Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast – Media and Communications Projects

As society is surrounded by capitalism from companies to the government, we don’t tend to think about the effect that it has caused to other communities and our own. Due to people being so used to this system built around capitalism there are companies, cities and people that benefit hugely from the exploitation and wealth that capitalism brings into the major ‘first world’ countries. These countries that are built on fast fashion industries and other production industries that demonstrate that capitalism is very much in our everyday existence. Due to this ‘Capitalism is certainly based on self-interest’ (Butler, pg13, 2018) and this is something that we have tried to capture within each of the photos that demonstrate that these everyday items and places that are so different to one another but are connected heavily to the idea of capitalist ideologies but are not acknowledged on a surface level within our lives. Within these photos we capture companies, places and brands that have profited or been affected due to capitalism; some participating in the chain of fast fashion, of people being exploited so these companies can gain billions, to others that have used the situation of the pandemic in which they profited of the situation or others suffering.

References:

Butler, E. (2018). Capitalism. The Institute of Economic Affairs. https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Butler-Capitalism-Interactive.pdf

The Overall Essay:

Capitalism – Google Docs

The Group Ideas For the Photos:

Capitalism is acknowledged only on a surface level.

Apple products – Vera
Apple store
City center – Freya
Starbucks – Beatrice
Primark – Freya
Church – Freya
Cigarettes – Beatrice
Vapes – Vera
University – Freya
Library computers
Taxes
British royal family
Fancy cars
Fancy houses – Vera
Famous people ( actors, celebrities) – Beatrice
Luxurious brands/shoes/ clothes/ watches – Vera
Vaccines – Beatrice
Tech-based virtual communication ( Zoom, Teams)
Amazon
Social media – Beatrice
Cryptocurrency
Food – Vera
Gaming

My Reflection on the Group Capitalism Project

By Freya Glenton

On 29 March 2022

In Photo Capitalism Essay, Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast, Reflection pieces, Year 2

Individual reflection - 500 words on your group process/choices, rationale/context, and how your photos fit into the overarching narrative/theme and the individual contribution you made to support the group project outcomes.

A PDF Version: 280mapa reflection.pdf

The Reflection:

Within this project we had come up with a range of ideas that we could do for this project and investigated what would both challenge us and show off a unique outlook of what the essay will entail. So, with the artist statement we chose ‘Capitalism is acknowledged but only at a surface level’ and we chose this topic as its such a large subject that can be difficult to portray to those who don’t think about capitalism within their everyday lives. This allowed us to look at places and things around the city that would be connected to capitalism and take picture of the everyday shops, places and industries that work within this capitalist system.

As people are aware of capitalism but not how vast and impactful, we wanted to make our images to demonstrate places that normal people go to but have a caption that demonstrates how each of these play into roles of a capitalist society. I think we managed to communicate our ideas with one another and work towards this goal, we could have worked better when it came down to time management however due to the short amount of time we had as a group I think that we managed to communicate each how we would portray each step with one another efficiently.

Our group started off being unsure how we would tackle this project, however once we had come up with this theme, we communicated who in our team would portray which elements of the theme. The elements that I would portray would be industries and places that include the theme. This would link as they are all tied to Capitalism within our everyday lives. With the five photos I took I managed to capture environments and landscapes of parts of the city that have been built around capitalism and I connected them all together through the use of the caption which explains how these building have either used capitalism within their company or gained profit from it. Along with this we split the artist statement essay into five so we would each have to write about it and put out a reference which was an effective idea in working with each other by continue an essay from one person to the next. Despite some moments where we didn’t communicate enough, I believe we manged to show off a successful photo essay. However, if we were to do this again, I think we could narrow the theme down further and maybe make more of a story narrative or creative native with the images. The main improvement that I would make when doing this project would be to try and make the overall images link more as without the captions to link them, they would not have a clear enough link.

The overall photo essay was a completely different style of essay to what I’ve done before, and even though they’re aspects that could be improved, I think that we managed to create some successful images for the essay.

