Digital Cultures

Digital Cultures - Glen Creeber

To study and understand New Media, we also have to analyze analog media and modernism. As Creeber states "Modernism is the umbrella term we give to the way human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution." (Creeber, 2009: 11).

Industrialization began at the end of the 19th century, which modernists seen as "the enemy of free thought and individuality; producing an essentially cold and soulless universe." (Creeber, 2009: 11). As a result of this, modernist artists tried to reflect the chaos of this process. "Because of all this mass produced manufacturing there was an up rise against it and this spawned the Arts and Crafts movement, a statement to human interaction and the quality of handmade products to put to shame the shoddy, poor quality mass produced items." (Crowder,2013) 

Not only this but modernism challenged and revolutionized the religious mysticism of the pre industrial world. It gave people the chance to question what was believed and created such ideas as evolution in biology and the theory of relativity in physics.

The Frankfurt School who were a group of Marxist theorists, believed that mass culture shared many similarities with mass production. The 'Fordist' philosophy was put under scrutiny by the school as they states "instead of stimulating audiences, these media ‘products’ were designed to keep the masses deluded in their oppression by offering a form of

homogenized and standardized culture."

Post modernism is a term that is commonly associated with changes that have taken place after the industrial revolution. Postmodernism involves the consumer to have more authority. Products are produced with the consumer in mind, for example are we encouraged to ring in to a show or 'hashtag' on twitter. Not only this but shows like 'Goggle Box' have allowed the consumer to be such an integral part of the media. "Reality and unreality are not mixed like oil and water; rather they are dissolved like two acids"(Creeber, 2009, Pg 17),

Bibliography

Creeber, G and Martin R. 2009, Digital Cultures, Open University Press.

Matt Crowder . (2013). INDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERNISM. Available:

http://crowderdesign.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/industrialization-and-the-beginnings-of-modernism/. Last accessed : 23rd,Oct,2013.