Are Internet and the Web media?
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: October 20, 2009
Yesterday morning, during a radio discussion on the role played by the Web and the Internet in the present evolution of communication and information, I heard some “experts”, coming from various fields (but no engineers nor scientists), talking about these tools as “new media”. Now, if one is to consider Internet and the Web as media, then, one can also say that the telephon or the fax are media as well, simply because they also make it possible to connect distant people or exchange ideas. However, popular wisdom, like scientific and minimally nuanced discourses, would place them in the cateogry of transmission, if not of person-to-person interaction tools. Indeed, it is not because one can find contents from media productions (newspaper articles, video of TV programs, recording of radio shows, films or TV series, etc.) on the Web, that it becomes a media, while its association with the Web doesn’t make the Internet a media either. This mix stems, in my opinion, from a frequent confusion between such notions as “media”, “communication” and those that can be regrouped under the label “traffic”: broadcasting, transmission and distribution. Read the rest of this entry »
Internet et le Web sont-ils des médias?
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: October 13, 2009
Encore ce matin, lors d’une discussion sur le rôle joué par le Web et Internet dans l’évolution actuelle des modes de communication et d’information, j’ai entendu des “experts”, issus de divers domaines (mais aucun ingénieur ni scientifique), s’exprimer à leur sujet en les désignant par le terme de “nouveaux médias”. Or, considérer Internet et le Web comme des médias, revient, à mon sens, à dire que le téléphone ou le fax sont aussi des médias, simplement parce qu’ils permettent la mise en relation de personnes éloignées les unes des autres ainsi que l’échange d’informations. Pourtant, la vulgate, tout comme les discours scientifiques un peu nuancés, les classent plutôt dans la catégorie des outils de transmission de message, voir d’interaction. En effet, ce n’est pas parce que l’on trouve du contenu issu des productions médiatiques (articles de journaux diffusés sur les sites web de la rédaction, vidéos d’émissions de télévision, enregistrement audio, souvent sous formes de podcast, de programmes radiophoniques, films, épisodes de séries, etc.) sur le Web, que ce dernier devient un média, et ce n’est pas non plus parce qu’Internet est associé au Web, qu’il en est un. Ce mélange provient, à mon sens, d’une confusion fréquente entre les notions de “média”, de “communication” et celles que l’on peut regrouper sous le terme de “circulation”: la diffusion, la transmission et la distribution. Read the rest of this entry »
Race and the Fantastic
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: September 19, 2009
Paper and panel proposals are sought for the the 31st International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts which will be held March 17th – 21st, 2010 in Orlando, Florida at the Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel (Google Map).
The topic of this year’s conference is “Race and the Fantastic.” Papers related to this topic, as well as to the work of our guests of honor and attending authors, are especially welcome; as always, we also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media. Read the rest of this entry »
Event: Futures of Entertainment Conference
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: August 28, 2009
This is a conference for all those who are interested in discussions gathering high-quality scholars and actors from the industry about the future of entertainment from a techo-cultural point of view. The panels will take the shape of “talk-show”, quite an original way of materializing the convergences between media systems and communication formats, which is one of the main axis of reflection in media & communication studies (at large). For more information, check the Website below.
MIT Convergence Culture Consortium: Archives
Shared via AddThis
A Japanese Cinema Blogathon in June? @ Wildgrounds
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: May 31, 2009
Fans of Japanese Cinema are everywhere: what if, during one week we unite our forces to promote Japanese Cinema? To write, share ideas about it? It could be fun!
It’s open to everyone willing to share or discover things about J-cinema. Whoever you are, whatever language you speak, you are welcome to participate!
For more information on this opportunity to share your passion for Japanese cinema with the rest of the world, visit Wildgrounds Blog!
