{"id":26,"date":"2012-09-21T02:38:15","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T02:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/?p=26"},"modified":"2012-09-21T02:41:53","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T02:41:53","slug":"cybercultures-new-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/2012\/09\/21\/cybercultures-new-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybercultures and New Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

This excerpt from An Introduction to Cy<\/em> bercultures and New Media<\/em><\/a> is written by Pramod K. Nayar<\/a>.\u00a0 Pramod K. Nayar is an English Professor in India (focusing studies on Literary Theory, the English Romantics, the 17th<\/sup> Century & Cultural Studies).\u00a0\u00a0 Professor Navar teaches at the University of Hyderabad<\/a>, which has been previously been ranked the number one university in India.\u00a0 An Introduction to Cybercultures and New Media<\/em> was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2010.\u00a0 This book serves a purpose for Professor Nayar\u2019s argument, because in his teaching of Cultural Studies, he focuses on technoculture. This book, more specifically the excerpt that I read focuses on what cyberculture is and the issues that are identified within this term.<\/p>\n

In this introductory chapter of cybercultures, Nayar defines what cybercultures are and breaks down the major issues in cybercultures.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>A couple are as follows:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Civil Society<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Identity<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Race<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Class<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gender Sexualities<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Space & Geography<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Risk<\/p>\n

In each section of introducing and explaining these terms he goes over how these key issues work and how they could possibly benefit or hinder someone.\u00a0 Take for instance the section \u2018Civil Society\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 “With their potential for greater connectivity both within the community and between the community and the state, digital technologies have been commonly understood to enhance civil society.<\/p>\n

Social movements increasingly use the Internet as a medium of communication, propaganda, and political mobilization. Citizens\u2019 forums, state feedback mecha- nisms, and NGOs use the Internet and digital resources to strengthen their infra- structure, responses, and public interface.<\/p>\n

There is a risk that cybercultural resis- tance or activism remains at the level of the virtual, with little or no impact upon the real world. A false sense of social commitment and empowerment emerges in online political activism \u2013 putting one\u2019s digital signature to an online petition is not the same as barricading a civil servant or blockading the road to obstruct traffic in order to articulate demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cybercultures allow civil society to grow, however there is a high risk of it having a real impact on the real world.\u00a0 Being in the virtual world, or a cyberculture is literally just that.\u00a0 People might feel like they are a part of something while in these cybercultures, when in reality it could be merely a false sense of commitment and empowerment.\u00a0 However, Nayar suggests that real issues of race, gender, class, and politics are important to these cybercultures and cannot be treated merely as \u201cvirtual worlds\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of analysis \u2013 The chapter started off kind of shaky.\u00a0 It was hard to fully understand what Nayar was talking about and why it was even important.\u00a0 Starting off with two real life examples sparked my interest a little, but I still had no idea where he was going with it.<\/p>\n

The \u201cIntroduction of Cybercultures\u201d was bland, as any explanation of a term would be, and it just dragged on.\u00a0 This whole reading literally almost put me to sleep.\u00a0 Nothing about it was interesting to me.\u00a0 Yes, okay, he made valid points, and the way he laid out the information was logical and easy to follow \u2013 but that does not change my interest in the topic at all.<\/p>\n

Nayar\u2019s persuasiveness was pretty on point.\u00a0 He was able to provide connections and real life examples that a reader is able to relate and connect to.<\/p>\n

For instance, in the \u2018Identity\u2019 section Nayar explains the following:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Cyberspace allows one to pick an identity, to masquerade, mimic, and transcend bodily identities and interact with the world as somebody else. In a world where race, class, gender, and sexuality can become obstacles in interactions with the world, cyberspace allows one to choose an identity that may have nothing to do with one\u2019s \u201creal-life\u201d gender or race.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From this I was able to relate, and found myself nodding my head as I was reading.\u00a0 I feel that the reading would ultimately benefit someone if they are doing further research on cybercultures, and need a good explanation of what it is and how it can be tied to our material dimension.\u00a0 Lastly, I feel it was way too long.\u00a0 But, I guess you cannot put a limit on words while trying to get your point across in the first chapter of a book.<\/p>\n

My first blog. Ever. K Bye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This excerpt from An Introduction to Cy bercultures and New Media is written by Pramod K. Nayar.\u00a0 Pramod K. Nayar is an English Professor in India (focusing studies on Literary Theory, the English Romantics, the 17th Century & Cultural Studies).\u00a0\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-quote"],"gutentor_comment":2,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"ajepsen","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/author\/ajepsen\/"},"qubely_comment":2,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"This excerpt from An Introduction to Cy bercultures and New Media is written by Pramod K. Nayar.\u00a0 Pramod K. Nayar is an English Professor in India (focusing studies on Literary Theory, the English Romantics, the 17th Century & Cultural Studies).\u00a0\u00a0 … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/ajepsen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}