Mid-term Review
COM 327February 26, 2013
Strategies…
For studying:
For writing:
Theoretical Foundations #1:Communication as Culture
James Carey. “A cultural approach to communication.”Key concepts: • Ritual vs transmission model of
communication
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations
Surveillance Society Political Economy
Communication as CultureCarey’s theories were rooted in media & cultural studies.
Raymond Williams:“Culture is ordinary” – culture is what we do every day. Culture is created through communication.
Marshall McLuhan:“Medium is the message” – the ‘content’ of communication is inseparable from the media used to deliver it.
Erving Goffman:“Dramaturgical” view of communication – we perform different versions of our selves under different communicational contexts (e.g. at work vs at school vs at the game)
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations
Surveillance Society Political Economy
Theoretical Foundations #2:New Media
Henry Jenkins. “The cultural logic of media convergence.”Key concepts: • Convergence• Participatory culture
Matt Ratto.“Critical making: Conceptual and material studies in technology and social life.”Key concepts: • Critical making
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations
Surveillance Society Political Economy
New Media
The study of ‘mass’ media is defined by concerns for what effects” the messages will have on audiences.
The study of ‘Web 2.0’ technologies is defined by how different groups of society use specific digital tools in specific ways...
We not only consume culture, we participate in & help construct it.
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations
Surveillance Society Political Economy
Identity & Representation #1:Reading Culture
Stuart Hall.“Encoding/decoding.”Key concepts: • Cultural studies• Encoding/decoding• Dominant/hegemonic vs counter-hegemonic reading
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Reading Culture
Hall used Marxist theory (society is characterized by struggle between ruling elite & working classes) to frame communication as a political struggle over meaning.
1) Mass media serves the ruling class, BUT -2) People have the power to interpret media in ways that do not align with, and can be resistant to, the dominant ideology.
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance Society Political Economy
Identity & Representation #2Cinema and the Gaze
Laura Mulvey.“Visual pleasure and narrative cinema.”Key concepts:• the male gaze• feminist theory
Alexander Doty.“Introduction” to Flaming ClassicsKey concepts:• queer theory• sex vs gender• heteronormativity• homoeroticism
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance Society Political Economy
Cinema and the Gaze
Mainstream media is deeply heteronormative: 1) historically made for male pleasure2) dominated by heterosexual relationships
Just like people in real life, we should not assume characters are straight just because they act straight.
Queer and feminist readings provide means for marginalized & oppressed groups to identify with mainstream media.
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance Society Political Economy
Identity & Representation #3:Colonialism & Imperialism
KA Ono & DT Buescher. “Deciphering Pocahontas: Unpacking the commodification of a Native American woman.”Key concepts:• Cipher• Cultural imperialism• Appropriation• Noble savage• Commodification
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance Society Political Economy
Colonialism & Imperialism
Mainstream media commodifies racial & ethnic identities, historical figures & practices
Reel Injun: Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans through the years says less about Native Americans, and more about the dominant (white) culture’s changing views on American history, colonization, and progress
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance Society Political Economy
Identity & Representation #4:Playing with Ourselves
Helen Kennedy“Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?”Key concepts: • Playing as vs playing with an avatar• Interactivity (games) vs viewing (tv/movies)
Tanner Higgin“Blackless Fantasy”Key concepts:• Race & ethnicity as avatar “color choice” in games
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance Society Political Economy
Playing with Ourselves
Commercial games, like other mainstream media, reflect dominant ideological understandings & stereotypes about race and gender
But since games are INTERACTIVE, ‘avatars’ become powerful tools for reflecting on & performing identities (i.e. Kennedy’s notion that the guy playing as Lara in Tomb Raider becomes “in drag” or “transgendered”)
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance Society Political Economy
Surveillance Society #1:Watching Me Watching You
Mark Andrejevic.“Surveillance in the digital enclosure.”Key concepts:• ‘cloud’ vs ‘enclosure’• Surveillance society• Panopticon
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Political Economy
Watching Me Watching You
In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucault wrote that the modern individual is so used to being watched because s/he watches themselves, constantly.
‘The cloud’ separates us from our data & commodifies it. We don’t ‘own’ our data any more and have little say over who / what it is sold to.
