NM3205 Digital Media Cultures

AY20/21 Semester 2 | Alexandria Tang

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #10: Wearables and the Quantified Self (Alexandria Tang)

In this week’s reading, Crawford, Lingel and Karppi (2015) discusses about how the proliferation of wearable self-tracking devices have significantly affected the impressions one has about self-knowledge and self-improvement. This is because wearable self-tracking devices have the ability to track and quantify everyday movements and activities such as exercise and rest, mood and diet, and provide feedback to users so that they can better understand their bodies and give them the opportunity to tweak their activities and behaviour to reach the perceived optimal levels that supposedly lead to a better and healthy lifestyle. Such knowledge and between data and the body brought about by the wearable self-tracking devices have led to a new culture of personal data and how users perceive and understand their own bodies. Diving in deeper into the concepts of self-measurement and self-knowledge, Crawford, Lingel and Karppi (2015) discusses about the development and evolution of measuring devices from weighing scales in the past, to wearable media now. Lastly, Crawford, Lingel and Karppi (2015) analysed how advertisements of wearable self-tracking devices usually promotes the benefits of measuring and keeping track of yourself, which overall pushes and encourages society to be too consumed with data provided by such devices and be too over reliant on self-quantifications, to the point where it can get detrimental.

A point brought up by Crawford, Lingel and Karppi (2015) about how promoting self-measurement and tracking using wearable self-tracking devices can help one have a “better life” can actually have a lot of underlying issues, is what I would like to discuss in this blogpost. This is a relevant point of discussion for me, considering how I am an Apple watch user and can relate to how using this device for self-measurement and self-knowledge, can be rather detrimental to one, despite how the Apple watch was intended to encourage people to lead a more active and healthier lifestyle.

Using a wearable self-tracking device such as an Apple watch or a Fitbit encourages users to keep fit by providing incentives and goals for these users to chase after. For instance, with the Apple watch, users are encouraged to close their move ring, exercise ring and stand ring daily. Additionally, there are awards to win for clocking in work outs, monthly challenges as well as competitions amongst your friends who are also Apple watch users. While all these were meant to encourage and motivate people to keep active, these functions on the Apple watch can eventually lead to unhealthy competition amongst users who share their data with each other as they are able to see your daily activity (Figure 1 for an example of tracking the daily data of others). Unhealthy competition may exist when users who share data with each other simply try to take over each other in terms of statistics in order to beat each other and “feel good” about themselves that they are on top of the leader board. While it does keep people active, such unhealthy competition can be detrimental to one’s relationship, as well as mental well-being. Moreover, by being too consumed with the numbers and data, users may cheat just to attain the awards and goals in order to feel good about themselves, neglecting the initial intention they might have had. For instance, in order to close one’s move ring, one can simply walk around a room aimlessly to clock in some steps, when in actual fact this move ring is to encourage people to be active throughout the day by taking a walk or clocking in a workout. As such, such metrics that are meant to be a form of self-measurement and knowledge are now redundant as it causes people to lose sight of the initial goal and intention.  

Overall, I do not deny that using wearable self-tracking devices does help with self-knowledge and self-measurement where it helps a user understand their body and behaviour better through the data provided. However, it is important to not get too consumed and reliant on numbers to measure one’s progress and achievements. Additionally, it is important, as a user, to not lose sight of the original intention of using such wearable self-tracking devices.

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #9: Play (Alexandria Tang)

In this week’s reading, Lambert (2019) discusses the concept of intimacy and how media and the internet has shaped it, especially in this increasingly globalised and interconnected world that we live in. The concept of intimacy is overall ambiguous and can be understood in different ways. While intimacy requires a psychological sense of a person’s bodily presence, this form of presence need not be physical. As such, media literacy and the proliferation of media platforms and mobile media have given people the opportunity to construct forms of presence and intimacy online as it allows us to constantly be connected to our intimate ties and strengthen these bonds.

