Huatong Sun
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199744763
- eISBN:
- 9780199932993
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744763.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Models and Architectures
A demanding challenge in cross-cultural design is how to make a usable technology meaningful to local users. This book examines the disconnect of action and meaning in cross-cultural design and ...
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A demanding challenge in cross-cultural design is how to make a usable technology meaningful to local users. This book examines the disconnect of action and meaning in cross-cultural design and presents an innovative framework “Culturally Localized User Experience (CLUE)” to tackle the problem. Drawing from three strands of practice theories—activity theory, British cultural studies, and rhetorical genre theory, the CLUE approach regards local culture as the dynamic nexus of contextual interactions and integrates action and meaning through a dialogical, cyclical design process in order to design a technology that would engage local users within meaningful social practices. With five in-depth case studies of mobile text messaging use in American and Chinese contexts, this book demonstrates that a technology creating for a culturally localized user experience mediates both instrumental practices and social meanings. It calls for a change in cross-cultural design practices from simply applying cultural conventions in design to localizing for social affordances with rich understandings of use activities in context. Meanwhile, the vivid user stories at sites of technology-in-use show the power of “user localization” in connecting design and use, which the book believes essential for the success of an emerging technology like mobile messaging in an era of participatory culture. This book is divided into three parts: theoretical grounding for key concepts, case histories, and scholarly implications. It explores how to create culture-sensitive technology for local users in this increasingly globalized world with a rising participatory culture.Less
A demanding challenge in cross-cultural design is how to make a usable technology meaningful to local users. This book examines the disconnect of action and meaning in cross-cultural design and presents an innovative framework “Culturally Localized User Experience (CLUE)” to tackle the problem. Drawing from three strands of practice theories—activity theory, British cultural studies, and rhetorical genre theory, the CLUE approach regards local culture as the dynamic nexus of contextual interactions and integrates action and meaning through a dialogical, cyclical design process in order to design a technology that would engage local users within meaningful social practices. With five in-depth case studies of mobile text messaging use in American and Chinese contexts, this book demonstrates that a technology creating for a culturally localized user experience mediates both instrumental practices and social meanings. It calls for a change in cross-cultural design practices from simply applying cultural conventions in design to localizing for social affordances with rich understandings of use activities in context. Meanwhile, the vivid user stories at sites of technology-in-use show the power of “user localization” in connecting design and use, which the book believes essential for the success of an emerging technology like mobile messaging in an era of participatory culture. This book is divided into three parts: theoretical grounding for key concepts, case histories, and scholarly implications. It explores how to create culture-sensitive technology for local users in this increasingly globalized world with a rising participatory culture.
Liam Burke
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462036
- eISBN:
- 9781626745193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462036.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative ...
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Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative traditions to cinema. This process became more intensive and far-reaching in the digital age. Consequently, filmmakers, many of whom initially adopted a protectionist stance, have chosen to (or been forced to) recognize the merits of comic book publishing practices. In recent years, this has led to a refocusing of marketing campaigns, the development of new production practices, greater fidelity between texts, as well as a number of other strategies that position fans at the center of comic book adaptation production.Less
Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative traditions to cinema. This process became more intensive and far-reaching in the digital age. Consequently, filmmakers, many of whom initially adopted a protectionist stance, have chosen to (or been forced to) recognize the merits of comic book publishing practices. In recent years, this has led to a refocusing of marketing campaigns, the development of new production practices, greater fidelity between texts, as well as a number of other strategies that position fans at the center of comic book adaptation production.
Huatong Sun
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199744763
- eISBN:
- 9780199932993
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744763.003.0011
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Models and Architectures
This concluding chapter suggests future directions for the research and practice of cross-cultural technology in a glocalization age. Centering on a dialogical approach, it analyzes what the ...
