Blog Week 7

I moved to Ireland 7 years ago, but before that when I live over in Russia and I was engaged in different offline communities such as sport. For almost 8 years I was doing karate, my friends and me had our own place where we were training, where we was spending time and having fun. With our karate community I was traveling a lot around the Europe, I saw different places, I meet different people and of course I gather a lot of experiments from being involved in this offline community. Almost twice a month I was involved in different competition. I simply love it, because this community teached me a lot, how to respect people, how to dill in certain situations, always stay positive and respect other people around me.

Everything changed in my life when I moved in Ireland, I lost almost everything I had, friends, girlfriend and the karate club I was involved in. Good that in our 21^st century we had an Internet and that’s when I stated getting involved in online community’s because Internet for me was a revolution. I was able to keep in contact with some of my friends and family. Because not all of my friend from Russia had internet in that time, and some of them had they own problem and they own life, I didn’t had much time to talk to my best friends, so that’s why I came across the STEAM online community.

This was a gamers’ community, where people make a new friends, invite them to join and to play together, create they own groups and clans, having an online game training, having a clan wars, having an online chat and also create they own game tactics. This steam community is the largest gaming community worldwide. This community gave me an opportunity to meet new friends. The only problem was I became very addicted to it. I lost my time to communicate with my friends, family from Russia and also as soon as I had free time I always was on front of monitor.

I see the benefits of hanging around online, because Internet is the source of any information I’m looking for, it’s also the new, fast and a cheaper way of communication. When I’m home my computer is always on, I stop watching TV and read newspapers, the internet for me is a new way of my life, I don’t know what I would be doing if I didn’t had it. A lot of people can say that handing online is a waste of time, but on my own opinion they are wrong, for example me because of the internet I learned how to use mostly all media software’s from watching online video tutorials, reading blogs and forums.

Here are the advantages of hanging around online for me and for teenagers who share similar opinion.

The first and probably most important advantage to mention is cost. Online lessons will typically be cheaper then offline courses and some of them can be completely free.

One of its greatest attributes is instant access. I can watch anything I want when I have free time, and the content always will be there.

I can advance at my own speed, even skip lessons if I feel I’m doing well or take the same lesson over and over again if needs to.

I can make my own plans online, for example when I’m booking a holidays, flight, hotel, or even an appointment.

I can read a honest reviews of the product, before purchasing it.

The words “virtual community” and “online community” have been bandied about, hyped and interpreted in many ways. Online or virtual community is the gathering of people, in an online “space” where they come, communicate, connect, and get to know each other better over time. From that point on, the rest is up to you. Your community will be what you and your members make of it!

So what is the importance for teenagers hanging online? I think is that…

1)Socialize – meeting people, playing around, sharing jokes, stories and just taking interest in each other.

2)Work together (business) – Distributed work groups within companies and between companies use online community to build their team, keep in touch and even work on projects together.

3)Have topical conversations – Online salons and discussion forums such as the Well (http://www.well.com), Cafe Utne (http://www.utne.com) and others have formed communities of people who enjoy conversations about topics and shared interests.

4)Learn something – each of us has an interest in certain things, you can watch online video tutorial or read blog to bring your skills to the top level.

I also created my own online community 2 years ago it’s called www.mixtuts.com (mix video tutorials) I got a lot of members who was watching my own tutorials and who was able to get any benefits from them. The people was writing me email with the help them in they project, people was subscribing on my videos and also people was looking forward for my new videos. On my own opinion online community mean more for me then offline community, because online for me is a freedom and offline is a way of life.

Blog Week 5 and 6

Almost all of us know what Fan culture means. I think almost every person in this world is a fun of something. The word “fan” we associated with something we love, with something we engaged in, it can be anything (certain person, game, musician, actor, work or a design, idea and so on). Fan Cultures is the first comprehensive overview of fans and fan theory. Fans often knowing more about a character or series than the star or program-makers themselves, and ready to make active, sometimes surprising readings of plot lines and characters, they are the ultimate active audience.

We all have those things we get really excited about and build communities around, whether they are religious interests and concerns, academic interests, pop cultural texts, or a consumer product, our communities are now being shaped, reshaped and constructed in very different ways.

Fan fiction people extend the original narratives and lives of the characters turning them into something that is their own creation.

