Week 8

Looking Glass Self/Specular Economy

The theory that I think well embodies the topic of specular economy is that of the ‘looking glass self.’This psychological concept created by Charles Horton Cooley means the self-image an individual forms by imagining what others think of his or her behavior and appearance.

This directly ties in with the Specular world, in which we’re conscious of the public version of ourselves and how others look at us. We now live in a world that revolves around online culture, so celebrities need to adapt. What we see from this are different avenues for attention, we find ourselves looking at a plethora  of controversy from celebrities to help boost their fame, just look at this argument between 4 of the world biggest DJ’s taken place on twitter of all places.  

 

Look at Tiger Woods, he had constructed the perfect image of himself, a professional sportsman, consummate family man and humanitarian with his charity works. However, due to paparazzi companies like TMZ and RadarOnline, once there was a sniff of his real image they were able to uncover evidence and destroy his reputation via electronic media in a matter of days. (Marshall P 2008, p500)  

“There is now an expectation of social interaction through social media that dwarfs the fan letter interactions of old and pushes celebrity culture into a constant and accelerated game of recursive revelation of the private and the intimate.” (Marshall P 2008, p498)   

References

Marshall, P.D 2008, The Specular Economy, Society. Vol. 47

Week 7

Post-Modern Diaspora’s

When looking at Diasporic Media you have to first know about broadcasting and narrowcasting. Broadcasting is to transmit signals or programs from a radio/television station to make something widely known, whereas narrowcasting is aiming a program at a specific audience or sales market.

Most Middle-Eastern Diaspora’s are clear examples of narrowcasting as they are in the language of the homeland and not English, therefore in Australia and America, when we view such programs on television or online we cannot understand them, unless we are part of the small minority they are designed for.

“Contemporary Immigrants in the West have formed post modern Diaspora’s that have not neglected their indigenous cultures, instead using electronic media, they have worked actively to celebrate and sustain them.” (Nacify 2003, p59)

A study was recently conducted on Chinese students living in Iowa, USA. These students all had access to the internet, almost 8,000 volumes of Chinese books, 300 current popular journals and 500 movies from Mainland China. Not to mention on Television they could watch Channel Four news which aired twice a day from Mainland China Central. (Shi 2005, 67)  

 Referencing

Naficy, H 2003, ‘Narrowcasting in diaspora: Middle Eastern television in Los Angeles’, The media of diaspora 2003, Routledge, London , pp. 51-62

Shi Yu, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 55–72