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This concluding chapter suggests future directions for the research and practice of cross-cultural technology in a glocalization age. Centering on a dialogical approach, it analyzes what the cross-cultural design community could learn from the user localization efforts to design for, invoke, nurture, encourage, support, and sustain culturally localized user experience —the consummate experience—for emerging technologies. It studies the characteristics and value as well as the role and functions of user localization in a technology’s whole design, production, and use cycle and discusses how to route those user efforts into the design process to better address user needs and expectations in this rising participatory culture. Real-world examples are supplemented to further the discussion beyond the case study when needed.Less
This concluding chapter suggests future directions for the research and practice of cross-cultural technology in a glocalization age. Centering on a dialogical approach, it analyzes what the cross-cultural design community could learn from the user localization efforts to design for, invoke, nurture, encourage, support, and sustain culturally localized user experience —the consummate experience—for emerging technologies. It studies the characteristics and value as well as the role and functions of user localization in a technology’s whole design, production, and use cycle and discusses how to route those user efforts into the design process to better address user needs and expectations in this rising participatory culture. Real-world examples are supplemented to further the discussion beyond the case study when needed.
Angela J. Aguayo
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190676216
- eISBN:
- 9780190676254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190676216.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Despite the increasing tendency for documentary to function as political discourse, there is little historical work addressing the rhetorical and material influence of documentary in public life. ...
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Despite the increasing tendency for documentary to function as political discourse, there is little historical work addressing the rhetorical and material influence of documentary in public life. These stories of documentary impulse and political struggle have been only erratically recorded. Documentary scholarship frequently addresses the issues that surround the process of social change, focusing on the screen as the central location for communicative exchange, but there are many other sites of struggle for those working on the ground with documentary and the political process. This chapter will cover the broader questions of documentary and social change, how it functions in relation to generating participatory media cultures. The chapter will specifically address the shifts in the documentary commons and how opportunities for social change emerged as it moved through the introduction of portable analog video recording equipment in the late 1960s and on into a digital culture of new media. This chapter will contribute to articulating the ways in which documentary is a distinct form of discourse that engages the political in patterned ways, creating a mediated commons for the engagement of political struggle.Less
Despite the increasing tendency for documentary to function as political discourse, there is little historical work addressing the rhetorical and material influence of documentary in public life. These stories of documentary impulse and political struggle have been only erratically recorded. Documentary scholarship frequently addresses the issues that surround the process of social change, focusing on the screen as the central location for communicative exchange, but there are many other sites of struggle for those working on the ground with documentary and the political process. This chapter will cover the broader questions of documentary and social change, how it functions in relation to generating participatory media cultures. The chapter will specifically address the shifts in the documentary commons and how opportunities for social change emerged as it moved through the introduction of portable analog video recording equipment in the late 1960s and on into a digital culture of new media. This chapter will contribute to articulating the ways in which documentary is a distinct form of discourse that engages the political in patterned ways, creating a mediated commons for the engagement of political struggle.
Marina Umaschi Bers
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199757022
- eISBN:
- 9780199933037
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199757022.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter focuses on technologies as spaces to create content, and in the process, to promote the development of competence. Competence is defined as the possession of a skill, knowledge, or ...
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This chapter focuses on technologies as spaces to create content, and in the process, to promote the development of competence. Competence is defined as the possession of a skill, knowledge, or capacity. In this context, competence refers to the ability to use technology to create or design personally meaningful projects, to accomplish a goal, and to debug projects and problem-solve. When one uses technology to create content, one also learns how to organize the content domain and how to choose the core ideas. This set of new ideas will be referred in the book as powerful ideas from the content domain. This chapter highlights how children can create digital content, especially through computer programming. Aside from programming, children can engage in the participatory culture of the internet, creating content that is shared with millions. As children become competent by creating digital projects, they are prepared to enter a world in which technological fluency is key.Less
This chapter focuses on technologies as spaces to create content, and in the process, to promote the development of competence. Competence is defined as the possession of a skill, knowledge, or capacity. In this context, competence refers to the ability to use technology to create or design personally meaningful projects, to accomplish a goal, and to debug projects and problem-solve. When one uses technology to create content, one also learns how to organize the content domain and how to choose the core ideas. This set of new ideas will be referred in the book as powerful ideas from the content domain. This chapter highlights how children can create digital content, especially through computer programming. Aside from programming, children can engage in the participatory culture of the internet, creating content that is shared with millions. As children become competent by creating digital projects, they are prepared to enter a world in which technological fluency is key.
Ryan M. Milner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034999
- eISBN:
- 9780262335911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034999.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter argues that memetic participation complicates the culture industries that remain at the heart of public life. It assesses the ambivalent relationship between collective participation and ...