Capitalism is Acknowledged Only on a Surface Level Group Essay

By Freya Glenton

On 29 March 2022

In Essays, Photo Capitalism Essay, Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast, Year 2

Nowadays, we live in a world full of capitalism.  Suppose we search for a definition of capitalism. In that case, we will find that capitalism is a form of economics in which individuals or corporations hold the means of production and distribution—profits fund operations, which a state government does not regulate. Individuals, small enterprises, organizations, and corporations make their own judgments about prices, production, and distribution of goods, resulting in an automated market in theory. (White, n.d.) If we stop to think about this statement, we would think that it’s crazy if the world would be running in this way, where each person could decide the price for things. However, our group statement declares that “Capitalism is acknowledged but only at a surface level.” why? Because capitalism exists, and it’s becoming more extensive than ever! The small things are full of capitalism, but the world is so used to it that they don’t even notice anymore. We consider capitalism a topic that needs to be spoken about. For that reason, each of us started searching about different ways of capitalism that may exist around us, and we found very interesting themes that should be spoken about.

Talking about capitalism, we could say that there are three main categories: capitalists who profit from the work of others, exploiters whose activities bring profit, and the excluded who are not included in the equation. However, these categories do not have strict boundaries, and some people might take a couple of roles simultaneously. The way capitalism affects a person’s life depends on if he is a worker or a boss. As the base of capitalism is profit and consumption, the more profit the company gains, the wealthier the owner becomes. Money makes money (Crimethinc, 2011). However, capitalism brings some problems and critiques. One of them is that capitalist bosses do not always intend to share their wealth with others, such as their employees. It becomes more important to be wealthy themselves than to give a possibility for others to earn an appropriate amount of money. That leads to the issue that some people earn very little money and work in unhealthy conditions even though the companies make a considerable profit. The reality is that these bosses have the power over that because the more capital they control, the more power they gain. Nevertheless, even though many people are aware of capitalism and how it works, not everyone acknowledges that.

As society is surrounded by capitalism from companies to the government, we don’t tend to think about the effect that it has caused to other communities and our own. Due to people being so used to this system built around capitalism there are companies, cities and people that benefit hugely from the exploitation and wealth that capitalism brings into the major ‘first world’ countries. These countries that are built on fast fashion industries and other production industries that demonstrate that capitalism is very much in our everyday existence. Due to this ‘Capitalism is certainly based on self-interest’ (Butler, pg13, 2018) and this is something that we have tried to capture within each of the photos that demonstrate that these everyday items and places that are so different to one another but are connected heavily to the idea of capitalist ideologies but are not acknowledged on a surface level within our lives. Within these photos we capture companies, places and brands that have profited or been affected due to capitalism; some participating in the chain of fast fashion, of people being exploited so these companies can gain billions, to others that have used the situation of the pandemic in which they profited of the situation or others suffering.

Although capitalism has some pros such as individual performance being valued and a higher quality in products marketed to consumers, the cons heavily outweigh the pros as only a small percentage of the population actually benefit greatly from the capitalistic systems in place. Cons range from mass exploitation and homelessness to wealth gaps and individuals not getting equal opportunities in life based upon their wealth.

To sum up, our visual essay and artistic statement have proved that ‘capitalism is acknowledged, but only on the surface level.’ In other words, we recognize that capitalism operates in our daily lives, i.e., the cost of living rises while salaries remain unchanged, but we simply accept it and live with it. This could be due to the fact that we have no option but to live by it because we as citizens lack the power or influence to change it, or it could simply be due to the fact that it has become so normalized that we don’t care enough to do anything about it. As previously stated, capitalism pervades society, from companies to government, and we rarely consider the impact it has had on other communities and our own. This means we don’t consider the profit margins of huge corporations like Amazon, where we purchase, in comparison to how the workers who generate those large profits are exploited. This can also be known as ‘amazon capitalism’. In simpler terms, ‘All corporations share one fundamental goal, to maximize profits.’ (Alimahomed-Wilson & Reese, 2020). Moreover, Our Photo Essay explores various aspects of capitalism that are acknowledged but only at a surface level, with some being more evident than others, such as luxury goods like Burberry products vs the less obvious, such as educational institutions, going into debt for university paying fees such as tuition and SFE.

