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: