Will The Real Me Please Stand Up?

Looking at my about.me page, you might be forgiven for thinking I have multiple personality disorder. I have two Wordpress blogs, a Blogger, as well as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Tumblr accounts (I think that’s all…).

But it’s all me.  Or aspects of me.

Like any human, I have different facets to my personality and my engagement with the various social media platforms (SMPs) have sprung from different needs at different times.  

Source

Just as in real life, our online self is constructed – by our behaviours and by our interactions with others – and constantly negotiated.  We strike a pose, or wear particular clothes to present our best possible self.

I find Smith and Watson’s toolbox of concepts helpful in thinking about online self-presentation, and I wholeheartedly agree that ‘both offline and online, the autobiographical subject can be an ensemble or assemblage of subject positions through which self-understanding and self-positioning are negotiated’ (2014:71).

Take for instance, the concept of the audience. The things I post to Facebook are vastly different to the things I put on Twitter because the audiences are different.

Facebook started for me as a place to connect and reconnect with friends and family, people I actually know. Now I communicate with distant strangers whom I have never met, but with whom I have warm and funny conversations, and share common interests.  My Tumblr is more for my professional profile; it’s where I post my artwork and writing.  In this, I am attempting to transition to a new ‘me’, a creative potential employee.  I’m trying to rebrand myself, what Smith & Watson called ‘the self regarded as a commodity’ (2014:79).

These online versions of me are still authentically me, though.

_________________________

I have also written previously here about the specular economy - we're all looking at each other and crafting our online personas, consciously and unconsciously.

Smith, S and Watson, J 2014, "Virtually Me: A Toolbox About Online Self-Presentation," in Poletti, A and Rak, J eds, Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, University of Wisconsin Press, 2014, ProQuest ebrary. Retrieved 18 July 2014.

The internet - it's not just for cat videos

Media Studies 2.0

Mr Pet Cam

WOW! My husband has been saying for years that we need to get a Go-Pro on our cat and see what he gets up to! And lo and behold, it’s already been done.  Yet another example of someone with a great, innovative idea actually taking it to a market and making it a reality. 

I don’t think I’m so cynical as to think that the creators of sites like Mr Pet Cam and Dog TV are in it purely for the money. Sure it’s a business, but if they hadn’t already had an interest in animals it probably never would have happened. Is it a service fulfilling a need (or want)? How many people spend hours daily looking at cat videos for free; the interest is definitely there. Look at the burgeoning of cat cafes. And surely I'm not the only person who knows a cat with their own Facebook page?  

Melbourne's first cat cafe

Digital media’s accessibility and global reach allows people who do not have access to vast amounts of start up funds to build up a business without mega capital investment, in this case providing the content of the business itself, but also allowing marketing relatively cheaply.

William Merrin’s article, Media Studies 2.0: upgrading and open-sourcing the discipline, points to the vast complexity of the worlds that the interconnectedness of digital media allows. I think any aspersions he is casting are aimed firmly at his colleagues in academia, some of whom refuse to give up their hegemony on the bridge of media studies even as the boat is being tipped on its head.  

What is intimidating is the breadth of the subject with which we have yet to come to grips. If Media Studies 2.0 is ‘recognising, confronting and exploring’ the changes brought about by thriving digital technology, then perhaps we need to just get on with bridging the digital divide and get to Media Studies 3.0 where we know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

Merrin’s explanation of the mass communication era broadcast media model (one-to-many) being replaced by a horizontal, peer-to-peer, bottom-up model rings true.  

I really like the way Merrin acknowledges that media studies needs to open its arms much wider to encompass pretty much all other disciplines such as theology, engineering, science, social theory.  Its not just about the twentieth century mass communication industry business model.

The loss of ‘common culture’ is noticeable to me; I can see it in my own family where each of us is a  PRODUSER of ‘very different personal and peer-centred content’. 