Bibliography/References:

Alimahomed-Wilson, J., & Reese, E. (2020). The Cost of Free Shipping.

https://environmental-conscience.com/capitalism-pros-cons/

Butler, E. (2018). Capitalism. The Institute of Economic Affairs. https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Butler-Capitalism-Interactive.pdf

Crimethinc. (2011). Work : Capitalism. Economics. Resistance. Crimethinc. Workers’ Collective.

White, M. G. (n.d.). Examples of Capitalism. Retrieved from Your Dictionary : https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-capitalism.html

Picture Essay

By Freya Glenton

On 21 March 2022

In Photo Capitalism Essay, Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast, Reflection pieces, Year 2

Capitalism is acknowledged only on a surface level

Our Photo Essay:

Photo essay – Google Slides

The Photo Essay: All The photos and Captions (and credits):

(Credit To: Freya Glenton – IMG_20220323_151130.jpg)

New city center, at what cost? With citizens paying out for the large expense.

(Credit To: Freya Glenton – IMG_20220323_154049.jpg)

Young people going into debt for education and housing.

(Credit to: Freya Glenton – IMG_20220325_114224.jpg)

Church of England receives around £400m from their religious congregation.

(Credit To: Freya Glenton – IMG_20220323_151216.jpg)

Companies, such as Primark, make Billions through their consumers and underpaying factory workers. Underpaid workers as dying due to these fast fashion industries.

(Credit To: Freya Glenton – IMG_20220323_151658.jpg)

£11 for 1 skirt within shops like Primark that are part of the fast fashion industry that exploit garment factors that earn no more than £80 a month.

(Credit To: Beatrice – beatrices 280 1.jpg)

Users pay by their time

Fans make them wealthy

While coffee in Ethiopia costs 0.2£, Starbucks charges 3.5£.

The tobacco industry is enormously profitable, however, what is the actual cost?

Some people suffered, others made a lot money.

The disposable vape industry has exploded as of recent with companies making millions but the cost seems to be increased pollution, health issues and more children with nicotine addictions

This picture represent how industries hoard products that many people need in their lives, despite the products not being in use. You can see this in the food industry where food is thrown away or here where the laptops are kept exclusively for university students

Apple is a prime example of pricing based on status rather than material value. This is a standard in consumerism but when companies present their products as a status symbol it allows them to charge exorbitantly for their products

The luxury car industry is exploitative of their workers. The prices for these cars are exorbitant compared to the labour and what these labourers earn. Many of these cars are valuable because of the status they show the owner has rather material value.

Luxury brands extremely exorbitant in nature when it comes to pricing. The fashion industry is exploitative, making use of cheap labour then charging hundreds or thousands for the products made for fractions of that amount

They “say” something; the advertisement says another thing.
Your bad habits feed their pockets.

“They see discounts and donating as a way to devalue their brand.”

“What matters most is the comfort of the community”
But, how much does it cost your comfort?

This application is more suitable for Apple’s Dispositive

*Manipulated campaigns that limit people’s choice

“Vape is better for your health, and it’s allowed to smoke in many places!” To don’t stop the movement of capital, everything is allowed

Increase in NI tax to cover nhs, health and social care.

But, what improvements have actually been made?

‘There is more emphasis to own expensive items i.e, luxury watches or perfume than the quality of environment we live in.’

Increase in cost of living i.e petrol prices, but wages have remained the same.

The exploitation of individuals who operate Amazon’s global infrastructure is what maintains it together.

The Royal family is an economic powerhouse, yet they don’t actually have political influence.

