Page 22 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 22
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
character. The difference becomes merely functional; it may vary from case
to case. At any moment the reader is ready to turn into a writer. As expert,
which he had to become willynilly in an extremely specialized work pro-
cess, even if only in some minor respect, the reader gains access to author-
ship (Benjamin 1969).
Benjamin’s words find its full realisation today when the technolog-
ical development has resulted in general hyperproduction (printed and
electronic), and has at the same time decentralized the media ecosystem
and relativized its once essential filtering mechanisms. Today, the media
ecosystem is highly fragmented into an almost infinite number of mi-
croinstitutions (publishers, websites, blogs, profiles on social networks,
etc.) that struggle for visibility in the global culture. Consequently, we
have easier access to different materials than ever before but the majori-
22 ty of these are poor-quality and focus more on being ‘efficient’ in terms of
technological accessibility and user-friendliness (with an emphasis on de-
sign and (audio)visual formats, e.g. infographics).
Transformation of the technological ecosystem which creates new
genres and reconfigures old ones has a direct influence on our under-
standing and classification of cultural content in different historical pe-
riods. Remediation thus runs along two lines: the first is quantitative
in the sense of moving certain genres to the forefront and others to the
background, while the second is qualitative and describes the changes in
a particular genre over time, or its adaptation to new technological en-
vironment. An example of this is the already mentioned transformation
of film from a popular cultural form into an artistic one with the advent
of television, or more recently, the status of television in the age of ubiq-
uitous internet which is also moving towards obsolescence and becom-
ing only a larger screen for remote video library or as a screen for viewing
online content outside of commercial subscription models, such as You-
Tube. Parallel to this, the user model changes, too: the new commercial
model is a subscription to a ‘library’ (which reflects the logic of the data-
base as the essential form of new media), but with a significant difference:
if these models were once publicly owned (e.g. public libraries, public ser-
vice broadcasting etc.), they are today privately owned by corporations; as
such, they represent new, unprecedented forms of global monopoly which
are not merely economic but concern informational hegemony (what An-
ders calls the oligarchic principle of technology).
As for qualitative remediation, an example would be the transforma-
tion of the genre of the novel (as a specific form of literacy) or epic poem
(as a specific form of orality) over time. In this sense, the concept of reme-
character. The difference becomes merely functional; it may vary from case
to case. At any moment the reader is ready to turn into a writer. As expert,
which he had to become willynilly in an extremely specialized work pro-
cess, even if only in some minor respect, the reader gains access to author-
ship (Benjamin 1969).
Benjamin’s words find its full realisation today when the technolog-
ical development has resulted in general hyperproduction (printed and
electronic), and has at the same time decentralized the media ecosystem
and relativized its once essential filtering mechanisms. Today, the media
ecosystem is highly fragmented into an almost infinite number of mi-
croinstitutions (publishers, websites, blogs, profiles on social networks,
etc.) that struggle for visibility in the global culture. Consequently, we
have easier access to different materials than ever before but the majori-
22 ty of these are poor-quality and focus more on being ‘efficient’ in terms of
technological accessibility and user-friendliness (with an emphasis on de-
sign and (audio)visual formats, e.g. infographics).
Transformation of the technological ecosystem which creates new
genres and reconfigures old ones has a direct influence on our under-
standing and classification of cultural content in different historical pe-
riods. Remediation thus runs along two lines: the first is quantitative
in the sense of moving certain genres to the forefront and others to the
background, while the second is qualitative and describes the changes in
a particular genre over time, or its adaptation to new technological en-
vironment. An example of this is the already mentioned transformation
of film from a popular cultural form into an artistic one with the advent
of television, or more recently, the status of television in the age of ubiq-
uitous internet which is also moving towards obsolescence and becom-
ing only a larger screen for remote video library or as a screen for viewing
online content outside of commercial subscription models, such as You-
Tube. Parallel to this, the user model changes, too: the new commercial
model is a subscription to a ‘library’ (which reflects the logic of the data-
base as the essential form of new media), but with a significant difference:
if these models were once publicly owned (e.g. public libraries, public ser-
vice broadcasting etc.), they are today privately owned by corporations; as
such, they represent new, unprecedented forms of global monopoly which
are not merely economic but concern informational hegemony (what An-
ders calls the oligarchic principle of technology).
As for qualitative remediation, an example would be the transforma-
tion of the genre of the novel (as a specific form of literacy) or epic poem
(as a specific form of orality) over time. In this sense, the concept of reme-