I also feel the pull of and see sense in the new paradigm of ‘collective intelligence’. And this seems to be the direction Merrin sees us heading. Good. Sign me up.

And get this lazy cat off my desk. He needs to be out and about earning a living like the rest of us.

Change of focus - new media

I'm still globalised me. In fact, more than ever, but for the next three months I'm going to use this blogspace to comment and reflect on topics covered in my current Deakin university subject, ALC201 New Media: Users, Settings, Implications.

Twitter

Shorter, more timely and frequent reflections will be posted on my Twitter account with the hash tag #ALC201, which all participating students and tutors will see.

All my online presences are collated in my about.me page. One of the aims of my participation in this unit, which only crystallised in my mind yesterday at the first seminar, is to bring together all my online 'personas' to present a united, yet complex, version of me.

About.me

I've been on Facebook for 5 years, and have gradually added other forms of social media for different purposes.

Facebook really was primarily for staying in contact (and reconnecting with) family and friends in far away places.  It is my most private profile. I joined Twitter early 2012, but did not easily get to grips with it. Part of this current unit of study will push me to use Twitter more, and understand it better.

Wordpress

Tumblr

In the last 12-18 months I have opened Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr pages to showcase various other uni-based participation, with variously an art, design, academic or writing focus.

So, for ALC201 writings, only look at anything from this date forward.

World Music - 'soundtrack to globalisation' (White 2012)

"A pleasant contamination" (Byrne 1999)

Listen to this whilst reading!

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder in 

The Long Road from the film Dead Man Walking

Peter Gabriel

If the naysayers of globalisation are concerned about loss of national identity, and the threat of a bland melting pot of cultures, World Music should provide reassurance of diversity.  However, not everyone agrees that globalisation has been a good thing as far as music is concerned.  Definition of World Music is difficult due to the ‘proliferation of styles, genres, sub-genres and cross-fertilisation’ (Shedden 2008) and ranges from ‘traditional and contemporary folk and roots music from the entire globe, as well as cross-cultural fusions and hybrids’ (World Music Central.org), and ‘an umbrella category under which various types of traditional and non-Western music are produced for Western consumption’ (White 2012, p1), and ‘anything other than Western rock and pop, generally played on traditional instruments’ (Shedden 2008) to the cynical ‘a catchall that commonly refers to non-Western music of any and all sorts, popular music, traditional music and even classical music. It's a marketing as well as a pseudomusical term’ (Byrne 1999).

Global cultural flows involve transnationalisation and deterritorialisation, and World Music is a chief example of this is: music from one or more traditional cultures is produced (not necessarily in country of origin) and disseminated throughout the world, far away from its original context and geo-location, and often in hybrid forms and mashups (Connell and Gibson 2004, p342).  Klein acknowledges American ‘popular interest in many forms of Asian culture’ and her definition of Hollywoodisation, albeit based on the motion picture industry, can be extrapolated to the music industry: the knitting ‘together through the transnationalisation of audiences, labour pools, distribution networks and production capital’ as well as ‘material and stylistic integration’ (Klein 2004, p362).

What seems to be common in any analysis of World Music is that it is the presentation of non-Western music for Western audience consumption and, for all the fear of hybridity and cultural remix, the sheer variety and cultural difference in world music is evidence of individual cultural and racial authenticity (Gilroy cited in Hutnyk 1998, p401), although the whole notion of authentic in relation to cultural products is always up for grabs. Is there any such pure, unadulterated culture anywhere in the world today? The trappings of World Music presentation – ‘foreign performers in native dress’ – keeps the ‘myth of authenticity’ alive for Western audience (Byrne 1999).

WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) is an internationally established festival and foundation which brings together artists from all over the globe (womad.co.uk).  It was founded in 1982 by UK artist Peter Gabriel who in 1989 also set up a recording label, Real World Records, with the aim ‘to provide talented artists from around the world with access to state-of-the-art recording facilities and audiences beyond their geographic region’ (realworldrecords.com).

