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Media Life

Humans and Machines:

A convergence?

Mark DeuzeAn expert on media life

4 media artifactswith 1 thing in common

Living in mediaversusLiving with media

Making a living on

YouTube

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Dear reader,Welcome to the first (and only) edition of Media Life. This is a magazine we created as an assignment for the course Media Life at the University of Amsterdam as taught by Mark Deuze. In this edition we discuss several topics that have to do with living in media as opposed to living with media. There’s a distinct difference between the two as will become clear in one of the articles (see page 3). Furthermore, we’d like to inform you about the trajectory of media artifacts and look at how they’ve been getting smaller and smaller and closer and closer to our body (see page 7).

We hope you enjoy this first (and only) edition of Media Life.

Happy reading!Abigail Tjhay and Pam Swinkels

Content03 How to live in media Pam Swinkels05 Youtubers: making money by living in media Pam Swinkels07 Taking control: 4 media artifacts with 1 thing in common Abigail Tjhay09 Dealing with media Abigail Tjhay11 Colofon

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How to live in media

Today’s world can be seen as what Roger Silverstone (2007, p.111) calls a ‘mediapolis’: a mediated public space where media under-

pin and overarch the expressions of everyday life. In this world we do not live ‘with’ media, but ‘in’ media (Deuze, 2012, p.1). Now the question is, how can we live a good life in media? Quite often there is a pessimistic view on the growing technology. Storing and sharing everything leads for example to the loss of serendipity, too much information, an inauthentic self and a disconnection from reality. The problem is that we do not really have a choice. It seems like we have arrived at a point in time where an unmediated life is inconceivable and even impossible. Media and life are mutually implicated. Even though we think we have control over it, that is not always the case (p.28).

“The problem is that we do not really have a choice. It seems like we have arrived at a point in time where an unmediated life is inconceivable and even impossible.

Living in media means being watched at all times by government agencies, companies and businesses, as well as by anyone else. But living life in modern media and with today’s technology has its advantag-es. Firstly, this surveillance has rewards. If you follow the system the way you are supposed to and if you fit the standard, you can really gain something from it. Secondly, attention is addictive. Attention creates dopamine in your brain and that is something we

all crave. Thirdly, nowadays it is part of our needs to see and be seen, and what better way to do that than with current technology. Lastly, our media life helps with social bonding and grooming. Technology has given us the chance to communicate in many differ-ent ways and it helps us to stay in contact with our friends (Deuze, 2012, p.116-130).

There are also adaptive advantages of living in media. One of them is the point of seeing and being seen, as discussed before. Furthermore, media also helps us learn what (not) to do. We only have to look up a rec-ipe to make a dish or play a videogame to know what it feels like to be in a war. Again, modern technolo-gy helps us manage social groups. And finally, our primary reason to adapt is the struggle for existence and mates. Current media has made that a whole lot easier (Deuze, 2012, p.205-215).

So there are benefits of this media life. But there is no doubt that technology will only become bigger and stronger. How do we live with that? Mark Deuze says that there are three options: a war against the ma-chines, surrender to mediated reality or become me-dia (and hack life). Samuel Butler is one of the people who was afraid that the inevitable conclusion of the evolution of media is that the machines sooner or later will gain the upper hand. And that the solution is a war to the death with machines (Deuze, 2012, p.217). Another option is to just surrender to this mediated reality. We do not have much control over it, so that is the easiest way to deal with it. Maybe just

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inform ourselves a bit more about technology. But we can also go all the way and become media ourselves (p.220-222).

In conclusion, do not only focus on the downsides of modern technology and media. Maybe it leads to more individualization and a disconnection from reality in some way, but on the other hand it also has its advantages. As Vilém Flusser stated: “living in media means a person will no longer be a worker (homo faber) but rather an information processor, a player with information (homo ludens)” (1990, p.399). For more information on living life in media, I recommend everyone to read the book ‘Media Life’ by Mark Deuze.

