Unit 2: Identity in Participatory Culture
Project: Class Wiki
→ warm up: Annotated Bibliography (18-Oct)
» ICYMI: Participatory Culture Overview page (watch videos)
(especially for clarification about objects of study)
Week 8
M 10/12 Discuss: “The Rhetoric of Memes”
- read several entries (2−3 pages; get sense of project)
plus two published responses
- focus: genre & audience (scholarly conventions)
→ compare/contrast with Wiki for public readers
- looking ahead: research & reading for A-Bib sources
→ begin examining culture form of interest (specific examples)
and researching for A-Bib
W 10/14 hybrid work :
- discuss: research strategies & progress
→ browsing & searching for relevant scholarly articles via library databases
» Discussion (prompts below):
- Brief comment (due 230pm)
- Classmate reply (due 3pm):
→ reminder, both posts required for attendance/participation credit.
F 10/16 independent work (no class) :
- Compile & Assess Research; read article/chapter
- Post update (reply to Wednesday comment): article found/selected
» updated — due 18-Oct: Annotated Bibliography Exercise
(15 points, 5 sources; upload in D2L)
W 10/14 Hybrid Work
» Discussion Prompts:
— post your research strategy (search & browse) using library database/s (specify which), how seeking scholarly articles for A-Bib. Status/progress so far? Types of articles/journals scanning, for writing relevant to culture forms (digital, popular, participatory, network)?
— provide feedback/suggestion about researching, especially by noting what you have done (rather than critiquing classmate’s approach) that is working so far. You might also offer examples of specific journals or articles, if relevant to classmate’s topic.
Comment and reply required for attendance/participation credit.
→ bonus credit for posting 2nd reply to classmate (optionally)
» Reminder, some articles listed on A-Bib sources page are available as PDF in D2L.
→ also added to that page this screencast of researching scholarly articles using library databases
**good to watch while researching and before posting for discussion!**
→ remember too, you could always consult a Norlin librarian for research assistance (Chat/IM, Email, Phone, and in-person)
The Beer article surrounding the Bubble analogy is sort of my focus for this project. I’m using music as my platform offering the evolution of technology as a form of isolation/individual towards possibly a more shared/collective experience via spreadable media, such as music remixes and compilations as a way to form a collective identity or using the idea of the “Silent Disco” where each person is isolated in their headphones but still participating in a collective experience.
I am going to use Chinook as my database for finding scholarly articles, but also utilize Google. I have found a few articles but nothing yet has stood out as something I would like to pull from. I am going to continue referencing Beer and Jenkins posts for their ideas of insiders vs outsiders and the camaraderie that comes from spreadable/viral media. I could really use suggestions on possible keywords to search if you guys have any ideas.
At this point I really would appreciate the extra day and have the A-Bib due on Saturday.
I think it would definitely help you to use google to find more relevant articles to your topic. Under the “Pop Culture” category on the UCB library page I was able to find many relevant articles, you should check that out too! Also it might help you to switch up some of the key words that you use while searching. You can try searching really specific things, like “silent disco” and see if something comes up! You never know! But I also agree that it would be helpful to have until Saturday to finish.
I had a hard time finding my sources so I decided to start with the suggested sources on the page. I settled on three, two of which we read for class, and then found two more on my own. Those I found using the library’s database and using words like “YouTube”, “Tags”, and “online video”. So far I’ve used Beer’s chapter 6, Jenkins’ part 8, a suggested video, jstor.org, and the library’s database. I haven’t finished reading two of the sources, so I am not sure if they will be useful or not. I am also not entirely sure as to how exactly I am going to use the sources for, so that’s also a setback.
Should those suggested sources you found fail in giving you usable information, perhaps try Google Scholar just to get a larger collection of articles pertaining to your topic? If anything else, it may help you find comparable articles which might help you feel more secure with what you have, or help you identify what you particularly want out of a future source.
I’ve made some good progress and finished annotating three of the five sources. These are focusing on the vulnerability that comes from exposing yourself online, how important it is for creators to form a community around their videos, and how creators are really the only ones that have the power to decide what to show and what not to show effectively creating a complete online personality.
Thus far, I’m struggling to find scholarly articles that pertain specifically to music and the spreading of media, however, I have a few sources we have gone over in class which I intend to utilize. The “Spreadable Media” reading by Jenkins, more so than the others. I have been conducting my search for articles by using CUs library database, and will begin using ‘Google Scholar’ should my efforts to find something related to my topic continue to be fruitless.
I had a hard time finding scholarly articles also about music culture but in the library data base under the section Pop Culture Through Current Events helped me get started. I used simple key terms to get going with finding articles. I hope this helps.