Henry Jenkins write that fans are nothing more than people with excessive, bordering on deranged behavior, people become really invested in this object, topics, etc. It is something they are really into and something they want to talk about. They are so inspired by it they write music, create events, etc.

Fans create virtual communities – These are communities that are not necessarily built around face-to-face meetings. Some of these fans know each other and some are unknown, but they engaging in cyberspace participate in fan culture they are interested in.

Every day there are emerging new forms of the community. With the digital media revolution, it opened new possibilities for fans to participate in fan culture they are interested in. The fans have novel way’s to engaged with the with the objects of their affection, it can be blogs, forums, websites, slash fiction, twitter, facebook, wiki, fan fiction and many others digital media resources.

In my own opinion I see fan activity culture as a remix, because this people not only mix the elements from original content, but they also tries to put something they own into this content. The way I see that is the people get inspired from the original work the person created, so they want to modify it and add something unique to it. Some people can say that it can contribute to the culture and some people can say that it can distort the original. The real fans of this content of course would be against mash ups and remixes, they think it breaking original concept and loosing the quality of something that was originally created, but some people become a fans after watching/listening a new remix which one was created, they think it’s something new, something more interesting then an original content. A good example of a fun culture as a remix would be a fan fiction where editor takes the ideas of the content and then completely tweak it and create some new story.

WEBOGRAPHY:

http://alturl.com/bro3r

Fan Culture and “Virtual” Communities

Blog Week 4

Rave culture has arguably become one of the most dominant youth subcultures to have ever existed in British society.

From causing moral panic amongst the tabloid press and being perceived as a threat to the very moral fabric of society to certain sectors of society embracing it as part of the mainstream, this subculture has and perhaps continues to split societal opinion.

“Ecstasy and rave culture go hand in glove” (Redhead p13, 2000). Originally perceived as something that threatened to corrupt British youth beyond repair, the media has in general taken a dim view of this subculture and the drug use associated with it.

Moral panics abounded throughout the late eighties and into the nineties of the perceived social menace that was rave culture.

Moral panics of drug taking, sensationalized by the tabloid press, amongst this “chemical generation” of British youth were fuelling the government to take action against this new so-called menace to society. Fields and warehouses were turned into nighttime theme parks, however this was all highly illegal territory and these entrepreneurs came to be seen as the ‘folk devils’ of their day.

Perhaps the attraction in these raves was that there was a sense of adventure, a game of cat and mouse between raver and policeman, pirate radio stations gave out false information to deter the police as ravers rang various numbers to find the secret location of the rave. The Hacienda was now the home of Acid House as ravers traveled across the country to experience the super club in the country’s clubbing capital, and then known as “Madchester”.

Perhaps the only other threat in recent times was the tragic death of teenager Leah Betts on November 16th 1995. This received intense media coverage and her parents set up a campaign with Leah’s face plastered across billboards the length and breadth of the country. Beneath her face was the slogan “Sorted” with the grim warning below it “Just one ecstasy tablet took Leah Betts”.

Undeterred by such events many clubbers continued to take ecstasy. The largest ever survey done on the subject by Lifeline and Mixmag in 1996, suggested that more and more people were experimenting with the drug and few anticipated giving it up in the near future.

Rave culture has brought not only new genre’s of music into our domain, it has also provided us with new forms of lifestyle and job opportunities.

Jungle, Drum and Bass, Happy Hardcore, Old Skool, Progressive House, Trance, Garage, Gabba, Grime, Hard House, Techno, and many more genre-defying tunes have sprung from the initial invasion of Acid House to Great Britain.

The drug, commonly known as ecstasy, was made illegal in Britain on account of this thousands of young, mostly law abiding although some clearly not, Britons were committing a criminal offence every weekend.

Since 1996 there has been an increase in the use of cocaine among young people, especially among young men.” (Office of National Statistics)

Adult society worries itself sick over youth and its indulgences, whilst continuing to provide the means by which youth can (legally) get off their heads (using alcohol), adding an envious tinge to whatever excesses make the morning papers or breakfast television.

For every raver who takes ecstasy there is one who chooses not to, it is left as the choice of the individual to break the law and consume drugs at a rave. Many do so and many do not. Acid was not dead however, it had returned underground. Rave and clubbing culture runs much deeper than simple drug use. However the tabloid press would struggle to see it from this point of view.

