Discover Top Posts Tagged with #digital essay

Social Media in the Music Industry

It’s hard to believe 2007 was ten years ago. When people, especially younger people, think of 2007, it’s this really interesting mix of High School Musical, punk pop icons, and drunken Britney Spears. Something else that really defines this era in both pop culture, and in music, is the use of social media.

#Digital Essay #Social Media #Music #Taylor Swift #Icon For Hire

The Role of Consumption in Structuring my Day-to-Day Existence & the Academic Study of Consumption

Consumption plays a significant role in our day-to-day existence because it allows us to meet and cater to our needs and desires. The act of consuming is defined as the act of using, eating and/or digesting resources or products. Moreover, we consume whether it is intentional or not. These can be in the form of consuming goods like food, information, shopping or travel for leisure and entertainment. “Consumers embody a simple modern logic, the right to choose.” (Gabriel, 1995). According to Gabriel, choice is a powerful tool that consumers have access to and that consumerism is able to drive the economy. In modern society, consumers are able to practise their ability to choose what they would like to consume and how much of it they consume. These choices are also often shaped and projected through one’s social and cultural backgrounds, as well as one’s personal autonomy.

In the following paragraphs, I will discuss my own consumption in terms of food, shopping, information as well as entertainment with the aid of the unit readings and some sources of my own research.

Firstly, as a basic human necessity, one has to eat food and drink beverages to quench one's hunger thirst. Since eating and drinking is already practised since young, oftentimes we do not think much of it anymore because it has become a natural part of our lives. However, what we may fail to realise is how our choices in consumption structures the way we live. On a daily basis, I get to choose what type of meal to consume for breakfast, lunch and dinner or the additional snacks I would consume throughout the day. However there are certain factors that affect my decisions. For example, as a consumer, I have the option of deciding whether I would like to purchase an affordable meal in a food court or if I would opt for a meal more costly than usual in a restaurant. My finances (at the time being) however, determine if I am able to treat myself to a dish that is slightly more expensive than my usual lunches throughout the week. As a student who still mainly relies on her parents for financial support, I have to check if the supposed meal is within budget and how often I can splurge a little bit more on food. This may not be an issue to someone of a higher socio-economic status and can thus have lesser limitations and have broader food experiences. Through this, we can observe that consumption can be an indicator of one’s social class.

Next, I would like to talk about shopping. “Throughout most of recent history, shopping has been viewed as a laborious activity, one that must be undertaken as a means of survival. The activity rarely, if ever, possessed qualities that could be considered enjoyable” (Timothy, 2005). That is not the case for me though, shopping for clothes is a leisure activity for me and one that I particularly take in. I enjoy taking my time to browse through the store to select articles of clothing that strikes my attention. As I grow older, I find myself being more particular about the quality and price of clothes so I spend a bit of time roaming around different stores looking for the best deals and good quality fabric. As a teenager though, I used to impulsively buy clothes as I found myself influenced by trends online and I had wanted to dress similarly to my favourite artists. It was also some form of retail therapy for me. Looking back, I do not even wear these clothes anymore because of its quality and it is no longer my style of clothing. Unfortunately, mass produced fast fashion apparels were the most affordable option as opposed to ‘sustainably-produced’ clothes. Many individuals vilify people who buy fast-fashion clothes because it is produced unethically but sustainably produced clothes are not cost-friendly to most people. In a chapter by Littler (2014), it is questioned if ethical consumption is “...mainly used as a high-end status pursuit for the moneyed classes, a panacea for middle-class guilt?”. For instance, ethical consumption is marketed to the more affluent and ‘educated’ society, where they have the means to afford and live the eco-friendly or green lifestyle which then further divides the rich and poor, increasing inequality amongst society.

Thankfully, I have realised that impulsively buying clothes in bulk is unnecessary and a waste of money. This change of mindset has reduced my spendings on clothes and has also lessened my tendency of over-consumption. I rarely visit retail stores nowadays but I still do find myself surfing the web to browse through clothes. Now, I am more selective of items I purchase and am trying to build a capsule wardrobe which consists of staples and long-wear clothes as opposed to buying ‘trendy’ clothes which I am only going to wear less than 10 times.