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This chapter argues that memetic participation complicates the culture industries that remain at the heart of public life. It assesses the ambivalent relationship between collective participation and individual expression, especially when age-old gatekeepers intertwine with new means of sharing information. It focuses on the complex relationship between collectivism, publicity, and fame in memetic media, as well as on concerns about commercialism and authenticity in a seemingly open media ecology. The tapestry of conversation afforded by memetic media is part new precedent and part established infrastructure. Memetic media intertwine with established culture industries; ambivalent network gatekeeping enables both restrictive commercial control of mediated participation and conversations open enough to cast doubts on the credibility of information. In this way, memetic media exhibit new potentials and old tensions.Less
This chapter argues that memetic participation complicates the culture industries that remain at the heart of public life. It assesses the ambivalent relationship between collective participation and individual expression, especially when age-old gatekeepers intertwine with new means of sharing information. It focuses on the complex relationship between collectivism, publicity, and fame in memetic media, as well as on concerns about commercialism and authenticity in a seemingly open media ecology. The tapestry of conversation afforded by memetic media is part new precedent and part established infrastructure. Memetic media intertwine with established culture industries; ambivalent network gatekeeping enables both restrictive commercial control of mediated participation and conversations open enough to cast doubts on the credibility of information. In this way, memetic media exhibit new potentials and old tensions.
Evan S. Tobias
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199384747
- eISBN:
- 9780199384778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199384747.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, Performing Practice/Studies
This chapter explores two aspects of contemporary society, digital media and participatory culture, as each holds great potential for expanding, modifying, and potentially restructuring music teacher ...
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This chapter explores two aspects of contemporary society, digital media and participatory culture, as each holds great potential for expanding, modifying, and potentially restructuring music teacher education programs. Assisting pre-service music educators to develop the skills, understanding, and dispositions to weave together musicianship with digital media and participatory culture necessitates an understanding of digital media’s characteristics, processes, and the cultural contexts in which they are situated. This chapter outlines and contextualizes aspects of participatory culture and five characteristics of digital media (digital, networked, interactive, hypertextual, and virtual) in terms of musical engagement, teaching, and learning, with a focus on pre-service music education. The chapter provides a foundation for addressing twenty-first-century musicianship, digital media, and participatory culture in existing curricular structures and through collaborative projects that span undergraduate curricula.Less
This chapter explores two aspects of contemporary society, digital media and participatory culture, as each holds great potential for expanding, modifying, and potentially restructuring music teacher education programs. Assisting pre-service music educators to develop the skills, understanding, and dispositions to weave together musicianship with digital media and participatory culture necessitates an understanding of digital media’s characteristics, processes, and the cultural contexts in which they are situated. This chapter outlines and contextualizes aspects of participatory culture and five characteristics of digital media (digital, networked, interactive, hypertextual, and virtual) in terms of musical engagement, teaching, and learning, with a focus on pre-service music education. The chapter provides a foundation for addressing twenty-first-century musicianship, digital media, and participatory culture in existing curricular structures and through collaborative projects that span undergraduate curricula.
Angela J. Aguayo
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190676216
- eISBN:
- 9780190676254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190676216.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
We are living in a historical moment that will be known for its emphasis on media engagement. The evolution of mobile media technology, the ubiquity of social media, and the omnipresence of multiple ...
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We are living in a historical moment that will be known for its emphasis on media engagement. The evolution of mobile media technology, the ubiquity of social media, and the omnipresence of multiple media platforms in each of our lives have led to new and evolving modes of interaction with the experience of the media screen. The interactive conditions of digital culture in the United States align with a significant historical moment: growing political and social upheaval, economic crisis, dissatisfaction with representative government, and disillusionment with state institutions. Together, these conditions have given rise to an emerging participatory media culture(s) engaged in addressing problems, exposing exploitation, facilitating media witnessing, and taking back the means of media production and circulation. The chapter argues for an understanding of documentary practice as a mediated commons. This book focuses on how the visual culture(s) of documentary moving images are harnessed as a means of resistance in forms that include witnessing, petition, solidification, polarization, and promulgation. It will examine the ways in which documentary as a mode of production engages in the process of social change.Less
We are living in a historical moment that will be known for its emphasis on media engagement. The evolution of mobile media technology, the ubiquity of social media, and the omnipresence of multiple media platforms in each of our lives have led to new and evolving modes of interaction with the experience of the media screen. The interactive conditions of digital culture in the United States align with a significant historical moment: growing political and social upheaval, economic crisis, dissatisfaction with representative government, and disillusionment with state institutions. Together, these conditions have given rise to an emerging participatory media culture(s) engaged in addressing problems, exposing exploitation, facilitating media witnessing, and taking back the means of media production and circulation. The chapter argues for an understanding of documentary practice as a mediated commons. This book focuses on how the visual culture(s) of documentary moving images are harnessed as a means of resistance in forms that include witnessing, petition, solidification, polarization, and promulgation. It will examine the ways in which documentary as a mode of production engages in the process of social change.