Posted using ShareThis
Tomorrow’s Professor Blog: 900. How to Write Anything
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: May 25, 2009
Otaku: beyond the word and the prejudices
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: April 28, 2009
Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals
For those of you out there who have had issues with the concept of “otaku” and wish to go deeper into its implication for (post-)modern mass media consumption, this new book is for you! Hiroki Azuma, one of the most prominent young Japanese literary critic and philosopher, has been writing about Otakus for some years now. However, as with many academic essays on the sociocultural significance of the Japanese audiovisual industry, they often never jump over the language barrier. Now, a translation by Jonathan E. Abel finally makes his 2001 book on otakus, Otaku Kara Mita Nihonshakai, available to all of us who can read English. Entitled Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals, it will definitely change your way of thinking about this subculture. As Takayuki Tatsumi, author of Full Metal Apache: Transactions Between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America, states it:
Abandon every preconception, all ye who enter! In this mind-boggling book on Japan’s postmodernity, Hiroki Azuma conjures the ghost of the famous post-Hegelian Kojève, whose theory gets revived and even ‘animated’ here to reinterpret the anime-saturated realism that dominates our global Japanized reality studio. No one has more tactfully intertwined post-Derridean philosophy with Otaku-centric subculture studies than Azuma.
This should make a really interesting reading!
Village Manga – Salon du livre et de la presse de Genève
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: April 21, 2009
Du 22 au 26 avril 2009, le Salon du livre et de la presse de Genève accueille pour la première fois un Village Manga, organisé par les associations Yume et Omusubi.
Il y avait certes eu le Japan Manga Festival, en 2007, mais celui-ci avait été organisé en annexe de l’événement principal et il fallait payer une entrée supplémentaire pour y avoir accès. Par ailleurs, le JMF constituait plus une convention typique pour fans avertis qu’un festival ouvert au grand public, constitué en grande partie de néophytes complets. Cette année, il a été décidé de s’y prendre autrement et de mettre en oeuvre une approche un peu plus didactique, afin d’éviter d’effrayer les parents des amateurs des univers mangas et de faciliter l’entrée dans cette forme spécifique de culture populaire japonaise. Ainsi, le Village Manga proposera diverses activités et animations, destinées aussi bien aux connaisseurs qu’au non-initiés. Pour les premiers, les organisateurs proposent l’incontournable cosplay, une exposition de figurines, des goodies importés directement du Japon et naturellement des stands de vente de mangas. Pour les seconds, une petite exposition sur l’histoire du manga aidera à comprendre d’où vient cette industrie et où elle va. Celle-ci incluera des panneaux illustrés ainsi que des objets rares, notamment des magazines mangas des années 30. Pour tous, une discussion avec des dessinateurs-illustrateurs amateurs ainsi que des professionnels de l’édition et de la vente se tiendra dimanche après-midi.
Naturellement, les membres des association Yume et Omusubi se tiendront à la disposition des visiteurs pour les informer et les orienter dans le Village Manga.
Otaku2 – Doujinshi and Law
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: April 21, 2009
Posted using ShareThis
This is something I have been thinking about recently. The manga industry has everything to gain from the dojinshi circles, for two reasons.
First, dojinshi has been fostered by the practice of the manga editors as far back as the 1930’s, when the first prepublication magazines encouraged readers to send them their drawings, the best of which would then get published. This trend has then continued after the WWII, during the reconstruction of Japan and the booming of manga as a sort of metamedia (in the word of Frederik Schodt). The dojinshi movement itself began to take shape in the 1960’s and came out in plain light in 1975 with the first Comic Market or Comiket. This means that is has been created by and has grown within the context of the manga industry.
Second, the dojinshi art comes from the appropriation of pre-existing works, which all put together constitute a world of graphical and narrative references that shape the publics targeted by dojinshi and feeds the movement itself. In a way, they extend the lives of the narrative universes created by professional mangas into another realm, that of hard-core fans, while the larger public moves from one series to ther other, as they come out, without looking back. They also intensify the process of reception by reworking the narrative meanings and reinterpret graphic languages. This means that they contribute in making part of the publics targeted by the industry particularly aware of the work that goes on behind a finished product. The dojinshi can be tought of as filters, which contribute to mediate between the public and the industry, by maintaining a sort of grass root base, which is connected to the larger public. This connection is important and I think that dojinshi and their specific public are very much aware of it, as is testified by their understanding of the need to keep the industry alive and healthy.