I think Google Scholar would be a great aid for you, I know I’ve had much luck in the past using it. I’m not sure what exactly it is that you are researching regarding music and culture, however, I was able to find a lot of good sources on the CU Library search relating to music. Try using the Pop Culture and Current Events tab and then search your music keywords.
I am at the same point as you, the best articles on my topic have been from Jenkins. Try using key words! In my search, both specific and broad terms have been pretty helpful. If your topic is music and spreadable media, maybe try searching articles pertaining to YouTube, Soundcloud, or Spotify. If nothing else it could lead you in the right direction!
Using the library databases makes it very easy to find specific articles for the annotated bibliography. Specifically using the popular culture filter could be helpful to target helpful scholarly articles. For my project I’m going to focus on the film industry and hopefully incorporate Jenkins ideas about spreadable media, in order to analyze how some films are created with the hope that they can explain things to their audience that might not be easily understood; such as non-fiction films/documentaries, or films that re-create past events. Using chinook I can find articles about the film industry under the popular culture tab, or the society and politics tab could be helpful as well.
Thanks for the comment it is actually helpful for me because it sounds as though you have had success with Chinook whereas I did not have as much luck. One thing that might be fun is to also look into mockumentaries as these are films created from another thus fitting better into the idea of participatory culture.
So far I have found two great articles that pertain to the topic of participatory culture. One of them titled: “Here We Go Again: Music Videos After YouTube”, is discussing the evolution of music videos; from the high budget classic music videos shown on MTV and others (pre-reality MTV era), to the more current forms of music videos brought back with the creation of YouTube to account for the changing television industry.
I am almost finished with my annotated bib and I found a good article about music and music culture through the library database. I had to use simple terms to help me find what I was looking for in the Pop Culture Through Current Events section. I also used key terms from the readings and connected them to the creation of music festival culture.
That’s great that you are almost done! I think I may try your strategy and use simple terms on my search and see if anything relevant pops up.
I think you chose a very relevant topic to today’s culture. You may want to check out Google Scholar because I’m sure they will have a wide rage of articles on your topic!
I have now completed my annotated bib. Thank you both for your suggestions!
With searching with the library database, I am finding much luck with finding articles about gaming culture. I am looking at peer reviewed articles. There is actually a lot to search through and many topics I could dive into. It is just going to be time consuming to find about two articles that really fit with what I want to put on the wiki page. I already have three sources from the source list. I’m good with terms and concepts and how to apply that to various aspects of gaming culture. The problem I am foreseeing is having to0 much to talk about or constantly repeating myself. With there being so many aspects of the gaming culture I do not know if I should narrow in on a certain idea of gaming or include many.
How gamers help producers, how gaming has effected users meaning the worlds created in the mind(space/ out of body experience), the comparison of gamers and robots, community aspects of gaming, etc..
I feel there is a lot of information on a wide range of topics and I am not sure if i should focus on one term and apply it to many examples or have many terms and use many examples.
I would imagine it’s relatively easy to find articles on gaming, as that is and always has been, really, a huge part of American culture. With that said, I could see you having a problem with having too much to talk about. I would maybe focus on just one or two things to write on. Like perhaps the effect of gaming on our youth culture (i.e., violence/ shootings, spending too much time inside). Best of luck.
I have been pleasantly surprised to find quite a few relevant articles through perusing the CU Library search system. One is titled “Waiting For the Bass to Drop,” which I will definitely be using. Another one captures perfectly the social change regarding the new “DJ culture.” So far I would say my research is going well, thanks mostly to the CU’s online library search.
Awesome that you could find such good sources so quickly! I would love to hear you strategies on how you found these pieces. I’m stuck on finding proper keywords for my searches. Maybe you could connect your sources back to class materials, such as the Beer or Jenkins article.
I think things are still going well as far as finding relevant articles. One that I found recently I think captures the essence of my argument for this project. It’s titled “DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology, and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music.” This will definitely help me point out the social factors, i.e., pop culture, of the change in music taste.
I’m having a hard time so far finding scholarly resources that analyze video culture from anywhere near the perspective that I am going after here with skateboarding culture. So far I have primarily looked for sources using the library’s EBSCO resource and Google Scholar. I may need to get more creative with my usage of keywords but I have found a useful study that describes skateboarding culture from an ethnographic stance. I feel that this article will greatly help in describing the “popular” and “participatory” culture forms of skateboarding. Unless I miraculously find a breakthrough article on skate video culture I think I will likely implement the numerous sections of the Jenkins series in describing and applying principles of “digital” and “network” culture in skate video culture and viewership.