Digital intimacy comes in different forms. First, it is intimacy in the form of online dating through dating apps, aiding one in forming relationships and connecting with people. Secondly, intimacy can be in terms of family, kinship, marriage and gender, where mobile and digital media has the ability to strengthen and reinforce these networks. Intimacy can also come in the form of communities that are formed digitally. All these ambiguous ways of interpreting intimacy and how digital media has shaped these practices of intimacy, has in turn influenced the way we view relationships.

Digital media has played a vital role in defining what intimacy is for us, albeit still ambiguous. It has helped to facilitate relationship-building, keeping us in constant contact with our digital networks. Apart from the positive aspects that digital media has brought about, it has led to privacy and security issues, where people abuse the Internet. For instance, applications such as Find My Friends and Zenly are mobile phone tracking apps that were created to track the GPS location of people that you know. These applications enable a person approved by a user to follow and track their live locations on a live map. Such applications were created with the intentions of providing an easier way of tracking where a person is, as well as providing a platform that allows for easier meet ups or simply to see ‘what’s up’. Such sharing can be considered a form of intimacy as it gives us the idea of keeping connected and in-touch despite the physical distance between each other. However, these tracking applications have allowed security and privacy issues to surface. Such tracking applications could be used to spy or stalk on someone without their consent or knowledge, which then oversteps the boundaries of intimacy where people abuse the use of digital media and intimacy.

In sum, I feel that although digital media has helped to facilitate forms of intimacy which sometimes could not have been possible in real life, as users of the Internet, it is ultimately our responsibility to draw the line between the digital world and the real world. We should not be too reliant and consumed with digital media and the idea of intimacy that it portrays, but instead learn how to protect our own privacy because ultimately, we cannot fully trust the Internet as people are capable of utilizing the Internet to bring harm to people.

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #8: Play (Alexandria Tang)

Pelletier (2005) discusses how games can be considered to be educational, with the focus on how game play may be viewed as a ‘social practice involving power relations’. Pelletier goes about her discussion by analysing four frameworks about games, with great focus on Zizek’s concept of interpassivity. She first introduces three versions of cyberspace – games as pain relievers, sensual temptations and replicas of non-virtual life, then zooms into Zizek’s theory of game as dramatic stages for reality construction, which offers a different perspective as compared to the first three.  

Zizek’s theory about cyberspace is very much different from the three other versions presented in the reading. The first three versions centre around the idea that in games, the quality and level of education one can get is dependent on the way learners play a virtual role in the cyberspace and in turn, this makes them better able to project themselves into that social role in reality. On the other hand, in Zizek’s version of cyberspace, he posits that people should avoid identification with social roles constructed virtually and getting lost in games. Additionally, he claimed that over-identification with the game’s character and rules would ruin the playfulness of the games and structure our non-virtual reality. This is all due to the artificiality that the game world portrays, where interpassivity encourages our virtual-self and fantasies to fulfil the desires of the Other without any questions and critique, which in turn sustains and maintains our identity.

A point brought up in the article on how games have the potential to replicate non-virtual life, with focus on the specificity of games as learning tools, is something that I would like to discuss in this blogpost. I do believe that games, without a doubt has the ability to mirror society, both past and present. For instance, there are many action games in the market that are based on history and significant events in the past. Games such as Call of Duty are history-themed, with World War II and Cold War as some of the themes. Apart from Call of Duty, games like Battlefield also have different series that are based on historical events such as Vietnam War. The mimicking of such historical events allows for a more immersive, engaging and interactive form of learning as compared to the classroom which may sometimes be associated with words such as ‘boring’ and ‘dry’. Additionally, these games are more likely to peak the interests of those who play, thus allowing them to deepen their understanding about such events if they desire.

