Week 11: Identity

Hearn, Allison. “Variations on the Branded Self.” in Hesmondhalgh,David and Jason Toynbee (Eds). The Media and Social Theory. Milton Park, UK: Routledge, 2008, 253-280.

Hearn’s article pulls together a number of various concepts such as networking, tying them to an overall concept of how identity is shaped and influenced. She introduces the concept of ‘the branded self’ where she draws on a number of various theorists, supporting a central argument where “this branded self either consciously positions itself, or is positioned by its context and use, as a site for the extraction of value” within someone’s identity. By pulling together the concepts of discourse and meaning in language and applying it to a higher level of overall personal identity rather than words, we can understand that identity, like language, is not fixed and stable and is given value through a purposeful crafting by the individual, as well as the context surrounding them.

Identity is an aspect of the self that we want others to see. Hearn puts forward that identity can become a commodity and have capital placed on it, particularly in the media. Branding is essentially what drives the media and the interactions between media and its audience – the media thrives on creating images and identities that can be sold by capturing the audience’s emotions where they find a type of character or personality in the media likeable or relateable. Media, being such a significant aspect in culture and everyday life, holds a great influence over the way that people brand themselves, and the identities they may associate themselves with. These identities may include stereotypes through music, movies and television, but can also be deeply embedded into culture. People look to the media as a cultural centre, where norms, styles, and a wider sense of identity can be set. Media plays a significant role in molding identities, but also as a means of upholding and portraying identities. The internet in particular is a channel for identity, a process of selection and control, showing the rest of the world what you want them to see. A thought that has always occurred to me whilst browsing Facebook and blogs is ‘how identical is this to their real life counterpart?’ Fluidity in identity has definitely become easier to grasp, especially considering the many modes through which a person can portray themselves.

Week 10: Media Discourse

Macken-Horarik, M. “The children overboard affair” Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 26.2 (2003), 1-16

Various aspects of media are always in communication and interaction with each other in order to create specific meanings and interpretations intended by the composer of media texts. This media interaction and dialogue can be referred to as ‘discourse’, where the politicisation of language and images interact as a larger media text. Macken-Horarik’s text discusses how a particular event, the children overboard affair in 2001, was shaped through media discourse to influence a particular interpretation of how asylum seekers are viewed through the Australian media. She focuses on the dependence of news on a multimodal interaction between stories and photographs, stating that the writers of the texts she examines have placed their own ideologies into the language and the discourse and dialogue between modes of media as a means of ‘othering’. The way that language is used and how photos are matched up with such language is definitely a significant aspect of the critical understanding of media, and I think that Macken-Horarik presents this in a very convincing manner.

However, in having an understanding of politicised meaning, I am somewhat skeptical of part of her argument though, which states that particular categorisation and naming has been purposely done by the writers as propaganda to ‘other’ the asylum seekers. While I agree that language is very carefully used by journalists to craft particular meanings, her own political ideologies play a significantly dialogic role in the way she presents her argument, which I believe affects the validity of some of her argument. For example, she argues that categorisation and individualisation of leaders in government was a key aspect in the political propagande against asylum seekers. Her argument may be true to some extent, but individualising well-known leaders is far more realistic and practical for the journalists, and restrictions in interacting with the asylum-seekers must be taken into account.

Her overall discussion of discourse though, allows a much stronger understanding of how discourse can clearly be seen within the media, and affect the interpretations made by the audience on particular issues in the news. Images and language are not without ideological meaning, and the interaction between various aspects of media create meaning from this discourse.

