User’s Rights

Are people still unaware of their online rights?

For a long time, fans have been unaware of their rights concerning the constraints companies wanted to impose on their online freedom of speech. Also, most discussions of intellectual property in cyberspace have been occupied with the corporate side of things, as described in the previous chapter. The public interest was mostly ignored.[1] Big corporations shutting down small fan sites is routine practice, but not a single case involving fan fiction has ever reached the courts. No lawyer has offered an accused fan site owner legal representation and these individuals don’t have the money to take on huge companies on their own.[2]

This lack of attention for the side of the fan is changing however. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is now fighting to defend users of the Internet in copyright cases. Together with four law schools, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and University of Maine law school, EFF’s legal director Cindy Cohn launched the Chilling Effects website.[3]

The site, chillingeffects.org is a response to the growing number of ‘cease-and-desist’ notices owners of fan sites have received from companies like Warner Bros. and LucasFilm, urging them to shut down their sites due to infringement of copyrights. Since these claims often involve rather large sums of money, people are likely to respond by closing down their sites, rather than keep it up in protest. The website offers background material and explanations of the law for people whose websites deal with topics such as fan fiction, copyrights and trademarks. Each of the topics the site offers, like protest, parody, fan fiction, linking and derivative works, is accompanied by an extensive list of FAQs, frequently asked questions and their answers.

Chilling Effects is dedicated to educating people about their online rights, which are far more extensive than most fans realise. Many of the companies’ claims are unfounded on account of ‘fair use’ of the material. Chilling Effects also advocates the distinction between different forms of infringement, because, for example, the posting of movie clips is very different from the rewriting of existing characters into completely new stories and settings. The site also invites people to submit the ‘cease and desist’ notices they received from companies, in order to ‘document the chill’, to find out what sorts of sites get shut down most often.[4] Unfortunately, Chilling Effects doesn’t have the resources to treat every case individually, but it is a start.[5]

Research

For my research, it would be very interesting to look at this site in order to create an overview of the aspects that have to be taken into account when looking at online rights. It is great that people like Cindy Cohn have taken to educating people about their online rights, but do they actually reach the public? I wonder whether writers of fan fiction ever think about issues of infringement, and what their response would be to the ‘cease and desist’ letters. Is it still true that most writers have no idea of their rights or the possible consequences of their appropriation? Most fan sites that offer fan fiction also offer the possibility to contact the writers, be it directly or through a central mailing system. By sending the owners or contributors of fan sites e-mails I could find out whether the fan fiction writers ever think about that would happen when the companies that own the characters they use would find out about their site. Do they even consider this possibility and are they aware of the possible consequences and the possible defences against any regulatory measures? How would they react to scary cease-and-desist letters? The Chilling Effects site will be very helpful in the understanding of the rights of fans.

2 Examples of the FAQ’s on chillingeffects.org:

Question: Do fan fiction writers have a free speech right to publish their work?

Answer: The First Amendment protects free speech, but there is also a copyright clause in the Constitution. These two legal rights are often in conflict, and so the rights of fan fiction writers to write and speak freely and the rights of the copyright owner must be balanced. Each situation can be researched and individually evaluated, but it is important to understand there are no easy answers as to who has a right to the characters. Copyright law is designed to encourage authors to be creative by rewarding their efforts and protecting their work from others who might profit unfairly. This right must be balanced by society's need to have others not be limited by previously published protected works. There is not a clear "right" and "wrong" side in the battle between copyright owners and fan fiction writers.

Question: How likely is copying to be found (by a court) and what are the possible remedies?

Answer: As mentioned in the legal introduction, a plaintiff must meet certain requirements in order to show that a FanFic author copied protected expression. In order to prove copying, it must be shown that the fan fiction author copied the work (either through direct or indirect evidence), and some of the copied elements are protected and that the "audience" of the work would also find similar elements. Since FanFic authors generally do not deny that characters and settings are borrowed ("copied"), as seen in their disclaimers, it is likely that copying will be found. Then you must raise the defense of fair use.