Ryan M. Milner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034999
- eISBN:
- 9780262335911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034999.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter argues that memetic media carry the potential for polyvocal public voice, even given their everyday antagonisms. Focusing on mediated conversations surrounding the Occupy Wall Street ...
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This chapter argues that memetic media carry the potential for polyvocal public voice, even given their everyday antagonisms. Focusing on mediated conversations surrounding the Occupy Wall Street movement, it addresses tensions between populism and pastiche when popular culture is part of public commentary. Vernacular creativity can be utilized for collective civic talk, as participants create, circulate, and transform memetic media in the name of critique, discussion, and argument. Memetic logics, grammar, and vernacular underscore a system of assertion and response, of point and counter-point as public participants contribute their expressive strands to vast public debates. Even if individual contributions are ambivalent and factionist, memetic media can indeed facilitate vibrant polyvocal participation, and our public conversations are stronger when they do.Less
This chapter argues that memetic media carry the potential for polyvocal public voice, even given their everyday antagonisms. Focusing on mediated conversations surrounding the Occupy Wall Street movement, it addresses tensions between populism and pastiche when popular culture is part of public commentary. Vernacular creativity can be utilized for collective civic talk, as participants create, circulate, and transform memetic media in the name of critique, discussion, and argument. Memetic logics, grammar, and vernacular underscore a system of assertion and response, of point and counter-point as public participants contribute their expressive strands to vast public debates. Even if individual contributions are ambivalent and factionist, memetic media can indeed facilitate vibrant polyvocal participation, and our public conversations are stronger when they do.
Angela J. Aguayo
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190676216
- eISBN:
- 9780190676254
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190676216.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The potential of documentary moving images to foster democratic exchange has been percolating within media production culture for the last century, and now, with mobile cameras at our fingertips and ...
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The potential of documentary moving images to foster democratic exchange has been percolating within media production culture for the last century, and now, with mobile cameras at our fingertips and broadcasts circulating through unpredictable social networks, the documentary impulse is coming into its own as a political force of social change. The exploding reach and power of audio and video are multiplying documentary modes of communication. Once considered an outsider media practice, documentary is finding mass appeal in the allure of moving images, collecting participatory audiences that create meaningful challenges to the social order. Documentary is adept at collecting frames of human experience, challenging those insights, and turning these stories into public knowledge that is palpable for audiences. Generating pathways of exchange between unlikely interlocutors, collective identification forged with documentary discourse constitutes a mode of political agency that is directing energy toward acting in the world. Reflecting experiences of life unfolding before the camera, documentary representations help order social relationships that deepen our public connections and generate collective roots. As digital culture creates new pathways through which information can flow, the connections generated from social change documentary constitute an emerging public commons. Considering the deep ideological divisions that are fracturing U.S. democracy, it is of critical significance to understand how communities negotiate power and difference by way of an expanding documentary commons. Investment in the force of documentary resistance helps cultivate an understanding of political life from the margins, where documentary production practices are a form of survival.Less
The potential of documentary moving images to foster democratic exchange has been percolating within media production culture for the last century, and now, with mobile cameras at our fingertips and broadcasts circulating through unpredictable social networks, the documentary impulse is coming into its own as a political force of social change. The exploding reach and power of audio and video are multiplying documentary modes of communication. Once considered an outsider media practice, documentary is finding mass appeal in the allure of moving images, collecting participatory audiences that create meaningful challenges to the social order. Documentary is adept at collecting frames of human experience, challenging those insights, and turning these stories into public knowledge that is palpable for audiences. Generating pathways of exchange between unlikely interlocutors, collective identification forged with documentary discourse constitutes a mode of political agency that is directing energy toward acting in the world. Reflecting experiences of life unfolding before the camera, documentary representations help order social relationships that deepen our public connections and generate collective roots. As digital culture creates new pathways through which information can flow, the connections generated from social change documentary constitute an emerging public commons. Considering the deep ideological divisions that are fracturing U.S. democracy, it is of critical significance to understand how communities negotiate power and difference by way of an expanding documentary commons. Investment in the force of documentary resistance helps cultivate an understanding of political life from the margins, where documentary production practices are a form of survival.