However, while it is impressive that games have the ability to mimic reality and provide a more real experience through advancements in technology, it is important to acknowledge that games are ultimately still fictional. There is a need for players to draw the line between fiction and the real world instead of bringing the virtual world to reality by blurring the lines. Overall, I feel that while it is good that games are able to act as a source of motivation for people to learn, as well as make the process of learning much more fun and engaging, we need to bear in mind that games are ultimately primarily intended to be a source of fun and entertainment. Being able to get educated through games are a mere bonus. Additionally, players should be able to exercise control and discipline to avoid becoming too immersed in games, even if it is for educational purposes because it may hinder their ability to learn through traditional means. Therefore, using games for educational purposes, to me, is a double-edged sword as it is accompanied by both positive and negative outcomes.

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #7: Consumption (Alexandria Tang)

In this chapter of Understanding Bourdieu by Webb et. al., the authors discuss the theoretical concepts by Bourdieu, namely cultural field, cultural capital and habitus. Cultural field is a series of institutions and rules that produce and transform certain discourses and attitudes. Cultural capital refers to the tasted and consumption patterns that exist within a system of exchange. They noted that the concepts of cultural field and cultural capital are dynamic, suggesting four dimensions in the reproduction of identity and capital – misrecognition, symbolic violence, illusion and universalisation. Furthermore, the authors portray Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as he critiques the objectivistic and subjectivist points of view through various human activities. Bourdieu defines habitus as the unconscious taking in of rules, values and dispositions due to our cultural history, thus affecting our knowledge and the way we understand the world.

A point that stood out to me by Bourdieu was about how misrecognition is key to symbolic violence. In other words, in this world, people are subjected to various forms of violence, but they do not perceive it as violence but instead, accepts it to be ‘the natural order of things’, thus leaving them with no choice but to accept it. The example of the relationship between misrecognition and symbolic violence brought forward in the reading is the idea of male domination. In this case, due to the workings of habitus, women are known to be inferior to men, thus influencing their lives. As such, gender domination occurs because women misrecognised this form of symbolic violence as something that is natural and how it should be.

While this may be true to a large extent, in this blogpost, I would like to discuss how the relationship between misrecognition and symbolic violence in the context of gender relations brought up by the authors has evolved over time. Over the years, women are given greater access to education and have started to take on roles that were once only open and available to men. As such, the increased levels of education and the recognition that women too, are capable of doing things that were once considered impossible due to the concept of habitus, has led to the emergence of women’s empowerment. Women no longer accept that the way they are perceived is he ‘natural order of things’ and no longer see themselves as inferior to men. In fact, through women’s empowerment, women now see themselves as capable, if not more, than men. Additionally, due to advancements in technology and proliferation of media where people around the world are now utilizing social media platforms to voice their opinions, the concept of women’s empowerment has been augmented, making it much more prominent and apparent in today’s society. In fact, social media has proven great potential for mobilising public attention and accountability for women’s rights and empowerment, thus increasing women’s representation in public life and media (Loiseau and Nowacka, 2015). Overall, education and the increased use and power of media have come hand in hand to contest the concept of habitus brought about by Bourdieu where women are inferior and suffer symbolic violence because of the misrecognition in gender relations, leading to women believing that such violence is natural and acceptable.

Sources:

- Loiseau E., Nowacka K. (2015), Can Social Media Effectively Include Women’s Voices in Decision-Making Processes?. Retrieved from: https://www.oecd.org/development/gender-development/DEV_socialmedia-issuespaper-March2015.pdf

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #6: The Sharing Economy (Alexandria Tang)

In this week’s reading of The Sharing Economy, Ravenelle posits that there is an increased interest of the sharing economy due to the emergence and proliferation of technological advancements in society today. Defined as app-based technologies that focus on the lending/renting of assets and services either for profit or for a higher good, the sharing economy has brought about discussions on issues such as trust and community, the increasing casualization of labour and the risks involved and lastly, the rising social inequalities that come with the rise in sharing economy. Overall, the sharing economy is often portrayed as a way to solve wider societal issues but in reality, the life of sharing economy workers have displayed the ugly side of the sharing economy, thus amplifying more potential problems instead.

