of that American
Culture Thing that slams into our faces every day. The best place to start
at this most excellent webspace is with Sanes's article "Popular
Culture Is More Moral (And Less Moral) Than It Is Given Credit For."...The ZU Staff has
a special liking for Sanes's insights on The Truman Show, in "Truman
as Archetype" and on sitcoms in "Situation
Comedies And the Liberating Power of Sadism." (Note: the current zenunbound.com on the web is a different publication. Also the reference to me as a sociologist is obviously just making the point that the writer believes my essays offer sociological insights.) * In a list of Buddhist links, journalist and teacher Paul Schindler refers to my Groundhog Day essay as, "The most comprehensive treatment of this subject still available on line." He found it, he says, "via About.com's Buddhism page." * Kathy Kang, a doctoral candidate in Government and
International Relations at the University of Sydney in Australia, writes:
"Your site is very helpful indeed. Hats off to you, for putting so much
together with great clarity. I hope that many, many teachers and students
are using the site, as a stimulus to further thought and action." * Bonnie E. Law, a Connecticut psychotherapist
who runs
retreats and workshops on the psychology of film said, "I have been watching
this website for awhile now and just wanted to say thanks! The articles are
refreshing and thought provoking as well as stirring. I have put up a link
on my (then) website www.freudian-flicks.com to transparencynow in hopes to share
this with others. Bravo Ken!" * Doug Winkel, who teaches at Shepaug High School in Washington, CT, is used essays on the media from Transparency in his media studies class. "In fact, much of next semester's readings will come from what we can find from your directions. In my course I have always included The Machine Stops, Network, the Truman Show, as well as Broadcast News and many of the sitcoms you have examined," he wrote. "Your site and material (are) very insightful." * BUBL an academic information service for the United Kingdom, listed Transparency as a "Collection of essays which critically discuss representations of popular culture and social theory in the media. Analyses the accuracy of situation comedies as an expression of reality, and the success of post-apocalyptic and science fiction, which seek to transcend reality to explore future worlds. Ideologies of simulation, post-modern societies, and the propagandist potential of news coverage are also covered." It has listed Transparency under the Dewey Decimal Classification system a DeweyClass: 306, which is Culture & institutions under Social sciences, sociology & anthropology. * Intute, which was created by a consortium of seven universities in the United Kingdom to help people find web sites for research and study, describes Transparency as, "A collection of essays about mass media and popular culture written by Ken Sanes of Boston USA, who writes about media criticism and literacy. A 'Teachers' section on the website discusses the use of this material in the USA for teaching media students. The essays cover news, advertising, television, movies, video games, webcams and themed environments. In some cases they are about specific films or programmes, including 'Groundhog Day' and 'Mash'." * A Russian journal, which I believe is called
Artpragmatica, has republished "Zoos, Rain Forest Exhibits and Simulation:
Worlds in a Bottle" in Russian. * Jerry Stearns, the producer of Sound Affects: A Radio
Playground on KFAI-FM in Minneapolis, said of the Transparency essay,
War of
the Worlds, Orson Welles, And The Invasion from Mars: "An article about the
cultural significance of the (War of the Worlds) broadcast and its
after-effects. Written for 'Transparency', a web site offering media
criticism and critique to help people see through and intelligently judge
the world wide media. Orson would be proud." * Wenchi Lin, an Associate Professor in the English
Department at National Central University, Taiwan, used the Transparency
essay Truman As Archetype as an assigned reading in a seminar on film
studies that looked at film and ideology. * The Applied English Language Studies Dept. at the
University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa used The Meaning of The
Truman Show, a page from Truman As Archetype as a classroom reading. * Transparency received a large write-up some years ago on the
Media-Media
Literacy page of the History/Social Studies Web Site for Teachers K-12. "Do
not visit this site unless you have at least 2 hours left on your Internet
account!" it advised readers. * The "academic humorists" at the Jersey College for Girls
listed the Transparency essay "Situation Comedies and the Liberating Power
of Sadism" under the category "Boring but Important." The listing, in the
Media Studies section of the school web site included the text of the essay,
for use by students. * The Mad Max links page at the web site, Amuse
Entertainment, said this: "Ken Sanes' Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: Salvaging
the Future is a thoughtful, deeply analytical essay that discusses the rich
ideas and symbolisms embedded in the third Mad Max film." (This may no
longer be on the web.) * The essay on Sherry Turkle was on the summer reading list
for a course on Information Sources and Services at St. Cloud State
University. The course syllabus said, "Ken Sanes offers his critical
counterpoint on Turkle's thesis in Sherry Turkle Surface, Surface
Everywhere..., from Transparency, an online collection of cultural
criticism." * The Transparency essay, The Deconstruction of Reality:
Modernism: Surface and Depth was used as a class reading by Dr. Robert Van
Wynsberghe, for his class, "Introduction To Sociology,"
in the
Department of
Anthropology/Sociology at the University of British Columbia. It was used in
the section, "Sociology as Science, Activism and the Search for a Moral
Order." * A listing by reference librarians for the
Milner Library,
Illinois State University,
says of my work, "Ken Sanes authors this site
dedicated to 'making things clear.' There seems to be no known motivation
for Mr. Sanes other than his desire to make readers question everything. He
states: 'The point is that we need to look critically at all communications.
