Download Personal media: mediated subjectivities, social networking

Personal media and implications for theories on media and communication:
mediated subjectivities, social networking, creative practices
My research interests concern individual mediated practices and interpersonal communication.
In the research-project “The social transformation of the Internet III”, we use “personal media”
as a concept in contrast to mass media. I emphasise that personal media is not the same as the
Internet. Rather the Internet is the technological foundation for both mass media forms and
personal media forms. Personal media denote tools for interpersonal and intrapersonal
communication, e.g. mobile phones, e-mail, instant messenger, IRC, home-pages, private
blogs, online profiles and photo-sharing services. As private individuals use media
technologies to create and share personal expressions through digital networks, previous
characteristics of mass media as providers of generally accessible information (suggested by
e.g. Luhmann, [1996] 2000, Thompson, 1995), are no longer accurate. In an article currently
under review, I have suggested a two-dimensional model locating personal media and mass
media according to an interactional axis and an institutional/professional-axis: personal media
are de-institutionalised/de-professionalized and facilitate mediated interaction, whereas mass
media are institutionalized and professionalized, and (still) characterised by asymmetrical
interaction. I have thus attempted to contextualise the concepts of personal media and personal
communication in relation to mass media and mass communication, but my research focuses
on young people in Norway and the social aspects and implications of personal media and
communication.
The massive amount of research within fields that can be related to the user-led phenomenon
and the many concepts being introduced (e.g. my own “personal media”, Axel’s “produsage,
produser”, Jean’s focus on vernacular creativity and literacy, as well as the whole web 2.0discourse) clearly indicates that this is perceived to be an important area of research. I am
interested in how these emerging practices are both a cause and effect of the increasing
complexity of post-traditional life. In my work I have concomitantly argued that socially
competent subjects manage to successfully juggle between online and offline arenas of social
interaction. In order to understand the social subjects of post-traditional societies, it is
necessary to consider the interdependent yet sometimes independent relationships between
online and offline forms of communication. I am further interested in how the media
development increasingly seem to blur the boundaries between what is regarded as public and
what is regarded as private information, facilitating what John Thompson calls a society of
self-disclosure (Thompson, 2005: 38). Roland Barthes connects the blurring boundaries
between private and public with the emergence of the photography (Barthes, [1980] 2001:
119-120), whereas Joshua Meyrowitz emphasises that this development is strengthened with
electronic broadcasting technology (Meyrowitz, 1986). Digital network media can similarly be
seen to intensify these tendencies. More specifically I explore how people choose to present
themselves through personal media. Finally I explore creative practices from a userperspective, focusing on what users regard to be interesting digital stories, and how they
acquire the technical competences required to create and tell through personal media.
BARTHES, R. ([1980] 2001) Det lyse rommet: tanker om fotografiet, Oslo, Pax.
LUHMANN, N. ([1996] 2000) The Reality of the Mass Media, Stanford, Calif., Stanford
University Press.
MEYROWITZ, J. (1986) No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social
Behavior, New York, N.Y., Oxford University Press.
THOMPSON, J. B. (1995) The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media,
Cambridge, Polity Press.
THOMPSON, J. B. (2005) The New Visibility. Theory, Culture & Society, 22, 31-51.
Marika Lüders / [email protected]
Department of media and communication, University of Oslo