Ryan M. Milner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034999
- eISBN:
- 9780262335911
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034999.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This book presents an analysis of internet memes, the linguistic, image, audio, and video texts created, circulated, and transformed by countless cultural participants across vast networks and ...
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This book presents an analysis of internet memes, the linguistic, image, audio, and video texts created, circulated, and transformed by countless cultural participants across vast networks and collectives. They can be widely shared catchphrases, auto-tuned songs, manipulated stock photos, or recordings of physical performances. They’re used to make jokes, argue points, and connect friends. As these texts have become increasingly prominent and prolific, the logics underscoring them—multimodality, reappropriation, resonance, collectivism, and spread—have become lynchpins of mediated participation. Even as individual internet memes rise and fall, the contemporary media ecology persists in being memetic. In this ecology, vibrant collective conversations occur across constellations of mediated commentary, remix, and play. Through memetic media, everyday members of the public can contribute their small strands of expression to the vast cultural tapestry.
This book assesses the relationship between those small strands and that vast tapestry, exploring the good, the bad, and the in-between of collective conversation. Memetic media are used to connect participants across distance and context, but they’re also used to dehumanize others through the dominant perspectives they normalize. They’re used to express beyond narrow gatekeeping systems, but they’re still embedded in wider culture industries. Memetic media bring with them a mix of new potentials and old tensions, woven into the cultural tapestry by countless contributors. This book charts that intertwine.Less
This book presents an analysis of internet memes, the linguistic, image, audio, and video texts created, circulated, and transformed by countless cultural participants across vast networks and collectives. They can be widely shared catchphrases, auto-tuned songs, manipulated stock photos, or recordings of physical performances. They’re used to make jokes, argue points, and connect friends. As these texts have become increasingly prominent and prolific, the logics underscoring them—multimodality, reappropriation, resonance, collectivism, and spread—have become lynchpins of mediated participation. Even as individual internet memes rise and fall, the contemporary media ecology persists in being memetic. In this ecology, vibrant collective conversations occur across constellations of mediated commentary, remix, and play. Through memetic media, everyday members of the public can contribute their small strands of expression to the vast cultural tapestry.
This book assesses the relationship between those small strands and that vast tapestry, exploring the good, the bad, and the in-between of collective conversation. Memetic media are used to connect participants across distance and context, but they’re also used to dehumanize others through the dominant perspectives they normalize. They’re used to express beyond narrow gatekeeping systems, but they’re still embedded in wider culture industries. Memetic media bring with them a mix of new potentials and old tensions, woven into the cultural tapestry by countless contributors. This book charts that intertwine.
Ryan M. Milner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034999
- eISBN:
- 9780262335911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034999.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter introduces the fundamentals of memetic media. It traces the (imperfect) connections between conceptualizations of memes as cultural replicators and the mediated texts that have come to ...
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This chapter introduces the fundamentals of memetic media. It traces the (imperfect) connections between conceptualizations of memes as cultural replicators and the mediated texts that have come to bear the name in pop cultural parlance. It then outlines five fundamental logics central to memetic participation. Memetic media are unique for their multimodality (their expression in multiple modes of communication), reappropriation (their “poaching” of existing texts), resonance (their connections to individual participants), collectivism (their social creation and transformation), and spread (their circulation through mass networks). These logics persist beyond individual texts, and are lynchpins for public conversations occurring across mediated contexts.Less
This chapter introduces the fundamentals of memetic media. It traces the (imperfect) connections between conceptualizations of memes as cultural replicators and the mediated texts that have come to bear the name in pop cultural parlance. It then outlines five fundamental logics central to memetic participation. Memetic media are unique for their multimodality (their expression in multiple modes of communication), reappropriation (their “poaching” of existing texts), resonance (their connections to individual participants), collectivism (their social creation and transformation), and spread (their circulation through mass networks). These logics persist beyond individual texts, and are lynchpins for public conversations occurring across mediated contexts.
