scholarly journals Symbolic Amateurs: On the Discourse of Amateurism in Contemporary Media Culture

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Work Role ◽  
Professional Work ◽  
Network Economy ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Industrial Network ◽  
Post Industrial

The amateur is the person who engages in activities that for another constitute a professional work role. Despite the global drive for professional development, amateurs are increasingly valued in the digitised economy. This leads to a series of interesting and increasingly pressing questions with regard to the nature of ‘the amateur’ in modern society and culture. Are amateurs necessarily good? Is amateurism necessarily located with amateur practitioners? Do divisions between professional producers and amateurs hold relevance to a post-industrial, network economy?

Mass culture in modern society: a functional approach. Scientific and methodological materials on social philosophy

2020 ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Anna Vladimirovna Kostina
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Functional Nature ◽  
Natural Decay ◽  
Post Industrial

At present, social philosophy is dominated by the view that the importance of mass culture is constantly decreasing, which soon is supposed to lead to the natural decay of this cultural form. The author refutes the arguments of those who are skeptical about the position of mass culture in the post-industrial and digital information society and shows that the functional nature of this type of culture allows it to successfully fulfill its role in modern social systems. The materials of the article can be useful in preparing courses in the framework of social philosophy.

Methodology of humanitarian knowledge. Mass culture: adaptive and socializing potential

2020 ◽  
pp. 36-43
Author(s):  
Anna Vladimirovna Kostina
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Adaptive Function ◽  
Social Communities ◽  
Positive Functions ◽  
Post Industrial

The author proves that despite the generally accepted point of view regarding the negative functions performed by mass culture in society, i.e., first of all, simplifying consciousness, escapist, and compensatory one, there is a number of positive functions performed by mass culture in modern society. Among them, the author highlights the ability of mass culture to construct social communities and the adaptive function that becomes necessary within the framework of non-traditional — industrial, post-industrial, and informational social structures. The material of the article may be of interest as a specific methodology for the study of socio-cultural phenomena.

scholarly journals Idols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Erin Duffy ◽  
Jefferson Pooley
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Precarious Employment ◽  
Talk Show ◽  
Popular Magazine ◽  
Contemporary Media

By analyzing the “mass idols” (Lowenthal, 1944) of contemporary media culture, this study contributes to our understanding of popular communication, branding, and social media self-presentation. Leo Lowenthal, in his well-known analysis of popular magazine biographies, identified a marked shift in mass-mediated exemplars of success: from self-made industrialists and politicians (idols of production) to screen stars and athletes (idols of consumption). Adapting his approach, we draw upon a qualitative analysis of magazine biographies (People and Time, n = 127) and social media bios (Instagram and Twitter, n = 200), supplemented by an inventory of television talk show guests (n = 462). Today's idols, we show, blend Lowenthal's predecessor types: they hail from the sphere of consumption, but get described –and describe themselves –in production terms. We term these new figures “idols of promotion,” and contend that their stories of self-made success –the celebrations of promotional pluck –are parables for making it in a precarious employment economy.

scholarly journals “Talk to Each Other Like It’s 1995”: Mapping Nostalgia for the 1990s in Contemporary Media Culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 574-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Ewen
Keyword(s):  
Media Culture ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Contemporary Media

Twenty years on from Television & New Media’s first issue, we find ourselves in an era defined by fracture, anger, anxiety, and nervousness. This short article considers one notable response to this crisis: nostalgia for the 1990s manifesting across a number of cultural fields, including television, music, and celebrity.

scholarly journals A Tale of Two CDs: Archaeological Analysis of Full-Motion Video Formats in Two PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Games

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 350-364
Author(s):  
John Aycock ◽  
Andrew Reinhard ◽  
Carl Therrien
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Cultural Relevance ◽  
Cd Rom ◽  
Reverse Engineer ◽  
Game Console ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Archaeological Analysis ◽  
Motion Video

AbstractAs an example of how the archaeology of modern/contemporary media can be conducted, we examine the technology behind artifacts with cultural relevance in modern society: video games. In particular, we look at two game artifacts from the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, a game console produced from 1987–1994. A 1× CD-ROM drive could be added on to the console, with a corresponding increase in the amount of data a game could access, and some games took advantage of this capability to include full-motion video (FMV). This digital excavation report details the FMV formats of two such games along with the methodology used to reverse engineer the formats and verify the correctness of the analysis.

The Televisualization of Ritual

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Kopytowska
Keyword(s):  
Sacred Space ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Underlying Assumption ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Cognitive Operations ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Spiritual Reality

This chapter demonstrates how contemporary ‘media culture’ has altered the way we experience and communicate religion and explains the role which language and other semiotic resources play in mediating religious experience and transforming the notion of sacred space, sacred time and a sense of communion based on collective emotion. The underlying assumption is that media together with religious institutions proximize the spiritual reality to believers and create a community of the faithful by reducing various dimensions of distance and providing the audience with a sense of participation and interaction. The chapter focuses on mediated rituals and demonstrates how both TV and radio, with their semiotic properties enabling liveness and immediacy, blur time-space boundaries, change the nature of individual and collective experience, and enhance the emotional and axiological potential of religious messages. It discusses the role of metaphor and metonymy as well as other cognitive operations within discourse space (involving both verbal and visual strategies) in these processes.

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