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

One of WOMAD’s most successful contributions to the world music stage has been the late Pakistani Qawwali performer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-1997). Tim Robbins’ 1996 film Dead Man Walking introduced me to the music and soaring vocals of this superlative Qawwali exponent who achieved international prominence in the 1980s and ‘90s through his collaborations with Western musicians, including Peter Gabriel and Eddie Vedder. 

Qawwali is sacred Muslim devotional music ‘derived from ancient Sufi religious poets, with accompaniment by harmonium, tabla drums and backup singers’ (Bessman 2001, p22).  Khan’s rise on the global stage was assisted by performances at WOMAD festivals in the 1980s but notably it was his contributions to the Hollywood films Dead Man Walking, The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ, and Natural Born Killers that secured his place in the global cultural sphere (Jacoviello 2011, p324; Hajari 1996, p55; Hagedorn 2006, p492). 

Locally in South Asia, Khan’s identity was as a religious musician rather than ‘Qawwali star’ but his participation in the World Music arena drew secular audiences that gradually endowed him with the Hollywood concept of ‘stardom’ (Qureshi 1999, p91). Khan was an innovator amongst Qawwals (Qawwali singers), where songs can last up to 30 minutes and concerts (or Qawwali parties) can last for hours, shortening his songs and changing the rhythmic cycle to a more western sound (Jacoviello 2011, p324). There is some argument that the Westernisation of Khan’s music was a desecration and

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Jeff Buckley

profanation of religious traditions, as it was broken down and reconstructed for Western audiences (Jacoviello 2011, p325) however Qawwali gatherings are not necessarily religious in nature, more spiritual and non-Muslims may attend. 

Transnational production and distribution channels of the Western music industry such as collaboration with ‘consumer products companies and specialist marketing firms’ along with ‘aggressive retail marketing programs that include listening stations and prominent displays’ assisted the spread of Khan’s music to the wider world (Jeffery 1997).  Real World Records has since gone on to represent, records and distribute such diverse international artists such as the Afro Celt Sound System, Papa Wemba and The Blind Boys of Alabama.

The marketing of these non-Western forms of music relies heavily on the representation of them as ‘exotic’(Taylor in White p174, Hutnyk 1998, p404).  This commodification of the exotic is a trademark of the post colonial era where capitalist cultural production valorises difference; the product offered to the Western consumer is the very ‘otherness’ of the world musician (Hutnyk, 1998 p402).

It is interesting to note that it is precisely this exotic ‘otherness’ that is the attraction for Western consumers, which is ironic given that the vocals are generally incomprehensible to Western ears.  It doesn’t matter how much you adhere to the concept of music as a universal language, if you don’t understand Urdu you’re not going to understand a word in any Qawwali song (Hutnyk 1998, p403).  It is this perspective that causes the hackles to rise on the spine of US musician David Byrne.  The relegation to the ‘realm of the exotic’ plays up to cultural difference and further reasserts the ‘hegemony of Western pop culture,’ he declares (Byrne 1999).

David Byrne

Perhaps more than any other technology, music technology has fostered globalisation (Hutnyk 1998 p407). As early as 1986, Wallis and Malm identified four stages in the patterns of change when mass communication and increasing access to technology allows musicians around the globe to create hybrid forms of music ‘in the wake of cultural imperialism’.  The stages are indicative of the processes of globalisation as a whole:

*    cultural exchange;
*    cultural dominance;
*    cultural imperialism;
*    growth of transnational corporations involved in transculturation (Wallis and Malm 1986, p376).

Simon Emmerson of successful UK world music group, Afro Celt Sound System, is not a fan of globalisation and he sees WOMAD as an ‘antidote to globalisation’.  He sees globalisation as ‘destroying indigenous cultures and indigenous peoples. [It’s] destroying the detail in people's cultures’ (cited in Hart 2001). 