Focusing on one of the 3 themes that Ravenelle talks about in this reading, Ravenelle discusses about how the sharing economy started out with the idea of bringing people together and preventing discrimination by promoting face to face interactions to solve issues of the lack of social connection. However, it has ultimately resulted in gesellschaft where connections and interactions are brief or in some cases, avoided as much as possible. While reading about the sharing economy, I realised that the type and nature of the sharing economy plays a part when it comes to trying to solve wider societal issues such as the lack of social connections.

In terms of Airbnb, I experienced first-hand how many Airbnb hosts have a lack of interest in interacting with people who rent their apartments. When I was on exchange in Europe, my friends and I would typically choose to book an Airbnb apartment to stay because of course, it is cheaper and much more flexible and convenient as compared to other forms of accommodations. One thing I noticed from the many Airbnb apartments that we stayed at over our 6 months in Europe was that we had very little encounters with our Airbnb host. There were more instances than not that we would never once meet our Airbnb host. In order to get into the Airbnb, the host would either give us a password to a lockbox where the key is kept, tell us where he/she hid the key at, or the apartment did not even need a key as it was a digital lock. This already limited the social interactions we could have had with the host if we met face-to-face. Moreover, even if our apartment had issues, the Airbnb hosts would usually try to solve the issue over the Airbnb application instead of personally coming down to help us solve the issue. This evidently shows how this form of sharing economy promotes the lack of social interaction as people find ways and means to avoid such forms of connections. Additionally, it is very easy to avoid social interactions due to the nature of the sharing economy in terms of Airbnb. On the other hand, in another form of the sharing economy such as Grab, especially in Singapore, riders are encouraged to sit at the front seat to hold a conversation with the driver instead of sitting at the back. Additionally, even if you are seated at the back, there are many drivers who will willingly strike a conversation with you while on the way to your destination. This has happened to me on multiple occasions and given the close proximity between the driver and rider, it is much easier to facilitate social interactions instead of avoiding it completely.

Based on the above mentioned, I feel that there is still potential for the sharing economy to solve societal issues such as the lack of social interactions. While I feel that it is mostly dependent on the nature of the sharing economy when it comes to social interactions (in some cases, it is easy to deflect any forms of social interacts while in others it is much harder), it takes two hands to clap when it comes to solving such societal issues.

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #5: Social Media as Participatory Culture (Alexandria Tang)

The reading Social Media as Participatory Culture by Fuchs (2014) critiques Henry Jenkins’ concept of participatory culture in social media. Jenkins defines participatory culture as culture in which the users, audiences, consumers and fan are actively involved in the creation and circulation of new content. Additionally, Jenkins has a positive opinion on participatory culture, while ignoring the broad concept of participatory democracy, the implications that come along with this concept, as well as the negative side of participatory culture. In this week’s reading, Fuchs (2014) also discusses about the arguments brought forward by Jenkins about participatory culture. Arguments include the fact that exploitation of users’ digital labour is not an issue if they have social benefits from platform usage, which Fuchs (2014) is against. Fuchs (2014) also shot down Jenkins’ argument that fan culture can help shape culture. This is because it is believed that Jenkins mistook politics with popular culture. These are just some arguments are among the many that Fuchs (2014) debunked in this week’s reading.

When reading, the argument brought up about digital labour and exploitation was one that particularly got me thinking. Jenkins posits that organizations nowadays profit from audience labour, but it is important not to label this as exploitation because audience members have benefitted from the willing participation in media. Additionally, the intentions of the users to share are not purely because of financial returns but they have the desire to share with a larger audience, are proud of their accomplishments and have a desire for dialogue. However, Fuchs (2014) argues that although these users are willingly participating, it is still considered exploitation and does not diminish the degree of exploitation. Instead, it portrays the contradictions of culture in capitalism.

