scholarly journals From roadman to royalties: Inter-representational value and the hypercapitalist impulses of grime

2021 ◽  
pp. 174165902110243
Author(s):  
Orlando Woods
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Music Videos ◽  
Digital Recording ◽  
Commercial Success ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Ubiquitous Access ◽  
Rap Artists

This paper explores how digital media can cause the representational value of rap artists to be transformed. Ubiquitous access to digital recording, production and distribution technologies grants rappers an unprecedented degree of representational autonomy, meaning they are able to integrate the street aesthetic into their lyrics and music videos, and thus create content that offers a more authentic representation of their (past) lives. Sidestepping the mainstream music industry, the digital enables these integrations and bolsters the hypercapitalist impulses of content creators. I illustrate these ideas through a case study of grime artist, Bugzy Malone, who uses his music to narrate his evolution from a life of criminality (selling drugs on the street; a ‘roadman’), to one in which his representational value is recognised by commercial brands who want to partner with him because of his street credibility (collecting ‘royalties’). Bugzy Malone’s commercial success is not predicated on a departure from his criminal past, but the deliberate foregrounding of it as a marker of authenticity. The representational autonomy provided by digital media can therefore enable artists to maximise the affective cachet of the once-criminal self.

scholarly journals Branding Kidfluencers: Regulating Content and Advertising on YouTube

2021 ◽  
pp. 152747642110528
Author(s):  
Gavin Feller ◽  
Benjamin Burroughs
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Power Networks ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Product Lines ◽  
Governmental Regulation ◽  
Global Brands ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Litmus Test

This paper analyzes emerging shifts in YouTube, advertising, and children’s digital media industries through a case study of Pocket Watch, a digital-first production and distribution studio built exclusively for YouTube child stars. Our analysis reveals the company’s strategic use of legacy media industry power, networks, and expertise to transform YouTube stars into global brands through the creation of toy, clothing, and lifestyle product lines across several industries. We further argue that Pocket Watch’s newly formed advertising division, Clock Work, exploits its child partners through problematic native advertising and host selling practices. The strategies implemented by Pocket Watch and other similar emerging companies may therefore act as a litmus test for how governmental regulation and platform policy changes will impact the evolving landscape of children’s digital media as commercial forces increasingly groom a growing number of young children to shift from YouTube stars to global brands.

Texts: A Case Study of Joint Action

SATS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nivedita Gangopadhyay ◽  
Alois Pichler
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Joint Action ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Linguistic Communication ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
Joint Actions ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Abstract Our linguistic communication often takes the form of creating texts. In this paper, we propose that creating texts or ‘texting’ is a form of joint action. We examine the nature and evolution of this joint action. We argue that creating texts ushers in a special type of joint action, which, while lacking some central features of normal, everyday joint actions such as spatio-temporal collocation of agency and embodiment, nonetheless results in an authentic, strong, and unique type of joint action agency. This special type of agency is already present in creating texts in general and is further augmented in creating texts through digital media. We propose that such a unique type of joint action agency has a transformative effect on the experience of our sense of agency and subjectivity. We conclude with the implications of the proposal for social cognition and social agency. The paper combines research in philosophy of mind with the emerging fields of digital humanities and text technology.

scholarly journals Modular Web Portal Approach for Stimulating Home Renovation: Lessons from Local Authority Developments

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1270
Author(s):  
Minyoung Kwon ◽  
Erwin Mlecnik
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Web Portals ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Web Portal ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Neutral Information

Web portals have the potential to promote sustainable environmental ideas due to the capacity of digital media, such as easy accessibility, openness, and networking. Local authorities (LAs) are responsible for activating carbon savings in homes, and they are key actors when it comes to providing neutral information to their citizens. Local authority web portals may thus create environmental awareness, particularly regarding owner-occupied single-family home renovation. Nevertheless, the experiences of LAs developing web portals have rarely been studied. Therefore, this paper analyses the development process of various LA web modules and investigates how LAs foster modular web portals to stimulate the adoption of home renovation with parameters to assess LAs’ actions in terms of the management of web-modules development. A homeowner renovation journey model is applied to map current local authority developments. Case study research and interviews were done to analyse and evaluate the adoption of modular web portals developed and tested by six local authorities in four countries in Europe. Based on the development and use of the modular web portal, lessons have been derived emphasising the importance of co-creation, integrating with offline activities, and a strategic management plan.

scholarly journals “Splendid Isolation”: The reproduction of music industry inequalities in Spotify’s recommendation system

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110221
Author(s):  
Tamas Tofalvy ◽  
Júlia Koltai
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Recommendation System ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Primary Determinant ◽  
Scale Network ◽  
Splendid Isolation