Afro Celt Sound System

But globalisation has facilitated World Music, a specific site of cultural production in which WOMAD attendees are complicit as they consume the cultural difference on offer (Hutnyk 1998, p402) and since its inception has become a cultural phenomenon with more than 120 WOMAD festivals have taken place in 21 countries and the annual Australian version, WOMADELAIDE, takes place each year in Adelaide (Shedden 2008).

Timothy D Taylor claims that World Music occupies a ‘noticeable niche’ in the growing sample libraries, which are essentially ‘digitized bits of…various kinds of music that can be pasted into compositions being created on a computer’ and in this way World Music is insinuating itself into ‘more mainstream kinds of pop and rock music’including ‘soundtracks for film, television and advertising’ (cited in White 2012 p173). 

Talvin Singh

This sampling has allowed remixing and reshaping of Khan’s vocals (along with a host of other Asian musicians) to be heard by new audiences on dance floors in inner city nightclubs all over the world, and other hybrid forms of Asian music such as banghra are embraced well outside of their original locales.  Ibiza’s Café Del Mar’s hugely popular chill out albums have moved from World Music bins of music stores to more mainstream categories such as Electronica and Dance Music by as artists such as ‘1990s Asian underground’ artists Nitin Sawhney and Talvin Singh (RealWorldRecords.com).

Byrne’s disdain is for the term World Music because he sees it as belittling and ghettoising what is, in fact, the peoples creating the majority (99 per cent) of the music produced today (Byrne 1999).  Yet it is the consumption by the West, and its attendant persistent hankering for the exotic, that keeps World Music from being truly global; so long as it remains under the spell of Western hegemony, World Music will continue to be seen as other and not mainstream. 









References:

Bessman, Jim 2001, “Qawwali Vocalist Khan’s American/Legacy Debut Continues Uncle’s Tradition”, Billboard, 17 March 2001, Vol 113,
Issue 11
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=b9ae172d-7917-4fe4-a99b-
21ecd96ea761%40sessionmgr4&vid=2&hid=7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=4182572 viewed
20 September 2013

Buckley, J 1997, “Nusrat”, http://www.liquidgnome.com/JeffBuckley/nusrat.html

Byrne, David 1999, 'I Hate World Music', 3 October 1999, The New York Times
http://global.factiva.com.ezproxy-m.deakin.edu.au/ha/default.aspx viewed 9 October 2013

Connell, J and Gibson, C 2004, “World Music: deterritorializing place and identity”, Progress in Human Geography, June 2004, Vol 28,
Issue 3, p342-361
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b3e175cc-dc22-40aa-b1ef-
ac0e0874b267%40sessionmgr114&vid=2&hid=115

Jacoviello, Stefano 2011, “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: the strange destiny of a singing mystic. When music travels…”, Semiotica, Vol March
2011, Issue 183, p319-341
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=093c6231-bd72-47e0-836f-
e30eb2948e05%40sessionmgr113&vid=3&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=ufh&AN=59338747
viewed 20 September 2013

Jeffrey D 1997, ‘If you play it, they will buy’, Billboard, 00062510, 06/28/97, Vol. 109, Issue 26
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=5a9cf094-a114-4068-be2b-
af8a8fa10f60%40sessionmgr114&vid=4&bk=1&hid=115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=97070
62099 viewed 20 September 2013

Hagedorn, K 2006, “ ‘From the one song alone, I consider him to be a Holy Man’ Ecstatic Religion, Musical Affect and the Global
Consumer”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Dec 2006, Vol. 45 Issue 4, p489-496. 8p.
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0712502b-a6ab-48ea-ba22-
2c7ed4ddd0d3%40sessionmgr104&vid=4&hid=115
viewed 21 September 2013

Hajari, Nisid 1996, ‘Courtship of Eddie’s Fateh’, Entertainment Weekly, 12 January 1996, Issue 309, p.55
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy-f.deakin.edu.au/ehost/detail?sid=0ed71574-1d8a-4920-8b1d-
720ee533a93b%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=960205138
2
viewed 21 September 2013