That is particularly essential in a time when many people are expert at the
rhetorical manipulation of words and the creation of convincing stage sets
and images.' Indeed, he gives us all something to think about with his pages
dedicated to The Truman Show." * The
Highly Unofficial Logan's Run FAQ said of the essay on
Logan's Run: "Ken Sanes has an exhaustive analysis of the movie from just
about every angle: sociological, mythological, psychological, and, yes, even
Marxist." * Donna McAllister, an editor at the Bob Newhart
Web Site, wrote in e-mail: "Thank you very much for publishing these
pages....They are excellent." * A web page on Socioeconomic Class in Media for a course at
Manchester College in Indiana, said: "This site will help any student of
media to understand its relationship to socio-economic class. 'Transparency'
is the title of this site because its main goal is 'To make everything
clear' for folks who may not have a good understanding of media criticism.
This is 'clearly' the best Site to see." The page, which was apparently
created by students, gave Transparency its "Award of Excellence." *Instructor Raul Reis' Media Ethics class web site at
California State University, Monterey Bay, said of the Transparency section,
Image and Action: Deconstructing the News, "Excellent site with media
criticism and 'deconstruction' of the news media and their reports." * A web site on the media by Peter Vasterman a professor in the School of Journalism, Utrecht. The Netherlands, listed Transparency as a web resource and said it "contains a careful selection of critiques of the mass media, politics, and popular culture." The former Knight Ridder Digital site, Real Cities, listed the Media Criticism page on Transparency as a web resource, under Issues & Commentary. It said, "Media criticism is now essential to defending democracy. This selection of introductory columns and essays offers the essential ideas media criticism must have to do its job." An Introductory College Writing class at Wayne University
used
the Transparency essay Traveling Through Hyperreality With Umberto Eco as a
class reading. * Jeff Deeprose used the Transparency columns,
The Human
Pixel Who Wouldn't and
Faking It, and excerpts from two other essays as
readings in media literacy for his 11th grade English class at St. George's
High School in Montreal. * Dr. Charles E. Licka, Professor of Art History at the
University of Alaska Anchorage, used essays from Transparency as readings
for students taking courses in The History of World II and Art Appreciation.
He also used it as an optional site for students working on projects on
cyberspace and virtual reality. * A page on the web site for the library at Cypress College in Cypress, CA, described Transparency as "A good site to browse for any topic dealing with popular culture." - - - Awards - - - * Transparency received the Britannica Internet Guide Award
for * Transparency received the Internet Brothers Elite Site
Award and Helpware Award. The email announcing the award said: "This is our
highest recognition and one your work richly deserves. Oft times we happen
upon beautifully designed sites that have little or nothing to say. Your
work is a functional utility that has more to
* Transparency
also won the Educational Site Award of Excellence from Innovative Teaching
Concepts, a web site that - - - Journalistic Work - - - * My columns helped expose the existence of fabrications in
Slate magazine in mid 2001, forcing Editor Michael Kinsley to admit the
existence of the fabrications. My role was referred to on the editorial page
of the Wall Street Journal and in various other columns in
OpinionJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal's free online site. * After Sept 11, I was also probably the first to articulate
a viewpoint that quickly became a commonplace - that the media had misled
America into believing that the greatest issues facing it "were the danger
of shark attacks and questions about Gary Condit." I subsequently elaborated
on that idea in a longer piece that also appeared on the Globalvision web
site. * As noted, I have published columns on a number of occasions in various newspapers around the country. More Comments, Classroom Use &
Misc. References * Brian Goodger at the University of Greenwich in the United
Kingdom listed the Transparency essay Ideology, Image Manipulation and
Action in the reading list for his class, Media Representations. * Instructor Ruth Brinton at North Seattle Community College
wrote of Transparency, on a web page directed to students: "This is great!