Pam Swinkels

LiteratureDeuze, M. (2012). Media Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.Flusser, V. (1990). On memory (electronic or other wise). Leonardo, 23(4), 397-399.Silverstone, R. (2007). Media and morality. Cam bridge: Polity Press.

“living in media means a person will no longer be a worker (homo faber) but rather an information processor, a player with information (homo ludens)

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YouTubers: Making money by living in media

“This is not just their hobby, for most of them it is their job.

As Mark Deuze states in his book Media Life (2012, p.x), we do not live with media, but in media. “Who you are, what you do, and

what all of this means to you does not exist outside of media. Media are to us as water is to fish.” (Deuze, 2012, p.x). However, not everyone has this feeling that we live in media. But there are people who are perfectly aware of it and even made it their profes-sion; the so-called ‘YouTubers’. YouTubers are ‘You-Tube personalities’, people or groups who are popular because of their videos on YouTube (Wikipedia, list of YouTube personalities). They are also referred to as ‘vloggers’, which is a shortened form of video blog-gers, because that is what most of them do. Instead of writing a blog, they talk to a camera and upload it on YouTube. Some of them are beauty gurus or gamers or singers. But the actual ‘vloggers’ do not do anything specific, they are normal people who talk to a camera about what is on their mind or they film their daily lives. This is not just their hobby, for most of them it is their job. If they get enough subscribers, they can make money from their videos on YouTube. They can earn up to €5000 for mentioning a specific product and up to €25.000 for advertisements on their YouTube-channels (Chawla, 2014).

Even though many people still have never heard about these YouTubers, they get bigger every day.

YouTube attracts more than 1 billion viewers a month and they watch more than 6 billion hours of video (YouTube statistics). YouTube reaches more American adults than any cable network (YouTube statistics), but youth between the ages of 11 and 15 actually watch half as much television as adults, mostly because they use YouTube as their source of entertainment (Sweney, 2014). Furthermore, a survey of Variety showed that YouTubers are more popular than mainstream celebrities among American teen-agers between the ages of 13 and 18 (Ault, 2014).

So, these YouTubers often walk around with a cam-era and they document their lives, but that is not the only kind of media they use. They are very active on other social media such as Twitter, Tumblr and Snap-chat. But they are also very often in the news or on television. Lately, YouTubers also get a lot of oppor-tunities to make their own albums, have their own brand of beauty products, play in a movie or write a book (Solsman, 2015). On the other hand not every-one agrees with the fame these YouTubers get. They are being criticized, because some people think they are talentless and should not get these opportunities (Bish, 2014) or that they are bad role-models (Hamil-ton, 2014). But why are they so successful then?

“YouTubers often walk around with a camera and they document their lives, but that is not the only kind of media they use.

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“Because YouTube is accessible for everyone, millions of people from all over the world can watch these YouTubers.

Last year I did a research on why these YouTubers are becoming so popular. Using a theoretical framework, in-depth interviews and social media, I was looking for an answer to the question: ‘What motivates young people to spend their time watching videos of You-Tubers?’. In short it can be said that the main reason for youngsters to watch YouTubers is because it is a form of entertainment. The videos are amusing and help people beat their boredom. Also some YouTu-bers actually learn their viewers something, that is also a reason to watch them. They are so appealing because they are regular people with similar lives as the viewers, which makes it very relatable. That is also the biggest difference between YouTubers and people on television or other media. It is much more real. The videos are made in their bedroom, without a script or director. The YouTubers have total control over everything. There is also much more of a com-munity around YouTube than around other media (Swinkels, 2014, p.1,14).

Because YouTube is accessible for everyone, millions of people from all over the world can watch these YouTubers. They have cleverly made use of modern technology and they now make money by document-ing their lives online. Thus, if you realize that you cannot escape this ‘media life’, it is also an option to make the most out of it.

