Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture

Within media theory the worldwide shift from a 19th century print culture via a 20th century electronic culture to a 21st century digital culture is well documented. In this essay the emergence of a digital culture as amplified and accelerated by the popularity of networked computers, multiple-user software and Internet is investigated in terms of its principal components. A digital culture as an undetermined praxis is conceptualized as consisting of participation, remediation and bricolage. Using the literature on presumably ‘typical’ Internet phenomena such as the worldwide proliferation of Independent Media Centres (Indymedia) linked with (radical) online journalism practices and the popularity of (individual and group) weblogging, the various meanings and implications of this particular understanding of digital culture are explored. In the context of this essay digital culture can be seen as an emerging set of values, practices and expectations regarding the way people (should) act and interact within the contemporary network society. This digital culture has emergent properties with roots both in online and offline phenomena, with links to trends and developments pre-dating the World Wide Web, yet having an immediate impact and particularly changing the ways in which we use and give meaning to living in an increasingly interconnected, always on(line) environment

РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦІЯ ПОСТФОЛЬКЛОРУ В ІНТЕРНЕТ-ПРОСТОРІ: ДО ТИПОЛОГІЇ ЖАНРІВ

Purpose of Article. The goal of the article is to study the genres of post-folklore, presented communicative practices on the Internet. Methodology. The methodology of the study is to apply analytical, cultural and semantic methods in the researching of genre variety of the postfolklor, mediated network online. Scientific novelty. Scientific novelty of the work means the classification of the post-folklore genres, represented in the Internet space, basing on the characteristics of the semiotic systems of the texts. Conclusions. It is found out that the basic characteristics of genres of the post-folklore, mediated Internet communication practices, are the non-linearity, hyper-textuality and multicomponent. In addition to verbal genres, known in traditional folklore, the other genres have particularly achieved the development of with superior visual components, which form the complicated creolized semiotic texts. The post-folklore works, which are formed by the communicative process and information sharing, have a predominantly entertainment and play direction (memes, demotivates, photo-gags, cartoons, comics, hyphae art) and reflect the current events and social phenomena, concerned network users.Целью работы является исследование жанров постфольклора, представленных коммуникативными практиками в сети интернет. Методология исследования заключается в применении аналитического, культурологического и семантического методов для исследования жанрового многообразия постфольклора, опосредованного сетью интернет. Научная новизна работы заключается в классификации жанров постфольклора, представленного в интернет-пространстве, на основе выявления семиотических особенностей знаковых систем текстов. Выводы. В резуль- тате исследования установлено, что основными характеристиками жанров постфолькора, опосредованных интернет-коммуникативными практиками, является нелинейность, гипертекстуальность и мультикомпонентность. Кроме вербальных жанров, известных в традиционном фольклоре, особое развитие приобрели другие жанры, с превосходящей визуальной составляющей, которые образуют семиотической усложненные креолизованные тексты. Произведения постфольклора, которые формируются в результате коммуникативных процессов общения и обмена информацией, имеют преимущественно развлекательно-игровую направленность (мемы, демотиваторы, фотожабы, карикатуры, комиксы, гиф-арт) и отражают актуальные события и явления общественной жизни, которые представляют интерес и заинтересованность для пользователей сети.Метою роботи є дослідження жанрів постфольклору, репрезентованих комунікативними практиками в мережі інтернет. Методологія дослідження полягає в застосуванні аналітичного, культурологічного та семантичного методів для дослідження жанрового різноманіття постфольклору, опосередкованого мережею інтернет. Наукова новизна роботи полягає в класифікації жанрів постфольклору, представленого в інтернет-просторі, на основі виявлення семіотичних особливостей знакових систем текстів. Висновки. В результаті дослідження встановлено, що основними характеристиками жанрів постфолькору, опосередкованих інтернет-комунікативними практиками, є нелінійність, гіпертекстуальність та мультикомпонентність. Окрім вербальних жанрів, відомих у традиційному фольклорі, особливого розвитку набули інші жанри, з переважаю візуальною складовою, які утворюють семіотично ускладнені креолізовані тексти. Твори постфольклору, які формуються внаслідок комунікатив- них процесів спілкування та обміну інформацією, мають переважно розважально-ігрову спрямованість (меми, демотиватори, фотожаби, карикатури, комікси, гіф-арт) та відображають актуальні події і явища суспільного жит- тя, що представляють інтерес і зацікавленість для користувачів мережі

