Mod. 2.1 - Power & Economy (incl. Discussion Board post)

Reading Brendan Gilbert et al., “Web Content/Social Networking,” Blog, Corporate Power in New Media, May 14, 2008.
Comment:
Michael Arrington, chairman of edgeio.com and founder of techcrunch.com, said, “Power is shifting toward the individual, operating at the edge of the network and away from the giant companies at the center of the network…It’s a paradigm shift for everyone on the Internet.” (Business Week article)


Discussion Board post "Internet Access"

1. Power operates in many ways on the Internet, let's take one example, that of Internet access, to discuss power (no more than half a page):
1. Are there limits to when, what (sites), how much, and where you access the Internet?
2. How can you transgress those limits and what are the possible consequences?
3. Is it possible to lose your access and what are the ways this might happen?

When: Internet users are most vulnerable against electrical power failure. I live in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne where a storm in April last year resulted in a four day power outage. Relying almost entirely on the Internet to communicate with the outside world I realized how vulnerable you are without electrical power. I believe those in the electrical industry to hold the power over economy in their hands in the future.

What: Over the last months there has been a lot of discussion about trying to censor the Internet. Fortunately that is only possible to a certain extent and for limited time (Ricci, 2009). I do have limited access over certain material and I am happy to do so: Those limitations are access to bank accounts, association Web sites, Police etc. However, each of these limitations also take away control from the user. As WikiLeaks (2010) constantly reveals, there are a lot of things going on behind closed doors that are deliberately kept away from the public audience to prevent outrage or in simple terms, the loss of power.

How much: The only quantitative limits I see are those of data transfer speed and my own ability to process the data I am reading and listening to. Further data access may be limited by those who want to feed me a teaser in the aim to sell more of the same to me. This is how online advertising works in many cases. One example is downloading music for pay from Myspace accounts. Some artists limited their songs to certain lengths or reduce the quality in the aim to make visitors download better quality or complete tracks for pay (Karlsson, 2010).

Where: In terms of where I have access to the Internet depends on the device I have at hand. In a mostly rural place like Australia access is a different story, compared to the situation you will find in densly populated central Europe. In terms of “where”, the power lies with the Internet access provider and those who sell the devices that enable me to connect with a provider.

Does access vary?
Further, access varies significantly depending on affordability and locality. Living in a first world/western world culture the Internet is a crucial part of everyday life. It affects almost every part of my life and my being. In third world countries, apart from affordability and accessibility, illiteracy is another major issue the prevents these people from accessing the Internet. So the power not only lies with those who control it, but also those who have the ability to use it.

How do economic relationships conflict with or support existing power structures through the Internet? Choose an example from your first module and discuss on the discussion boards.

Reference

Karlsson, J. T. (2010). Familjen. MySpace. Retrieved from http://www.myspace.com/familjen

Ricci, C (2009, February 9). Censoring The Internet. The Age. Retrieved from http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/censoring-the-internet-20090206-7zcw.html

WikiLeaks (2010). About. Retrieved from http://wikileaks.org/media/about.html

Assignment 2 - Essay - Research: Peter Hook Interview on TripleJ

Hi all,

I wonder if others are trying to put something together for an essay about music. I am still researching and accidentally came upon this interesting interview on TripleJ Radio:

Peter Hook was a member of the Manchester band Joy Division. In the late seventies this band produced music that was completely at odds with anything else you coud hear in those days. In May 1980 their singer, Ian Curtis, took his life and the band Joy Division seized immediately. Sonn afterwards, the remaining band members foundet New Order who are most popular for their 80s hit Blue Monday. Peter Hook was the bassist of both bands and decided to celebrate Ian Curtis' life by going on world tour with friends (among them his son), playing the entire first album titled Unknown Pleasures and their hit single Love Will Tear Us Apart.

The interesting thing about the interview is, that it was recorded on Jack Hook's (Peter's son) 21st birthday. Jack as his farther plays base and belongs to the band refered to as friends. Peter Hook was the same age as his son when he started his music career in the mid-seventies and both are self taught musicians. While Peter learned by the book, Jack learned from the Internet. Peter gives some very interesting insight into the difference of producing music in his days and how it has changed nowadays with all the opportunities the Internet provides:
"...thanks to the wonders of Youtube where nobody has to wonder what anything's like anymore, they can now go on YouTube and see what everything is like - it certainly takes the mystery out of life".

Here is the full interview:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/triplej/tomalex/peterhook_2010_09_27.mp3

Cheers,

Volker

Assignment 2 - Essay - Recommended Readings: Cultural Studies

Chapter 10: Cultural Studies and the Culture in Everyday Life
John Fiske

Very annoying way of writing. We've been told to avoid long interwoven sentences and to make sure we put our point across to the reader. Well - what about this sentence from the first paragraph of this reading:
As the mundanities of our social conditions are set aside, or distanced, by this view of art, so, too, are the so-called sensuous, cheap, and easy pleasures of the mind.

...and: The culture of everyday life works only to the extent that it is imbricated (!) into its immediate historical and social setting.

Comment on Boudieu:
Boudieu's theory of the habitus extends the concept of habitus to such extent, that it includes the entire appearance of a person, not only the person's behaviour. Therefor it includes lifestyle, language, taste and dressence. Habitus provides an indication of ranking or status in society.

What does Fiske mean? About Brett Williams, who gives an example of both living in a mainly black, working class culture, and providing an academic account of it:
Her study details some of the key-features of habitus whose culture is of the material density of embodied practice.

Page 156, bottom: As Leal comments "The social system that broke these kinship webs is reproduced in the symbolic system within the photograph framse" (p.23) and these lost kinship webs are reasserted, reformed through bricolage.
Why does Leal make the assumption that a social system is to blame for the situaton, not the decision of the people to change something in their lifes? Is that irrelevant?

Explanation
Sardonically: Bitter in a sarcastic way.

Finally found something interesting to contextualise:
The supermarket is a densely woven texture of commodity information and display, but through her routine practices the experienced shopper transforms information overload into an information-specific setting.

Here is my comment on the above, the way I put it on Blackboard:

Hi Jane and Fellow Students,

I am on page 7 of the 22 page excerpt of John Fiske's book Cultural Study. I've learned about habitus in the sense of Bordieu and a lot about the opressed black society and the difference between those from North Carolina and those living in the Washington D.C. suburbs. I've learned about the high value of plastic flowers ("because they cost money...") in the dense conditions the opressed black society finds, living in the suburbs of Washington D.C.

I'm not sure what to make of this for our studies.

However, later on in the text I found something to contextualise/discuss:
Fiske states that Lave (1988, p.2.) cites an example of contextualised maths. It is about a woman shopper negotiating how many apples to bring home considering four kids, limited space in the fridge and the season being summertime.
Friske (1992) continues to cite Lave in his text: 'Lave observed that this woman is not interested in in a generalisable answer that relates to the problem n terms of a universalised criterion of right-wrong, but that problem shaped each other in action in a specific setting. In this material setting the shopper's cognitive processes are part of a physical relationship with the goods on display.
The supermarket is a densely woven texture of commodity information and display, but through her routine practices the experienced shopper transforms information overload into an information-specific setting.'

I assume, what both are trying to say is that she focuses on her shopping.

Specifically the last sentence made me think that we have the same situation online. The Internet is also a densely woven texture of commodity information and display. The experienced Internet user transforms information overload into an information specific setting.

What do you think?

Reference
Fiske, J. (1992). Cultural Studies. New York, N.Y.: Routledge
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in Practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press