Week Nine: Semiotics

Mukin, A. “Reporting War: Grammar as Covert Operation” Dissent (2003), 14 – 20

Words and language are inherently political. That is, the meaning within language is understood according to varying beliefs and ideologies. As such, we must acknowledge the fact that language and words used in the media we interact with are populated with ideologies of the creator to convey their particular view to the audience. In “Reporting War: Grammar as Covert Operation,” Lukin presents a sample of the same news event from various publications, examining how varied actors, actions, events, and circumstances can convery very different messages that carry particular political ideologies of the writer or the publication. Through the way that words are used and organised, responsibility and blame can be assigned in an active way, or portray a more passive voice. Lukin’s unpacking of varied news articles on the same event has effectively portrayed the way in which language can be organised in different ways to give politicised meanings. Lukin herself cannot avoid placing meaning in her language, a struggle which Mikhail Bakhtin terms as “heteroglossia” where language is a site of struggle between authorial power and intention, and the ability of the audience to place their own value judgements on what they read or view. Having this understanding of language and meaning can increase the complexities in the interaction between an audience, the media, and media’s producers. Media’s messages are undoubtedly influencing its audiences, but a question of power comes into play in who has more power in the meaning that is understood through language and words? This language-related influence of the media is an essential aspect in seeing how media plays a strong role in culture and everyday life, in the way that an audience is exposed to ideology and opinions, which may highly affect the audience’s own opinions, depending on the meaning that is read into the language, whether it is authorial-intended or not.

Week Eight: audiences!

Couldry, Nick. “The extended audience: scanning the horizon.” In Gillespie, Marie. Ed. Media audiences. Berkshire: Open University Press, 2005, 185-196 & 210-220

After establishing the ideas of types of audiences that have existed historically, Couldry introduces various concepts, such as the ‘diffused audience’, ‘extended audience’, and ‘media culture’. With the introduction of new media, particularly mobile media, the nature of audience interaction with media content has changed significantly, questioning traditional roles in power and the extent of interaction and control that the audience has.

The audience has become more involved in the production of the media content they interact with. In fact, even as I type up this post, I am a clear example of how audience contribution has changed, where traditionally, I would merely be able to view web sites, but here I can contribute to the types of media that is viewed on the internet. The audience relationship is an extremely important aspect of the media industry, and many complexities have risen in their role as technology has changed. Youtube is another prominent example of how audiences have become an intrinsic aspect of a wider ‘media culture’, becoming “produsers” and having significant input in the media industry.

I think that the changing roles of the audience have been allowed by the increasing interactivity provided by both changing technology and the responses from the industry to these changing technologies. Couldry’s article brings up the question of how audiences will continue to change as technology evolves. The line separating audience and the creation of various media has become extremely blurred, and self-production is increasingly common. The role of the audience becomes a question of power, which Couldry also explores, as the audience have a clear control over media, through the remote control as well as personal viewing over the internet.

Within our culture today, we are constantly audience members of some form of media or another. We demand control but with this knowledge, industry’s have to exercise their power in public spaces, through huge amounts of advertising, which are being moved to the digital. Media is being thrown at us every day, through mobile phones and advertising, showing us that being part of a media audience is inescapable.

The Playlist

Rizzo, Teresa. “Programming Your Own Channel:An Arcaheology of the Playlist”. In Kenyon, Andrew, Ed. TV Futures: Digital Television Policy in Australia. Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 2007, 108 – 134.

Playlists have changed the way that media plays a role in our everyday lives. With the introduction of technology such as Foxtel IQ, YouTube, and iPods, all three of which Rizzo examines, the ability to program media according to our personal tastes and to our own timing has increased, and changed the way in which the concept of ‘flow’ is understood.

Rizzo discusses the concept of flow according to various academics, where flow can be understood through television as the way that shows and advertisements are programmed to keep viewers immersed in what they are watching. This concept of flow relies on a central medium that is broadcasted to the masses. This form of flow is relied on to connect with its wider audiences. However, this idea flow changes as the shift to interactive and personalised media occurs. With interactive media (where the playlist comes in), flow is created by the variety of connections as well as disconnections, which allow multiple connections between media content.

The playlist and control that the viewer or listener has on media today has removed control from central broadcasters. Media’s role in everyday life then becomes a more personalised and mobile thing, particularly when considering technology such as the iPod. More often than not, I have my iTunes and MP3 player set to shuffle, and will skip dozens of songs at a time. The disconnects in skipping songs are part of the personalised concept of flow that is allowed to me by these technologies.

Somewhat unrelated, but ‘Networks’ kind of reminded me of this particular webcomic:

Challenges for Convergence

Nightengale, Virginia. “New Media Worlds? Challenges for Convergence.” In Nightengale, Virginia and Tim Dwyer, Eds. New Media Worlds Challenges For Convergence. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press, 2007, 19 – 36.