“The problem is not that people own things: the problem is that things own people. It is not consuming but consumerism we criticise; not affluence but affluenza” (Hamilton, 2005, p8). To expand on this phrase, many struggle with conspicuous consumption where wealth and status is displayed through branded or materialised goods. Personally, I have yet to experience this because I currently do not have much interest in luxury items. It is however not unusual for one to see, especially in this age where almost everything is shared online. Through influencers and celebrities, we often see them decked from head-to-toe with branded items perhaps due to sponsorships or so as to present them of a higher socio-economic class from the masses. I can see why this form of consumption may be detrimental to those who fantasise about that certain lifestyle.

For entertainment, I consume a lot of media to satiate my boredom and curiosity. To be frank, I could spend hours, mindlessly scrolling through social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. I also receive news information from these applications. I suppose that because the content is bite-sized, it is easier for me to digest and consume. Content that shows up on my timeline becomes more and more personalised because of the data collected through my likes. This would then send an instant gratification to my brain because the system shows me videos or pictures that I am interested in. However, I find that my social networking usage decreases my attention span. I find it harder to focus and sustain my attention during longer forms of media like 3-minute videos or long articles. I prefer watching TikTok videos because they are short-form content rather than long Youtube videos as it is difficult to sit through a whole video. From a scholarly journal, it is discussed that individuals are constantly on “an information overload from both the quantity of information available and the speed of which information gets into the hands of individuals through advertising and multimedia” (Carstens et al., 2018). This means that in an information and an attention economy, we are persistently exposed to information and it is unavoidable. Whereas attention of individuals are scarce or deficit because one has so many choices of consumption. The increase of social networking usage could be interlinked to the fact that human beings are social creatures who desire to be a part of a community (Lukinova et al., 2014). Since social media allows one to connect and communicate with people from all over the world, the human desire to interact with one another is fulfilled. Therefore, social media usage and consumption rises.

Through the readings, one is able to critically analyse the semiotics and reasons of consumption. Consumption is complex and comes in a variety of forms. We not only consume physical, tangible goods but we also consume experiences whether it be in consumption of food or through our shopping experiences. In restaurants, one takes in the ambience of eating in a store, usually in the presence of other people who are dining in. There are unique visual and audio elements when one sits and dines in a restaurant as opposed to eating at home. The same goes for physically travelling to the shopping centre. Shopping malls are designed to attract consumers of all different profiles. Even though it may be unsaid, one can recognise that certain shops or shopping malls are targeted to a particular group of people (especially the rich and more privileged) because their consumption of goods drives the sales for such luxury stores.

However, consumption should not be polarised to “purely negative” nor should one categorise it as “purely positive” (De Solier, 2013). One should not automatically criticise an individual for being unable to use ethically-produced goods because for many, they are not affordable. From Littler (2011), ethical consumption may be used by the government and corporations to push the narrative of responsibility to individuals on making an environmental change and ‘go green’. Whereas these big organisations do not take the accountability for making real change given the power they have yet are profit-making through the supposed ‘pro-environment’ products they sell to consumers.

To conclude, the academic study of consumption helps to define how acts of consumption could be influenced through social, cultural, environmental and economic factors. It acts as a guide for me to be more conscious and critical of what I consume. The concepts I have learned allows me to realise and be more aware of the negative implications of consumption on an individual and societal basis. Although we have a choice as the consumer in what we consume, it also makes me question whether this so-called ‘power’ is just manipulated and curated by companies in order to profit off of us. Lastly, it also helped me realise that pursuing our consumption habits may be a means to better one’s life, one’s formation of self-identity, as well as in pursuit of happiness.

#consumption #criticalreflection #digital essay

The digital essay was one of the first projects where I consciously tried to utilize multiple modes (linguistic, visual, spatial, etc.) to produce a truly multimodal text and disseminate it "through a single medium (such as a computer screen)" (Lauer 229).

Since completing this project, I have learned modes affect the way composers and users interact with texts.

#digital media #digital essay #modes #multimodality #multimodal

#axhDIGITAL | #axhINTERESTEDINMEN | #axhMONARCH | #axhWESTJR

#axhSTUDIEZ #anexcerptofhim #digital essay

Saturday, 1 October 2016

PLAGIARISM has continuously caused debate throughout the years, in all areas of creativity. In such countries as America and Europe, plagiarism is considered a serious crime where one’s rights of creativity is stolen and violated. In Korea, people seem to lack the awareness of perceiving plagiarism as a great offence which should be looked upon with shame; maybe it is because students from a young age are not educated about the essential respect towards intellectual property. Thus, there have been many incidents in the past (and those that are still undercurrent) where graduate students and corporate researchers have plagiarized and copied works. In light of the 2016 US presidential elections, plagiarism has yet again been highlighted through Mrs. Trump’s speech.