Our Team/Group:

Freya Glenton (Me)

Beatrice Bergaudaite

Contact her here:

Ademide Liam Banjoko

Contact Them Here:

Vera Lucia Agostinho Nascimento Moniz

Contact her here:

Zainab Adisa

Contact her here:

Mediating Nations

By Freya Glenton

On 18 March 2022

In Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast, Year 2

Global Citizen

1990:

No internet;
No mobile phones;
No portable computers.

They have access to different cultures.
Being up-to-date with news.
Print Maps
Traveller – one of the only way to subject themselves to different cultures.

2000:

No social media;
Access to the internet;
Exchanges of music;
MTV;
Big cell phones.

TV gave them a range of cultural options.
Mp3
More up-to-date news.
Transportation infrastructure.
iPod – 2001

2020:

More access to the internet;
Youtube
Social Media’s
Connections worldwide.
More advanced technology.

Smartphone Capabilities
Social Media – echo chambers.
GPS, maps (digitalised).
Steaming.
Global gaming communities.
The global citizen is younger.
Faster Traveling, communication.
Virtual capabilities and money.
Online shopping.
The Pandemic.

Post-digital Nations: Systems and Networks Podcast

By Freya Glenton

On 16 February 2022

In Assignments, Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast, Year 2

280mapa – Podcast for Cultural Geographies within Encanto

Podcast:

Post Digital Cultural Geography in Encanto Podcast.m4a

Podcast Script:

[Hello and Welcome to the Post Digital Nations: Systems and Networks Podcast. Here I discuss and analyse different theories and concepts within the world of media’s post digital era. Where I am your host Freya and today, we will be diving into the fascinating concept of cultural geographies and identities within the highly popularised and beloved animated Disney film: Encanto.]

To introduce Encanto we are shown a Columbian family that are magical and struggling to keep their household together, so this film takes the audience on an experience of how the family cope with change and their flaws to end up coming together. Disney does an unbelievably great job of representing the culture of Columbia in a way that shines a positive light on a country that is often stereotyped as violent and instead shows the country as what it is, which is a beautiful landscape. Disney demonstrates and represents this family in a colourful and bright way that gives the film this classic whimsy Disney aspect to it but within this still shows respectfulness in representing such a gorgeous and extensive culture.

Cultural geography can be a highly important subject when it comes to very human experiences involving identity, culture and interactions that we experience as human beings due to the place that we are in and travel too. Cultural geography is made up of space, place and landscapes. The theory consists of meanings within spaces to create places and therefore creates a range of different cultures which are composed of these everyday interactions and meanings within these specific places. This involves human geography, which is how people have a relationship with places and human interactions with the environment which can be comprised of health, community, identities, meanings and the idea that ‘place can be central to forms of struggle and resistance too’ (Cresswell 2014).

So, when we as people take these concepts into account it can apply heavily to our lives and history. This can be applied to films and media texts as well, due to the fact that there are a range of different identities, cultures and places represented within media and Disney’s Encanto is one of these many media texts that demonstrate the advantage of cultural representation within the media industry.

Encanto shows a representation of Columbian culture and based on how a range people’s identities are built around this vast culture within Columbia. So, if we look at Columbia as the place, and more specifically at the house in which the family live in ‘Casa Madrigal’ as this house that has almost become a member of the family despite it not being a living breathing person and within the film is held as a major part of family and this space is created with deep rooted meaning of family and importance.

Looking at the main theorists behind cultural geography Cresswell defines place as ‘spaces that people have made meaningful or have attached to in some way’ which is one of the major aspects of the film Encanto as the Madrigal family has created deep meanings and traditions using their magical home and shows the idea that within Columbia’s culture, they tend to have a very strong attachment to their childhood home and this therefore has follows the cultural traditions set within a particular place.

Other theorists such as Andrew Jones look at how identities and people can change when put into different and diverse cultures and spaces, Jones theorised that, ‘how things exist in space, how features of the social world change across spaces and the difference that places make to the nature of human existence.’ (Jones, 2012) which can be shown when you compare the family within Encanto with other famous families, especially from other Disney shows such as the film Brave’s family or Rivera family from Coco and both of these different diverse families both have a completely different dynamic and lifestyle to that of the Madrigal family which demonstrates that completely different places can have such a vast difference in identities due to their cultures and how these places and landscapes could affect one’s life experiences and interactions.