You should try and look under the different categories on the library website. Sometimes if you click on different topics you can find more relevant articles! good luck!!
Yea I was struggling too at first until I found out how to filter articles under different topics. If you go to the main library page below the search bars there are links. If you click on the one that says find articles, it will show different topics that allows you to search more specifically. Sometimes the site can be difficult to navigate but I have found success after searching under different topics, as well as re-arranging the words in the search bar.
My focus for the project is YouTube, specifically the vlogging culture (video blogging). I went to the UCBlibraries page and searched under the “Pop Culture Current Events Thought” category. Through the EBSCO host search engine I was able to find a couple relevant scholarly articles that go hand in hand with my topic. There was one specific article titled “Youtube Stars You May Not Know– But Should,” this article is very relevant to the ideas and thoughts I want to research. It also goes along with some of the points that Jenkins made in his article. I think that it would be helpful to have until Saturday to completely finish my annotated bib. I still have some more research to do and I also have to go through the articles to find relevant quotes, which I feel like will take a good amount of time.
Good idea with using the focused topic for your research. I feel like that would narrow down topics and allow you to search more contemporary sources. You could also reference Google’s schorlary search as well and that might help you find some more sources. I would also suggest looking up articles that maybe analyze vloggers techniques, see how they compare with the idea of memes or something. Just to connect back to class materials.
Honestly, I haven’t even started researching/reading anything yet. I’ll finally be able to start today, but I’m not really sure where to start. I guess I will look at some of the entries posted to begin and then will start to look for scholarly sources on Norlin’s db. I’m hoping that I will be able to find articles about the culture I am studying.
Maybe you should start with some of the reading we did for class and see if you can apply any of those to your topic, that’s what I did and I got a couple of sources down!
I would probably try searching for exactly whatever you are searching for. Then if nothing comes up, just go really general and slowly work down. If that doesn’t work, maybe try searching for specific examples that you would like to emphasize on, rather than give a general overview. Just really dive down into the specifics.
I can completely see how this topic would be challenging. The readings are highly technical, at least for me so just take your time reading it and try referencing class notes. This helped me to piece together key terms/concepts that I might have missed with just reading one thing over. Also, looking some of the terms up on google may help you to understand these topics from a different perspective.
My research is coming along! I found this interesting article on Norlin’s DB about the popularity of digital food videos, so I will probably use it for the annotated bib. I’m still working on finding articles, but I’m in a better place than I was on Wednesday, so I’m content with my progress!
My strategy was to begin with very broad terms and then slowly get into the specifics. Specifics as in tying in key terms from readings that I have already decided to use as sources as “modifiers”. The main idea was to find sources in regards to the music trends of today that end up going viral in some sense, such as covers of popular songs that just blow up the creator’s YouTube channel.
Sounds like a good idea! You should potentially use Jenkin’s articles of spreadable media, especially from when he discusses viral to spreadable — you could probably use both because they are both easily connected to covers or music videos (because so many of them go viral!). Another thought is that you could try to talk about the intended audience for the covers(not sure where the exact terminology is in the readings). Good luck!
I found an article through Google Scholar in regards to viral music videos. It mentions how the effect of music videos have changed because of the easily accessible applications such as YouTube. It also mentions several instances of viral music videos which is essentially the topic I am covering, albeit from a different perspective than I had originally intended. It still supports the culture I originally wanted, just a different portion of that culture.
I’ve kind of been all over in the UCBlibrary Database and I’ve found the most luck when searching using key words. I also was planning on using Google’s scholarly articles as well, just to get some different perspectives. I have been focusing on researching memes but also have found some info on Emojis so I may switch topics. The first article I found on memes was “Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker.”, so there are definitely some very relevant sources out there for my topic.
Thanks for the tip about keywords! I think it is a great idea to search Google Scholar. I have found some great articles on there for other classes, so I’m sure you will find interesting sources. It sounds like you are doing well researching, so you’re off to a good start!
Hristova, Stefka. “Visual Memes as Neutralizers of Political Dissent.” TripleC: Open
Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. (2014) Web. 15
October 2015
Hristova’s paper talks about how memes deflate tension and act as “neutralizers” in the political world. I am not planning on talking about memes in a political sense but I do think that it is important to address how they are “neutralizers” for many high-tension topics in today’s world. Memes take advantage of the image driven society we live in and use humor to bring people together on a variety of topics.