What happens if I lose the case? If the court finds that you unlawfully copied, it has several possible options. First, and most likely, an injunction could be granted to prevent the author from publishing and distributing the FanFic. The infringing materials could even be destroyed. The court also has the power to award monetary damages. The amount of damages would depend on the lost revenue suffered by the copyright owner and possible profits earned by the FanFic author. Generally, the loss of revenue is rare since FanFic does not draw audiences away from the original; rather, FanFic often serves to enhance sales of the original work. And if FanFic is not for profit, then it is unlikely that the author will have any profits to report. Since there is seldom lost revenue and profits, plaintiffs will often go for "statutory damages." This award can be between $200 (innocent infringement) and $100,000 (willful infringement) for each work infringed.

Conclusion – further research

In my final and more elaborate research, I want to look at the elements I treated in this paper more closely, whilst also attempting to answer the questions I added under the header ‘research’. The main goal of this research will be to create a historical overview of the user-company relationship from both sides, the users, or fans, and the owners of the copyrights. In order to do this, I will also have to look at some current cases of, one the one hand, companies like Amazon that encourage fan input an appropriation, and on the other hand, companies like Warner Bros that forbid this. What are the arguments both parties use in acting the way they do? In the end, I hope to be able to analyse where the current developments in participatory culture are taking us.

Preliminary bibliography

• Benkler, Yochai, ‘From Consumers to Users: Shifting the Deeper Structures of Regulation Toward Sustainable Commons and User Acces’ (2000) on www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v52/no3/benkler1.pdf
• Jenkins, Henry, ‘Digital Land Grab’ in Technology Review, Mar/Apr2000, Vol. 103 Issue 2, p103. 
• Jenkins, Henry, ‘Challenging the Consensus’ Boston Review, Summer 2001.

Also on http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR26.3/jenkins.html 

• Jenkins, Henry and Harries, Dan, ‘Interactive Audiences?: The 'Collective Intelligence' of Media Fans’ in The New Media Book (London 2002)

Also on http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/collective%20intelligence.html

• Jenkins, Henry and Thorburn, David, ‘Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars’ in Rethinking Media Change (Cambridge 2003).

Also on http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/starwars.html 

• Kornblum, J., ‘Scary Lawyer Letters and Chilling Effects’ in USA Today, Feb 26, 2002, p6.
• Lessig, L., ‘Innovation from the Internet’ in The Future of Ideas: the Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (New York 2001).
• http://chillingeffects.org

J. Lasica ‘Blogs and journalism need each other’

Question

Why do mainstream journalists have so many objections to weblogs?

Answer

In his article Lasica talks about the relationship between traditional journalism and forms of journalism on weblogs and how this relationship is a symbiotic one. Blogging brings many benefits to journalism, for example in expanding the boundaries and in the providing new angles and insight. Still, many journalists are suspicious of the new medium. Because of notions of ‘fairness, accuracy and truth’, so they say. I think it has more to do with their own fears. I think they do see the power of the weblogs and are afraid that blogging will take over from them, from traditional media. According to Lasica, this is unlikely, because the audience will always need professional journalists to filter through the material to find the important stories (though he also acknowledges that bloggers are sometimes sooner in discovering some important item). Traditional journalism should instead include active participation.  

D. Gillmor ‘Moving toward participatory journalism’

Question

Gillmor says the journalism of the future is participatory. This kind of journalism will offer ‘exciting possibilities for […] journalists and active consumers’. What form will this take according to Gillmor? Will this happen?

Answer

According to him, journalists should take on blogging themselves. Newspapers also should offer readers the option to start news blogs. It is most important to generate a conversation between bloggers and journalists, because both could learn from what the other has to say. Journalists could get new angles from the bloggers and invite people to give their expert opinion. The bloggers could use the stories written by the journalists to use on their sites and to comment on it. Gillmor sees some problems, which primarily develop from the mutual prejudices. Journalists will be afraid that the bloggers don’t take aspects as trust and veracity in account and the media organisations behind the journalists will want to regulate and perhaps even shut down p2p technologies.