It has understandable criticism. Check it out thoroughly." * The English class at Swift Current Comprehensive High
School in Saskatchewan, Canada, used Transparency as a class reading
assignment. * Robert L. Davis, Assistant Professor of English and a
Writing Program Coordinator at Eastern Oregon University, described
Transparency as "a great cultural critique site." * Under Cool Sitez, the Zetafonts web page said: "This
website sets out to achieve the seemingly impossible - to 'make things
clear'. It is nothing less than an attempt to put culture and entertainment
into a broader, critical perspective. Unmissable." * Neville Inggs, a South African college teacher is using
work from Transparency in his class, "Media Evaluation." * Student Laurie Ledyard analyzed Transparency for her Mass
Comm Theory class at the University of Texas at Austin. * Cathleen Brant used the essay "Holocaust as Metaphor" and
the accompanying Table of Elements in a course on technology and humanity
she was teaching at the College of the Desert, Palm Desert, CA. She also
used them in her freshman English course. * Websites for Journalists, says of Transparency, "Touted as 'A web site that tries to make things clear,' this site out of Boston (a one-man show by simulation theorist Ken Sanes, as near as I can tell) covers a wide field with essays ranging from popular television to media criticism and lots in between. "Appears aimed at teachers, but journalists should find
food for thought here, though not all of it digestible." * Web-and-Flow, an educational web site, used the essay,
"The Agony of the Scapegoat" as a suggested class reading. "This essay
describes the emotional cost to the scapegoat, especially as it applies to
those in public life," it said. * The web site for Jacksonville Media Watch, on the
University of North Florida web site, lists Transparency as a web resource
and says it "has an interesting Media Criticism section. * Feed magazine said of the essay
Disney's Distorted
Mirror, "Transparency has a fine essay on the new Disney Kingdom...." * Transparency was chosen web site of the month by the NF
Journal, which devoted part of its Sept./Oct., 2000 edition to excerpts from
the site. The Transparency essay on The Andy Griffith Show was also
published in the July/August edition of the journal. The NF Journal is
directed at people who highly value intuition and feeling. (I'm not certain
if it still exists.) * In Yahoo!, under in the category "Cool Links: Surfers'
Picks: Johnnycakes", Transparency was chosen as a recommended site.
Transparency was also chosen as one of the top sites in the Lycos Community
Guide, under the category Personal Philosophy. * In a student project on hyperreality at Purdue, Jen's
Hyperlinks says of Transparency: "Tons of essays and stuff about all the
simulacra and culture and media and deception--it's cool." * The class, Introduction to Drama and Theatre at Furman
University in South Carolina used the Transparency essay
Culture of
Deception: Simulation Confusion as a web reading, with the link, "Essay on
what is fake?" The essay was also used as an assigned reading in
The
Networked Imagination, a class at York University in Toronto, Ontario.
* The Transparency essay World's In a Bottle: Artificial
Rain Forests was linked to by PBS on its Web Resources page about new zoos,
with the directive: "Read an essay which discusses zoo design from an
alternative cultural perspective." * An article on the word "transparency" that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2002, refers to the Transparency web site. It says: "The idea of seeking transparency and the ability to see through illusions is the central idea of philosophy and science. That's true of the Eastern tradition and the Western tradition," says Ken Sanes, a former editorial writer for the Palm Beach Post who operates www.transparencynow.com...." * FUSE, which is a portal of the State of Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, in Australia, has listed Transparency as a resource under the title, Popular culture and television analysed. * Three essays from Transparency were used as readings in a class at the Michigan State University College of Education: Nature, representation & misrepresentation, Virtual realities: Then & Now, and Traveling Through Hyperreality With Umberto Eco. * Two Transparency essays were used in the course, Information in the Digital Age, in the College of Arts and Sciences at George Mason University: Story-Based Simulations: Art and Technology Masquerading as Life and The New Culture War. * The Long Beach City College Pacific Coast Campus Library lists Transparency in a handout for students researching situation comedies. * Anthony Pennings, a teacher at the School of
Communications at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, chose The Age of
Simulation on Transparency as a recommended link for his Simulation and
Hyperreality page, describing it as "an innovative hypertext project." * Dolores JaniewskiI, who teaches at a university in
New Zealand, used essays from Transparency that deal
with the media, ideology and other subjects as assigned readings. The course
examined the issues of power and the media, and modern U.S. history, among
other subjects. * The essay on Traveling Through Hyperreality With Umberto
Eco has been used as
an online reading
