Comments on: Podcast: The Devil and Benjamin Johnston – opinions on a changing musical landscape. http://igeneration.edublogs.org/2008/09/11/audio-project-chris/ Digital Communication and Participatory Culture Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:44:12 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: kiri http://igeneration.edublogs.org/2008/09/11/audio-project-chris/comment-page-1/#comment-78 kiri Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:19:08 +0000 http://igeneration.edublogs.org/?p=42#comment-78 I enjoyed the natural tone of the conversation in this podcast. Also, the presenter’s technique of addressing ‘Internet’ as though a person was excellent, not only for the quirkiness of the idea but for how it conjures up an image of a community of listeners formed as a whole. The one fault with this project was the very noticeable difference in volume between the presenter and the interviewee, which could have been altered in the editing process. The comment in the exegesis that it was intended to sound like a bedroom/pirate recording was helpful, but I still found that I could hardly hear the presenter. The concept of community as triggered by a common interest is an aspect of myspace familiar to many social networking sites, and the fact that myspace is nowadays largely used for music promotion and sharing means it is a specific example for this kind of community. The specificity of myspace does mean that we see a forum for communication with bands and fans - but as the interviewee points out, this isn’t really how it works out. Although people can comment on artist’s music there isn’t much dialogue or sharing on the site itself. In terms of branching out to find an audience, local music scenes are like an earlier version of the myspace phenomenon. But the pool they provide is different to the internet, which can bridge geographical gaps, yet provide new spaces for community based on shared interests and experience. Myspace is still more of a one-way transaction. The traditional record label structure does seem to have more of a two-way interaction, yet it is not participatory nor community oriented because the power still lies largely with the record label. So in removing hierarchy, a site such as myspace is participatory. Even though myspace doesn’t encourage much communication between producers and consumers, the site does provide an opportunity for everyone to discover music they might like because a musician’s page has links to other music they like, so there’s still an element of participatory culture. The web-like structure of the internet is an advantage here. But I wouldn’t say myspace is an exemplar of participatory culture and community, as the interview seems to suggest. On this note, I thought the presenter explored this possibility really well, and the questions were well thought out. The music was also cool. I enjoyed the natural tone of the conversation in this podcast. Also, the presenter’s technique of addressing ‘Internet’ as though a person was excellent, not only for the quirkiness of the idea but for how it conjures up an image of a community of listeners formed as a whole.

The one fault with this project was the very noticeable difference in volume between the presenter and the interviewee, which could have been altered in the editing process. The comment in the exegesis that it was intended to sound like a bedroom/pirate recording was helpful, but I still found that I could hardly hear the presenter.

The concept of community as triggered by a common interest is an aspect of myspace familiar to many social networking sites, and the fact that myspace is nowadays largely used for music promotion and sharing means it is a specific example for this kind of community. The specificity of myspace does mean that we see a forum for communication with bands and fans – but as the interviewee points out, this isn’t really how it works out. Although people can comment on artist’s music there isn’t much dialogue or sharing on the site itself.

In terms of branching out to find an audience, local music scenes are like an earlier version of the myspace phenomenon. But the pool they provide is different to the internet, which can bridge geographical gaps, yet provide new spaces for community based on shared interests and experience.

Myspace is still more of a one-way transaction. The traditional record label structure does seem to have more of a two-way interaction, yet it is not participatory nor community oriented because the power still lies largely with the record label. So in removing hierarchy, a site such as myspace is participatory. Even though myspace doesn’t encourage much communication between producers and consumers, the site does provide an opportunity for everyone to discover music they might like because a musician’s page has links to other music they like, so there’s still an element of participatory culture. The web-like structure of the internet is an advantage here. But I wouldn’t say myspace is an exemplar of participatory culture and community, as the interview seems to suggest. On this note, I thought the presenter explored this possibility really well, and the questions were well thought out.

The music was also cool.

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