Along, with this Andrew Jones when talking about Human Geography gave across the idea that landscapes and culture are concepts that ‘exist in a world outside of human meaning’ (Jones, 2012) which suggests that even through the landscape of this film played a huge role in creating and inspiring the film, this landscape can and does exist without human meaning.

Encanto shows us, as an audience, a positive and beautiful representation of this culture, along with the identities that are within this place. They show how the different family members have different expectations, flaws and interactions with each other that make up what we see as each character’s experience within their environment and their family, and within this film they enhance this by making the place, the Casita, react and have some form of a personality around the family. The house is such a major part of the film and has rooms that represented each family members personality and identity.

The Columbian culture and identities using clothing, food, the village community, decorations, actors/actresses involved within making up this film and demonstrating how these identities play a part into creating this loveable and entertaining film. These aspects link extremely to the concept of identity, culture and how our identity is affected by and made up by the place we are in.

With the fact that Encanto became such a massive film within the past year it has made massive strides in showing a representation of the Columbian culture and creating these adored characters that people can watch and see more characters that look like them or have grown up in similar situations than them, such as: with a big family, generational trauma or even just having one character that personally can connect with a range of different audiences. The film gained high amount of traction with both its fantastic cast and remarkable soundtrack with “We don’t talk about Bruno” over taking Disney’s frozen as No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the fact that the film also got nominated for the Oscars in two categories. Which demonstrates that not only did Disney do a successful job at creating such a meaningful and grand film but they also successfully, in a positive way, a represented of culture as well as a range of identities that are often either highly unrepresented or often represented in a negative light.

When we look at ‘cultural geographies, we argue, also link such ideas and imaginations with our changing material world’ (Atkinson, D, Jackson, P, Sibley, D & Washbourne, N. 2005) which means that a lot of what we do with our identity and with the culture we have been in could affect the place we are in today and how we view particular things within our everyday life interactions, such as: what media we consume, how we interact with those around us and most likely who we end up creating relationships with.

So, does Encanto influence people’s views and ideologies towards the culture of Columbia in a positive way? This honestly is a step into creating more positive representation within media and especially within media that is very often consumed by such a mass audience. Which I believe makes Encanto a great film for both representing culture and for demonstrating the idea of both an audience and a family making so much meaning out of a place. This could also be linked to other themes such as digital geographies and media ecology as well due to the film demonstrating the idea of getting a positive message across to an audience and having mass amount of success due to the use of social media and contributing towards the ‘message is the medium’ (McLuhan, 1962).

[So, to wrap up and conclude this podcast] Encanto has made great represented in the idea of space, landscape and place in unique ways and has enriched their audience with wonderful cultural landscapes and representations of a real Columbian culture experience, that is also rich with a beautiful setting and scenery. The film has captivated its audience through this rich and full storyline and culture. This created a brightly positive amount of representation of a range of identities and demonstrates many of these cultural geography concepts in a range of different ways, so I would recommend this for any audience that has yet to see this film as it is enriched with a fun cast of characters with Columbian voice actors and has an enjoyable plot for a range of different target audiences to appreciate. [Thank you so much for joining this and listening into this podcast.]

Referencing:

Atkinson, D., Jackson, P., Sibley, D., & Washbourne, N. (2005). Cultural Geography. I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd. http://uilis.unsyiah.ac.id/oer/files/original/f434530b3275ce7cffea6cb534ebb16f.pdf

Caulfield, K. (2022). ‘Encanto’ Soundtrack Has Most Weeks at No. 1 in Nearly a Year on Billboard 200. Billboard. https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/encanto-soundtrack-tops-billboard-200-most-weeks-year-1235036773/

