- 1. We Media | The Empire Strikes Back
2. Tribute 3. Hypotheses We are now in an age of Media 2.0 This
is more participative, more interactive and more democratic. The
REALLY democratic aspects of this we can call WE MEDIA. - or - The
veneer of new digital democracy masks 1.0 style control and
surveillance by big corporations; We media is the luxury of a tiny
minority in the affluent, developed world; We have been colonised
by the machines we have created. Have the affordances of the
internet, cross platform media and fan interaction really
democratised media and culture or should we still fear Big
Ideology? 4. Back to our premise the story of text 5. The story of
.gif 6. Modalities 7. Platos Republic App 375bc. Society is
naturally divided into 3 classes of citizens, who each know their
place: Philosopher-Kings Guardians Workers Best to keep the workers
distracted the cave (early media). 8. Anti democracy? Those with
wisdom exercise authority over the masses. These people possess
reason. Justice = doing ones job, not interfering with the order of
the state, not questioning. Self-discipline crucial (and repression
link to Freud). In the ideal state, the majority of people have
little power over their lives. They are not capable of ruling
themselves: 9. Mills Utilitarianism 1859 On Liberty. Centres on
notion of liberty. Individual freedom = collective freedom. Rights
crucial. Everyone free to do what they want, as long as they dont
harm anyone else. So no need for surveillance etc. A human being
should only be restrained from acting in a certain way if that
action can reasonably be expected to harm others. A self-regarding
action is OK. An other-regarding action is only OK if it does not
harm others. 10. Mill in practice - Discussion Which of these are
self-regarding and which are other- regarding / potentially harmful
to others? Smoking in public Gambling Fox hunting Masturbating in
private Obsessively touting for Likes on Facebook Writing a book
disputing the existence of God. Breaking wind Paying a prostitute
to hit you. Wearing a veil on religious grounds. Playing Minecraft
8 hours a day 11. Marx and Marxism Power is held by the ruling
class They control economic distribution AND ideology The system
reproduces these power relations by presenting them as normal
Althusser (ideology) and Gramsci (hegemony) offer extensions of
Marxism Class struggle is the suggested response MEDIA =
IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUSES 12. Example? 13. (Negatively)
Benefits Street: The Return of Naked Ideology The idea that we live
in a post-ideological society proceeds a little too quickly:
cynical reason, with all its ironic detachment, leaves untouched
the fundamental level of ideological fantasy, the level on which
ideology structures the social reality itself. (Zizek, 1989)
Benefits Street is, in spirit, straight out of Guy Debords Society
of the Spectacle: a sort of visual vomit-fest in which you can
binge on things you purport to hate the sight of, and then purge
yourself on Twitter, venting empty outrage then going back for
more. (Lynsey Hanley, Guardian, 8.1.14) The very notion of a
benefits culture exemplifies the discursive operations of othering,
with the power of (mis)representation as so often exercised through
popular culture in the form of television documentary and extreme,
often hateful paratextual responses. Consider ITVs Ann Widdecombe
versus The Benefits Culture the most starkly hegemonic binary
imaginable and more recently Channel 4s Benefits Street, the focus
of this chapter. Debates, often ill-informed and almost always
marginalising, in media discourse in the UK around benefit cuts and
the opposition in the public imagination between the worthy poor
and an underclass of scroungers have been apparently screen-grabbed
by this series. The political commentator and campaigner Owen
Jones, on BBCs Newsnight, described the text as "a medieval stocks
updated for a modern format", the result of a relentless, almost
obsessive hunting down of the most extreme, dysfunctional
unrepresentative people. Zizeks recent work has, for some, heralded
a return to doing hardcore ideology (Fenton, 14. The Frankfurt
School 1930s extension of Marxism The Culture Industry: Popular
culture compels the masses to be passive and accepting of how
things are Adorno, Marcuse, Horkheimer, Benjamin Contemporary focus
discourses of talent + textual value regimes Reproduction of
alienation in reality / talent TV (impact on schooling) Notions of
toxic childhood and associated moral panics. 15. Media Ideology
Chomsky 16. Media Ideology Zizek 17. Media Ideology Curtis 18.
Interactive / Democratic? 19. Or Demotic? Turner - there is no
clear connection between the exposure given to everyday people by
reality TV and any kind of progressive or emancipatory shifts. Thus
the demotic turn equates merely to the increase in exposure of / to
the public with no necessary democratic outcomes. Rather, the rise
of celebrity culture and with it the clamour for us to seek the
prize of commodifying ourselves as celebrities - has had the effect
of charging the contemporary media with the power to translate
cultural identity. 20. Media 2.0 Lots of DIFFERENT IDEAS on this.
Very much a CONTESTED view. 21. Merrin | Gauntlett Media 1.0
Celebrates key texts produced by media moguls and celebrated by
well- known critics Vague recognition of internet and new digital
media, as an 'add on' to the traditional media A preference for
conventional ideas where most people are treated as non- expert
audience 'receivers', or, if they are part of the formal media
industries, as expert 'producers'. 22. Merrin | Gauntlett Media 2.0
Interest in the massive 'long tail' of independent media projects
such as those found on YouTube and many other websites, mobile
devices, and other forms of DIY media Recognition that internet and
digital media have fundamentally changed the ways in which we
engage with all media Media now more democratic through people
making and connecting 23. Participation Culture 24. Internet
Democracy Often seen in terms of ideals eg JP Barlows Declaration
of Independence of Cyberspace (1996) had 3 central characteristics:
Information democracy unfettered information construction and
dissemination, free from the stranglehold of MSM Democratization of
decision making power e-democracy, direct participation More
engaged citizens Has any of this really happened? 25. The
Realities? However, use of the web can be used by specific groups
for: Visibility and publicity Organisation and mobilisation
Coordination and collaboration (Rheingold smart mobs) Can often be
short term issues Or is online activism merely slacktivism?
(Morozov) Lievrouw shows how Global Justice Movement use the
internet for: Co-ordination Platform Engagement (limited) 26.
Morozov MYTH of Twitter Revolution in Arab countries The Iranian
Government is still in power! What are people REALLY using the web
for? Uses research in Eastern Europe and Middle East Sex, shopping
and entertainment This is the REAL American Dream Authoritarian
Governments happy for this to continue 27. Morozov View that the
web is emancipatory is a mis-reading of history Part of the
technologically deterministic, cyber-utopian Google Doctrine or
Twitter Agenda an exaggeration Governments are actually using the
web for propaganda, control, surveillance, censorship and
suppression 28. Imagine OK, but 29. Charles Leadbeater Clay Shirky
30. Tapscott & Williams Peering Free Creativity Democracy
Global Thinking Perfect Storm technology, digital natives,
economics. 31. Present Shock? Alvin Tofflers radical 1970 book,
Future Shock, theorized that things were changing so fast we would
soon lose the ability to cope. Rushkoff argues that the future is
now and were contending with a fundamentally new challenge. Whereas
Toffler said we were disoriented by a future that was careening
toward us, Rushkoff argues that we no longer have a sense of a
future, of goals, of direction at all. We have a completely new
relationship to time; we live in an always-on now, where the
priorities of this moment seem to be everything. Wall Street
traders no longer invest in a future; they expect profits off their
algorithmic trades themselves, in the ultra-fast moment. Voters
want immediate results from their politicians, having lost all
sense of the historic timescale on which government functions. Kids
txt during parties to find out if theres something better happening
in the moment, somewhere else. 32. Barts research Douglas Rushkoff
33. The right answer = Yes and No 34. Always back to this .. to
measure this