[Mrs. Trump – what happened?]

Melania Trump seemed to have plagiarized a part of Michelle Obama’s speech, during the opening night of the Republican National Convention 2016.

Following is the excerpt of Obama and Trump’s speeches.

- Obama 2008 –

“And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.”

“And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children – and all children in this nation – to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

- Trump 2016 –

“From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect.”

“They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/07/19/melania-trump-republican-convention-speech-plagiarism/87278088/

As seen above, Trump’s speech does not seem to match Obama’s speech word by word. However, the flow and content of the two short paragraphs seem to model Obama’s original speech. In fact the speech was written by Trump’s editor/writer of the campaign. Due to this incident Candidate Trump had difficulty justifying his wife’s work to his supporters. Though this was clearly an act of plagiarism which lightened up controversy of who was to blame, the editor stated to resign but Trump ordered no one to be fired at this time. In America such an issue is considered a serious criminal offense where people may lose their whole career and reputation because of not citing the correct reference. To see how serious this is, it is necessary to look into the copyright laws.

[Copyright Law]

Though copyright laws vary between countries; the fundamental constitutional frame forms from the definition of plagiarism, and its punishments. The definition of plagiarism can be seen in how Trump’s words were different yet the same in content: including any form of imitation or copying of other’s work or ideas without any form of compensation. When deciding how harsh a punishment shall be, as with any wrongdoing, the degree of intent and the nature of the offense determine its status. When plagiarism takes place in an academic setting, it is most often dealt by the academic institution involved. If, however, the plagiarism involves monetary benefits or job placement, it constitutes a crime punishable in court.

In the U.S., most cases of plagiarism are punished by fines between $100 and $50,000 and up to one year in jail. However, depending on the benefits reaped from plagiarism and the intender’s purpose, one could also be prosecuted for felony. Other than criminal punishment, any form of plagiarism will not be tolerated by most corporations and institutions and jobs will be lost, additional to the collapse of one’s reputation.

Intentional or Accidental? Ignorance of the law is never an excuse. Even if one did not realize they were plagiarizing, they may still be found guilty. However, there are different punishments for willful, innocent, or accidental infringement. To distinguish between these, courts recognize what is called the ‘good faith defense’. If one can demonstrate, based on the amount they borrowed and the way that it was incorporated into their work (reasonably believed what they did was fair use); chances that their sentence will be lessened substantially is very likely. If one merely copied something, it is unlikely to be considered “fair use”. But if the material has been transformed in an original way through interpretation and analysis, it is more likely to be considered “fair use”.

Source: http://www.plagiarism.org/ask-the-experts/faq/

[Plagiarism in Korea]

Korea has an embarrassing list of plagiarism incidents where artists and writers have been put under scrutiny of the whole nation because of their misdemeanor. From singer and song director Primary accused of plagiarizing Caro Emerald’s ‘Liquid Lunch’ in his song ‘I GOT C’, to the eminent writer Shin Kyung Sook receiving allegations of plagiarizing a 1961 story by Yukio Mishima, in her Legend; too many artists have been revealed to have copied intellectual possessions.

In South Korea, the specific punishments toward plagiarism are also decided by its nature. If there have been clear intentions towards the offense, it will be considered a criminal action; however, the copyright owner must press charges. On the other hand, if one has had adequate research into not copying other works before their own work is presented, and they had no intention to have plagiarized, then the offense is put into civil action where it becomes a case of indemnification for damages. The Copyright Act, enforced in 2009, states “to protect the rights of authors and the neighboring rights and to promote fair use of works in order to contribute to the improvement and development of the culture and related industries.” This eighty-six-paged Act goes into detail to the definition and detailed articles of variables. However, our country still has yet far to go in order to truly protect intellectual property.

Despite having a detailed Copyright Act, the problem of continuous plagiarism lies within the people’s awareness of its seriousness. Students still abuse works online and do not recognize that the least-expected media, such as Youtube, emails or radios, must be cited properly in their essays. Researchers use petty means to integrate other’s ideas into their studies. Corporates declare their creative property to be ‘unique’ when smaller private businesses struggle to fight for their stolen work. People who see such controversy on the news and newspaper still do not believe it is a serious offense and the reaction of it within the courts also seem to be inadequate.

