Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
The argument by Burgess and Green that ordinary people who become celebrities through their own creative efforts “remain within the system of celebrity native to, and controlled by, the mass media” is a statement that I seek to contend with (Burgess & Green, 2009, 23). For the purposes of this post, I am going to ignore the clichéd YouTube examples of Justin Bieber and other artists that have been so focused upon by my peers in writings gleamed from our subject readings. Instead, I shall draw parallels between such and Perez Hilton’s domination of Hollywood Gossip, which has expanded from the native system of mass media he created through his website, infiltrating other commercial media systems such as the Today Show and Australian Current Affairs Programs.
All Rights Reserved by johnwmacdonald.
Unlike many who attempt to break into the system of mass media, Perez Hilton has been able to expand from his original site pagesisixsixsix.com. Since 2004 he has utilised his “vernacular creativity” to create perezhilton.com, which manages to garner over three hundred million hits per month from users seeking the latest Hollywood gossip (Burgess & Green, 2009, 25. See Also perezhilton.com/about). In doing so, he has become a correspondent for many commercial media outlets, thus creating a “commercialization of amateur content” that is so readily spoken about by my peers in relation to YouTube and Justin Bieber (Burgess & Green, 2009, 25). Great parallels can be drawn between the two, as it directly proves the earlier introduced statement by Burgess and Green (2009, 23) incorrect. Ordinary people who become celebrities through their own creative efforts can expand from the native system of celebrity in which they are originally controlled by.
Despite all of this, I do believe the idea that “amateurs are represented as individualistic, self expressive produces who are mainly interested in broadcasting themselves” presented by Burgess and Green (2009, 29) to be largely true. When one observes Perez Hilton, his demeanor certainly seems to be reflective of such a concept.
References:
Burgess, J. & J. Green (2009). ‘YouTube and the Mainstream Media’ pp. 15-37, in YouTube: Online and Participatory Culture, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hilton, Perez. http://perezhilton.com/. Accessesd 21/05/2011
WEEK 8: Web Blogs
Posted on: May 11, 2011
Below is an interesting commentary on blogging, citizenship and the future of media by Susan C. Herring, Lois Anne Scheidt, Inna Kouper and Elijah Wright. Titled “A Longitudinal Content Analysis of Webblogs: 2003-2004”, it provides interesting insight into the bloggers as journalists and the future of such.
Check it out HERE.
Some rights reserved by DonkeyHotey
We see WordPress as a 2.0 Application through its highly interactive nature. Typical of such, it is open sourced, “created by and for the community”. The software’s definitive characteristic of modularity is also typical of a web 2.0 site as users and producers are encouraged to find sources on the world wide web and incorporate them. The subsequent uploading of such content stimulates discussions that otherwise wouldn’t occur in a style typical of social networking. WordPress has also incorporated automation with the use of tags and links that serve to connect the user to blogs and sites of similar content. When all of this is coupled with the universal accessibility of WordPress on mulitiple platforms, one can determine that this definetly is an example of a Web 2.0 Application.
Sarah Harkin, Elizabeth Alford, Vibol Hy
sarahharkin 