Given the two arguments about digital labour and exploitation, I feel that I lean towards Jenkins’ view more than Fuchs (2014)’s view. People using media nowadays assume an active role when we post online. In fact, they often know that they are being exploited when they share content online because the media is usually a public space, one that is ‘free for all’. So, is exploitation of digital labour necessarily a bad thing if people are willing to freely share data and content on the Internet? On the Internet, our actions are being tracked and data is being collected from all these actions. Moreover, this is often made known to consumers, but consumers choose to willingly allow the Internet to continue doing so. This has led to an indirect form of digital labour that has manifested in the form of Google Maps. Google Maps constantly takes data from users of users of Google-created mobile operating systems to provide a highly accurate technology. While this can be seen as digital labour and exploitation as Google uses the data provided by users, I feel that it is not a bad thing since anyone in the public now who uses Google Maps benefits by being able to get accurate directions and timings to get from one place to another. In fact, Google Maps and its high level of accuracy would not have been possible if not for user data that consumers willingly share with the Internet. As such, I feel that since we benefit from providing information online, digital labour is not all that bad after all because it makes our lives much easier and convenient.

While all this is being said, I do acknowledge the fact that digital labour and exploitation does open avenues for fake news to surface on the Internet as users abuse the information that people willingly put out on the Internet for their own sake of generating more content. These fake news can then have implications if consumers of these information do not have the skills discern what may be right or wrong.  

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #4: Media Industries (Alexandria Tang)

In this week’s reading, Horkheimer and Adorno posits several arguments pertaining to the culture industry. In one of the arguments that I picked up while reading, the authors state that the culture industry, with the proliferation of new forms of mass media communications, has been increasingly commodified. This commodification of the culture industry can be largely attributed to the capitalist view that people hold of the economy where making profits holds much importance to people. Nowadays, many forms of culture have turned into consumer products and are more often than not designed to satisfy the growing needs of the capitalistic consumers. As such, all products belonging to the culture industry are done for purposes of profit-maximization and culture loses its freedom to explore and evolve.

 This idea of commodification then leads to the standardization and mass production of culture forms where similar products are produced under the same scheme but are portrayed in multiple variations for business and profit-making purposes. Based on this, many of the perceived differences and tweaks by consumers are actually just deceptions. A problem with the idea of standardization in the culture industry is the fact that it affects the capacity and ability of individuals to think and act critically and independently. Instead, the standardization in the culture industry causes producers to produce some sort of standardized content that consumers like as well as response to these content among its audience. While this generates profits for the culture industry, everyone now has similar thoughts and opinions which distorts the concept of ideological freedom when it comes to culture.

 An example of standardization and commodification that I can think of in our everyday lives would be content creation on YouTube. Firstly, more often than not, YouTubers start posting videos on YouTube as a hobby. However, as they slowly gained traction and followers on their channels, these videos slowly start to incorporate paid advertorials and promotions. YouTubers then seem to be churning out content for monetary purposes instead of passion, causing these videos to be commodified. Secondly, content creators are constantly reproducing YouTube videos on their individual channels, which in turn leads to standardized products as the videos produced by each Youtuber are essentially the same content and type that are tweaked to fit to their everyday life and e. For instance, many YouTubers tend to post ‘What I Eat In a Day’ videos which are essentially the same type of videos. The difference in each video is that the food they consume are tweaked based on where they are from as well as their dietary requirements.

 As the idea and trend of monopoly capitalism still lives today, I personally feel that the points brought up by Horkheimer and Adorno about the culture industry – how it has been commodified and standardised are still relevant and will only progress further. The culture industry will only get increasingly commodified and standardised and this is because nowadays people place utmost emphasis on profit-maximization in order to thrive.

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #3: Mobile Media (Alexandria Tang)

This week’s topic of mobile media will centre around the reading by Ito, Okabe and Anderson. The reading talks about the ways in which portable information devices mediate people’s relationships with urban infrastructure, locations and services. In particular, the reading identifies the underlying social practices in 3 specific cities, namely Los Angeles, London and Tokyo, that drive interfacing with urban locations, which I find is relatable in the context of Singapore.