The coverage by the mass media as a whole has become less extensive and believes its because people are less shocked by rave culture – rave culture is no longer sensational enough for tabloid editors. This is an indication of the successful integration of rave culture into British mainstream.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Collin, M. (1998) Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid house.

Malbon, B (1999) Clubbing: dancing, ecstasy and vitality, Routledge: London

Reynolds, S. (1999) Generation Ecstasy: Into the world of Techno and Rave culture Little, Brown and Company.

WEBOGRAPHY:

http://www.fantazia.org.uk/Scene/ravenewworld.htm

http://www.allmusic.com/explore/essay/british-dance-culture-t1251

Blog Week 3

Media became absolutely upsets with the notion about mods verses rockers, because they were causing a trouble across Britain. In the period 1963-1965 there became huge amount of media coverage around this two groups of people.

Rokers and Mods all become associated with certain types of violence, which in turn also provoke public reaction and emotion, as topics in their own right. Such issues as football hooliganism, drug abuse, vandalism and political demonstrations, all struck a chord in public opinion, but the impact might not have been on such a large scale, were it not for the part the mass media play in the exposition of the facts.

At the point of origin in the 1960s, concepts like “moral panic” and “deviancy amplification” were symbiotically linked to certain assumptions about the mass media. Vital causal links where taken for granted notably when the mass media are the primary source of the public’s knowledge about deviance and social problems. The media appear in any or all three roles in moral panic dramas.

1)    Setting the agenda

2)    Transmitting the images

3)    Breaking the silence making a claim

The media was saying that people in this subcultures was breaking the law to make money.

The mods and rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to develop the term “moral panic”, which examined media coverage of the mods and rockers riots in the 1960s. The conflict came to a head at Clacton during the Easter weekend of 1964. Round two took place on the south coast of England, where Londoners head for seaside resorts on Bank Holidays. Within a short time, marauding gangs of mods and rockers were openly fighting, often using pieces of deckchairs. He claims that the UK media turned the mod subculture into a negative symbol of delinquent and deviant status.

Newspapers described the mod and rocker clashes as being of “disastrous proportions”, and labelled mods and rockers as “sawdust Caesars”, “vermin” and “louts”.  Newspaper editorials fanned the flames of hysteria, such as a Birmingham Post editorial in May 1964, which warned that mods and rockers were “internal enemies” in the UK who would “bring about disintegration of a nation’s character”.

Cohen says the media used possibly faked interviews with supposed rockers such as “Mick the Wild One”. As well, the media would try to get mileage from accidents that were unrelated to mod-rocker violence, such as an accidental drowning of a youth, which got the headline “Mod Dead in Sea”.

Cohen discus the way in which the mass media fashions these episodes, or stylises them, amplifying the nature of the facts and consequently turning them into a national issue, when the matter could have been contained on a local level.

Eventually, when the media ran out of real fights to report, they would publish deceptive headlines, such as using a subheading “Violence”, even when the article reported that there was no violence at all. Newspaper writers also began to associate mods and rockers with various social issues, such as teen pregnancy, contraceptives, amphetamines, and violence.

Media created a big moral panic on the society, by providing information that is received about the behavior in question. And then this information is structured buy various commercial and political constraints.

The ‘moral panics’ over recent years have essentially tapped into the public’s fears for their safety and the safety of society in years to come.

Webography:

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/hrb9701.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mods_and_Rockers

http://books.google.ie/books/about/Folk_Devils_and_Moral_Panics.html?id=K9OxSYJQGXwC&redir_esc=y

Blog Week 2

For today Blog I pick two subcultures which one was existed in 1960s, the 1st subculture is Mods and 2nd Rockers. The reason I pick this 2 particular subcultures is that I enjoyed reading they history and they lifestyle.

Between 1960 and 1990 two subcultures such as ( Mods and Rockers) was existed in Britain. In these subcultures more likely was involved working class rather than upper class. The middle classes were able to buy inexpensive motorcars, and motorcycles became transport for the poor.

