Topics for Analysis » Our Public Sphere

Our Public Sphere

We may not get to everything on this page today, but we will come back to it at some point this semester.

New Media Examples

I have a DVD that has some of the material below:

New Media Questions

Assuming the DVD works, we’ll watch the following:

  • What are the obvious connections between “Californication” and GTA: Vice City?
    • Why would the Chili Peppers use a video game “engine” (the environment the characters move around in) for their music video? What cultural interface are they tapping in to?
    • What are your experiences with video games and how does that compare or contrast with the sequence you saw?
    • What are the RHCP “saying” in their song?
    • What does the Red Hot Chili’s Peppers video “Californication” tell us about our public sphere? In other words, what are the Chili Peppers telling us about our “world”? Who/what creates reality for us?
      • But isn’t reality reality?
  • Any takers on “Ayo Technology”?
  • Why the history of Umbrellas and dancing/singing in the rain? (I honestly have no clue, so, please, let’s think about this).
    • Do you think there might be differences in how men or women view either video?
  • What do the You Tube “tributes” say about New Media?

Emulating Celebrities

Let’s look at some other new media examples:

  • What did you notice about Rihanna’s tributes (or other tributes to videos/celebrities) on YouTube and amateur videos?
  • Why would someone make a video of themselves and put it on YouTube?
  • What does it say about our culture that there are many “tributes” like the one we saw in class online?
  • How does the editing of the video “Umbrella” affect our perception of the narrative?
  • What do the You Tube “tributes” say about New Media?