Pam Swinkels

LiteratureAult, S. (2014, August 5). Survey: YouTube stars more popular than mainstream celebs among U.S. teens. Variety. Accessed April 26, via http://vari ety.com/2014/digital/news/survey-youtube-stars- more-popular-than-mainstream-celebs-among-u-s- teens-1201275245/ Bish, J. (2014, September 4). Vain and Inane: The Rise of Britain’s Dickhead Vloggers. Vice. Accessed April 26, via http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/vlog gers-are-the-death-of-entertainment-194Chawla, D.S. (2014, September 28). The young vloggers and their fans who are changing the face of youth culture. The Guardian. Accessed April 26, via http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/ sep/28/vloggers-changing-future-advertising Deuze, M. (2012). Media Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.Hamilton, C. (2014, October 21). Of course, teenage girls need role models - but not like beauty vlog ger Zoella. The independent. Accessed April 26, via http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/ sure-teenage-girls-need-role-models--but-not-of- the-zoella-kind-9809136.html. Solsman, J.E. (2015, April 23). Generation YouTube: Today’s fastest-rising stars aren’t coming out of Hollywood. Cnet. Accessed April 26, via http:// www.cnet.com/news/generation-youtube/ Sweney, M. (2014, November 25). Teenagers and tweens watching TV half as much as adults, Ofcom finds. The Guardian. Accessed April 26, via http:// www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/25/teenag ers-watch-tv-half-adults-ofcom-reportSwinkels, P. (2014). I can’t stop watching YouTubers: What motivates young people to spend their time watching videos of YouTubers?Wikipedia. List of YouTube personalities. Accessed April 26, via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ YouTube_personalitiesYouTube statistics. Accessed April 26, via http:// www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

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Taking control: 4 artifacts with 1 thing in common

Over the years media artifacts have been getting closer and closer to our body. Just looking at the way these four artifacts have changed over the years shows that devices have been getting smaller and smaller so much so that they’re incorporated in other devices or even more stunning; some cases where you have become the device. This trajectory could be interpreted as taking more control over the devices, but are we taking control over the devices or are the devices taking control over us? Let’s take a look at the trajectory of media artifacts through time.

1. It’s the year 1956. The Zenith Radio Corpora-tions brings the first wireless remote control on the market: the Zenith Space Command.

With this remote control you could change the chan-nel and the volume. If you wanted to turn your TV off, you’d still have to get up and physically turn it off. A remote control is a way to control you, it controls you to sit in front of a TV. Through the years the remote control has been getting smaller and it’s got more functions. The process of this device becoming smaller has come so far that today’s remote control is our body. The invention of motion sensing technol-ogy has made it possibly to control your TV or other remote controlled device through your own move-ments. You’re in control now, not the remote control, you. There’s nothing between the device and you but space.

When you watch TV, you watch what are called ‘pro-grams’. The head of programming used to be very im-portant. It’s called programming because it programs you to sit in front of the television. You could only watch that series you like so much at eight pm on a Thursday. So, what has caused the shift that allows us to watch any series or movie on Netflix whenever we want?

“Suddenly, it wasn’t only possible to control what programs to watch, but also when to watch them.

2. Along with the first wireless remote con-trol came the video recorder. A device that allows you to shift programming. Suddenly,

it wasn’t only possible to control what programs to watch, but also when to watch them. It defeated the purpose of programming. The premise of the video recorder is appealing, you can record anything you want and keep it however long you want. You have a lot of control. What happened to the video recorder is interesting. Today’s video recorder isn’t a separate device anymore, it’s built into the device. It also lives on your tablet and phone. It keeps evolving with us and becoming more discreet.

Remote control. Video recorder. Joystick. Mobile phone.

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“You’re no longer a passive bystander, you can actively change what happens on the screen.

3. Then in 1967 the joystick, which had been around for a long time in the military, was in-tegrated in video games. What’s so significant

about a joystick? What can you do with your joystick that you can’t with a remote control? Moving around a joystick changes the experience on the screen for you. You’re no longer a passive bystander, you can actively change what happens on the screen. It was unique to your engagement with media. Now we have game consoles like the WII and the Playstation Move that let you control the screen with your body.