Cresswell, T. (2014a). Defining Place in Place. ProQuest Ebook Central. https://files.coventry.aula.education/ce980315f83da93d9cb62306de166a61creswell___defining_place_in_place___an_introduction.pdf

Jones, A. (2012). Human Geography: The Basics. ProQuest Ebook Central,. https://files.coventry.aula.education/b6a3641cd1074a3cd3ab9454ba8e80e1jones___introduction__human_geography___the_basics.pdf

Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, Self, and Society. The University of Chicago Press. http://tankona.free.fr/mead1934.pdf

McLuhan, M. (1964). The Medium is the Message. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf

Wahl, S., & Scholl, J. (2014). Culture and Identity. Kendall Hunt Publishing. https://he.kendallhunt.com/sites/default/files/uploadedFiles/Kendall_Hunt/Content/Higher_Education/Uploads/Wahl_Scholl_1e_Ch3.pdf

Weigert, A. J. (1986). Society and Identity. Cambridge Core. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/society-and-identity/20D814C45EA9979E97BB41635715FC9A

Word Doc Version:

Cultural Geographies and Identities within Encanto (1).docx

PDF:

Cultural Geographies and Identities within Encanto.pdf

Digital Geography

By Freya Glenton

On 16 February 2022

In Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast, Year 2

Digital Geography is the study of digitalised geography through the media. This theme looks at how media and mobility are used in everyday life and can be made up of three different concepts which are:

Geographies produced through the digital this is the idea that using a digital tools to produce and share a range of geography research. The use of digital technologies in the production and understanding of space in everyday life is examined in geographies produced by the digital. With using geography methods to make sense of the digital and post-digital world would be how geographies produced of the digital would studied.

Digital geography is also involved with the idea of the mobility side of geography as well. This involves how the world has become more highly digitalised and therefore mobilised. Everyone with a technological device can simply travel anywhere, can technically traced where ever they go and can research, and witness cultures from other countries using the their device.

Globalisation is a major part of digital geography as it brings movement of human, goods and cultural conventions. This could be done using technologies, often networks have some form of maps such as Google maps that can allow the user to experience a virtual world and seeing the virtual scenery, this is also enhanced using 3D imagery to create scaling.

Hybridity, which brings shared meanings, takes a role within a lot of different places within the world, within their cultures, identities and even languages.

McDonaldisation doesn’t not really allow a person to experience the culture of another country and gives this idea that you have the ability to not change anything or effect anything, including environments, even if you travel.

The idea of digital geography has many different concepts and one of the main ones is Mediascapes. Mediascapes makes up a large portion of digital geography as it is the representation of space and place in terms of media. This allows consumers to connect with different spaces and places using media such as people can virtually visit other countries and their cities like South Korea’s Seoul or Paris the capital of France.

This can allow people to try and experience places without traveling to these places and having the ability to not change anything. However, it could most likely end up giving them a completely different experience to those who go to a country and place to experience these different cultures or to the people that actually live there and have created deep attached meanings to the location.

A street view, a digital geography, within Japan – https://images.app.goo.gl/R4ik3ptBU8EQ7ECz9

Users of digital technologies are subject to, and participants in creating, innumerable digital changes, while corporations continue to render devices and software obsolete to increase profits, and governments are slowly becoming involved in regulating the digital.
(McLean, J. 2020)

A digitalised version of the Earth – https://images.app.goo.gl/4h8nfRcAf69bwYT39

Mobility combines physical movement, representations that give meaning, and the experience that embodies mobile practices.

There is the idea that within this almost digital world and with a lot of the current world issues, such as the pandemic, we are starting to depend more on aspects of digital geographies to experience some of the cultural geographies that we are missing out on. An example of this would be going to see a movie that had a lot of culture within it or researching and looking into other cultures or places to see what the location is like such as using Google Maps to look at other locations.

Technology has created a range of ways to try and experience a place and space without actually being there and they have done this using a range of different technologies from mapping out the streets to digital satellites taking photos of the Earth. ‘Digital technologies are providing new opportunities for communication and connection, while simultaneously deepening problems associated with isolation, global inequity and environmental harm, contributing to shifting digital geographies’ (McLean, J. 2020), McLean suggests that despite technology advancing and being a positive change it increases the chances of isolation and less communication within peoples everyday interactions and life in general.

