KCB201 Week 5 Slidecast: Networked People

c r e a t i v e n d u s t r i e si

creativeindustries.qut.com

Networked People

KCB201 Virtual CulturesDr Axel Bruns

[email protected]



Cultural Technologies‒ The story so far:

• media convergence• participatory culture• collective intelligence• in cultural communities from the global to the hyperlocal level• enabled by (but not driven by) new media technologies

‒ New media as cultural technologies (Flew, pp. 25-26):• three levels of understanding technologies:

∘ technologies as tools and artefacts e.g. the physical network of the Internet

∘ technologies as contexts of use e.g. browsing, bookmarking, blogging, …

∘ technologies as systems of knowledge e.g. how we create meaning from this

• technologies are all three at the same time• contexts of use and systems of knowledge are (in part) constructed by us as we use

technologies – technologies are socially constructed



Cultural Power‒ Systems of knowledge:

• determine what their users are able to do within them• provide certain roles for participants• distribute power to different actors in the system• determine shape of our cultures

‒ Examples:• television vs. YouTube

small number of active producers large number of contributorslarge, passive audiences small, niche audiencesone-way, one-to-many two-way, many-to-many

• telephone (today) vs. telephone (as invented)interpersonal communication wired broadcast systemdirect access to all participants consumers subscribe to

stationsone-to-one one-to-many



Technocultures‒ Cultural technologies:

• takes into account the philosophies behind technologies and their uses• this includes institutional, economic, intellectual, legal, social, cultural frameworks

for using these technologies• this is the ‘grammar’ of a medium (Flew, p. 32)• i.e.: not simply technologies, but their uses and the systems of knowledge

associated with them

‒ Technocultures:• shifts focus to the cultures which are supported by these frameworks• which impact on the status of the individual in such cultural environments

• Marshall McLuhan:∘ “the impact of the communication media … influences not only what we think but how

we think” (McPhail & McPhail qtd. in Flew, p. 32)∘ “any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of

the way media work as environments” (McLuhan & Fiore qtd. in Flew, p. 32)



Technocultural Choices‒ A question of power:

• what technocultural frameworks (systems of knowledge) do we∘ have?∘ use?∘ want?

• e.g.:passive audiences vs. participating userstop-down vs. bottom-upone-to-many vs. many-to-manyfocussing on mass interests vs. focussing on long tail

interestscontrolled by business interests vs. controlled by user interestsunified culture vs. diverse communitieshigh quality, limited choice vs. extensive choices, limited

quality

• these are questions we negotiate every day!



The Networked Environment‒ Emerging framework: (Effects for users:)

• network model flatter information landscape (fewer opinion leaders) information pull rather than knowledge push (users must seek)

• anyone can publish abundance of information (difficult to cope with) multiperspectival coverage of any topic (confusing and

contradictory)

• lack of in-built filters lack of authority, reliability, and trust (threat of

mis/disinformation) users must make meaning for themselves (requires new

knowledge literacies)

• but also possibility for collaborative, communal meaning-making efforts



Networked People‒ In other words:

• we’re exposed to an abundance of information• we’re adding to that abundance by remixing content and adding it to what’s

already available• we’re engaged in a continuous contest over information, meaning, knowledge• this may lead to social divisions – diverse interest communities, conflicting belief

systems

• we take part in a struggle to determine the future of our technoculture

‒ A postmodern environment (Collins in Flew, pp. 34-35):• explosion of information, universal media access• aesthetics based on repurposing, reuse, remixing, mash-up (bricolage)• intellectual stance denies the existence of absolute truths: everything is relative

and subject to reinterpretation• issue-based rather than movement-based universal politics• probably unavoidable, and irreversible

KCB201 Week 5 Slidecast: Networked People

Technology

Transcript of KCB201 Week 5 Slidecast: Networked People