Playful embodiment: Body and identity performance on the Internet

Aquest article analitza algunes de les pràctiques relacionades amb la presentació del cos a Internet. Concretament, ens centrem en la relació entre el cos i l'actuació de la identitat en les interaccions online, comparant els jocs d'identitat en les primeres etapes d'Internet basat en el text i la revelació de la identitat en les xarxes socials tot utilitzant les actuals tecnologies multimodals. Proposem que mentre el joc amb l'anonimat caracteritzava l'Internet textual, actualment trobem una "encarnació lúdica" del cos a Internet en el procés de producció, difusió i consum d'imatges del propi cos que la gent fa a través de la xarxa. El treball empíric es basa en l'anàlisi de blogs i fotologs espanyols i llatinoamericans que utilitzen el cos com el seu eix principal. Abstract This paper discusses practices related to the presentation of the body on the Internet. We focus on the relation between body and identity performance in online interactions, comparing identity play in the early stages of text-based Internet and in current multimodal networking technologies. We argue that, while earlier practices were characterized by playing on anonymity, people are now engaged in a "playful embodiment" process in relation to the production, diffusion and consumption of people’s images of their own bodies through the Web. The empirical work is based on the analysis of Spanish and Latin American (photo) blogs that focus mainly on the body

A la conquista del mundo en línea: Internet como objeto de estudio (1990-2007)

Este artículo explora el desarrollo de la investigación sobre Internet (principalmente anglófona) entre 1990 y 2007. Para esto, se analizan los principales ejes temáticos de los estudios sobre tal medio a lo largo de casi dos décadas, y se presentan diversos debates que han definido su evolución como objeto de estudio. Se sugiere, a final de cuentas, que los estudios sobre Internet constituyen un campo de conocimientos en proceso de construcción, con creciente legitimidad académica.This paper explores the development of internet research (mostly anglophone) between 1990 and 2007. To do so, some major theoretical topicsof internet studies are analyzed, and several key debates are described in order to show the internet’s evolution as an object of study. It is suggested that internet studies have become a field of knowledge under construction with increasing academic legitimacy.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Sociales::Facultad de Ciencias Sociales::Escuela de Ciencias de la Comunicación Colectiv

1ST Volume

João Carlos Correia, Anabela Gradim e Ricardo Morais (Eds.) (2020) Pathologies and dysfunctions of democracy in the media context - 1st volume.In the last decade, from a communicative point of view, a lot of novelties and changes shaped the traditional public sphere, Donald Trump's election in the United States of America, the Brexits, the rising of the several xenophobic and ultra-nationalist threats emerging in different geographical and political contexts, the populism phenomena, as well as the te debate on Cyber surveillance, counter-information, and the so-called "fake news" has drawn attention to some dystopian portrays conceived in the 20th Century which is now being considered an appropriate depiction of democracy and political communication's new pathologies. The book joins together researchers from Communication Sciences and related areas (Political Science, Political Theory, Political Philosophy, Political Sociology, Arts, and others), with particular emphasis on those interested in political communication around a unifying common axis: the pathologies and dysfunctions of democracy, in media contexts, in different aspects of their involvement with the media such as the media representation of these pathologies and dysfunctions; the impact of the media in the functioning of democratic institutions; the interference of political agents in journalistic information; the relationship between media and political institutions in the processes of public opinion building. Particularly, on this volume one addresses to the topic of surveillance. Within digital social networks and infotainment, invisibility, the right to be forgotten, and the reserve of a private life acquire an almost subversive nature in an age defined by hiper-communication. Simultaneously, the media staging of power mobilizes protagonists to a reality in which rationality and public responsibility are confronted with multiple risks of scandal arising from a permanent state of collective scrutiny. "Scandalogy" is a concept already used to project the study of image crisis’ phenomena, increasingly emerging due to the opportunities of political exposure.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Communities at a Crossroads. Material semiotics for online sociability in the fade of cyberculture

How to conceptualize online sociability in the 21st century? To answer this question, Communities at a Crossroads looks back at the mid-2000s. With the burst of the creative-entrepreneur alliance, the territorialization of the internet and the commercialization of interpersonal ties, that period constituted a turning point for digital communitarian cultures. Many of the techno-libertarian culture\u2019s utopias underpinning the ideas for online sociability faced systematic counter evidence. This change in paradigm has still consequences today. Avoiding both empty invocations of community and swift conclusions of doom, Annalisa Pelizza investigates the theories of actions that have underpinned the development of techno-social digital assemblages after the \u2018golden age\u2019 of online communities. Communities at a Crossroads draws upon the analysis of Ars Electronica\u2019s Digital Communities archive, which is the largest of its kind worldwide, and in doing so presents a multi-faceted picture of internet sociability between the two centuries. Privileging an anti-essentialist, performative approach over sociological understandings of online communities, Communities at a Crossroads proposes a radical epistemological turn. It argues that in order to conceptualize contemporary online sociability, we need first to abandon the techno-libertarian communalist rhetoric. Then, it is necessary to move beyond the foundational distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, and adopt a material semiotic approach. In the end, we might have to relinquish the effort to define online or digital communities and engage in more meaningful mapping exercises

Tracing back Communities. An Analysis of Ars Electronica's Digital Communities archive from an ANT perspective

Since long before the popularization of the Web, community-making has been a significant driving force for the development of the Internet. As a consequence, in mid 1990s online communities became a key object of study at the intersection of social sciences, organizational studies and computer sciences. Today, about fifteen years after these early studies, the concept \u2018online community\u2019 seems to be at stake. As a matter of fact, while communitarian ties enabled by digital media are more and more invocated, in late 2000s the Internet is revealing itself as a much more bureaucratic and profit-oriented domain than ever, to the point that it is not clear whether there exist online ties that are specific enough to be called \u2018communitarian\u2019. In order to analyse such an opaque and unstable object of study as current techno-social assemblages, innovative methods specifically developed to study fuzzy objects have to be devised and some epistemological questions have to be addressed. This research starts indeed from the impasse that the digital communitarian culture is experiencing at the end of the 2000s and borrows some epistemological insights from the Actor-Network Theory. By analyzing the entry forms submitted to the world\u2019s leading competition for digital communities, Prix Ars Electronica, this research thus calls into question some \u2018black-boxed\u2019 concepts like \u2018cyberculture\u2019, \u2018digital revolution\u2019, \u2018empowerment\u2019 and \u2018online community\u2019 itself. On one hand, the results bring into question both leading sociological positions and hype-generated commonplaces. On the other hand, the results offer evidence to those arguments according to which current ICT developments represent the beginning of a new phase of technological enclosure

Put your best face forward: adolescent use of Facebook and the establishment of a hypermeality

Department Head: Sue Pendell.2010 Summer.Includes bibliographical references (pages 92-99).This thesis seeks to understand how adolescents, aged 13-15, use the online social network (OSN) of Facebook to perform identity. Over the course of three chapters, the researcher uses the frameworks of social semiotics, narrative studies, and performance studies to analyze the site's design, features, and users, respectively. This analysis is meant to clarify whether Facebook as a medium rearranges and changes the activities of a generalized adolescent population in U.S. America, or if the medium simply reinforces pre-existing social practices. To answer this question, the study focuses heavily on the use of a new term, "hypermeality," in order to explain the communal narrativization of the social self online. The study concludes by stating that Facebook creates a hyperreal environment for both negative and positive outcomes of networking. These negatives include cyberbullying, self-centrism and problematic Internet use, while the positives include online community building and cosmopolitanism that might extend to offline behaviors and awareness. It is the goal of this thesis to add to the conversation on new media technologies, contributing to a better understanding of how the previously mentioned theoretical frameworks can be applied to the study of OSNs—their role and function in the lives of adolescent computer users. This knowledge should foster the development of safe OSNs, intergenerational computer-mediated communication, and the de-stigmatization of new media cultures

Practicing Reflexivity in the Study of Italian Migrants in London

This article discusses the centrality of reflexivity in qualitative research through examples from my study on the role new media play in the lives of Italians in London. My hypothesis was that Italians were in transit in London and they were using new media to build temporary communities. I conducted in-depth interviews with members of the Italianialondra.com online community. I found they settled in London and the online community, instead of supporting nomadic identities, was used for re-territorialization. Through reflexivity I was able to determine the reasons for a partially wrong hypothesis. I also identified biases that clouded my interpretations of the object of study; thus promoting rich insight and enabling public scrutiny of the integrity of the research