Emily, a commenter on my last post, brought up an interesting point: "the strong trend towards using material from a range of literary and non-literary sources is a product of our technological ability to surf, sample and mix" (Lankshear, Knobel 116)
So continuing with this week's topic of remix, I would like to determine some of the effects of remixing in American culture.
Surfing to find information and mixing it to be what you like is a new way to experience culture. Remixing provides many opportunities for people to choose what version of something they would like to have access to. It allows people to become very specialized into one topic. Something that is a television show might also be a website, a photoshopped image, an audioclip, a podcast, a youtube clip, and a catchy phrase (that's what she said). They can look at all of the versions of the same thing, or they can get more involved and create their own. This specialization is an increasing trend. People are able to isolate themselves in online communities where they can get all of the knowledge and participation that interests them without ever meeting someone. So viewing remixes and creating remixes can lead to uberparticipation in knowledge communities that isolate people physically and mentally from those less interested in their topic.
This specialization also leads to the loss of the mass. We no longer have the entire adult population watching the evening news. (I exaggerate, but you get the point.) Now, people are increasingly finding the remixes that suit their interests, like news blogs, editorials, and the likes that are horridly biased. People can find exactly what they want, and can do it faster on the internet then they can by watching the news. Even if they did watch the news on tv, we have 100 cable news channels. It is nearly impossible to have one source bring people together into the mass anymore.
This loss of the mass leads to a situation where it is hard to make money off of consumers. Advertising has to be more spread out, because a smaller percentage of the population will watch the evening news each night, and they will access many internet sites. So what are companies to do?
Remixing is not all bad though. Lankshear and Knobel note that remix allows people to actively participate in their interests. The fanfiction community, though somewhat underground, is alive and thriving. People love the opportunity to experience more individually the world and lives of their favorite characters. They develop a deeper understanding of the characters.
Just some thoughts. Respond if you disagree/think of more!
Megan
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This is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteA+ for you.
Maybe you should become a professional blogger.
While I do understand your point about remixing physically isolating people by allowing them to submerge themselves in their favorite fan culture, it can also bring them together. If you simply look at new media as a way to publicize events, you would notice that people put meeting times, venues, and events online so that more people can participate in a given activity that has to do with their interest. So essentially, remix is isolating people within certain interest groups from other groups, but not from other people interested in the same group.
ReplyDeleteSo, if I am a CakeWrecks fan (http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/), I have the book, and I go to the book signing, I am physically and digitally surrounded by CakeWrecks fans. People who have never heard of CakeWrecks will not understand what I am talking about, creating a mental divide, nor will they be at the book signing (except by chance), so they are physically distanced.