“There are almost no restrictions to using a phone anymore, it’s small enough to be on your body at all times.

4. Alexander Graham Bell invented the phone in 1876. It completely changed the way peo-ple communicated. News could travel really

fast. The only restriction is that you had to be at home (and in a certain place in your house) to make a call. In 1973 Motorola introduced the first mobile phone, it weighed 2 kilograms. From that moment the mobile phone has experienced great and very rapid innovations. There are almost no restrictions to using a phone anymore, it’s small enough to be on your body at all times. You can not only use it for making phone calls but you can use it as your calen-dar, your to-do list, you can listen music, play games, go on the internet and use all your social media. You can even control your TV with your phone.

We’re now at a place where many people won’t leave the house without their phone. And are incredibly dependent on having it with them. So this poses the question: are we in control of our media or is media in control of us?

Abigail Tjhay

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Dealing with mediaWe are slowly becoming one with our media. How can we deal with this constant connectedness with the world?

When the first steam locomotive was intro-duced in 1804 a whole new world opened in terms of transport. Suddenly, geog-

raphy wasn’t as important, not everything needed to be close to the city anymore. This was the first moment of compression of time and space in the modern world. Produce could be transported over great lengths in very little time (at least compared to the previous situation). Around the same time the telegraph was invented, which enabled people to communicate immediately over long distances. Keep in mind that the only mode of communication be-forehand was sending letters which could take weeks or even months over long distances.

The early 1900’s brought along the automobile as most prominent mode of transportation. Which made travel possible whenever one would please, transport became even easier than it was before. This was also the time that the telephone had its big break. Many people had a telephone at home, you no longer had to know Morse code to get a message across, making communication across long distances much more accessible for ‘normal’ people (Knox, 2005).

“Space and time had very little meaning left at that point.

After that came the inventions of airplanes, comput-ers and later the World Wide Web. Space and time

had very little meaning left at that point. Traveling halfway across the world will only take you about 24 hours and through the internet you can get in touch with people from Europe, America, Asia and Africa

with the press of a single button. You could speak of a compression of time and space (Giddens, 1990). We live in a society where it’s impossible to live without media. Over the years there’s been a trend of not only more use of media but also a more constant use of media (Deuze, 2012, p. 39). According to research in the Netherlands 70% of Dutch citizens don’t leave the house without their cell phone (Ipsos MediaCT, 2013).

We are constantly connected to each other through Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter etc. When you think about it, that’s a lot of notifications coming in on a daily basis, that’s a lot of stimuli to deal with. Simmel (2003) posed the question of how we, as people, deal with an overflow of stimuli when living in a city. We couldn’t possibly process everything that comes at us. Simmel says that people develop a blasé attitude as a

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“When you think about it, that’s a lot of notifications coming in on a daily basis, that’s a lot of stimuli to deal with.

defence mechanism against the large amount of stim-uli that the city throws at them. You could suggest that everyone who’s connected to the internet lives in a virtual metropolis (van Thiel, 2015) and that we’ve created a blasé attitude towards the large amount of notifications we get and the connectedness we live in 24/7. We don’t process everything anymore and pick and choose what we deem important enough.

Abigail Tjhay

LiteratureGiddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Cambridge, UK: Polity. 1 – 54Ipsos MediaCT (2013). Our mobile network. AmsterdamKnox, P. L. (2005). Urbanization: An introduction to urban geography. Pearson Prentice Hall.Simmel, G. (1903). The Metropolis and Mental Life. Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson, eds. The Blackwell City Reader. Oxford and Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell (2002). 324 - 339van Thiel, N.J. (2015). De smartphone als sociaal kapitaal.

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ColofonThis magazine was created as an assignment for the course Media Life at the University of Amsterdam in 2015.

E-mailthis-isnt-real@medialife.com

EditorAbigail Tjhay

Co-editorPam Swinkels

Art directionPam Swinkels

CoverAbigail Tjhay

Lay-outAbigail Tjhay

JournalistsAbigail Tjhay, Pam Swinkels