Nancy K. Baym
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479896165
- eISBN:
- 9781479815357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479896165.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Beginning with the story of the advent of online crowdfunding, this chapter shows how audiences organized into participatory fandoms during the twentieth century. It defines fandom and shows its ...
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Beginning with the story of the advent of online crowdfunding, this chapter shows how audiences organized into participatory fandoms during the twentieth century. It defines fandom and shows its tensions between anticapitalism and consumerism. It traces the evolution of online fandom, beginning with BBSs and mailing lists through to the World Wide Web. The progression is illustrated in part through the author’s experiences as a young fan before the internet and as an older able to take advantage of online resources. It closes with the argument that by the time artists came to the internet with hopes of marketing their music, fans had already set the terms of engagement with the gift cultures they had established online.Less
Beginning with the story of the advent of online crowdfunding, this chapter shows how audiences organized into participatory fandoms during the twentieth century. It defines fandom and shows its tensions between anticapitalism and consumerism. It traces the evolution of online fandom, beginning with BBSs and mailing lists through to the World Wide Web. The progression is illustrated in part through the author’s experiences as a young fan before the internet and as an older able to take advantage of online resources. It closes with the argument that by the time artists came to the internet with hopes of marketing their music, fans had already set the terms of engagement with the gift cultures they had established online.
Eric Kluitenberg
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199393749
- eISBN:
- 9780199393770
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199393749.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition, Performing Practice/Studies
Participatory cultures attempt to lift citizens out of individual isolation to engage them in processes of communal exchange, creating forms of sociality that enable new forms of the political to ...
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Participatory cultures attempt to lift citizens out of individual isolation to engage them in processes of communal exchange, creating forms of sociality that enable new forms of the political to emerge. However, this simultaneously enables new strategic forces of commodification and coercion. The question here seems to be how to retain the clear emancipatory potential that can be found in these expanded practices of participatory culture without falling prone to the new powerful strategic forms of coercion, particularly in the online domain. This chapter examines three art initiatives that offer important insights into how this complex negotiation might be achieved: the art collectives Furtherfield from London and Not An Alternative from Brooklyn, and the participatory theater project “Days of the Commune,” staged in the context of Occupy Wall Street. What these three initiatives share is a critical understanding and deep rootedness in both local offline cultures and translocal online cultures.Less
Participatory cultures attempt to lift citizens out of individual isolation to engage them in processes of communal exchange, creating forms of sociality that enable new forms of the political to emerge. However, this simultaneously enables new strategic forces of commodification and coercion. The question here seems to be how to retain the clear emancipatory potential that can be found in these expanded practices of participatory culture without falling prone to the new powerful strategic forms of coercion, particularly in the online domain. This chapter examines three art initiatives that offer important insights into how this complex negotiation might be achieved: the art collectives Furtherfield from London and Not An Alternative from Brooklyn, and the participatory theater project “Days of the Commune,” staged in the context of Occupy Wall Street. What these three initiatives share is a critical understanding and deep rootedness in both local offline cultures and translocal online cultures.
Ryan M. Milner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034999
- eISBN:
- 9780262335911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034999.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter focuses on the complex multimodal reappropriation at the heart of memetic media, outlining the socially-situated grammar that connects participants as they employ memetic media in their ...
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This chapter focuses on the complex multimodal reappropriation at the heart of memetic media, outlining the socially-situated grammar that connects participants as they employ memetic media in their conversations. This grammar is premised on bricolage and poaching, on participants “making do” by transforming media texts they didn’t narrowly create and don’t narrowly own. It addresses the tensions between imitation and transformation in this process, arguing that the bricolage and poaching at the heart of memetic media are creative, expressive acts. As it outlines the formal and social dimensions underscoring memetic media, it builds a case for the persistent power of memetic logics as a lingua franca for public conversation.Less
This chapter focuses on the complex multimodal reappropriation at the heart of memetic media, outlining the socially-situated grammar that connects participants as they employ memetic media in their conversations. This grammar is premised on bricolage and poaching, on participants “making do” by transforming media texts they didn’t narrowly create and don’t narrowly own. It addresses the tensions between imitation and transformation in this process, arguing that the bricolage and poaching at the heart of memetic media are creative, expressive acts. As it outlines the formal and social dimensions underscoring memetic media, it builds a case for the persistent power of memetic logics as a lingua franca for public conversation.