The Mods is a subculture that originated in London, England. Mods teens and young adults began using their disposable income to buy stylish clothes. They wore designer suits protected by Parka jackets. Jobling and Crowley called the mod subculture “fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool” young adults who lived in metropolitan London or the new towns of the south. Mods sometimes sewed fishhooks or razor blades into the backs of their lapels to shred the fingers of assailants. Weapons were often in evidence; cashes, bike chains and flick knives being favored. They rode Vespa or Lambretta Italian scooters bedecked with mirrors and mascots. Scooters were chosen over motorbikes because scooters’ use of body paneling and concealed moving parts made them cleaner and less likely to stain an expensive suit with grease.

Scootering led to the wearing of military parkas to protect costly suits and trousers from mud and rain. Mods listened to 1960s ska music, soul and R&B, as well as British bands such as The Who, The Small Faces and The Kinks. The original mod scene was also associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs and going to the house parties. Coffee bars were attractive to youths, because in contrast to typical British pubs. Coffee bars had jukeboxes, which in some cases reserved some of the space in the machines for the students’ own records. In the late 1950s, coffee bars were associated with jazz and blues, but in the early 1960s, they began playing more R&B music. Female mods dressed androgynously, with short haircuts, men’s trousers or shirts (sometimes their boyfriend’s), flat shoes, and little makeup — often just pale foundation, brown eye shadow, white or pale lipstick and false eyelashes. Female mods pushed the boundaries of parental tolerance with their miniskirts. Mods were taking amphetamines or speed, to stay awake all night and party well after hard working week. The mods subculture was considered more female then male. Mods had very similar haircuts and clothes.

Rockers subculture was mainly centered on British café and racer motorcycles. Rockers bought standard factory-made motorcycles and stripped them down, tuning them up and modifying them to appear like racing bikes. Rockers rode motorbikes – often at 100mph with no crash helmets, they wore a classic open-face helmet, aviator goggles and a white silk scarf to protect them from the elements. Other common items included, T-shirts, leather caps, Levi’s or Wrangler jeans, leather trousers, tall motorcycle boots (often made by Lewis Leathers) or brothel creepers. Rockers generally favored 1950s rock and roll, mostly by artists like Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. They had no knowledge of the different sorts of drugs. To them amphetamines, cannabis, heroins were all drugs – something to be hated. Their ritual hatred of Mods and other sub-cultures was based in part on the fact that these people were believed to take drugs and were therefore regarded as sissies. Their dislike of anyone connected with drugs was intense. In the United Kingdom, rockers were often engaged in brawls with mods.

WEBOGRAPHY:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mods_and_Rockers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_(subculture)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocker_(subculture)

http://www.uppers.org/showArticle.asp?article=146

http://www.stthomasu.ca/~pmccorm/modsandrockers1.html

Blog week 1

There is no answer on this question, you can ask as many people around the world as you can, and everyone will tell you different point of view on what actually culture mean.

I think culture is something that we getting engaged with. Almost everyone of us is a part of his own culture, even if you live in completely different country.

On my own opinion culture – is result of a variety of genetic activity due to generation of people, it is also a level of information of the individual states, through which social organization is able to exist in society. The type of information that builds the model of culture, its laws, customs and traditions, that is, the whole measure of its possible states. Genetic information transmitted social from generation to generation. Culture is a set of material and spiritual values, produced by mankind throughout history. I also think that culture is the way our behaviors, feelings, thoughts, communicating, and understanding of all things that it is extremely difficult for us to step back from our everyday life.

The first most important element of culture I’m engage in is language. Habit – is another important element in my culture, it’s an established scheme (stereotype) behavior in certain circumstances. Manner is also important element it is the external form of my behavior, receiving positive or negative evaluation of others. Tradition is also important element of social and cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation. Ritual is also playing a major role in my culture, because it is a set of symbolic stereotypes of collective action, specific type of behavior during the ceremonial acts.

I think that mass culture is where are may people involved and its defines a lot of people together. We can say that mass culture is known as a commercial culture that is produced for masses of people. Mass culture also can be known as a popular culture, this culture changes constantly and occurs uniquely in place and time. It forms currents and eddies, and represents a complex of mutually interdependent perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in various ways.

 

We can say that a high culture can be seen as a culture, which defines, by things like Theatre, Classical Music, Fine Art and more… It feels like the high culture was taken on by elite, compare to the mass culture which one was more suited for the common people.