Gillmor doesn’t mention any objections from the side of the users in this article. I do think however, that the bloggers will want more power, other than just providing the mainstream journalists with new angles that will be ascribed to them, not to the bloggers. How can bloggers be more involved? That will be very hard, at least with the current media organisations. As Lasica says, we will always need ‘real’ journalists to filter through all stories and bring us the news. For this system to change, journalists and bloggers need to trust each other. And that is not yet true; it will take time. Throughout history, people have always been informed by a select group of people. To enter a system were anyone can be a journalist would also take some time getting used to on the side of the public.

L. van Middelaar ‘On logos and grassroots: the anti-globalisation movement between moral, economics and politics’

Question

What does Middelaar mean when he says that the ‘part-time consumers mistake a consequence for a cause’?

Answer

Middelaar makes this claim in the context of adbusting and culture jamming. Both are instruments of the anti-globalisation movement and involve the parodying of advertisements or logos and the usage of billboards. Part of this movement is the ‘Buy nothing day’. The consequence that is mistaken for a cause is the consuming of products or logos and brands. Middelaar states that the effects of such actions are merely negative. Furthermore, just buying nothing for a day is no way to get out of ‘the world of money’. This may be true, but I think that the activists aren’t able to use any means with more direct effects on the companies, the politics and governments, the causes they are trying to fight against. They do not have enough power or even, ironically, money for that. Perhaps the anti-globalisation movement is not widespread enough, or there are not enough active members. What is left is to at least make an objection, make themselves heard.

Last question coming up!!

A. Tybout and G. Carpenter ‘Creating and managing brands’

Question

Tybout and Carpenter talk about three different kinds of brands. What ways will these benefit from the Internet?

Answer

The first type of brand is the functional brand, which focuses on resources, a product and its superior qualities or the place and price of a product. Advertising for such a product should emphasis its superiority, but this is not the basis of functional brands. Instead, aspects like improving the performance and adding new functions in one product are. Especially the last element is important in out time of age, because people’s free time is decreasing. Here, the Internet comes in to play. It is much easier to go online and compare prices than it is to go and visit a number of different stores and compare different product brands. That would take up too much time. Companies could cut into this by using websites to communicate what makes their products more effective, what its amazing new functions are and whether they are cheaper than others. A website is a very useful tool for this, because it is clear and easily accessible. Companies could stimulate user response by encouraging visitors to suggest improvements of their products.

Image brands focus on certain associations and usually are connected to highly visible products, like clothes. The quality of these products is hard to evaluate, because of the emotions attached to the products. Image becomes more important because of the lack of meaningful differences in products due to competition. The Internet can be a very helpful tool for companies that sell image-related products. For them, the Internet is a great way to find out what is on the minds of their potential buyers, by visiting their weblog for example, perhaps even participating in it. Tybout and Carpenter already mention the possibility for image brands to gain greater affiliation, by building websites that allow users to participate and interact with like-minded users. The Coke Music site is a good example. By allowing visitors to play games with their own avatars, their awareness of the Coca Cola brand, with its many associated values, is enlarged.

The third and last type of brand distinguished by Tybout and Carpenter is the experiential brand, like theme parks and restaurants. This type of brand focuses on how people feel and is therefore highly personal. Experiential brands differ in valence, potency and involvement, even in the terms of bodily engagement. The difference between online and offline experience is that the online experience is less labour-intensive; there’s no need to train recruits. This is an advantage. The big disadvantage would be that the potency and contact of an online experience could never be as great as a real-life one. An online roller coaster is hardly exciting. I therefore think the Internet can do little more than create an awareness of the existence of the sort of experience that would normally involve great potency. Tybout and Carpenter also call fan sites a form of enriching an experience. I agree, but this kind of experience is entirely different from theme parks or drinking coffee (the Starbucks example), because there was no engaging of the body in the first place. Perhaps the Coke Music site can be seen as offering an experience, by allowing players to mix their own music. The way the Internet can be used in the branding of an experience is therefore very reliant on the kind of experience that has to be promoted.