In this article, we argue that offline inequalities, such as core–periphery relations of the music industry, are reproduced by streaming platforms. First, we offer an overview of the reproduction of inequalities and core–periphery dynamics in the music industry. Then we illustrate this through a small-scale network analysis case study of Hungarian metal bands’ connections on Spotify. We show that the primary determinant of a given band’s international connectedness in Spotify’s algorithmic ecosystem is their international label connections. Bands on international labels have more reciprocal international connections and are more likely to be recommended based on actual genre similarity. However, bands signed with local labels or self-published tend to have domestic connections and to be paired with other artists by Spotify’s recommendation system according to their country of origin.

scholarly journals A new renaissance for creativity in technology and the arts in the context of virtual worlds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Earnshaw
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Diverse Environment ◽  
Research Environments ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaborations ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Ideas

AbstractWhere do new ideas come from and how are they generated? Which of these ideas will be potentially useful immediately, and which will be more ‘blue sky’? For the latter, their significance may not be known for a number of years, perhaps even generations. The progress of computing and digital media is a relevant and useful case study in this respect. Which visions of the future in the early days of computing have stood the test of time, and which have vanished without trace? Can this be used as guide for current and future areas of research and development? If one Internet year is equivalent to seven calendar years, are virtual worlds being utilized as an effective accelerator for these new ideas and their implementation and evaluation? The nature of digital media and its constituent parts such as electronic devices, sensors, images, audio, games, web pages, social media, e-books, and Internet of Things, provides a diverse environment which can be viewed as a testbed for current and future ideas. Individual disciplines utilise virtual worlds in different ways. As collaboration is often involved in such research environments, does the technology make these collaborations effective? Have the limits of disciplinary approaches been reached? The importance of interdisciplinary collaborations for the future is proposed and evaluated. The current enablers for progressing interdisciplinary collaborations are presented. The possibility for a new Renaissance between technology and the arts is discussed.

Sports Journalism: Self-Censorship, Ethics and Lived Experience in the Digital Era.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Tom Bradshaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
Homogeneous Sample ◽  
Sports Journalism ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Qualitative Approaches

This thesis examines the major ethical issues experienced by UK sports journalists in the course of their practice in the modern digital media landscape, with a particular focus on selfcensorship. In tandem, it captures the lived professional experience of sports journalists in the digital era. My own professional experience is considered alongside the experiences of interviewees and diary-keepers. Initially, an exploratory case study of the work of investigative journalist David Walsh is used to highlight key ethical issues affecting sports journalism. A Kantian deontological theoretical perspective is articulated and developed. Qualitative approaches, specifically Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and autoethnography, are then used to provide an original analysis of the research objectives, enhanced by philosophical analysis. Ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews are conducted with a homogeneous sample of UK sports journalists, while diaries kept by three different journalists provide another seam of data. Reflective logs of my own work as a sports journalist provide the basis for autoethnographic data. The main log runs for two-and-half years (2016- 19) with a separate additional log covering the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. The semistructured interviews, diaries, autoethnography and case study are synthesized. The thesis explores how social media has introduced a host of ethical issues for sports journalists, not least the handling of abuse directed at them. Social media emerges as a double-edged sword. One of its most positive functions is to raise the standard of some journalists’ output due to the greater scrutiny that reporters feel they are under in the digital era, but at its worst it can be a platform for grotesque distortion and for corrupting sports journalists’ decision-making processes. Self-censorship of both facts and opinions emerges as a pervasive factor in sports journalism, a phenomenon that has been intensified by the advent of social media. Sports journalists show low engagement with codes of conduct, with the research suggesting that participants are on occasion more readily influenced by self-policing dynamics. This project captures vividly sports journalists’ personal involvement and emotional investment in their work, and reconsiders the ‘toy department’-versus-watchdog classification of sports journalists. The thesis concludes with recommendations for industry, including the introduction of formal support for sports journalists affected by online abuse.

Poetic Operations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
micha cárdenas
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Music Videos ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Queer Of Color Critique ◽  
Complex Processes ◽  
Decolonial Theory ◽  
Queer Of Color ◽  
Algorithmic Analysis ◽  
And Gender

In Poetic Operations artist and theorist micha cárdenas considers contemporary digital media, artwork, and poetry in order to articulate trans of color strategies for safety and survival. Drawing on decolonial theory, women of color feminism, media theory, and queer of color critique, cárdenas develops a method she calls algorithmic analysis. Understanding algorithms as sets of instructions designed to perform specific tasks (like a recipe), she breaks them into their component parts, called operations. By focusing on these operations, cárdenas identifies how trans and gender-non-conforming artists, especially artists of color, rewrite algorithms to counter violence and develop strategies for liberation. In her analyses of Giuseppe Campuzano's holographic art, Esdras Parra's and Kai Cheng Thom's poetry, Mattie Brice's digital games, Janelle Monáe's music videos, and her own artistic practice, cárdenas shows how algorithmic analysis provides new modes of understanding the complex processes of identity and oppression and the intersection of gender, sexuality, and race.

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