Christina Dunbar-Hester
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262028127
- eISBN:
- 9780262320498
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028127.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on the productive and affective priorities of technological activism. It describes a pedagogical workshop the activists held over a weekend—the barnraising ethos in miniature, ...
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This chapter focuses on the productive and affective priorities of technological activism. It describes a pedagogical workshop the activists held over a weekend—the barnraising ethos in miniature, with attendant advantages and difficulties for activists, novices, and expert participants. It draws out some of the dynamics surrounding expertise that vexed the activists as they tried to realize a political vision that called for equality. It shows that one consequence of promoting technology as a platform for emancipatory politics is that this can result in a constant battle with unequally distributed expertise.Less
This chapter focuses on the productive and affective priorities of technological activism. It describes a pedagogical workshop the activists held over a weekend—the barnraising ethos in miniature, with attendant advantages and difficulties for activists, novices, and expert participants. It draws out some of the dynamics surrounding expertise that vexed the activists as they tried to realize a political vision that called for equality. It shows that one consequence of promoting technology as a platform for emancipatory politics is that this can result in a constant battle with unequally distributed expertise.
David Buckingham
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034470
- eISBN:
- 9780262334853
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034470.003.0011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter makes the case for what and how we should teach
about media in K-12 schools and universities. The author takes a measured approach, advocating the teaching of both traditional media ...
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This chapter makes the case for what and how we should teach
about media in K-12 schools and universities. The author takes a measured approach, advocating the teaching of both traditional media criticism as well as Web 2.0 skills related to content creation and participation. Further, Buckingham urges educators to resist what he calls “techno-fetishism,” or celebrating technology in education for its own sake. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that educators who do not participate in new media culture risk losing the so-called
“right to teach” by living in a different society than that of their students.Less
This chapter makes the case for what and how we should teach
about media in K-12 schools and universities. The author takes a measured approach, advocating the teaching of both traditional media criticism as well as Web 2.0 skills related to content creation and participation. Further, Buckingham urges educators to resist what he calls “techno-fetishism,” or celebrating technology in education for its own sake. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that educators who do not participate in new media culture risk losing the so-called
“right to teach” by living in a different society than that of their students.
Ryan M. Milner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034999
- eISBN:
- 9780262335911
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034999.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter focuses on the everyday antagonisms that are perpetuated through memetic participation, specifically regarding race and gender identities. However, it also argues that memetic ...
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This chapter focuses on the everyday antagonisms that are perpetuated through memetic participation, specifically regarding race and gender identities. However, it also argues that memetic participation can be employed for the counterpublic contestation of those same antagonisms. The memetic logics, grammar, and vernacular introduced in the first half of the book are tools employed for both silencing marginalization and vocal pushback of that marginalization. The nature of this counterpublic engagement is ambivalent though, given that memetic media are often fraught with ambiguous irony and ambivalent humor. Genuine antagonisms and marginalizations can thrive under the “just joking” frame. But—even in the midst of this ambivalent system—there is value to the agonistic counterpublic engagement occurring through memetic media. Voice exists, even in the midst of the tensions evident throughout this discussion.Less
This chapter focuses on the everyday antagonisms that are perpetuated through memetic participation, specifically regarding race and gender identities. However, it also argues that memetic participation can be employed for the counterpublic contestation of those same antagonisms. The memetic logics, grammar, and vernacular introduced in the first half of the book are tools employed for both silencing marginalization and vocal pushback of that marginalization. The nature of this counterpublic engagement is ambivalent though, given that memetic media are often fraught with ambiguous irony and ambivalent humor. Genuine antagonisms and marginalizations can thrive under the “just joking” frame. But—even in the midst of this ambivalent system—there is value to the agonistic counterpublic engagement occurring through memetic media. Voice exists, even in the midst of the tensions evident throughout this discussion.