 To illustrate, the concepts of ‘cocooning’, ‘encampment’ and ‘footprinting’ in public spaces were introduced. The proliferation of portable media devices in this day and age has sheltered us from engaging with public spaces, providing a private space within the confines of the urban space. This is known as cocooning. Next, camping is much more common now that people bring their portable media to public places of their choice where they feel some sort of affinity with. Lastly, footprinting allows for personalisation in public and semi-public places. These 3 phenomena of cocooning, encampment and footprints are relevant in Singapore and in particular, to me, as people are now carrying increasingly rich and immersive media, causing highly crowded locations to become spaces of private media consumption.

 As a typical Singaporean student, you would have definitely visited a Starbucks outlet at least once to study instead of for the usual coffee break that other people (who are not tied down with schoolwork and exams) visit Starbucks for. Frequenting Starbucks for studying purposes is something that I have been doing in my many years as a student. As such, this act of visiting Starbucks to do work, to me, captures all 3 of the concepts mentioned in the reading.

 Firstly, going to Starbucks, a public place that is constantly filled with people no matter the time of the day, getting good seat and finally pulling out my study materials which includes my laptop, illustrates encampment. Typically, I would frequent the same Starbucks outlet and choose the same few seats as these seats are much more hidden and have the power socket nearby. On top of these factors, I also usually spend a considerable amount of time (4 – 6 hours). As such, in terms of encampment, I feel comfortable here and find this particular place desirable enough for me to do my work productively outside of my house. While at Starbucks, I would usually plug in my air pods to listen to my own music while doing my work. This helps me to create my own private space within the confines of the constantly bustling Starbucks outlet as I am able to drown out all the surrounding noise, as well as escape any form of social interaction that may occur with other patronisers of Starbucks. With my air pods, I am cocooning myself within the ambient environment so that I can have a productive studying session. Lastly, frequenting Starbucks means that each time I go there to study, I would be buying a cup of coffee to accompany me as I do my work. This is a form of footprinting as each time I purchase a drink, it gets recorded in my Starbucks card (a digital one on my mobile phone and a physical one in my wallet) and I earn a certain number of stars which contributes to my membership and rewards levels. These transactions motivate me because after collecting a considerable number of stars, I am able to enjoy perks such as a free drink, as well as upgrade my membership level to the Gold level. Additionally, these transactions help me to establish and maintain a relationship with Starbucks as I do not want to lose my Gold status.

 Overall, this week’s reading has allowed me to link the concepts that I have been exposed to, to the simple act of visiting Starbucks to do my work, showing how these concepts of cocooning, encampment and footprinting can be linked and interconnected. Additionally, these concepts have made me realise how visiting Starbucks, an urban and public space that is typically very crowded, to do my work, has been heavily mediated by the proliferation of portable information devices to the point where I can transform it into a private space for myself so that it is much more productive for me to get work done here instead of at home.

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #2: Domestic Media (Alexandria Tang)

In this week’s reading, Spigel (2015) discusses the role of the television in society and how the television has contributed to changes in the way people now experience time and space. There are several concepts about the television that was brought up in this reading that were interesting and that resonated with me.

Firstly, Spigel mentioned how the television affects family intimacy and the domestic space, stating that the television is central to family life and has unifying power over family life. Additionally, she mentioned how the television was a way of shaping spatial arrangements of family unity. This particular point is relevant to me because it reminded me of my childhood. Back then, the television was our main source of entertainment and in my household, the television sets were placed in the common living room and my parents’ room only despite my siblings and I having our own bedroom. I remember how every day on weekdays, at 9pm, my family would gather at the living room to catch the Channel 8 Chinese drama together followed by the news. This was our way of bonding with each other and spending quality time together as a family after a long day. It was also a routine for all of us as we would religiously drop everything that we were doing and go to the living room to catch the drama together as a family before going to bed. However, with advancements in technology and changes in social realities, this longer holds true to my family and I believe so for many people as well. The television is no longer what brings people together because nowadays, we have our own devices such as iPhones and iPads and we even have our own television set in our own bedroom despite still having a television in their living room. Additionally, people nowadays choose to use Netflix and YouTube as their source of entertainment rather than television programs. As such, this has allowed us to access entertainment at our own time and whenever it is convenient for us. All these have resulted in a shift in how television affects family intimacy in this day and age.