Some people may state that not much can be ‘unique’ and ‘creative’ in the twenty first century where ‘creative’ art is saturated. Some are even known to state that the current copyright laws give too much power to the copyright holders which could hurt competitiveness and culture (leading to higher Internet censorship). Hence, the borderline of plagiarism and creativity is blurred and more needs to be done to clearly define and protect intellectual property. In Korea, it seems to be the case where we must first take a step towards full acknowledgement of how copying another person’s work is not ‘borrowing’ but ‘stealing’.

Source:

http://blog.daum.net/mojjustice/8706597

https://namu.wiki/w/%ED%91%9C%EC%A0%88#s-3.1

http://www.moleg.go.kr/english/korLawEng?pstSeq=52683

This was written by TK of EOC. Thank you for reading.

#plagiarism #digital essay #southkorea #socialissue

Friday, 15 July 2016

The Big Picture of Feminism: On the Definition and Forms

Feminism is a movement in which people strive to promote the equality of women within the traditional patriarchal society. The boundaries in which women should be treated equally can expand to various respective social spheres. The OED defines a single statement to feminism as: “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes”. Merriam-Webster provides a few more specific definitions by stating: “organized activity in support of women’s rights and interests” and “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes”. As seen in these definitions, the word feminism and theories that have evoked from it can be approached from the perspective of viewing it as an activity for all sexes or specifically for women, or as theories that view the dynamics of the woman within a society from a political, social, cultural, economic point of view – all of which should be analyzed differently within each specific area of study. This shows how the rights of women have been in fault within the different layers of society that made them ultimately as minors and inferior to men, physically and mentally.

However, beginning with the small voices during the Renaissance and developing into a louder collective voice, women are reestablishing their identities and reinvigorating their sense of importance to the society; other than that of a nurturing mother. Since, women have not only walked together as organizations in demonstrations that changed laws but have developed theories into writing that have shaped a horizon of diverse feminism movements. Many of which are discussed upon Glenn Jordan and Chris Weedon’s Feminism and the Cultural Politics of Gender. Through understanding how feminism, which sprouted in the West, changed and adapted to different situations in parallel with the Western culture, maybe we may be able to view the bigger picture of feminism flourishing within our own society.

Though it is not sure on who initiated the very first ‘feminism movement’ in Europe, women who were disgusted with the discrimination and abuse they suffered in the familial and social sphere, talked to each other in small groups. This brought their trivial conversations into the political sphere which highlighted the collective problem in the society; where a mass of people (women) suffered. When these groups of women started to come together, can be detected in texts through a Renaissance era female writer during the seventeenth century. Madeleine de Scudéry wrote about the women’s rhetoric and the significance of the woman talking outside the house; expanding their speech from within the kitchen into a socio-politic sphere – from talking about the baby and gossiping about neighbors to talking about the recent social issue amongst a group of men and women. Scudéry developed her writings within the ‘salon’ which was a new venue of social interaction for the aristocracy and wealthy bourgeoisie. The purpose of these gatherings was amusement; above all, the participants conversed wittily on the affairs of the day, current literature, and topics both morally serious and utterly frivolous.

Like so, other than salons, beginning from the late sixteenth century until the modern times women started to group together and build their own voices that in time strengthened into voicing the anger of not being treated equally to men. How these women grouped together and took action onto the streets for change to be made, is most commonly understood through the “Three Waves”: The first wave comprised of suffragettes promoting women’s right to vote, the second wave campaigned for legal and social equality and the third developed onwards from the ‘failures’ of the second wave. These waves clearly show the flow of feminism movements in line with history. However, as this article started with highlighting the definition of feminism, it is necessary to explain and distinguish the forms (types) of feminism seen throughout its development. By connecting the following forms of feminists explored upon below, one will be able acknowledge its merits and faults to advocating for women’s rights.

Jordan and Weedon clearly classify five perspectives towards the form of feminism seen in the Western culture. It is stated that a feminist should not be bound to just one definition as they may entitle themselves within the intersection of two or more forms. Nonetheless understanding these perspectives will help analyze the fundamental purpose of feminism and its foundations to its definition.

“1. Liberal feminists stress the importance of equality of opportunity. They emphasize women as individual writers, artists or critics, whose work should be valued irrespective of gender or race. Liberal feminists tend to disregard women’s difference from men.

