mirrors

“The image is one thing and the human being is another. It's very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.”
― Elvis Presley

by Luiz

Mirrors, mirrors reflect that is their purposes the celebrity world are just a mirrored

reflection of the public world and yet for some strange reason the celebrity world is 

something to aspire to and look at. The odd thing about the mirror world of the 

celebrities is that they have all the same problems as the ‘real’ world, they have

drug addicted people who have died from overdose such as one of the most recent 

ones Amy Winehouse (also a list can be found here). Yet for us who live in 

Melbourne we rarely hear about the overdose of 9000 people in our city every year. 

That’s around one person of every 400 each year that is still an extremely high 

amount of overdoses that we as the public never hear of or around 24 a day. Yet we 

look into the mirror and morn for weeks on end about a single overdose. I may 

sound harsh but don’t the 9000 have a right to be on the news, what make 

celebrities who just do their jobs so difference from us. 

Celebrities are oxymoron they are human like us and in reality have little value 

(Marshall 2013:1). Yet we in turn give them value as we try and copy them. Photos, 

of celebrities are highly valued for some reason as a whole industries have been 

made to take photos of ‘famous’ people and the list of who is deemed a celebrity is 

growing. Once a pond a time celebrity were the one on silent films now chief such 

as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey are deemed famous. But what is worst are 

reality TV stars, the ones who are literally famous for no reason, the five minute of 

fame and yet for some unknown reason we follow them. In the news where there 

are sections dedicated to following celebrities and gossip, TV shows such as TMZ 

( and their website) and social media where we actively follow celebrities on sites 

such as twitter.  

Another aspect of celebrities are the ones well known and famous for sport, for 

doing something they enjoy and are good at. For me, my interest is cricket and the 

history of cricket and for one thing I have notices is that names of people long dead

I still know of, why because they were good at their sport, the ones who made it to 

international level, the FredSpofforth, the Don Bradman, these names are name of 

people who ordinary people, like myself, have aspired to be, a mirror of what we

 want to be a goal for the mere mortals. For these people are immortal and for what, 

doing something they are good at, but we can only be as good as we can be. But we 

humans need to aspire to be something to be remembered and that where these 

celebrities be it from sport, music, or acting or one of the many other areas that 

celebrities come from, they are remembered for something.  

The mirror of celebrities can also be seen in the specular economy which the rise

 and fall of celebrities have always interested the general public, the people who 

want and wish to be as famous and well known but never achieving the goal. The 

idea of the specular economy has become progressively more importance for 

celebrities and the public, as the “celebrities are in fact at the forefront of the 

expansion and use of social media and networks for reputation management. 

Indeed, some ‘stars’ such as MC Hammer have remade themselves through their 

presence on Twitter” (Marshall, 2010, p498).

Brian Solis

Many celebrities will post status updated or tweets on Facebook and Twitter 

respectively, but this form of publicity for the celebrates is still generally a two-way 

mirror as Marshall (2010) puts it, a the public are like the cops able to look into the 

interrogation room in which the celebrity is in revealing personal information. 

The reason why specular economy is so big in the world of social media is because 

of the idea of mirrors, we look at celebrities as mirrors, something to aspire to, 

something to aim for, good looks, money and fame. But a mirror can also show 

faults in a person, flaws in celebrities for the example that Marshall uses is 

tiger wood who in 2009 was revealed as a fake, someone who had another persona 

that remained hidden for years.

The fallout of Tiger Woods affairs of 2009 took the world by storm, who was this

man who had lived such a private life to suddenly be reviled as a grand Casanova. 

According to the courier mail tiger wood had up to 120 different affairs in the time 

he was married to his wife of five years. for this reason I think celebrities have 

become more open about their lives on social media because of, one not letting the 

media be the first to find out and secondly to try and publish a good reputation 

with the public by showing more of who they are.

I have covered the mainstream idea of celebrities but in a world dominated by the 

internet and the idea of the Web 2.0 the idea of who is famous is quickly changing, 

for instance on YouTube a video could be famous overnight but as quickly it rose to 

fame it turns to dust. The internet is all way changing in and out of trends as quickly 

as the information can spread and that is extremely quickly and as Grossman is 

quoted in Burns that we call it ‘Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old 

software. But it’s really a revolution’ (Burns, 2009: IX.) Web 2.0 is the key term used 

to describe the change in how users use the internet with the primary focus the 

social aspect of the web, the blog, the video sharing and the micro blogging (i.e 

Twitter and Facebook).

On YouTube where anyone can post videos clips and one can be a celebrity or well 

known for their content for example the Yogcasts are a group of YouTube users that 

upload videos of their gameplay for a number of different games probably most 

well-known for their Mine craft videos. It is possible for any amateurs to become a 

star as the ‘internet democratizes the entrainment industries and lessens the 

dominate of Hollywood in determining who can be and cannot be a star’ (Burns, 

2009: 61). These celebrities have a different and sometime bigger audience than the 

Hollywood ones but one thing these web base celebrities rely on is the loyalty of 

followers and from personal experience I will say that if a web base celebrity has 

posted multiple videos and I enjoy them I will follow them eagerly, hungry for more 

which I can say for more than most Hollywood celebrities. I generally do not follow 

a Hollywood celebrity waiting for their movies.      

Overall celebrities offer a unique look into the mirror. A what-could-be mirror where

we see what we want to be. The specular economy and social media now go hand in 

hand for it produce so many more pictures than official paparazzi releases. The 

internet has allowed the Hollywood grade celebrity to personally so images of 

themselves, what they want to show without being harassed by the paparazzi’s.  

But what is a celebrity is changing with the internet as many regular unloaders on 

YouTube have become well known and have a large following with subscriptions 

and more who follow but don’t subscribe.  This is changing the way we interact 

with our mirrors of celbrities, ordianary people can become celbrities on the 

internet while not living up to the hollywood standards.

Asianized and Hollywoodized

The idea of Hollywood becoming Asianized is quite importance in the world of globalisation in 

which companies and industries that had been primarily nationalise such as Hollywood being 

produced in America for Americans, whereas now Hollywood will use actors, directors and 

martial arts choreographers. It is not just the idea of Hollywood hiring people from other 

regions just because of the talent; it’s also the potential audience of the regions that they want, 

for example using a actors such as Chinese’s Jet Li. Not only would Hollywood aim at the 

western world with actors such as Jet Li but also the potentially massive market of China, 

whose population is around one billion, 1/7^th of the world population.

But it not just a one way street Asian films are becoming more Hollywoodized, areas of Asia 

that once had been dominated by Hollywood now have local films that can rival Hollywood 

movies. Hong Kong boast 50% of box office were that of local films in 2001. Movies have 

becoming more transnational as globalisation continues to grow and shape many different 

industries including the film industries for example movies such as Kill Bill which is set in Japan 

and America but is filmed in china give a brief view into the working of globalisation. Another 

example is Pacific Rim, filmed in Canada, directed by a Mexican, with Japanese’s, British and 

American actors shows the try potential of a Asianized Hollywood and globalisation.    

Klein, Christina 2004, ‘Martial arts and globalisation of US and Asian film industries’, Comparative America Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 360-384   

The specular economy of celebrities

The fall of celebrities have always interested the general public, the people who want and wish to be as 

famous and well known but never achieving the goal. The idea of the specular economy has become 

progressively more importance for celebrities, as the “celebrities are in fact at the forefront of the expansion 

and use of social media and networks for reputation management. Indeed, some ‘stars’ such as MC 

Hammer have remade themselves through their presence on Twitter” (Marshall, 2010, p498).

                                                                   by Brian Solis

Many celebrities will post status updated or tweets on Facebook and Twitter respectively, but this form of 

publicity for the celebrates is still generally a two-way mirror as Marshall (2010) puts it, a the public are like 

the cops able to look into the interrogation room in which the celebrity is in revealing personal information. 

 But there are others that will willingly tweet with the public and make theirs interactions more like a window 

where two people can interact and see each other.  The example I will use which I heard on the radio, is 

when a cast in the Australian show Offspring, died many were extremely upset and stated tweeting about it, 

but hash tagging the wrong group instead of Offspring the TV show it was Offspring the 90’s band. One of 

the band member, Noodles, would tweet about how the guy deserved, as it’s a TV show, all for a laugh.   

The reason why specular economy is so big in the world of social media is because of the idea of mirrors, 

we look at celebrities as mirrors, something to aspire to, something to aim for, good looks, money and fame. 

But a mirror can also show faults in a person, flaws in celebrities for the example that Marshall uses is tiger 

wood who in 2009 was revealed as a fake, someone who had another persona that remained hidden for 

years. for this reason I think celebrities have become more open about their lives on social media because 

of, one not letting the media be the first to find out and secondly to try and publish a good reputation with 

the public by showing more of who they are.

Reference

Marshal, P.D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 498-502 

Games and the Global Cultures of Production

Construction and minecraft

Mine craft in its basic form is a game where players get to expolore a vitually limitless area and

create wonderful constructions from the world around them. For example a player could build a 

castle on the edge of a cliff. The way construction has change and possible help the game to 

grow is the modification of the game play which is at no extra cost, just an extra download onto 

the PC. The extra game elements add a whole new way to play and alter the game experience 

for the player, for example the mods add the ability to construct pipes and wires all the way up 

to a nuclear reactor to charge all the machines in a player own world. The programmers ‘“can 

extend or change the text by adding their own writing or programming’’ in which ‘‘the ability to 

add permanent components to the text presupposes the demiurgic power to co-create the 

virtual world.’’’ (Raessens, J. 2005 p.381)

                                                                                image by Nemesis29

This new co-created virtual world not only happens mine craft but many other games as DLC 

(downloadable content) this has been happening since 1997 when one of my all-time favourite 

game  ‘Total Annihilation’ released new content in the form of extra units every month.  But in 

the gaming world of today where many games require internet connection to play most gamer 

would not view patch, which will undated prior to the game being able to be played, as 

downloadable content, yet the follow the construction idea, they modify or change the game 

slightly thus altering the experience of the played game. (Raessens, J. 2005 p.381) patches 

may just be something as simple as fixing a game error which is quite common for new games 

or it could be something as complex as adding a whole new element to the game such as a 

new playable race in World of Warcraft. 

                                                               image by HeonGaiden

Raessens, J. 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture’, Handbook of

Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 373-388 

Political Micro blogging

 Micro blogging for politician and the use of social media is still new, many higher ranking Politician do not use twitter to is full advantage as shown by Larsson’s (2010) graph of top ten users in the Swedish election of 2010. But twitter is still only used by a small number of people 19% of American internet users but as low as 1-8% of Swedish internet users a clear minority. (Larsson, p 747, 2010)

                                                                   picture by susstudio_x  

Like many of the great technological changes in history it takes time to get use to and for it to become fully effective but once it does, it will be so common place that it would be hard to image how elections were ran before, for example how did politicians advertise their point of view quickly and efficiently without the use of TV.  Just like the use of TV within the political arena, micro blogging will become common place in the next few years.

Because of how new the concept of micro blogging is not much research have been done on micro blogging and the effect of how micro blogging is not really understood for the moment, more study is needed to be able to understand the full effect on how the micro blogging can affect the outcome and peoples decisions at an election, for now it seem with examples of the Swedish election that it has not played a major role yet, but as time goes on that may change and we could see more politician using micro blogging to get tire points across.      

prosumer, how the idea of prosumption has change over the years and how it is big with the new media

The idea of prosumption has been around for many years yet it is a concept that isn't widely recognised or known about. For over 200 years since the industrial revolution that has seen the world change forever the centre of the capitalist world has been the factories, the production of goods. ( Ritzer, 2010) But a dramatic change at the close of the Second World War, consumers in the US wanted goods, such as refrigerate, the consumer was slowly making its way as the main form of capitalism as factories started to decline in the US. ( Ritzer, 2010) the US is now seen as a nation of consumers but with the world becoming more globalised a single nation does not have to do both, but can rely on imports from other counties to supply the demands and yet even when we consider MacDonald as the pinnacle of physical prosumption where the consumer, must go to the counter to order, the consumer takes their own food to their table and they must clean up after themselves, this physical  prosumption is nothing compared to the online prosumption of data.

                                             Picture 

The Web 2.0 has change the face of the world with it being a user-generated, with websites such as YouTube, Facebook and twitter. ( Ritzer, 2010)  The idea behind website such as the ones just mentions is that we consume what is on our pages of people and things we like and the we produce information about what we do, how we feel and how such products have been useful such as the MacDonald Facebook page where people can see promotions not advertise on the traditional forms of media and comment on such promotions. The way I am a prosumer is generally though Facebook where I’ll make a status update or share a picture and at the same time I could be looking at someone else’s profile. Another way I am a big prosumer is on YouTube, I am yet to post videos myself but I’ll watch and comment on videos as I see fit thus giving the producer information of the quality and how they could improve the next video they make.

   

Most information gathered from Journal of Consumer Culture, Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital 'prosumer' George Ritzer and Nathan Jurgenson, 2010

Cover-up versus exposure

cover up and exposure play a major role in many industries and governments. The music industry is a prime example of cover ups and expose when it comes to peer to peer downloading. The music industry wants to cover up the idea of gaining music for free. The idea to me is one of unjust why should people who have worked hard to write original music not earn money from is rightful theirs to sell. the ability to download music for free may have expanded the amount of music available to a larger amount of people but it comes at a price, it is morally wrong to steal and yet people everyday will download music. i guess people see it as a victimless crime.

                                             picture used in the next web
now to the exposure it is the peer to peer downloading that wants the expose. peer to peer downloading has become extremely popular in the last decade with the rise of website such as pirate bay and Napster the more populate these websites become the more harmful it is to the music industries. there are way to get unlimited download of music without paying for each and every song or album for example i use an app/website of JB Hi-Fi Now, which for $10 per month or $100 per year gives me assess to unlimited download of music, it may not include every artist and album but it is a legal fair way of downloading music where the artist still get the recognition and right that that deserve. the expose that new apps and website charging like the ones I just mention allows for honest use of the new format of downloading music.

                                                 picture used in Wikimedia commons
both the music giants and the peer to peer download have both covered up certain part of their operation. the peer to peer downloading most obvious use a cover up operation when users exchange proprietary MP3s covertly to avoid prosecution. while the music giants do it by hiding thier attacks on peer to peer websites by hiring third parties to place 'seeds' that are infected.

infomation gather on http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2986/2680 

https://now.jbhifi.com.au/#/music/Home/Welcome/