Participatory Culture

Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighbourhood subdivision. (What is Social Networking?) Socializing with peers can be done in person however we live in a digital world where the internet is an extension of our body. Facebook is an example where people join to meet new people, keep contact with friends, and spark relationships.

I am a Facebook user however I’m not that frequent on the site. I do feel as though people have taken on a second identity in the digital world, where a person in real life would act different infront of a screen. People join groups, events and play games while making friends also. However sites like Facebook raise a privacy issue of what information you put out is shared. On your profile it includes information regarding your birthdate, occupation, network and pictures of yourself but who can see it? Fortunately you have privacy settings where you can set who you want to view your profile and who to block off. New users should be aware of privacy agreements before joining any sites because Facebook had recently gone through scrutiny for sharing your information with third parties. What’s beneficial is that the privacy agreement is accessible to users however users should read it because information is shared when it is reasonably necessary to offer the service, legally required or permitted by you. (Facebook) Although Facebook is fun and a good way of wasting time, it is also crucial for everyone to read what they agree because it may affect you later on.

Facebook 22 Nov 2009 .

What is Social Networking? 22 Nov 2009 .

Buy Nothing Day

On November 25th it’s Buy Nothing Day where millions of people stop consumption for 24 hours, this regards to not buying anything, turning off your lights and electrical appliances and cellphones. The principle is that we over-consume so for this one day we should shut off all materialism objects. In doing so we’re showing the large corporation who’s the boss.

We’ve all grown up in a consumerism world where the economy strives off growth however that growth is unsustainable. The goal of infinite profit takes a toll on the earth as large corporations vastly use up resources in a short amount of time. This cycle of extracting from the earth, producing something, then consuming it revolves in a cycle where it happens again and again. Everything surrounding us results in us consuming such as television commercials and advertisements, this is the environment we live in.

Every item we purchase as consumers we should question the implications of the product. What’s the harm on the environment? Was child labour involved? At first when someone purchases an item, it is usually on impulse because it’s not a necessity. However there should be careful thought put in because globally there are people who don’t have enough money to even buy necessities. We take advantage of shopping, spending countless dollars on items without good reason. Products which harm the environment such as a pair of shoes which creates waste from the box and wrapping, the shoe’s glue is also environmentally harmful as well as the material and somewhere in a third world country child labour may have been involved.

Media Hegemonies

Rogers Communications is one of the largest communications companies that is based in Canada. Its main focus is on telecommunications with Rogers Wireless and cable television with Rogers Cable.(Rogers) Not only does Rogers own cable television and wireless services, it also owns a significant amount of mass media including radio, television, print publishing as well as the Toronto Blue Jays. Rogers has ownership of radio includes stations such as JACK FM, 680NEWS-AM and CHFI-FM. Its television division owns Rogers Sportsnet, The Shopping Channel as well as OMNI.1. Rogers also publishes LOULOU, MoneySense and Maclean’s. (Columbia Journaslism Review) This is just a minor amount of what Rogers owns.

The implications of cross media ownership would result in one large company would having so much power in what the media displays. Rogers’ cross media ownership would result in a market that would lack diversity in opinions and voices. Whether it is television, news print or radio, Rogers would have a significant influence on the public’s opinions. Another implication would be the death of smaller corporations. Another implication would be the death of smaller organizations. Rogers would crush the smaller organizations because they’d oversaturate the media environment with their views. This would push off smaller corporations because they’d get less and less viewers.

Columbia Journaslism Review. 21 Nov 2009 .

Rogers Communication Inc.. 21 Nov 2009 .

Culture Jamming

Culture jamming exposes the ways in which corporate and political interests use the media as a tool of behaviour modification. Jamming is slang term for interrupting a radio broadcast or audio portions of televisions. Culture jamming is the art of “terror-art” against the information society. One recognizable organization that does this is “Adbusters.” (Adbusters)



In this culture jam we see a woman breast feeding a baby however the baby is tattooed in logos such as MTV, Nike and Coca-Cola. The baby symbolizes our society today as we have grown up a world of consumerism and corporate interests. The mother’s breast represents large corporations as they are feeding us with products and brands while the baby is us because we are mislead to believe it is healthy and vital to our survival. The baby is tattooed in logos labelling it as the “branded baby” as we have been born with brands such as Nike, Mercedes Benz, Sony and McDonalds. They’ve apart of our lives permanently as like tattoos, we see advertisements and commercialism everywhere we go.

Adbusters. 20 Nov 2009 .

Net Neutrality

We are granted the freedom to access content on the World Wide Web and all we need is the hardware and a connection. There are no restrictions to the content we view, the pictures, audio, video and the websites, this is called net neutrality. However we live in a world where profit is the number one goal and an economy which strives for an infinite amount of growth. This ideology triggers large corporations to pick us up and shake every penny out of us.

Although the internet is free to use and is intangible, large telecommunications corporations are trying to own the internet and charge us for everything we view. Like Paul said in class, they want to be gatekeepers or ushers at the theatre, making sure we’ve paid our fees before letting us get out content. This is a serious threat to everyone because we consume so much of the internet everyday. If they do own it then every time you login to watch a video on YouTube you will be charged, listen to music you will be charged, send messages you will be charged, and even to do homework you will be charged.

This is the battle between millions of users versus large corporations. Not every internet user is aware of this threat however organizations such as www.savetheinternet.com are fighting back and raising awareness. To take control of what your freedom of choice and to have no restrictions, users should stand up for what is theirs before you’re charged for it.