Thursday, April 17, 2008
Nine Propositions Towards a cultural Theory of Youtube
The author discusses how youtibe is a "hybrid Meadi Space that serves as a meeting place for amatuer curators and creators. I makes the claim that it is valuable because because technology can be easily embeded and distributed in our lives in the form of media on these social networks. What I found was most interesting about this was the fact that this new technology and social networking allows people to transform the role within the comunity. It transforms passive observers of situations to active participants. Users are able to capture media, change media, and exchange media within their social networks. I found that what the author was really trying to get at was the idea of the digital divide vs. the participation gap. Certainly, looking at the digital divide, it is obvious that there are many people that do not have the resource to be active on online communities. The author looks at this as his cultural theory, meaning that if the digital divide and participation gap were made more balanced and active all across the board, these social networks would value from the new participatory culture and divirsity that would expand the overall distributive uses of sites like you tube.
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2 comments:
I agree that it is interesting that these new medias turn people into not only consumers of information, but producers of information. The idea of power has been transformed in this right, as different people have more power as they become producers, in the same respect that other people may have less power because of the uprise in people becoming producers. I think this is related to the idea of the participatory culture. While many people may think that these online communities are a fabrication of reality, Williams proposes that, "the spectacles we create will not cover over or replace reality and truth, but perform and amplify it." You also talked about the idea of the digital divide and the participation gap. I think slowly, the gap between the two is closing. Just as the real world benefits and learns from diversity and participation from different cultures and groups, I think so would online communities.
It is interesting that you said more people may have less power because of the uprise in the number of people becoming producers. This may also inspire competition and therefore creativity because the best producers will gain the most power.
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