Sunday, October 25, 2009
Penny Lane -10/20
“As more and more amateur works have entered into circulation via the web, the result has been a turn back toward a more folk-culture understanding of creativity.” (556) The following quotation from our reading illustrates and parallels the phenomena of youtube which has exploded in recent years. Through using this medium, any average individual has the capability of being discovered for either their talent, humor, or lack there of, a scenario which was not possible only 5 years ago. This wide spread capability to project personal opinion or response has also changed the way the entertainment business finds and produces forms of popular media. In addition, the networking potential of the internet has allowed Jane/John Doe to not only be a journalist, but a critic. Forums like rotten tomatoes and online chats spread word quickly about the quality of a work. The initial intention of video sites like youtube was to provide access to both the upload and download of home made and popular video clips. The service was theoretically free, and furthermore allowed for a large outlet for expression. But now, after its acquisition under Google, the website is subject to strategic advertising efforts that morph youtube from a source of avant-garde, folk-esqe exhibition into commercial assimilation. This is a perfect example of Habermas' conception of how the traditionalist and economic segment of our society will always at first reject and then commodity counter culture efforts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
You show a great understanding of the material we covered last week but you are under the word minimum (it's 300 words as a minimum). You do a good job with identifying ways that participatory culture functions in the real world and which other theorist relates to this, but at the same time you could take the time to elaborate on how Habermas connects, why you think we are so reliant on technology and how it alters who determines ideologies (going back to Althussar and Marx). Hope this helps! :)
Post a Comment