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.