Place appears to involve some notion of stability
and permanence while mobility appears to necessitate constant change and process.
(Cresswell. 2014)

References:

Cresswell, T. (2014). Place in a Mobile World. Cresswell, Tim. Place : An Introduction. https://files.coventry.aula.education/63ca2b91f31de63aeef0af64d48fb8ffcreswell___place_in_a_mobile_world.pdf

McLean, J. (2020). Changing Digital Geographies. Changing Digital Geographies: Environments, Technologies and People. https://files.coventry.aula.education/6b966d8e9e1d5ee15cc2156a08977bbdintroduction___changing_digital_geographies.pdf

Cultural Geography

By Freya Glenton

On 16 February 2022

In Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast, Year 2

Cultural geography is the study of place and space and how these particular places hold different cultures that are composed of everyday interactions and meanings. This study demonstrates how parts of locations are peoples lived experiences and is a representation of particular places and spaces. Cultural geography looks at how these places can affect our identities and how our identity effects the people within different cultures.

To study cultural geography you have to look at three concepts and how they contribute in making up the complex system of cultures, identities and meanings. These concepts are: space, place and landscape. Each one of these concepts are the main way to comprehend this study and relate to peoples everyday life experiences and how people live their lives in completely different ways.

Space: this is the idea of things, an area, existing somewhere. This is an area without any form of meaning. This is often a an area that has no connection to a human and is a space that simply just exists completely without any form of meaning.

Place: this involves particular locations within space that are given meaning by people. This often can be depicted by how people interact, create lifestyles and cultures within this location which end up making it a place. This concept of a place is full of human experiences, representations and identities. Places are experiences differently depending on the persons identity and history such as Mexico’s Day of the Dead also known as Día de los Muertos which is a symbolic celebration and represents a day or mourning and a way to show respect for deceased family members, so for people within this culture celebrate along with honour people and is a deep rooted tradition. Whereas this event is simply a celebration of festivities, face paint and is a representation life and death to most of the rest of the world and doesn’t hold much meaning, which shows that different places have different lived experiences and meanings.

The day of the dead- National Geographic. (2017). What is Day of the Dead? | National Geographic. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sSawpU81cI

Landscape: A representation of a place or space. This is often shown as themes such as skylines, countrysides and city-lines. This can be represented through paintings, photos or through an actual location.

This can involve a more virtual version, social media apps has not gone
unnoticed (Cresswell,2015), which would then link to digital geographies. However, one of the main theorists Cresswell talks about the difference between the two geography concepts and both the positives and the negatives of mapping out the world in digital, ‘Recognizing the danger in Google mapping the world, others are producing an open source map‘ (Cresswell, 2015).

Struggle over virtual place reflects longstanding struggles over place by protest movements around the world.
T. Cresswell, 2015

Human geography is study of people relationship with places and can often involve peoples relationship with places, health and human interactions with their environments. ‘Human geography is therefore all about understanding why the spatial nature of ‘social things’ matter.‘ (Jones, 2012), which demonstrates that this concept of human geography heavily links to social aspects.

Place names have high levels of importance and are often a necessary when it comes to cultures. Examples of this would be Canada’s history of colonization exertion of nation and power building, with the use of shared meanings such as them decolonizing place names which will shift a shared meaning.

Other ideas of cultural geographies involve around identities within cultures and how this aspect likes to places such as the highly popularised film: Black Panther, which has high representation African landscapes and places. Another example would be Coco which is based on the culture of Mexico and the festival of el Día de los Muertos.