in Joseph Pivato's Comparative Literature class at Athabasca University, a school specializing in education at a
distance, in Alberta, Canada. * Bedford/St. Martin's, a college publisher specializing in books on the humanities, listed the essay "Northrop Frye, Simulation, and the Creation of a 'Human World" as one of its links in critical theory, as does teacher David Herring of University High School in Tucson, Arizona, on a page about the theories of Northrop Frye. * Candace Berry used Transparency as a web resource for a
class she was teaching on Simulation at the Morgan State University School
of Engineering in Maryland. * Mike Peek, a student of movie and television science
in
The Netherlands, used the essay Truman As Archetype in a project to compare
the movie, "The Truman Show" and the television program, Big Brother. "I
just want to thank for your wonderful essay on The Truman Show....Your site
has been very helpful!" he wrote. * The Italian webzine, Intercom, had a translation in
Italian by editor Santoni Danilo, of the Transparency essay,
Salvaging the
Future: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. * The Demonweb web site says of the Mad Max essay:
"Examination of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome as a modern myth. A remarkably
good read, highly recommended." * In an online discussion
Donna Barthuley wrote of
Transparency: "The postmodern embracing of appearance over reality is a
subject that has been of abiding interest to me. I have a bookmark to a site
that has great essays on the ever-growing world of simulation that is the
human habitat called Earth....All in all a collection of great essays on
postmodern culture." * The class, "Imaging God's World: Theology in Today's
Video Culture," taught by John Castelein, Professor of Contemporary
Christian Theology and Philosophy at the Lincoln Christian College and
Seminary, used Transparency as a web resource. The class "seeks to equip
students to deal redemptively with images and messages in cinema and
television." * The essay,
War of the Worlds, Orson
Welles, And The Invasion from Mars, has been used in classrooms and been
widely read. The following are among the classes or schools that have used it as
a required or optional reading: In addition, student Vicki Moorman used the essay in preparing a page for a communications class at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Kathryn Denning, an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Anthropology at York University wrote that the section, The Age of Simulation, "contains some interesting essays on artificial nature….Especially http://www.transparencynow.com/zoos1.htm ! " * A student at San Diego State University, offered an
analysis of the Transparency essay, "The News Media’s Effort to Hide from
Significant Truth" for a class. * The web site, Mad Max, described "Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome: Salvaging the Future" as an "excellent essay," with a section
that describes "the very essence of Max." The reference appears to
no longer be on the web. * Academicwriting.com said of Transparency: "this
outstanding site features articles and critical essays on media and popular
culture. Check out Ken Sanes's essays on The Truman Show and
Groundhog Day!" * Maria Chiara Pievatolo prominently quotes the Transparency
essay Sherry Turkle Surface, Surface Everywhere... in her discussion of
Turkle on the web site, La Repubblica di Platone, which appears to be about
Plato's Republic. The site on Internet Publishing at Loyola College listed
the Sherry Turkle essay under "Web Hot Shots" and the Transparency home page
on its postmodernism page. Robert Fortner used the essay
Sherry Turkle Surface,
Surface Everywhere..., as an assigned reading for a course on media at
Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. * A web site used in
a class at California State University,
Dominguez Hills says, "For a sense of how others are
going about a similar effort to transform our discourse, read Culture,
Society, Self & Nature on Transparency Now. Ken Sanes seems to have a very
similar project in mind (similar to thinkers studied in the class.)" Under
the heading "You Gotta Read This:" a page (that wasn't available
on the most recent search) links to the
Transparency column, The Human Pixel Who Wouldn't. * A letter I sent Part or all of a letter I sent to Salon magazine on the movie, The Truman Show, was reposted on Criticism.com. Instructor Richard Chalfen in the Department of Anthropology at Temple University in Philadelphia used a quote from the letter at the top of his listing for the course, American (Visual) Culture, in 2002. The quote is: "The Truman Show offers a grand metaphor for contemporary American culture. Its message is that we are immersed in a media landscape of lifelike fantasies that serves the interests of those in power. If we want to be free and have a chance at an authentic life, it tells us, we have to distance ourselves from the safety and comforts of our media-saturated culture, and be willing to live in the world as it is.” Teacher David G. Danielson used the same quote in a Word essay for his fall, 2010, Introduction to Philosophy class at the College of San Mateo. * Caroline Garner, a student at the University of
Houston-Clear Lake, used the section of the essay on Logan's Run titled