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Political Economy
Surveillance Society #2:‘I Agree’
F. Chee, N. Taylor & S. de Castell.“Remediating research ethics.”Key concepts:• Big Data• EULA• Digital literacy
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Political Economy
‘I Agree’
End User License Agreements typically contain clauses that say that the company (Google, Facebook, Blizzard, etc) can give data collected on & about you away to a “third party” without your knowledge.
What does “digital literacy” mean under these kinds of conditions? Why is digital literacy itself not much of a solution?
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical FoundationsSurveillance Society
Political Economy
Political Economy #1:Political Economy and Mass Media
Dallas Smythe.“On the audience commodity and its work.”Key concepts:• Consciousness industry
RW McChesney.“Global media, neoliberalism, and imperialism.”Key concepts:• Neoliberalism• Corporate ownership of media
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance SocietyPolitical Economy
Political Economy and Mass Media
Neoliberalism is the ideology that says that all aspects of society (education, healthcare, law, etc) should be dictated by market forces, aka “the bottom line”.
The concentration of media ownership in a small number of huge companies is a serious threat to democracy. Means that whether in entertainment or news, only the views of the dominant/ruling class are communicated.
Smythe argued that we are doing ‘work’ on behalf of corporations by watching tv commercials. In the economic relationship between tv producers, advertisers, and viewers, the audience is the commodity.
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance SocietyPolitical Economy
Political Economy #2:Working for Play
N. Dyer-Witherford & G. de Peuter.“‘EA Spouse’ and the crisis of video game labour.”Key concepts:• Immaterial labor• Affective labor• Precarious labor• Playbor
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Working for Play
New media industries (like lots of forms of work) demand that workers put in extra time, work longer hours, represent the company when they’re not working, and ‘love their job’.
The shift from material labor to immaterial labor means that jobs are less secure, workers have fewer rights, and corporations are less accountable to their workers than in the past.
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance SocietyPolitical Economy
Political Economy #3:Global Haves and Have-nots
Lisa Nakamura.“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”Key concepts:• Gold farming• Racialization
L. Guo, S-H Hsu, A. Holton & S.H. Jeong.“A case study of the Foxconn suicides.• Framing
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance SocietyPolitical Economy
Global Haves and Have-nots
Both ‘gold farming’ and the attention to the Foxconn suicides emphasize how our leisure (games, smartphones, etc) depends on the precarious, dangerous and often ‘invisible’ labor of workers on the other side of the world.
Nakamura’s work shows how online gaming becomes “racialized”, as Western players mock & dehumanize “Chinese” gold farmers.
The Foxconn piece shows how corporate-owned media outlets frame them less as an issue about globalization & labor, and more about China’s human rights & the mental health of workers.
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance SocietyPolitical Economy
Political Economy #4:Let’s be Friends
Christian Fuchs. “The political economy of privacy on Facebook.”Key concepts:• Liberal vs Contextual Privacy
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance SocietyPolitical Economy
Let’s be Friends
Facebook relies on the unpaid (and ‘affective’) labor of users
Facebook (like MMOGs) require individual users to protect themselves from harm & surveillance
Identity & RepresentationTheoretical Foundations Surveillance SocietyPolitical Economy
Question Set #1: - Theoretical Foundations- Identity & Representation
• Convergence• Participatory culture• Critical making• Cultural studies• Encoding/decoding• Dominant vs counter-hegemonic reading• Male gaze• Feminist theory• Queer theory• Sex vs gender• Heteronormativity• Homoeroticism• Cipher• Cultural imperialism• Noble savage• Commodification• Interactivity vs viewing
Question Set #2: - Surveillance Society- Political Economy
• ‘Cloud’ vs ‘enclosure’• Surveillance society• Panopticon• Big Data• EULA• Digital literacy• Consciousness industry• Neoliberalism• Corporate ownership of media• Immaterial labor• Affective labor• Precarious labor• Playbor• Gold farming• Racialization• Framing• Liberal vs Contextual Privacy
In groups:
Choose 4 terms -- 2 from each side.
For each term:1. Define the term in your own words2. State what main author(s) it’s associated with3. State what other terms & concepts it is related
to (anywhere across the course)4. Illustrate the term with examples from
everyday life & current movies/tv shows/games
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