Secondly, Spigel brings across the idea of how the television promotes the experience of telepresence and liveness in such a way that it allows one to feel the sense of intimacy and immediacy despite not being physically present. As such, the television allows us to feel as if we were present at live events or gives us the possibility of being at two places at once as we can now watch televised programs on the go. Personally, I feel that this is very relevant, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic. Despite stringent measures put in place that has not allowed large scale events to happen in Singapore, we are not deprived of all these experiences because of the television and its telepresence that it brings. For instance, as large-scale events were not allowed to be carried out, livestreams of the National Day Parade as well as New Year’s Eve countdown were broadcasted on the television. This gave Singaporeans the opportunity to still feel a certain level of liveness and involvement despite not being physically present. As such, despite it being virtual, Singaporeans still managed to experience the intimacy, immediacy and simultaneity of these key events while being in the comfort of their own homes.

Overall, I feel that television is indeed a strong tool that influences our social reality and will continue to do so in future despite the fact that technology is advancing at rapid speed and many people no longer turn to the television as much as there are many alternative forms of technology for them to choose from and reach.

[alexandriatang]

Blogpost #1: Mediatization (Alexandria Tang)

In this week’s reading of the Social World as Communicative Construction, Couldry and Hepp mentioned that the social world is constructed through communication. These communicative practices have been moulded by long-term processes of institutionalization and materialization, otherwise known as media.  As such, since communicative practices are inherently social, our everyday reality is deeply interwoven with media, and thus being ‘mediatized’. In this reading, it was also pointed out that the world is experiencing an increasing mediation of our communicative streams. There has been a shift from direct communication to mediated communication as the common and normal means of sustaining social relations. As such, with media, face to face communication is no longer the only channel for social interactions to take place. Overall, with mediatization and the increasing reliance on media, the social world that we live in is now constantly being shaped and constructed by media.

The way Couldry and Hepp explained how media and communication construct the social world that we live in made me reflect about my everyday life and how much media has shaped the reality that we currently live in. It is indeed true that our lives now revolve around media and that we heavily rely on media. This is especially evident in the past year when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and many countries had to go into lockdown, rendering social activities not physically possible. As such, our social activities and interactions have all been shifted online and we have all adapted quickly to this shift.

For instance, due to travel restrictions, we no longer can visit friends and family who are overseas, or even visit friends and family who are in Singapore as well due to the circuit breaker measures. As such, we rely a lot on Facetime, Skype and Zoom, to maintain relationships and keep in contact with our loved ones. Besides restricting interaction amongst people, this pandemic has also put a stop to many large-scale events such as concerts and sporting events. However, utilising media, we have been able to still bring these experiences to people online. For instance, during the lockdown in the world as well as circuit breaker in Singapore, many music artists held livestreams of concerts to still bring people the experience of attending music concerts, albeit online. Additionally, these livestream concerts held on online platforms such as Facebook and YouTube are usually accompanied with a live chat box, allowing participants who are online to interact and chat with each other. A more relevant example to me of how media has constructed the social world would be the live-streaming of Inter-Hall Games (IHG) matches in NUS. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, spectators are not allowed to physically go down to watch and support their halls in the various matches. However, with media, we do not miss out on catching the matches as each hall will livestream the match via Instagram as well as provide real-time updates on Telegram channels. Additionally, supporter who tune into the livestream can interact with each other through the live chat.

Hence, I resonate with Couldry and Hepp’s idea of how the social world is constructed and deeply interwoven with media, leading to mediatization.