Marvel’s Black Panther – an example of cultural geography identities. – Marvel Entertainment. (2017). Marvel Studios’ Black Panther – Official Trailer. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU

Disney’s Coco – Disney UK. (2017). COCO | NEW UK TRAILER | Official Disney UK. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=969WVyvgzx4

Undoubtedly, this reversal in geography’s fortunes reflects a wider recognition that many of the current and ‘big’ challenges that face the world today are well addressed by the subject: globalization, climate change, sustainability, economic development or poverty reduction.
A. Jones, 2012

References:

Cresswell., T. (2015). Defining Place, ProQuest Ebook Central, https://files.coventry.aula.education/ce980315f83da93d9cb62306de166a61creswell___defining_place_in_place___an_introduction.pdf

Jones, A. (2012). Human Geography : The Basics. ProQuest Ebook Central,. https://files.coventry.aula.education/b6a3641cd1074a3cd3ab9454ba8e80e1jones___introduction__human_geography___the_basics.pdf

Media Ecology

By Freya Glenton

On 16 February 2022

In Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast, Year 2

280mapa

Media ecology looks at media as environments and how digital environments and technology has effected the everyday human experiences. This theory describes the complex interaction between humans and technology as well as media. According to media ecology theories, media are extensions of the human senses, while communication is the primary cause of social change.

Ecology looks at the digitalisation of the media as a means for society as a whole and how it could relate to general change this includes the socio-cultural aspects such as values, lifestyles, economics, politics and more.

The future of ecology looks further into social consequences of the ‘media disruption’ as well as the idea that social consequences of media have been neglected. Ecology demonstrates an idea that technologies also ‘do not determine social change, but are implemented and evolve in certain social, cultural, political and economic contexts‘ (Ruotsalainen & Heinonen, 2015).

One of the major theorist in ecology is Marshall McLuhan who is defined as a visionary that understood the future of communication. McLuhan predicted that ‘due to the speed of communications evolution, the complete human society would start to transform‘ (McLuhan, 1962) and he talked about the phenomenon called the global village (McLuhan, 1996).

Along with this McLuhan had a communication theory, the idea of ‘the medium as the message’ which indicates as important as the message itself is just as important as the medium used to convey it.

All parts of social media are important aspects of media ecology and demonstrate the idea that media, particularly social media has an important role in creating the change or awareness to everyday situations or big/cultural events. Examples of this would be the evaluation of publication of events such as LGBT+ rights and along with that the Trevor Project Campaign, Black Lives Matter and raising awareness on big cultural events such as the updating on the status of Ukraine’s situation and Black Lives Matter Movements with due to social media such as Twitter, TikTok and Instagram has highly increased the awareness on these social situations.

The Trevor Project.

The idea of these cultural events are giving out this intended message through the use as social media being its medium. Despite how different audiences could take this message could vary depending on the consumers life however the result will still end with the message being seen and eventually spread.

References:

McLuhan, M. (1964). The Medium is the Message. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf

Ruotsalainen, J., & Heinonen, S. (2015). Media ecology and the future ecosystemic society. CrossMark. https://files.coventry.aula.education/41c0b795e1490986713f46dd0d0e9a8bmedia_ecology_and_the_future_ecosystemic_society.pdf

Velasquez, A., Renó, D., Beltrán, A. M., Maldonado, J. C., & Ortiz León, C. (2018). From the mass media to social media: reflections on the new media ecology. ResearchGate. https://files.coventry.aula.education/b8f14754c6b13d1c53a1bf9c7d91719bfrom_the_mass_media_to_social_media__reflections_on_the_new_media_ecology.pdf

My University Experience, Practice, Works and Portfolios

Category: Postdigital Nations: Systems and Networks and Podcast

My Reflection on the Group Capitalism Project

The Reflection:

Picture Essay

Capitalism is acknowledged only on a surface level

Our Photo Essay:

The Photo Essay: All The photos and Captions (and credits):

Our Team/Group:

Mediating Nations

Post-digital Nations: Systems and Networks Podcast

280mapa – Podcast for Cultural Geographies within Encanto

Podcast:

Podcast Script:

Referencing:

Digital Geography

References:

Cultural Geography

References:

Media Ecology

280mapa

References: