The end of the year has come for English 302, and I know I sure have learned/grown a lot these past few months. I’ve always been of the opinion that being critical of our media is important, so this course was instrumental in teaching me ways to do that. I think I always half-knew about all the Google privacy issues and things like that (ease always comes with a price), but like most consumers I didn’t look into it. This course forced me to think about how we get what we do and the consequences therein.
That sort of sentiment is one that is reflected across all new media platforms we studied this semester. Looking at UMass and Amazon forces us to think about what we give up as far as human interaction (and with that, human jobs) and agency when a University pairs with a corporation. It seems like nothing but a win for UMass, but there’s a lot to consider as far as repercussions for local bookstores and the monopoly of various industries that Amazon is building.
In our exploration of creative platforms, it was really cool to see webseries and games that are able to go beyond big production companies as far as representation and content. Inevitably the question of money comes up with these projects, and I think it was interesting that we talked about (especially with webseries) what the long term goal of these creators is. Do they want to get picked up for major traditional platforms like YouTube to TV or to be purchased by larger companies to get more access to better production quality and more revenue? Or is the goal just to create an audience and a business that can support itself outside of these traditional avenues of success? In some cases, is it just a product of love that will survive as long as it can?
Something that I kept coming back to was how advertisement and corporations, the parasites on the backs of old media, are trying to squeeze they’re way into new media upon seeing its success. Obviously there are companies that sponsor these projects in addition to those run by crowdfunding or out of pocket, and there are levels to this as well (as with thee show the YouTube team talked about, Carmilla, which is sponsored but very transparent about that). If these companies are going to do this, because new media is so invested in user feedback and participation, I think they’ll have to change the way they approach it at the very least. Look at Denny’s on tumblr, which uses the language and humor of that site’s culture so flawlessly it’s sometimes hard to tell that it was they are the ones posting.
It’s been really awesome getting to see people really fight back to get the representation they deserve in games and shows, but it will be interesting to see how monetization plays into it as new media platforms gain popularity (because weirdly enough, these things do have audiences! It’s almost like people of color, queer people, and women exist!!). In John Minus’s article for blackgilnerds, he talks about how Twitter is so important to the Black community because it’s a free space to speak and build community without filters or fear, and how “people have tried to do organized, scholarly articles on why Black people tweet so much. People want to isolate and monetize the fact that Black people tweet so much. “Black Twitter” exists as a scary gray area of the internet for some, the same way inner cities have scared Middle America for the last 50 years.” So although Twitter as a platform is a space for corporations (see sponsored hashtags and pseudo-activism), the community cannot be bought, although ads will undoubtedly keep trying (late capitalism is whacky like that).
I had a really good time in this class. I learned about some really awesome projects, I had to examine the media I encounter and forces behind it, and I worked on a cool project with a great group of people. I think I learned a lot, and I’m really excited to take this class with me in the future.
In the end, maybe it’s not the views we get, but the memes we make along the way.