G. Dafermos ‘Blogging the market: how weblogs are turning corporate machines into real conversations’

Comment

G. Dafermos speaks of the way weblogs could be used in founding a new sort of managing. For example, employees of Macromedia, manufacturer of programs like Flash and Dreamweaver, have their own weblogs. There, users can ask for help and can discuss aspects of the Macromedia products with other visitors and with the employees. The blog’s community managers can easily point out the top topics, run promotions or even ask visitors for their opinions on new plans. For Macromedia, this way of communicating works very well, but I doubt it will for many other companies. It may in certain sectors, like the computer- and software branch. Here, a lot of people will want their practical questions answered and the weblog is an efficient way of doing so. Other branches might not benefit from blogging. For example: I find it highly unlikely that the costumers of a company that sells curtains or furniture will feel the need of discussing this with others buyers or the manufacturers. I doubt therefore, that blogging will actually revolutionise the managing world.

Sean Nixon ‘Re-imagining the ad agency’ (Cultural Economy H7)

Question

Nixon discusses the way the economical changes in the 1990’s caused a questioning of the commercial value of advertising. Aspects like the globalisation of the market and marketing as well as competition from other groups of intermediaries forced advertising agencies to think of different ways of reaching costumers. Internet was one of them. Is the Internet as an advertising tool less susceptible to changes in the economy?

Answer

Internet advertising is much less expensive than a television commercial. Especially because the costs of television airtime are so dependent on the program the ad is aired in. Of course a company will want as many possible costumers as possible to see their ad. Popular airtime is expensive though. The Internet does not have this problem to such an extent. Like A. Tybout and G. Carpenter say in their article, the costs of an interactive Internet site for the Super Bowl cost tens of thousands of dollars. A television as however, cost about 1,2 million dollars. So, Internet advertising is much cheaper and therefore allows even small companies to get a lot of attention. Does this make online advertising a better choice in economically harsh times?

I think there are two problems. First, companies will probably adjust their marketing budget according to the decline in advertising costs. That would still mean that there would be less of a budget in times of recession, because costs have to be divided evenly among all branches of the company. Also, I don’t think that the Internet as an advertising tool can function properly without some sort of created awareness before hand. People have to be alerted to the existence of a product before they will start surfing to a particular website. That would mean that a company would still have to make use of television (as seen on TV), or another medium for ads. These ads will still cost a lot of money that is not available at such times. And, of course, even if the company could still afford to advertise in periods of recession, there has to be a public willing to buy their product, which will not be the case at such times.

Final Research Outline for Participatory Culture

Topic

My topic has changed slightly since my last post on the subject. I was planning on comparing an official and unofficial movie site according to the element of participation. The problem with this approach was that it was difficult to choose from the enormous amount of fan sites that accompany an official site. How would I know what sites to pick and how could I possibly make sure that the ones I chose would be an accurate reflection of others? Therefore, I decided to focus on one aspect that is part of the official/fan relation: the way fans use the material that is offered to them in the original movie. My focus will be:

In what ways can fans/users participate in creating meaning by adapting original movie material? How does this relate to the original material legally?

Sources

This creation has become an important part of movie fandom and thanks to the Internet can now be made available to a great number of people. In my final research I would like to include a number of aspects that have to do with the creation of new meaning, which should be thought of in the widest sense. It would include the commenting on certain aspects of the movie in forums, where meaning is found and is shared with others. By comments made by other participants, new meaning can also be created when people start discussions on interpretations that go against the preferred, dominant readings. Other ways of creating new meaning would be to write fan fiction: stories that adapt the surroundings or characters of a certain movie, in which the writers make up alternative storylines. The same goes for fan art, drawn or computer-generated imagery portraying a movie¡¦s characters. I will look at the way the movie¡¦s imagery has been adapted and the subjects of the fan¡¦s works. For example: fan fiction and fan art are sometimes of erotic nature.

DMCA Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and University of Maine law school clinics is dedicated to making people aware of their online rights. www.chillingeffects is their official website and offers a lot of useful information on the protection of online properties and copyright. Each section, like 'linking', 'protest, parody and criticism', offers an extensive list of FAQs, frequently asked questions on all kinds of subjects regarding the rules that concern the using of online content. Website owners that have received  'cease and desist' notices from companies, urging them to shut down their site because of illegal usage of images for example, can gain information about whether or not they should actually respond to the request. This site is very useful for my research because it touches upon a number of ways the public can adapt movie content, like in fan fictions, and describes the way that copyrights apply to these aspects. For example:

Q: I purchased the movie, book, etc. Does that mean I can do what I want with it?

