Digital Culture and Sociology

The Circuit of Culture

• Doing Cultural Studies, by Stuart Hall et.al.

• Research Practice for Cultural Studies, by Ann Gray

about today

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part 1

part 2

Du Gay , Paul, Stuart Hall, Linda James, Hugh Mackay and Keith Smith. 1997. Doing Cultural Studies: The story of the Sony Walkman. London: Sage.

the circuit of culture

main pointsWalkman as object doesn’t have meaning per se but we can find it in the way it is represented:

- link to identity

- typical (modern) cultural artifact

- studying representation we see all the other themes in operation

Media are important because through them culture is “produced, circulated, use or appropriated” (23)

Advertisement is not only about reflecting cultural identities but mostly about constructing identities through representation. We don’t buy things totally unconsciously, we identify to some small degree.

representation

birth of the walkman

• Original idea? Akio Morita / young engineer

• Heroic individual: personification, from rag to riches?, the US connection

• Sony as Japanese (to West) as West (to Japan)

• Chance production vs careful planning + investment

production

birth of the walkman II

• How to sell it? • Marx: Production and consumption necessary connected,

articulation (Hall)• To target the ideal young costumers:

– prizes had to be low (efforts, assembly)– name had to be cool (walkie taken, walkman too “japanized”:

soundabout (US), stowaway (UK), freestlye (Sve)• Marketing: give sets to musicians, couples in public places,

invitations to press on audio• Lots of market research as consumption feeds back into

production from 2people to 1

production

design

• Designers have to embody culture in things so that they can sell them.

• Explores design processes at Sony (i.e. how it became smaller, model differences, etc.)

• “Lifestyling” through market research• Open the original target: mobile, young, music. As

research showed more ages, not only urban.• “My First Sony” campaign• How Japanese is it? Centered on Western aesthetics

Articulating production

and consumption

sony as global firm

• Analyze the company’s economical progress (ups & downs)

• Globalization also in production: i.e. factories to Taiwan.

• Sony expanding in more markets within electronic: music, entertainment, etc.

• Define Sony in relationship to the theory of “culture industry” by Horkheimer/Adorno: combining hardware/software, the idea of media synergy

production

uses/attitudes

• Consumption concept: consumed> passive> rebellion• Did people “need” the walkman?• Baudrillard: needs are not natural but cultural• Against the walkman: articles criticizing atomization,

loss of values, isolation• In favour of walkman: active users, own space,

reclaiming terrain• Bourdieu: different social groups consume goods

differently + statistics• Commodification allows for appropriation and

resistance.

consumption

uses/attitudes

• Public vs private sphere• People fined in public transportation• Media discussions about attitude, politeness...• Regulation in public places

regulation

http://www.deloresart.com/images/cofee%20cup.jpg

a question of researchAnn Gray

• Research: rigorous exploration of phenomena to reach knowledge

• Ideal model: literature review, topic, data gathering, analysis, writing up.

• Research as questions (p. 62-65)• The question of subjectivity• Working in a group• The case study, the example, we center on

representation today• Evaluative criteria: how valid are our results?

looking at texts

• Text: all representational forms in this approach• Starting point: linguistic and literary• Semiotics: how texts produce meaning, texts in context• Encoding / Decoding model (Hall) Meaning production

and active reading, TV• Importance of power and ideology as encoded into

media products• Examples: female romance novels (Radway), children

and television (Buckingham), brazilian soap opera (Tufte), the Internet (Turkle), fandom(Jenkins) ...

in relation to cultural studies...

Ann Gray

steps:CASE: walkman

1. Description: relation/difference with other objects

2. Semantic analysis: what does it mean? the name, what is it, what does it evoke, associations of the words related to the object: modern, Japanese...

3. Advertisement analysis: what kind of people are represented (social role, status, race, gender), what slogans, what other objects appear

4. Signifying practise: how is it used? what do we do with it?

5. Themes: Mobility, Privacy, Soundscapes...

complementary bibliography

ADORNO, T.W. 1991. The Culture Industry. London, Verso. ARNOLD, M. 1932. Culture and Anarchy, Cambridge,

Cambridge University Press. BARTHES, R. 1977. Mythologies. London: Jonathan Cape. BAUDRILLARD, J. 1998. Selected Writings, Cambridge, Polity

Press. BOURDIEU, P. 1989. “Social Space and symbolic power”.

Sociological Theory. Vol. 7, n.1. WILLIAMS, R. 1961. The Long Revolution. Harmondsworth,

Penguin. WILLIAMS, R. 1976. Keywords. London, Fontana. WILLIAMS, R. 1983. Towards 2000. London, The Hogarth

Press.