Hart, Jonathon 2001, “It's not just the music,” Herald Sun (Melbourne), 10 February, 2001
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy-m.deakin.edu.au/eds/detail?sid=d620940f-646f-41c4-b779-
be0abbdcf16d%40sessionmgr12&vid=6&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=n5h&AN=200102101102051722
viewed 7 October 2013

Qureshi, R B 1999, “His Master’s Voice: exploring Qawwali and ‘Gramophone Culture in South Asia,” Popular Music, Vol 18, January
1999, p63-98
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/853569.pdf?acceptTC=true&acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true viewed 22 September 2013

Real World Records
https://realworldrecords.com/world-music/

Shedden, Iain 2008, ‘With the world at their feed’, The Australian, 3 August 2008
http://ezproxy.deakin.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=200803081021999791&
site=eds-live viewed 7 October 2013

Wallis R and Malm K, 1986, ‘Culture and The International Recording Industry’, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Vol 3 Issue 3,
September 1, 1986, p375-378
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy-m.deakin.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=7a6bf2d1-f5a5-40dd-af7c-
71aab123ddd5@sessionmgr4&hid=17 viewed 10 October 2013

White, B W 2012, Music and Globalisation: Critical Encounters, Indiana University Press

World Music Central
http://worldmusiccentral.org/ viewed 9 October 2013

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - the voice of velvet fire

Image source

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,  "The Long Road"  from the film Dead Man Walking

Listening? Read on...

Source

"Part Buddha, part demon, 
part mad angel...his voice is velvet fire, simply incomparable"

 Jeff Buckley, 1997

Global cultural flows involve transnationalisation and deterritorialisation, and a chief example of this is World Music, where music from one or more traditional cultures is produced (not necessarily in country of origin) and disseminated throughout the world, far away from its original context and geo-location, and often in hybrid forms and mashups (Connell and Gibson 2004, p342).  Klein acknowledges American ‘popular interest in many forms of Asian culture’ and her definition of Hollywoodisation, albeit based on the motion picture industry, can be extrapolated to the music industry: the knitting “together through the transnationalisation of audiences, labour pools, distribution networks and production capital” as well as “material and stylistic integration” (Klein 2004, p362).

Image source

Tim Robbins’ 1996 film Dead Man Walking introduced me to the music of superlative Pakistani qawwali musician, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-1997), who achieved international prominence in the 1980s and ‘90s through collaborations with Western musicians, including Peter Gabriel and Eddie Vedder.  Qawwalli is sacred Muslim devotional music “derived from ancient Sufi religious poets, with accompaniment by harmonium, tabla drums and backup singers” (Bessman 2001, p22).

Khan’s rise on the global stage was assisted by performances at WOMAD festivals in the 1980s but notably it was his contributions to the Hollywood films Dead Man Walking, The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ, and Natural Born Killers that secured his place in the global cultural sphere (Jacoviello 2011, p324; Hajari 1996, p55; Hagedorn 2006, p492).

Image source

Locally in South Asia, Khan’s identity was as a religious musician rather than “qawwali star” but his participation in the World Music arena drew secular audiences that gradually endowed him with the Hollywood concept of “stardom” (Qureshi 1999, p91). Khan was an innovator amongst qawwals (qawwali singers), where songs can last up to 30 minutes and concerts (or qawwali parties) can last for hours, shortening his songs and changing the rhythmic cycle to a more western sound (Jacoviello 2011, p324).

Transnational production and distribution channels of the Western music industry such as collaboration with “consumer products companies and specialist marketing firms” along with “aggressive retail marketing programs that include listening stations and prominent displays” assisted the spread of Khan’s music to the wider world (Jeffery 1997).

While not entirely Hollywoodised (he remained a true qawwal singing the poetry of the Sufi saints in Urdu), I would claim that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s fame was commensurate with the notion of “star”. 