Q: What is FanFic?

Q: What about a fictional world and the events described in the world? Are they copyrightable? Can I use those in my story?

Q: If a hyperlink is just a location pointer, how can it be illegal?

Q: Is linking protected by the First Amendment?

Research

I want to combine the two aspects mentioned above in an analysis of the user created content of a number of movie fan sites. I will look at the sites of well-known movies, because I expect these to generate the most response from their audiences in quantity and variety. Examples of sites that can be useful are Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fan sites, where forums, fan art and fiction are abundant.  I'll have to do more research in advance to find out whether other movies have also spawned a lot of discussions or art.

C. Shirky ‘What is P2P… And what isn’t?

Question

Why is P2P so important for autonomous online operating, socially speaking?

Answer

First of all, Clay Shirky describes P2P as characterised by a lack of centralisation. The nodes, the connecting points of the networks, do not require a central server to operate. Individuals at the edges of the Internet can operate autonomously. Shirky focuses on the technical aspects and states that one of the reasons the P2P is so important, is that by using P2P computing environments, unused hard disk space and computer memory can pooled together. This allows a lot of simultaneous processing that otherwise would not have been available on one computer. Also, the lack of stable IP-addresses allows the circumventing of dominant server systems (DNS and before that TCP). The decentralisation that P2P makes possible cuts down the costs and administration.

Socially, I think that chatting programmes and their connectivity are the most important possibility of P2P technology. Programs like ICQ and MSN offer an alternative to centralised programs and enable users to contact each other wherever they are. (I have to say I’m not sure whether MSN has a central server or not). It is a way of keeping contact with friends, near or far, and even meet new people, for example by inviting new people into an ongoing conversation. Programs like Kazaa and Napster also often have a chat option. This could even bring people together. For example, you (regularly) see a person with a certain ID downloading certain songs from your computer and you start up a conversation with him/her.

E. Rutherford ‘The P2P report’

Question

E. Rutherford says that some industry watchers predict that commercial ventures will start using P2P networks. Isn’t this contradictory?

Answer

In a way, commercial ventures can already profit from P2P technology. Some versions of Kazaa for example include commercials. Also, like B. Wellman and J. Boase describe in their article, programs like ICQ are also part of P2P networks and, as I will argue next, will allow for faster and more widespread diffusion of viral marketing. These examples, however, are not part of a large scaled or very targeted commercial project. Viral marketing’s efficiency and reach is hard to predict.

Personal commercial usage of the P2P network could be commercialised, because it would not mean people would have to pay more to use it. Selling items without having to resort to E-Bay or others auctioneers would only be easier. I doubt that it will be possible for companies to really commercialise P2P networks on a big scale. Not because it is not possible per se, but because of the inevitable resistance of the users. I think P2P technology has been and is so successful because it allows users to contact people and to download music without intervention of central servers and, maybe more importantly, for free. I do not believe they will be willing to give that up, even if it would mean, as experts argue, being able to access other people’s e-book files.

B. Wellman and J. Boase ‘A plague of viruses’

Question

What did the advent of the Internet mean for viral marketing?

Answer

The speed and range of viral marketing has been greatly increased by the Internet. Viral marketing, the spreading of information by word-of-mouth, comes in different forms of diffusion, of spreading: through strong ties, through weak ties and through observation.

Strong ties, the bonds between friends for example, can be made even more effective through e-mail messages, like the forwarding of a certain commercial or joke or the posting of a message or poll on a weblog. The range of this sort of diffusion will probably not have changed because of the Internet, because it is hard to create strong ties solely by being on the net. These messages will therefore only reach the people you already know. The speed with which they will spread has greatly increased though.