Social and technical aspects of the uses of technology
Posted by: Ariane Beldi on: April 11, 2009
Twitter can indeed be a very useful source of information, as the following article entitled Why social search won’t topple Google (anytime soon) illustrates it. Actually, I found it following a citation in an article on the Slow Erosion of Google Search, which had been previously cited by one of my contact on Twitter. What I particularly appreciate in Brynn Evans‘ article is her emphasis on the user and its appropriation of en electronic tool like Google. It clearly shows the process by which individuals decide of what use a proposed tool can be to them with respect to their initial expectations towards and their technical command of it. It also shows how powerful social factors can be in influencing the direction of technological innovation. As both article observe, the displacement of Google as one of the leading tool of the Internet might not be happening on the level of always more powerful algorithms that can answer more questions, more precisely, but on the capacity of the search engines to be inscribed themselves in the social setting of the user. In my opinion, their observations advocate for a future where higly individualized technologies will answer to specific needs, while still being compatible with one another and thus, connectable.
Search
- Ariane Beldi: Bonjour, Je vous remercie de ce chaleureux compliment au sujet des Suisses. Un peu stéréotypé, à certains égards, mais assez juste aussi! ;-) J'
- esmeralda erefaie: Chers amis, Je vous remercie de votre article. Depuis de très longues années je fréquente ce pays qui est la Suisse. Je le trouve fort agréable
- MelOu: Je suis allée aujourd'hui au Village Manga ! ^^ Ils étaient encore en train d'installer certaines choses. Mais globalement, c'était intéressant. ^
Copyrights issues
The works on this blog by Ariane Beldi are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Switzerland License.
Pulling my online self together:
Besides, I have accounts on the following online academic platforms:
I'd love to hear from you and what you think of this blog, so don't hesitate to send me an email at the following address: ariane.beldi [at] gmail [dot] com.
My links on diigo
- Book Review: Otaku: Japan's Database Animals by Hiroki Azuma - Blogcritics Books November 7, 2009
- Professor Munakata’s fantastic museum piece - Times Online November 7, 2009
- The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God Of Manga - Telegraph November 7, 2009
- Okazu: Manga Readers Read Badly, Anime Watchers Watch Badly November 7, 2009
- Home — Social Science Research Council November 6, 2009
The Chronicles of Timothy Abbott
- European Elections? Well, they are happening somewhere
- Out of Brixton into the world
- Timothy Abbott's Chronicles of night and Northern Light
- Landscapes of the mind and soul » Timothy Abbott. Professionally produced, unconventional journalism
- Landscapes of the body » Timothy Abbott. Professionally produced, unconventional journalism
Confessions of an Aca-Fan
- Click Click Ranger: A Transmedia Experiment for Korean Television (Part One)
- Strange Overtures: Vodephone, Tchaikovsky, Ernie Kovacs and the "Wowness" of New Media
- Reflections on Cultural Politics: My Interview for Poli (Part Two)
- Reflections on Cultural Politics: My Interview for Poli (Part One)
- Transmedia Tacos? You Bet!
New Media & Society
- Quiring, O. (2009). What do users associate with ‘interactivity’?: A qualitative study on user schemata. New Media Society, 11(6), 899-920.
- Simun, M. (2009). My music, my world: using the MP3 player to shape experience in London. New Media Society, 11(6), 921-941.
- Scolari, C. A. (2009). Mapping conversations about new media: the theoretical field of digital communication. New Media Society, 11(6), 943-964.
- Feaster, J. C. (2009). The repertoire niches of interpersonal media: competition and coexistence at the level of the individual. New Media Society, 11(6), 965-984.
- Beer, D. (2009). Power through the algorithm? Participatory web cultures and the technological unconscious. New Media Society, 11(6), 985-1002.