References:
Bessman, Jim 2001, “Qawwali Vocalist Khan’s American/Legacy Debut Continues Uncle’s Tradition”, Billboard, 17 March 2001, Vol 113, Issue 11
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=b9ae172d-7917-4fe4-a99b-21ecd96ea761%40sessionmgr4&vid=2&hid=7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=4182572 viewed 20 September 2013

Buckley, J 1997, “Nusrat”, http://www.liquidgnome.com/JeffBuckley/nusrat.html

Connell, J and Gibson, C 2004, “World Music: deterritorializing place and identity”, Progress in Human Geography, June 2004, Vol 28, Issue 3, p342-361
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b3e175cc-dc22-40aa-b1ef-ac0e0874b267%40sessionmgr114&vid=2&hid=115

Jacoviello, Stefano 2011, “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: the strange destiny of a singing mystic. When music travels…”, Semiotica, Vol March 2011, Issue 183, p319-341
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=093c6231-bd72-47e0-836f-e30eb2948e05%40sessionmgr113&vid=3&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=ufh&AN=59338747 viewed 20 September 2013

Jeffrey D 1997, ‘If you play it, they will buy’, Billboard, 00062510, 06/28/97, Vol. 109, Issue 26
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=5a9cf094-a114-4068-be2b-af8a8fa10f60%40sessionmgr114&vid=4&bk=1&hid=115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=9707062099

Hagedorn, K 2006, “ ‘From the one song alone, I consider him to be a Holy Man’ Ecstatic Religion, Musical Affect and the Global Consumer”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Dec 2006, Vol. 45 Issue 4, p489-496. 8p.
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0712502b-a6ab-48ea-ba22-2c7ed4ddd0d3%40sessionmgr104&vid=4&hid=115
viewed 21 September 2013

Hajari, Nisid 1996, Courtship of Eddie’s Fateh, Entertainment Weekly, 12 January 1996, Issue 309, p.55
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy-f.deakin.edu.au/ehost/detail?sid=0ed71574-1d8a-4920-8b1d-720ee533a93b%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=9602051382
viewed 21 September 2013

Qureshi, R B 1999, “His Master’s Voice: exploring Qawwali and ‘Gramophone Culture in South Asia”, Popular Music, Vol 18, January 1999, p63-98
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/853569.pdf?acceptTC=true&acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true viewed 22 September 2013

Specular economy - existential nightmare

Hell is other people (Sartre, 1944)

In discussion of the specular economy, Marshall’s (2010, p498) assertion that we are collectively ‘becoming more conscious of how we present ourselves and how others perceive us’ shot me right back to high school where I first encountered Jean Paul Sartre and existentialism in year 12 French.  Very basically (because this is a huge and complex topic way beyond me), existentialism is a philosophy of consciousness and being, and one of the main elements concerns the role of others in our own existence, whereby our existence is determined by the way that we are perceived by others.

Sound familiar?

Image source

And here we all are, carefully crafting and presenting our mediatised selves to the world on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, Wordpress and Blogger etc.  Why do we do it?  To satisfy our desire to participate, create our own identities, socialise and network with each other (Croteau, Hoynes & Milan 2012, p319).  We now have the technology to achieve self representation, not someone else’s idea of ourselves. Marshall points out that this is now 'an incredibly complex PRESENTATION of the self through screens of social media via the Internet and mobile communication" (Marshall 2010 p499).

Image source

I would consider myself a ‘lite’ social media user.  I use Facebook and Twitter, but I also have two blogs, and in each I am trying to construct a different ‘me’.  One blog is for ‘arty me’ and I am very aware of and frequently manipulate my presentation: changing backgrounds and images in an effort to communicate the essence of my aesthetic.  It’s like a conversation, the more I tweak with the mediated presentation, the more I crystallise the essence of my taste and can ‘imagine a better version’ of myself (Marshall 2010 p499).  I’ve had my ‘frisson of fame’ (Marshall 2010, p499): validation in the form of ‘likes’ and comments from strangers who share similar interests.

