Tag Archive for culture

| March 16, 2012
4 comments

Embiggening Our Understanding

In his seminal work Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson wrote of the ways nations are constructed – of the common symbols and artefacts that define peoples within national borders. Equally potent are the symbols used to define others within those borders, or to signify they are outsiders. It is the symbols used in The Simpsons to define non-American characters that will be the subject of my thesis.

I thought the term ‘non-American’ was problematic, for a whole range of reasons. And it is. But in the context of Anderson’s theory, it makes perfect sense. His work is all about nationalism and national communities, so it works well in this context.

By studying The Simpsons – a cultural product to which so many have given so much – I hope to discover something about how Americans interpret our (being non-Americans’) place in the world and, by extension, how they interpret themselves. It will not, of course, provide a comprehensive or definitive text by which all American cultural products and attitudes can be judged, but it should contribute something to the overall picture. It is not American exceptionalism that is under examination here, but the unexceptional aspects of one of the most enduring, penetrating and overtly American cultural products that exists. It is the everyday depictions of a particular subset of characters within the show, and I hope to demonstrate something of that culture, and its view of others.

Category: Media, Uni | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
| February 29, 2012
5 comments

The Simpsons, Episode 1

UPDATE: If you’ve come to this post looking for information about content analysis, you might be better served looking here.

This blog is about to have a new regular topic because I agreed on my thesis focus topic with my supervisor today and I’m keen to document the whole process. There will be two types of posts. The first type will be tagged ‘reflections’ and will discuss the process of preparing, researching and writing the thesis. The second type will be snippets of the research itself, and other notes and ideas that won’t be part of the final work.

Without further ado, the topic will be ‘representations of non-American characters in The Simpsons‘. It will take some refining to narrow this down into a workable topic for an 18,000 word thesis, but I’m really keen for it. The research could go in a number of directions. It could look at visits by the Simpson family to foreign countries, portrayals of the recurring non-American characters (Apu, Willie, Ooter), or changes over time. It could even be a combination of all of these.

Of course, there are a lot of contentious issues in this topic, including the obvious one of how the American and non-American characters are defined. I’m keen to explore the whole issue of the cultural relationships aspect more so than getting involved in strict definitions.

I’ll get to apply a whole heap of research skills, including textual and content analysis, aspects of social studies, and maybe even some focus groups. I’m also really pleased to be working with Dean Chan as my supervisor. I couldn’t ask for a better, or friendlier guy. It also suits his background quite well, which is helpful. Dean even suggested I might be able to give a guest lecture to his 2nd years, which is a really great opportunity.

The project will give me a great chance to examine this influential cultural text from a whole new perspective, demonstrate my ability to really analyse media texts, and hopefully expose some interesting aspects to mediated inter cultural communication. Plus, it gives me a good chance to watch 500 episodes of my favourite TV show.

I’d be grateful of any advice or any useful sources or research anyone can point out.

Category: Uni | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
| December 8, 2011
One comment

Honours, here I come

memeformje1

My honours research proposal, as submitted to UoW:

My honours research will attempt to trace the spread of a variety of memes and motifs in digital media. It will not aim to provide predictive tools – though perhaps some will emerge – but instead to examine the common characteristics of cross-media memes and motifs. The proposed title is Peach is in another castle: cross-media propagation of digital motifs and memes. The reference to the seminal Super Mario Bros. videogames strongly hints at the ludic characteristics of many such memes and motifs, an aspect of digital culture that will feature prominently in the research. This delimiter, coupled with the cross-media specification, will ensure my examples are confined to specific locatable texts. Such confinement will benefit the project by providing a rich context within which to locate the research and ensuring it does not become too unwieldy. Additionally, this aspect of digital media remains largely unexplored in academia.

The place of memes within digital culture is coming under increasing scrutiny, with attempts by academics, bloggers and the press to theorise, predict and measure their spread. In academia, research teams such Xie et al (2011) have critically assessed the spread of visual memes in an ex post facto manner. Their research also proposes tools for measuring the spread and impact of such memes. Bloggers such as Soapscum (2009) have similarly proposed – apparently in jest – formulas to measure and predict memes. One such example is displayed below:

Despite such formulaic attempts to quantify digital memes, they remain elusive. Similarly, other recurring motifs of digital culture are difficult to predict and measure. As such, they promise an interesting field of research, especially in regard to the elusive ludic quality outlined briefly above.

This research will apply a number of communication theories, and may also borrow academic theory from other fields. The Uses and Gratifications model, which emphasises the role of the audience in interpreting and using messages, is appropriate in this field since the further spread of memes and motifs is (likely) dependent upon correct interpretation. Reception theories, which allow for segmented interpretations of media texts are also relevant, and may be applicable to explaining the spread of certain memes and/or motifs. The role of social feedback, and swarm behaviour in influencing the spread and reinforcement of memes and motifs is also worth considering. However, the appropriateness or otherwise of such theories is to be further discussed.

A range of research methods will be applied in this research. The exact methods will be negotiated with my supervisor, but it is likely that some content analysis and qualitative interviews will be required. This kind of research is unlikely to require large-scale collection of quantitative data from individual subjects through surveys or similar methods. However, quantitative data concerning the spread of particular memes (especially through the internet) may be sought.

(* I have excluded a paragraph relating to my proposed honours supervisor.)

References:

  • Soapscum, 2011, ‘MemeRev 1.0’, Soapdish [blog], accessed online 07/12/2011, available: http://goo.gl/kcv5A.
  • Xie, L., Natsev, A., Kender, J., Hill, M., & Smith, J. 2011, ‘Tracking Visual Memes in Rich-Media Social Communities’, Proceedings of the Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, accessed online 07/12/2011, available: http://goo.gl/6K2kt.

 

Category: Uni, Web | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
| November 6, 2011
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Peach is in Another Castle

Do video games (and other digital media) influence society or does society influence them? Or is it a bit from Column A and a bit from Column B?

There are some strong arguments that repeated exposure to violence desensitizes people and, in the case of violent video games, even spurs/trains them to commit violent acts. This debate has been waged in academia and elsewhere. For an interesting overview, see this book chapter, or even this Wikipedia page. Commentators are split on whether there is a causal link, or a casual link.

I’m less interested in the serious stuff, like violence, than whether cool stuff comes across from digital media to the physical world. Check out this Cracked article Six Disastrous Way Pop Culture Influences the Real World for some examples of what I’m talking about. Obviously, there are the things like pop culture references that often litter conversations (such as the title of this post), but do actions and behaviours make the transition?

The video below by Remi Gaillard is one example of a video game coming to life.

While hilarious, this isn’t exactly what I’m talking about.

At one level, it is obvious that participatory media and participatory culture encourage users to engage in new actions outside of the particular medium they are using. We can find examples of these practices in Wikipedia, YouTube, metagaming, game clans and more. But these actions still tend to relate directly to the use of the medium. In these cases, the influences aren’t manifesting elsewhere.

Do you know of any examples of digital culture influencing people’s behaviour, in cool ways, away from the particular media item itself?

Category: Media, Web | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
 

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