2. Women-centred focus on the work of women from a perspective that privileges female difference. Their objectives include establishing alternative traditions of women’s cultural production and rewriting women’s history from both Black and White feminist perspectives. Women centered Feminists find their strongest expression in Radical feminism. Radical Feminism developed the tendency to view women’s creativity as something different from male culture to the point where there could be no overlap between the two cultures.

3. Marxist feminists have explained gender difference in terms of its usefulness to capitalism. They have argued that capitalism has an interest in maintain gender identities and relations which guarantee a low-paid expendable female workforce in manufacturing and service industries, a largely feminized and low-paid public sector, and an unpaid workforce to care for children, the elderly and disabled in their own homes. This benefits men since it gives them privileged access to better paid jobs, public life and leisure outside work.

4. Postmodern form of feminism draws on poststructuralist theories. Power relations that of class, gender and race make up an individual’s gender identity according to different contexts. None of it is naturally female or male as both femininity and masculinity are culturally constructed.

5. Black and ‘Third World’ Feminist insist on the centrality of racism and colonialism to understanding gender relations. They challenge the Eurocentric tendency of much feminism to privilege Western norms as universal.” (Feminism and the Cultural Politics of Gender, 183-186)

As seen in how Jordan and Weedon have categorized forms of feminism, it is not so difficult to understand their relations to the actual diachronic history of feminism movements. By understanding that there are various forms of feminism, one can understand the whole scope of gender politics as not a single definition but a crossroad of multiple ideologemes that meet to build the word “Feminism” which ultimately endeavors for everyone’s equality.

Within our society, where feminist are seen stereotypically as ‘radical feminists’, they undergo harsh criticism that they excessively emphasize women’s suffering that ultimately abuses men; leading to a reversed oppressive structure. As seen in how feminism is not one hard definition, more and more people need to open their prospects towards its true purpose and meaning. One must also be aware to always consider the socio-historical culture of the country in relation to exploring its definition. Questions on whom and what sparked the first feminism movement, when its first demonstration was, or how the Korean feminism movement started and is growing, all must be unfortunately abandoned to be discussed on in other forthcoming articles. This article intended on examining the meanings of feminism in relation to its agendas that group them into different forms in hope of stepping outside the gender discourse and viewing ‘feminism’ in a broader perspective.

This was TK of EOC.

Thank you for reading.

#eoc #on feminism #feminism #womens rights #digital essay

“Will Self visits Prague for a walking tour in search of Franz Kafka’s genius loci. In the film, Will visits several Kafka sights as part of his research for a digital essay for the LRB looking at Kafka's short story, 'The Country Doctor': http://thespace.lrb.co.uk/ “

“‘Kafka’s Wound’, a digital literary essay, has been designed to allow both the text of the essay, and the wealth of additional digital content woven through it, to be discovered and explored by each reader individually; there is no prescribed ‘right’ path.” http://thespace.lrb.co.uk/

#will self #kafka #prague #essay #digital essay #london review of books

Hello to new followers!

Seeing the influx of followers is a treat to be sure at this part of the grad school semester - I think I have shakespeareismyjam to thank for recc'ing the blog!

I've collected/curated a lot of the amazing work people have done on tumblr with Hamlet, and I'm currently working on some analysis of Romeo and Juliet. Just a quick note, I had changed my url from the cumbersome soyouwanttobeashakespearean to shakesprean just recently, and so if you're interested in the digital essay the next/previous links are a bit broken (not the ideal time in the grad school semester to go about fixing that). But the tag will get you all the posts in order if you're interested. HERE

And of course even when I'm not writing directly on shakespr, I'm happy to put my Shakespeare academia experience to work to answer any sort of questions to the best of my ability. And I'm always looking out for the amazing stuff tumblr has done with shakespr to reblog.

Happy to see you all - feel free to send me asks, or submit things you might find interesting, or correct something, whatever you're interested in!

Caitlin

#post: text #digital essay #update #HELLO THERE #WELCOME #shakespeare

The Role of Consumption in Structuring my Day-to-Day Existence & the Academic Study of Consumption

In the following paragraphs, I will discuss my own consumption in terms of food, shopping, information as well as entertainment with the aid of the unit readings and some sources of my own research.

#consumption #criticalreflection #digital essay

#digital essay

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