Lakshmi Srinivas
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226361420
- eISBN:
- 9780226361734
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226361734.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
Chapter 1 introduces the field of Indian cinema, its public culture characterized by diversity and the diversity of its audiences. It also introduces Bangalore city, the field setting for the study. ...
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Chapter 1 introduces the field of Indian cinema, its public culture characterized by diversity and the diversity of its audiences. It also introduces Bangalore city, the field setting for the study. The chapter argues that Indian cinema and filmgoing culture as a non-European cinematic tradition provides a strategic site for a 'field-view' and in-depth ethnography that can address much of what has been overlooked in film studies. Where cinema exists as spectacle and cultural performance and draws on the aesthetics of festival, ethnographic study shows that purely filmic or textual analysis misses the complexities of cinema on the ground. The chapter critiques the Eurocentrism of film studies, describes the difficulties of conducting audience research and the challenges of ethnographic fieldwork as it calls for understandings of cinema and its experience that are grounded in the immediate contexts and institutional settings as well as the broader participatory culture in which cinema exists, is made and recast. It proposes new analytical approaches that are located in cinema’s social world and in settings in which films are made, appropriated and elaborated.Less
Chapter 1 introduces the field of Indian cinema, its public culture characterized by diversity and the diversity of its audiences. It also introduces Bangalore city, the field setting for the study. The chapter argues that Indian cinema and filmgoing culture as a non-European cinematic tradition provides a strategic site for a 'field-view' and in-depth ethnography that can address much of what has been overlooked in film studies. Where cinema exists as spectacle and cultural performance and draws on the aesthetics of festival, ethnographic study shows that purely filmic or textual analysis misses the complexities of cinema on the ground. The chapter critiques the Eurocentrism of film studies, describes the difficulties of conducting audience research and the challenges of ethnographic fieldwork as it calls for understandings of cinema and its experience that are grounded in the immediate contexts and institutional settings as well as the broader participatory culture in which cinema exists, is made and recast. It proposes new analytical approaches that are located in cinema’s social world and in settings in which films are made, appropriated and elaborated.
Daniel Punday
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816696994
- eISBN:
- 9781452953601
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816696994.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter 6 discusses whether the model of computing changes our ideas about the relationship between the literary writer and his or her audience. A number of critics have suggested a shift toward the ...
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Chapter 6 discusses whether the model of computing changes our ideas about the relationship between the literary writer and his or her audience. A number of critics have suggested a shift toward the performative in contemporary culture. Punday links this interest in performativity to a change in audience, as general readerships have given way to increasingly niche subgroups. Today’s writers increasingly have ad hoc relationships with their audiences, making the ability to provoke responses especially important to establishing oneself as a writer. This chapter counters the common assumption that readers have somehow gained control over the reader-writer relationship. Punday turns to Henry Jenkins’s analysis of participatory culture, especially online discussion concerning shows like Survivor as well as hoaxes like the YouTube Lonelygirl15 series, to show that the image of a controlling author continues in today’s computing culture. These tensions are explored through two examples of literary authors caught between older and performative models of the writer: Jonathan Franzen and J. K. Rowling. Both have provoked controversy through conflicts with their fans, and they demonstrate a fundamental unease with how the literary writer should be understood today.Less
Chapter 6 discusses whether the model of computing changes our ideas about the relationship between the literary writer and his or her audience. A number of critics have suggested a shift toward the performative in contemporary culture. Punday links this interest in performativity to a change in audience, as general readerships have given way to increasingly niche subgroups. Today’s writers increasingly have ad hoc relationships with their audiences, making the ability to provoke responses especially important to establishing oneself as a writer. This chapter counters the common assumption that readers have somehow gained control over the reader-writer relationship. Punday turns to Henry Jenkins’s analysis of participatory culture, especially online discussion concerning shows like Survivor as well as hoaxes like the YouTube Lonelygirl15 series, to show that the image of a controlling author continues in today’s computing culture. These tensions are explored through two examples of literary authors caught between older and performative models of the writer: Jonathan Franzen and J. K. Rowling. Both have provoked controversy through conflicts with their fans, and they demonstrate a fundamental unease with how the literary writer should be understood today.