"Logan's Run as Myth: Adam, Christ, Rome," as a source of information for a
brief report on Mythic Elements in Science Fiction. * Christine Alice Corcos used the Transparency essay on
Logan's Run as a source of information for her essay "'I Am Not a Number! I
Am a Free Man!': Physical and Psychological Imprisonment In Science
Fiction," which appeared in the Legal Studies Forum and was also posted on
the University of Texas School of Law web site. * The essay on the Mary Tyler Moore Show was used as a
reading in a course on American history at San Antonio College as part of a
discussion on feminism. * Social Criticism Review, a web site based in the Netherlands with an index of links to essays on the Internet that deal with contemporary issues, includes at least four links to Transparency. * SocioSite, which is produced by the Sociological Institute of the University of Amsterdam, describes Transparency as: "A comprehensive theory of culture as a form of action, and as a disguised expression of our deepest fears and desires. It seeks to make all of popular culture -- movies, TV, news, politics, theme parks, advertisements, video games, et al -- transparent to the reader's view and understanding. Part of his project is Image and Action: Deconstructing the News, a book-in-progress about the way the representations and communications of the news media are forms of action and interaction. It is focused on the way images are manipulated in the media (as well as in everyday conversation) in an effort to gain and exert power." * The website philosophicalsociety.com says: "The articles are intelligent and well written, the work of someone eager to understand the complexities of his world." One of the essays it recommends is The Deconstruction of Reality, which it says is "A good overview of the philosophy of modernism and its offshoot, postmodernism." * Teacher Robert A. Crawford said of the essay on Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome Salvaging the Future, "this entire lesson plan would not have been possible if not for the superb analytical essay by Ken Sanes at Transparency.com." This appears on a personal website address, although at the time he was teaching at Pine Crest School in South Florida. * In addition to these mentions, there are (or in some cases were) links to Transparency at the Internet Movie Database; Voice of the Shuttle; Yahoo!; the C. G. Jung Home Page, the Borough of Manhattan Community College Library, and numerous other sites and indexes around the Internet. * A listing of web resources connected to the book
Sociology Matters, on the McGraw-Hill Higher education website,
linked to the section of Transparency titled Simulation and Postmodern
Society, and said: * Finally, here is an abbreviated biography from the 2003 edition of WHO’SWHO in America (which I neglected to ask them to keep including every year): "SANES, KEN ROSS, critic; b. Bklyn., Mar. 4, 1953; s. William and Frances Sanes. BA magna cum laude, Tufts U., 1975. Columnist, editor, mem. editl. bd. Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Fla., 1980-89; writer, media critic, 1989-. Writer, designer Transparency website, 1997- (Britannica Internet Guide award, Internet Bros. Elite Site award and Helpware award, NetMagick Master of Content award, Ednl. Site award of excellence, Innovative Tchg. Concepts, Channel One Network resource, resource of numerous univs., schs., and media orgns.)". As I noted at the beginning, all of this is a way of letting you know that many people have found work of value on this website. If you are interested in reprinting some of these essays for classroom use or you need additional information on what essays might be appropriate to use, please contact me. It usually takes me a few days to respond. But I hope these essays will continue to be of interest to a lot of different kinds of people, in addition to teachers and students. One way you can learn more is to click the home icon below to go to the home page and explore further. 
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I created Transparency in
1996 and early 1997 to offer a portion of my
writing on what I consider to be some of the central issues in our lives.
I'm happy to say that the site evoked a powerful response on the
Internet: the writing was used in college classrooms in many places around the
world; students cited them in papers, and a large number readers expressed
positive opinions in letters and on web sites. I've counted about 150
classrooms that used the work, but I think the total is a lot higher. 
high quality web sites that are deemed among "the best on the Internet
when reviewed for quality, accuracy of content, presentation and usability."
gathered and organized so much material that we are sure your readers have
to come back many times just to scratch the surface of all you have to
offer. It is obvious the amount of time and effort you have placed into both
your research and presentation." At the time of the award, NetMagick awards
were listed by awardsites.com as 5.0 Level Rated Awards.
acts as an education resource. "Your site has
exceeded our expectations in providing outstanding and innovative
educational content, as well as superior design layout," the award says. "We
are delighted to present you our Four-Star Award and extend our appreciation
for your efforts and dedication to the educational community".