Media convergence is a concept that implies a constantly evolving aspect of technology and media use. There is a wide array of media content available to users and consumers, many of which, in the past, have been unique to separate technologies. Nowadays, with the introduction and integration of media technologies such as computers, laptops, and evolutions of the mobile phone (most recently notable, the iPhone), many of this media content can be readily available, having been ‘converged’ into central technologies that have many capabilities. Within the reading, once this concept is established, Nightengale explore the idea that media convergence can impact certain media industries, e.g. the advertising industry, where the focus on mass communication and advertising has been disrupted by the convergence of media on the internet, where personalization of advertising is far more attractive to the consumer.
Convergence can be seen in almost all media technologies nowadays. It has become intrinsically related to the concept of dailiness (from week 3), where a variety of daily services can be provided by a single technology. As technologies are updated, they have far more capabilities. Gaming consoles can now aid in communication, and as explained in the lecture, ‘modding’ of Xbox consoles allow for the Xbox to provide more media content than simply games. Within my own experiences, I find that my media interactions revolve around two central technologies – my laptop (with internet) and my mobile phone. From either of these, I can communicate with people, be updated on the latest news, play games, and even watch television shows. An interesting point made by Nightengale was the connections that television industries have with parts of the internet, such as Nine Network’s affiliation with MSN. Media convergence on the internet has forced affiliations to be made across media technologies in order to remain relevant to the widest possible audience.
The use of internet in everyday life, and as a part of our digital culture today, is well established as extremely prominent, particularly amongst young people. My personal use of the internet fits in with this concept that media content no longer relies on separate technologies – MSN can provide instant communication over great distances, Wikipedia and Google searches can give vast amounts of information, and I can watch the shows that I want to when I want to without having to wait for it to broadcast on television. The question then remains, once everything has ‘converged,’ particularly within the internet, what evolution can then be made by media and technology?

The Doubling of Place

“place, and experiences of being-in-place, can be pluralized in and by electronically mediated communication.” – Shaun Moores.

Through this reading, Moores presents to us the idea of pluralization in terms of “experiences of being-in-place” which has been made possible via electronic media such as television, internet and mobile phones. These medias in particular have become instilled within the everyday lives of people, so much so that an extension of the concept of ‘place’ occurs. That is, that while watching television, interacting on the internet, and communicating on the mobile phone, we as individuals can essentially be in more than one place at any given time. In order to convey his key argument that this pluralisation is indeed occurring, Moores draws upon the following examples:

• Public events – in this case, Princess Diana’s funeral, where television allowed the event to be experienced by those watching within the comfort of their own home, as well as the actual physical event.
• The Internet  – this can give people the opportunity to communicate to a wide spectrum of people online, whilst communicating with those in their own immediate physical space, and undertake other offline activities.
• Mobile phone – the use of mobile phones draws upon the concepts of public and private activity, and how through technology, the lines between such have been blurred. In doing so, another pluralization of the concept of place can be understood – while one can be on the phone in a physical setting, their main communication and interaction is focused within the place of the mobile phone conversation.

As part of his conclusive comments in this chapter, Shaun Moores puts forward the question of why we feel the need for physical travel in order to interact with other people when it is so easily done through these electronic medias, as well as the issues surrounding the idea of ‘unfocused interaction’. Electronic medias have indeed allowed a pluralization of place, and have thus consolidated their role within current culture and everyday life, but electronic media cannot replace the human desire for physical interaction and proximity for those they are familiar with. In saying that, the concept of ‘civil inattention’ shows us that physical vicinity does not necessarily foster any sort of social interaction in today’s age. Social relationships are complex, and have been been made even more complex by media’s impact and role within culture and everyday life.

Dailiness

The concepts of time, dailiness, and publicness are central in Scannell’s discussion of how such concepts are intrinsic to the larger notion of media in culture and everyday life. Scannell establishes quite clearly the concept of “concern” as “engagement with, involvement in” which in turn “discovers the meaningfulness of phenomena”. It is through this established concept that Scannell places his central concern in broadcast media, its institutionalisation and analysis of its meaningfulness throughout everyday life.

The main concepts, as I understood them, were:

• Dailiness: in the context of media, it is to provide a constant daily service, that has become a vital aspect in our notions of time, and how everyday life passes by.
• Time: a largely complex concept, which can be understood as natural time, abstract time, or experiential time.
• Publicness: broadcasting allows disclosure of truth and freedom of knowledge to the wider realm of society, in public life.