Weak ties will increase in speed and range. You see someone’s e-mail address online, for example in a chatbox, and ad it to your list of e-mail addresses. You don’t really know this person, so it is unlikely that you will send him personal stories. However, when you get sent petitions, you will send that to as many people as possible, if it’s a cause you agree with. All those people you normally wouldn’t even have met in real life now get this message in an instant. Another example: someone could happen to end up on your weblog after being linked to it on another site. He or she can read the information on your site and learn of preferences and perhaps be influenced by that.

Spam, headers and pop-ups, unwanted as they may be, are also forms of viral marketing and weren’t possible before the advent of the Internet. These are forms of diffusion through observation. First, you may have seen someone walking on the streets and be influenced by this person’s style, now the same may be true for ads and pop-ups on websites. I don’t think these sorts of advertising have increased the speed of marketing, because observation itself is a very fast way of diffusion. The range, again, has been enlarged however. The ad or fashion mark you missed walking on the street, may pup op on your screen the next day.

Yochai Benkler ‘From consumers to users: shifting the deeper structures of regulation toward sustainable commons and user access’
Question

Yochai Benkler speaks of the way a digitally networked environment should be able to turn consumers into users and how regulations and organisations will influence this process. He states that is it important to ensure that enough raw cultural material is available for users to appropriate. This development is already visible online. How does this apply to the film industry?

Answer

A lot of people are worried that the Internet will have negative effects on the film industry because of the possibility of downloading entire movies. I do agree that this will have its harmful effect on the mainstream industry, but at the same time, it offers great advantages for alternative moviemakers. The Internet makes it easier and less expensive for amateur filmmakers to exchange their material, a very interesting possibility. It is possible to distribute short and feature length digital films over the Internet and the Internet helps filmmakers by offering free (or relatively cheap) software and online help. Sites offer software and instructions that supposedly make it a lot easier to handle the various pre- and post-production elements of the digital filmmaking process.

L. Lessig ‘The future of ideas: the fate of the commons in a connected world’
Question

Lessig claims that the Internet will fall victim to bureaucratisation and capture of the innovation process. What does he mean by this and will this actually happen?

Answer

Lessig spends a good part of his article contemplating the way the Internet has given us opportunities and products that otherwise would be inaccessible and he praises the Net for its innovative and efficient possibilities, for example in downloading music and in personalised advertisements. Innovation needs to be free and decentralized. However, the newness of the Internet is a threat to the old establishments in law and software writers. According to Lessig, they will therefore impose restraints that will undercut innovation.

I do not agree with Lessig on this subject. I do not believe that institutions will have such influence on the Internet as to prevent any innovations. Lessig admits that the efficiency of the new will eventually drive out the old. Online currents that cannot be controlled by governmental or institutional powers will remain. For example, people will always find new ways to share files, even when programs like Napster or Kazaa get banned. I think this is inherent to the architecture of the Net Lessig speaks of. The lack of control, the inexpensive access and the bottom-up marketing. The hierarchies of the social world do not apply to the virtual world and will not stop users from making their own attributions and creating new applications. 

D. Harries ‘The new media book’
Question

D. Harries claims that interactive features form a hindrance to immersion. The constant decision-making prevents a person from letting go and entering a realm of ‘narrative seduction’. What is my view on this?

Answer

I do not agree. The other day, I was playing a computer game on my computer and I found that I got much more ‘immersed’ than I ever get when watching a movie on TV or in the cinema. At least, in the sense that I had to accomplish a certain task and had finally managed to do so after many failed attempts. Harries also talks about a sense of accomplishment, but more in the sense of being able to fully download a movie or video clip from the Internet.  This task did involve constant decision-making, in the sense that I could only achieve my goal by using a stealthy strategy. If anything, the difficulty of the task enlarged my involvement, because the sense of accomplishment was so big after a lot of hard work. A computer game is an interactive activity, because it allows the player to define his or her own path to a certain extent. The interactivity does not rule out the immersion, at least not for me. Improving graphics and larger screens will also create more ‘realness’, which Harries attributes to cinema; the ‘liveness’ Harries speaks of can be accomplished through online gaming with other players, the connectedness as well.

