DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 2

1
Digital Culture and Sociology

• Doing Cultural Studies

2
about today

• Doing Cultural Studies, by Stuart Hall et.al.
• Digital Borderlands, Identity and Interactivity
  in Culture, Media and Communications by Johan
  Fornäs

part 1
break
part 2
3
reading the text?
4
main points
representation
Walkman as object doesnt have meaning per se but
we can find it in the way it is represented -
link to identity - typical (modern) cultural
artifact - studying representation we see all
the other themes in operation
Media are important because through them culture
is produced, circulated, use or appropriated
(23)
Advertisement is not only about reflecting
cultural identities but mostly about constructing
identities through representation. We dont buy
things totally unconsciously, we identify to some
small degree.
5
the circuit of culture
Du Gay , Paul, Stuart Hall, Linda James, Hugh
Mackay and Keith Smith. 1997. Doing Cultural
Studies The story of the Sony Walkman. London
Sage.
6
birth of the walkman
production

• Original idea? Akio Morita / young engineer
• Heroic individual personification, from rag to
  riches?, the US connection
• Sony as Japanese (to West) as West (to Japan)
• Chance production vs careful planning
  investment

7
birth of the walkman II
production

• How to sell it?
• Marx Production and consumption necessary
  connected, articulation (Hall)
• To target the ideal young costumers
• prizes had to be low (efforts, assembly)
• name had to be cool (walky taken, walkman too
  japanized soundabout (US), stowaway (UK),
  freestlye (Sve)
• Marketing give sets to musicians, couples in
  public places, invitations to press on audio
• Lots of market research as consumption feeds back
  into production from 2people to 1

8
design
Articulating production and consumption

• Designers have to embody culture in things so
  that they can sell them.
• Explores design processes at Sony (i.e. how it
  became smaller, model differences, etc.)
• Lifestyling through market research (p. 66)
• Open the original target mobile, young, music.
  As research showed more ages, not only urban.
• My First Sony campaign
• How Japanese is it? Centered on Western aesthetics

9
sony as global firm
production

• Analyze the companys economical progress (ups
  downs)
• Globalization also in production i.e. factories
  to Taiwan.
• Sony expanding in more markets within electronic
  music, entertainment, etc.
• Define Sony in relationship to the theory of
  culture industry by Horkheimer/Adorno
  combining hardware/software, the idea of media
  synergy

10
uses/attitudes
consumption

• Consumption concept consumedgt passivegt rebellion
• Did people need the walkman?
• Baudrillard needs are not natural but cultural
  (p.90)
• Against the walkman articles criticizing
  atomization, loss of values, isolation
• In favour of walkman active users, own space,
  reclaiming terrain
• Bourdieu different social groups consume goods
  differently statistics
• Commodification allows for appropriation and
  resistance.

11
uses/attitudes
regulation

• Public vs private sphere
• People fined in public transportation
• Media discussions about attitude, politeness...
• Regulation in public places

12
(No Transcript)
13
digital borderlands

• purpose of text
• relation to course
• the balance theory / practise
• your questions / comments

lets do a close reading of the text
14
discourse analysis steps
CASE walkman

1. Description relation/difference with other
   objects
2. Semantic analysis what does it mean? the name,
   what is it, what does it evoke, associations of
   the words related to the object modern,
   Japanese...
3. Advertisement analysis what kind of people are
   represented (social role, status, race, gender),
   what slogans, what other objects appear
4. Signifying practise how is it used? what do we
   do with it?
5. Themes Mobility, Privacy, Soundscapes...

15
complementary bibliography

• ADORNO, T.W. 1991. The Culture Industry. London,
  Verso.
• ARNOLD, M. 1932. Culture and Anarchy, Cambridge,
  Cambridge University Press.
• BARTHES, R. 1977. Mythologies. London Jonathan
  Cape.
• BAUDRILLARD, J. 1998. Selected Writings,
  Cambridge, Polity Press.
• BOURDIEU, P. 1989. Social Space and symbolic
  power. Sociological Theory. Vol. 7, n.1.
• WILLIAMS, R. 1961. The Long Revolution.
  Harmondsworth, Penguin.
• WILLIAMS, R. 1976. Keywords. London, Fontana.
• WILLIAMS, R. 1983. Towards 2000. London, The
  Hogarth Press.