LEARNING PORTFOLIO
Again another enjoyable and engaging module which was fun to undertake! As I noted in the readings that I classify myself as a Pop Cosmopolitan due to my enjoyment and immersion of the genre of SciFi, and in particular the Stargate franchises.
I am also in a unique position that I was born in an era of pre-internet and therefore any enjoyment and information I got from being a Pop Cosmopolitan was done through television, magazines, books and specialist publications, as well as meeting face to face with other Pop Cosmopolitan’s who share similar interests.
This module had allowed me to reflect that over the past few years, the internet has allowed me to easily access information and entertainment on my interests, meeting and connecting with likeminded people from across the globe.
SUMMARIES FROM THE READINGS
The internet, with its ease to reach such geographical diverse audiences, has spawned a society that is able to easily access the popular culture fictions of other societies, and thus embracing and allowing them to be part of their daily lives.
Jenkins describes these people as “Pop Cosmopolitans” and notes that “cosmopolitains embrace cultural difference, seeking to escape the gravitational pull of their local communities in order to enter a broader sphere of cultural experience” (Jenkins, H. 2006). Jenkins also writes that to understand pop cosmopolitains you can not study popular culture “without understanding its global context” ” (Jenkins, H. 2006).
In looking at American pop culture, we note that whilst this culture has been a huge influence on other cultures for many years, it is interesting how Asian pop culture, in now influencing Americans. Examples of this being Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Manga to name but a few.
Jenkins also describes how media convergence is influencing popular culture around the world and this illustration of Asian popular culture in America is an example. With the convergence of old and new media such as the internet, mobile telephones, cable television etc, access to media is only but a press of a button or click away and allows is to be able to access and share, interact and participate with fellow pop cosmopolitains from around the world.
In his introduction, Jenkins notes examples of “Pop Cosmopolitains” detailing the interactions of fans of the Japanese media or “Okatu” in the seemingly innocent environment of a grocery store in Clayton, Georgia USA. This made me question myself and my enjoyment of popular culture. Am I a pop cosmopolitan? I would have to answer that yes I am.
I am a pop cosmopolitain in that I enjoy all things Stargate to the extent that I watch and have all episodes of the TV show, follow Sci-Fi and Stargate on Twitter, Facebook and associated websites, read and write Fanfiction from this genre, discuss and enjoy dialogue from the series with my work colleagues, who are also aficionados of this genre and participate in online discussion boards. I have not gone to the point of changing my life or the way I look to embrace this genre (can’t afford it and my external life could not cope with this!) but certainly embrace this culture with likeminded contemporaries.
In Srinivasan’s journal article “Indigenous, ethnic and cultural articulations of new media” he writes of the differing challenges and advantages that new media poses to groups of culturally and linguistically backgrounds.
Whilst as Srinivasan notes that this article relates and is primarily based, although not limited to native communities within the United State of America, in reading his findings there is much relevance in these findings to other native communities globally.
Ethnographers note that a concern of the impact of new media is that there will be the loss of traditional face to face meeting points to share and exchange information. If these face to face information exchange points are lost, Srinivasan writes that “communities must push to develop new media and information systems that are not just exhibitions or aggregations of content, but also are built around locally and culturally specific representations and paradigms” (Srinivasan, R. 2006).
An advantage of this new media is that not only are these indigenous groups able to share their culture globally, they are able to actively collaborate as a community to produce new media that accurately portrays and records their culture. New media also gives these groups a tool with which they can use as their voice to actively record their stances on projects that may effect their community, i.e. Srinivasan details the Kayapo people of central Brazil and their use of new media to document events of a potential political nature that impact on the Kayapo people with the potential to change their culture, society and life’s.
Another advantage of the use of new media is that it allows indigenous groups to connect and re-establish connections with each other. This is particularly important when these groups live in such large geographically diverse regions without access to proper roads or transportation.
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