Keith Negus ‘Identities and industries: the cultural formation of aesthetic economies’ (Cultural Economy H6)
Question

M de Mooij ‘Dimensions of Culture’

Comment

M. de Mooij talks about culture specifics in order to find similarities and differences. He starts with describing several dimensions of culture, all of them described as having two extremes. Some of these dimensions are the degree of context in their communication systems, the concepts of time, the relationship to nature, systems of power and collectivism and individualism. He finds great differences amongst several continents, but there are also different interpretations of these concepts within one part of the world. My comment is not as much a critique of the text, but a reflection on the impact of these differences on the internet community: there doesn’t seem be such an impact.

In online communities, people from all kinds of different cultures can come together and communicate, without immediately being confronted with all kinds of prejudice. They can choose how to spend their time and can operate in a sort of ‘power-free’ surrounding. At least, people do not know where you are from and therefore you are not pressured to relate to people in a certain way. You do not have to reveal your identity and can thus experiment with different types of roles, free of the immediate critical responds from the surroundings. For example, a person from Japan and a person from Holland may encounter in a MMORPG, and they wouldn’t know each others’ identity. Normally, in the real world, according to Mooij, the person from Japan would have to be very considerate of the other person’s status and would have to adjust his or her behaviour to this. Online, this is not the case, because online actions do not have an immediate effect on the real world. You are free to react in a given way, in your own time.

L. Küng-Shankleman ‘Inside the BBC or CNN: managing media organizations’

Question

Küng talks about the role of the founder of a culture and describes his or her influence on the assumptions that define a company’s organisation. How can this be applied to internet communities?

Answer

According to Küng, the beliefs, values and assumptions (about how the world is and ought to be) of the leader are the most important determinants of the culture of any organisation.  He can teach this to new members and this will determine the way the group will behave. New beliefs, values and assumptions will be brought in by new members and leaders.

An internet community develops roughly along the same lines. It is set up by one person or a founder (or founders). Than he or she will set up a number of rules their visitors and members should follow, like no swearing. He can decide to ban certain people, should they misbehave. The difference with a company is that anyone can become a member of an online community. You don’t have to go through all kinds of selective procedures. The beliefs and assumptions these members bring in, are too many to monitor. A founder will however be able to delete messages that are inappropriate. Also, the beliefs and assumptions of the founders of the site will not always be very clear, because a founder can choose to remain anonymous. An internet community will not have a goal similar to that of a company, like selling goods or services. It will consist of celebrating a certain subject, like a band or television series, or just the communication itself. The community will not have to promote an image that will attract consumers, the content of the site should be enough.

Sean Nixon ‘Advertising cultures’

Question

How can the idea of ‘creative industries’ be applied to the Internet?

                Nixon quotes, among others, from Scase and Davis’s Managing Creativity, in which they introduce the term ‘creative industries’ (media and cultural industries). These industries are on ‘the leading edge of the movement towards the information age [as] their outputs are performances, expressive work, ideas and symbols rather than consumer goods or services’. In Common Culture Willis says that ‘the active, not passive consumption of commercially produced goods, that creative processes of individual and collective self-fashioning occur’. The Internet is definitely a place for active consumption, more than any other medium can be nowadays. It is the only medium so far that allows for users to directly react to what they see presented and to interact with other users. Also, the internet stimulates users to be creative, by offering the possibility of uploading your work and allowing for other people to react to an comment on it. Many sites offer not goods or services, but symbolic values, the value of being part of a community, of sharing ideas and information, for example on forums where people help each other solve computer problems. The Internet is definitely a creative industry'.

Angela McRobbie ‘From Halloway to Hollywood: happiness at work in the new cultural economy?’ (Cultural Economy H5)

Question
What is meant by ‘civilisation through identification'?

Answer

McRobbie talks about the way the UK cultural labour market is ‘Hollywoodisating’. What she means by this, is that an increasing number of young people in the UK spend long hours in unpredictable working patterns, while getting pay very little. This would include the fashion designer and people that work at television studios. The civilisation McRobbie talks about, which is quoted from Rose, is the passion that these workers have for their work, that keeps them going under harsh circumstances. The circumstances would even serve as a disciplinary force, because they encourage determination. A person ‘identifies’ with his or her work very much and finds in it a way to express himself en find social acclaim.