For my project, I am focusing on music video parodies. So far I have been concentrating on these types of music videos being “spreadable”, as Jenkin discusses in “If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead: part 2″. I’m also thinking about using “Humor” and it’s effects on the ingroup or outgroup, as Jenkins talks about in “aesthetic and structural strategies”. The producer/actor of the parodies that I’m interested in encompasses his cultural surroundings, or perhaps how/where he was raised, in his various videos even though the songs and videos are disney and pop culture related. I plan on using some of the vocabulary found within the various analyses in “The Rhetoric of Memes”, I just haven’t figured out which ones yet. I have not yet looked for scholarly articles in the database, but will conquer that next!
One thing you could perhaps look into is the how popular the original is and how it has an effect on the parody. You might be able to relate that back to the idea of how “spreadable” they are, and could possibly find some things from the articles about how Memes can spread and go viral, although it looks like you are already on that.
I find your topic intriguing and am interested to see how everything turns out! In regards to your difficulty with finding scholarly articles, I suggest using Google Scholar. I have found a lot of contemporary sources for our project that the library database did not have. Goodluck!
You might want to look at the article about Condescending Wonka on the Rhetoric of Memes page. It talks about heteroglossia (two or more voices) and carnivalesque (when peoples’ actions/reactions become less inhibited), and I think those would relate well to your topic of parody videos and their satirical nature. Hope that helps!
I think “humor” and “parody videos” would be some good key terms for you to search when you look for scholarly journals. Especially add humor in there because I feel you would find a lot more for the topic you’re working on. But I’m not an expert on this stuff, so it might actually have the opposite effect and limit your search, I haven’t searched any myself either.
Sounds like you have planned out this project well so far. I can say it helps to read these blogs of what other classmates are doing/using for this project, especially yours! I’m excited to see your videos and your overall complete project! Maybe if you have any trouble finding scholarly articles, Google might be some help.
I have only started a little bit but I have begun to skim through the readings from class to see if there are any that I want to start the Annotated bibliography with. I plan on expanding to Google and the CU Library database once I have a general idea of what I’m looking for. It’s midterm week so I am trying to get in a little bit at a time during breaks from studying. I’m looking specifically for articles on participation and how it can help effect and grow a trend, in my case a music sub-genre.
So far I haven’t had any luck finding scholarly sources on Chinook related to food culture and spreadable media, so I’m going to try using Google Scholar. As of now, I plan on using the Jenkins reading for my project (specifically Parts 1, 2, and 5, possibly more). I may also incorporate the concept of corporeal circulation from Chapter 6 of the Beer reading.
I still haven’t found any articles about food and participatory culture/spreadable media. But I found a great ebook on Google Scholar titled “Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetic of Transition.” There’s a section by Henry Jenkins that talks about film parodies and transformations of media, so I’m really considering changing my culture from food to film.
My topic is Tasty Videos. I’ve actually done a annotated bibliography for a previous class and had to find at least 5 scholarly journal articles so I am not particularly worried since I know how to use sites like jstor.org and google scholar, but its been a while. I started with the list we were given and picked a few. So far I will be using “If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead (Part Eight), by Jenkins, and I haven’t decided on the others. I haven’t tried searching any other articles, but I will start tonight, and search key words related to my topic, like “viral” and “spreadable media.” I think an extra day would be helpful, since I will be in class all day Friday.
As of now, it’s been kind of difficult to find good scholarly articles to use for this A-Bib. I have been trying the library database along with Google and even Yahoo search engines to help narrow down some articles to use. The last reading we did for Jenkins on “Spreadable Media” has been a huge help and guide for me so far, but still need more.
Any chance we could extend the deadline one more day would be great!
If you haven’t found anything you should really try re arranging and diversifying the keywords that you are using in your searches. That alone has helped me a lot in finding articles. Also, use Google scholar if you have just been using basic Google searches. Be prepared for the fact that their may not be much scholarly resources available for your subject, that has certainly been the case for myself. Don’t get discouraged though, I have found many good connections and ideas by drawing from the resources that were provided in the A-bib resource sheet. I feel like you just need one good outside source to draw reference from, like he said in class.
I’ve found a few good articles regarding fan fiction and participatory culture, but I could use a few good suggestions for search parameters. Right now I was focusing on participatory culture and fan fiction at least for the most part as my keywords for search but, I had to broaden my horizons a bit to get more results. If anyone has any suggestions that gave them good results they would be greatly appreciated.
Thus far I have gone back and forth with a few topics I am interested in exploring. However, I plan on sticking with my initial idea that focuses on the practice of music streaming and the communal environment in which this type of data sharing creates. In regards to my sources, I intend on utilizing scholarly search engines such as google scholar and the library research database. Additionally, CH. 2 of PCNM that discusses objects and infrastructures and analyzes the means by which information online is assembled, circulated, and manipulated in a way that shapes the popular culture of today, will be a main reference.