Week 1- Web 2.0 Empowerment

Welcome to Attache, a collection of humble rumblings related to the themes covered in FTVMS712 Digital Media.

For week one the readings I focussed on primarily dealt with the broad implications of Web  2.0 and how its clearly transformative effect on society deserves more scrutiny. Much Web 2.0 rhetoric relies on a marriage of countercultural and capitalist overtones, bearing many similarities to the language of political manifestos. For instance, Web 2.0 manifestos, like their political counterparts, employ tactics such as addressing their audience as "we" (reinforcing the collectivist "prosumer" aesthetic of these new platforms) as well as referencing the present day as the "beginning a new era" in which users are equally consumers and producers of information (Djiek, Nieborg, 857-858). Contrary to this characterization, recent studies show that only 13 percent of people online are actual content creators, begging the question of how much old business models of has really changed (861). That said, It would be worth exploring how this has changed since these studies were conducted (2007-2008) and how "content creator" is defined- surely with the recent popularization of Facebook more users contribute and share (albeit often banal) content on a daily basis.

David Beer's article, "Power through the algorithm? Participatory web cultures and the technological unconcious" questions just how empowered the individual has become under Web 2.0. As a frequent and regular user of Facebook, Twitter, and Soundcloud I, and I would guess most users, work under the assumption that the design and functionality of Web 2.0 is a positive development. As web users, we are no longer restricted to singular roles but now can operate and interact on a multitude of levels. Due to the size and compexity of the task, David Beer doesn't have definitive answers at hand but by laying out a set of considered and critical questioning has challenged people to seek these answers for themselves.

These lines of critique are an important cautionary counterbalance to our collective impulse to dive head first into the new age of Web 2.0. They ask serious questions about issues of privacy, how and to what end our personal information and habits are being collated, who will use this information and why. Also, how these platforms and algorithms both empower our ability to interact and acquire/share information but how they might also be shaping our tastes, habits and opinions in ways not fully considered.

I would like to continue exploring these issues and use the fairly manic changes in music industry of the last fifteen years as a working case study. How has the digital age and Web 2.0 spefically affected this industry? Has it benefited/hurt the consumer? The artist? How? Is the rhetoric behind new music streaming sites like Spotify legitimizing the further decline of music sales?

Works Cited

David Beer (2009). Power through the algorithm? Participatory web cultures and the technological unconscious. New Media & Society, Vol. 11(6), pp985-1002. 

José van Dijck and David Nieborg (2009). Wikinomics and its discontents: a critical analysis of Web 2.0 business manifestos. New Media and Society. Vol. 11(5), pp855-74.

Trebor Scholz (2008). Market Ideology and the Myths of Web 2.0. First Monday. Vol. 13(3): http://firstmonday.org