In this blog I am constructing my studious persona, and I have tied myself in knots reading widely and getting myself more and more bamboozled about how much I don’t know. 

Image source

Facebook is where I stay connected (and reconnect) with family and friends, that is people I know in real life, but it is also where I do my share of star stalking and my presence there is also highly mediated. 

However, issues of a private and intimate nature generally do not make it on to my Facebook page, or any of my blogs.  They stay in the real realm of the private – between me and the real people with whom I choose to share.

References: 

Croteau, D, Hoynes, W & Milan, S 2012, Media/Society: Industries, Images and Audiences, 4^th edn., Sage Publications Inc., Los Angeles

Marshall, P D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society Nov 2010, Vol. 47 Issue 6, p498-502

Sartre, J-P 1947, No Exit (Huis Clos) a pay in one act, & The Flies (Les Mouches) a play in three acts, A. A. Knopf, New York

I'm sorry, we have to get engaged before we can participate

Image source: http://www.symboliamag.com/

Joost Raessens (2005) makes a good case for digital gaming culture as THE participatory media culture, when viewed through three areas of participation: interpretation, reconfiguration and construction; and further, that it is four specific characteristics of this digital medium – multimediality, virtuality, interactivity and connectivity – that set it apart, but I don’t think it applies to all forms of media.

Take for instance, illustrated journalism digital magazine Symbolia, which provides an example of prosumption: it offers readers interaction and ‘tactile manipulation’ of stories (Polgren 2013).  Supporters can contribute story ideas, and provide financial support as well as receive, read and share the product.  Raessens’ definition of participatory culture relies on participating in culture in this ‘active and productive way’ (2005).

Image source

Increasingly, varying forms of digital media are resisting the notion of passive audience and creating ‘opportunities for individuals to create, distribute and read multi modal texts with ease and enthusiasm’ (Williams & Zenger 2012 p1).  

But there is still no access for participants to directly alter or modify the constructs of other forms of media as game hackers can. 

In an interview with Richard Adie on ABC Radio National’s The Media Report, Erin Polgreen, co-founder and publisher of Symbolia, sees illustrated or cartoon journalism as “an opportunity to bridge borders and connect people in ways that don’t really happen in long form prose journalism.”  Authentic interaction with the community is the key to audience engagement (Polgreen 2013), and interactivity offers audiences the ability to contribute and create experiences that are memorable and meaningful (Figueiredo 2011 p92).  Comics allow readers to really immerse themselves in a story (Polgreen 2013) and ‘by becoming a contributor and/or creator of the world…the audience begins to become active members of the community of knowledge' (Figueiredo 2011 p92).

Source

Scott McCloud (1994 cited in Figueiredo 2011) remarks that “when you look at a photo or realistic drawing of a face, you see it as the face of another, but when you enter the world of the cartoon you see yourself”.  Media helps us work out our identities and where we fit in the world.  It “provides us a window back into our world.” (McCloud 2005)

References

Figueiredo, S 2011, ‘Building Worlds for an Interactive Experience: Selecting, Organising, and Showing Worlds of Information Through Comics’, Journal of Visual Literacy, Spring 2011, Vol 30, Issue 1, p86-100

McCloud, S 2005, Scott McCloud: The visual magic of comics, TED.com, http://www.ted.com/talks/scott_mccloud_on_comics.html

Raessens, J and Goldstein J (eds) 2005, Handbook of Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. USA

Williams, B and Zenger, A (eds) 2012, New Media Literacies and Participatory Popular Culture Across Borders, Routledge, New York

Polgreen, E 2013, ‘Erin Polgreen on illustrated journalism and engaging readers’, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, Thursday 5th September 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/mediareport/erin-polgreen-on-illustrated-journalism/4902012 

http://www.symboliamag.com/