I found that Scannell’s discussion of time and dailiness made me think about the way that I interact with media in my everyday life, particularly when he poses the question: “Would time feel different for us without radio, television and newspapers?” It’s somewhat peculiar to think about the way that time would be carried out for me without the media. As Scannell elaborates, the schedules of broadcast media are scheduled to the way we live out our daily lives. Media relies on the routines of our daily lives in order to serve the public in a very intricate way. I think that this scheduling has become so much more, particularly in the younger generations today – nowadays, it feels as though our lives are in fact scheduled around the media. The media has established a particular cycle of time for us, and its influence on our own activities may be stronger than we all realise.

The relationship between media and our everyday life is unceasingly complex, but the ‘concern’ that we have for worldy information and entertainment does convey the meaningfulness of such medias within society. Would we feel further removed in aspects of both time and place if breaking news was not constantly reported to us? What media do I concern myself with and allow myself to shape my own everyday schedule by?

Scannell, P. “Dailiness” in Radio, Television and Modern Life. Blackwell, 1996, 144-178

iConsume: Journalism

i) My personal consumption of journalism mainly revolves around news media and music industry publications. I do read newspapers on occasion, including my local paper and the SMH (which reminds me, I should get that subscription!), and I access news daily through the internet via Google News. Another aspect of news journalism I engage with in particular is the Sky News channel, which allows me to watch different parts of the news at whatever time I want, while reading through short articles on Sky News Interactive. To be honest though, this isn’t where my central interest lies in journalism. As an avid fan of music and everything to do with it, I breathe in free music publications such The Drum Media and The Brag every week. Go figure why I aspire to be a music journalist!

ii) I think the main language tools I use are the dictionary, usually online, and the thesaurus. Other than that, I don’t really use them, but I do feel as though I should be doing more to expand my vocabulary and improve my writing skills through language tools.

iii) As for deadlines, I find that they do add a good and very much needed amount of stress on me to actually complete a task. I have a very relaxed attitude, often times too relaxed, so deadlines are actually really useful in kicking me out of my chilled out and lazy state into doing something by a certain time! Admittedly I tend to procrastinate, but far more often than not I’m able to complete tasks by the deadline, even if with only a couple of hours to spare. I’m trying to work on getting things done way before deadlines though, I promise!

Week One: Media Rituals

I have had a great interest in social theories for a couple of years now, so while I found it somewhat difficult to get myself back into academic reading, Nick Couldry’s “Media Rituals: The Short and Long Route” was quite interesting to me. Throughout this first chapter of Media Rituals, Nick Couldry discusses his aims in approaching the concept of “media rituals”, and explains the perspectives and lens through which he does this within the book as a whole.

“Media rituals”, as explained by Couldry, are “any actions organised around key media-related categories and boundaries”. These actions and interactions can include habits in television viewing, as well as the effects and influences that media can have on people in society.

In approaching Media Rituals, Couldry uses a Durkheimian framework based on the theory that particular established rituals “produce or maintains social integration”. In applying this Durkheimian belief to media rituals, it places media rituals as central to cohesion and integration within society. Nick Couldry does not necessarily hold this stance however, as his central argument depends on understanding the limited extent in which media rituals are centralised in society, as well as the effects that media has on everyday thinking.

What struck me as interesting in this section of the chapter was Couldry’s explanation of ‘emotive’ readings of Durkheim and ‘cognitive’ readings of Durkheim. When I consider media, the main type of media that I think of is music, as it is one of the most important things in my life. I’ve always understood this form of media in the ‘emotive’ sense, where music can bring about this concept of “collective effervescence”, bringing about a major effect on the emotions of an individual or group. I believe in the same way, media forms such as television programs, film, and written media can appeal particularly to the emotions, and to me this is the most significant aspect of media’s effects in life. However, I have come to understand that the ‘cognitive’ reading  of Durkheim in relation to media, where it can affect the everyday thinking outside of the particular media, and pervade many other aspects of social life that are unrelated to these media rituals. Media power then becomes a large aspect of Couldry’s argument, where he outlines an understanding that it can be considered in both negative and positive ways, but the extent of the power cannot be denied, which I believe is very true of media’s effect on culture and everyday life.

Couldry, Nick. “Media Rituals: The Short and Long Route.” Media Rituals: A Critical Approach. London: Routledge, 2003, 1-20.

Janine Caburian

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