What is Digital Culture?
Digital can be described as dealing with electronic technology. Culture can be described as a value system established and shared by a community of people. Digital culture, in the sense of both separate entities, can then be described as a value system shared amongst online users. Although it may revolve around electronic technology with access to the Internet, digital culture is not only molded by its online aspect, but also the realities, or lack thereof, faced by individuals offline. Events happen offline and then are expressed online as news and information by users and media makers (Deuze, 2006, p. 63). This idea of “new media” is a large part of digital culture itself as it serves as a basis of communication of ideas and amongst people through the use of electronic devices (Deuze, 2006, p. 65).
According to Mark Deuze, the three main components of digital culture are remediation, bricolage, and participation (p. 66). Digital culture would become nothing if it wasn’t being continuously utilized and reconstructed. It’s utilization, though, may not always be original. Distantiation ties in with remediation as it is a way to challenge mainstream media since there is an outstanding failure of mainstream journalists to meaningfully address the experiences of people (Deuze, 2006, p. 68–69). This goes hand in hand with how what is expected of individuals as societal standards can affect people’s opinions (Benjamin, 1935, p. 4). This then causes a failure in addressing issues of communication and culture amongst media outlets to society as individuals tend to voice their concerns only when their personal interests are put at risk (Deuze, 2006, p. 68).
Credibility is also an online issue as it is hard to come by when journalists for popular news media corporations manipulate information (Deuze, 2006, p. 70–71). In doing so, journalists reuse edited versions of content that was once original (Deuze, 2006, p. 7), taking away from its authenticity, uniqueness, and overall aura (Benjamin, 1935, p. 5). When dismantling this aura, original content across the web is being detached from the domain of tradition (Benjamin, 1935, p. 4) which, tradition, is what largely holds culture and community together.
To gaining back the sense of aura, the Internet has been a good source of meaningful communication amongst some online users who choose to blog from their own perspectives that may oppose or be outside of those generated by mainstream media (Deuze, 2006, p. 65). In digital culture, the reader may easily turn into the writer and give themselves a voice in society (Benjamin, 1935, p. 12). This voice could find truth as it is opinionated and biased (Kassim, 2012) and may say exactly what the media does not want society to hear. In the case of the Arab Spring, a powerful dictatorship was overthrown when power was gained by activists through the use of social media (Kassim, 2012). This in itself shows how strong of an impact digital culture may have on society as societal issues may be addressed by online users and positive change can be made. Oppositely, when staying silent, one cannot expect change. Digital culture, then, is very “user-friendly”.
References
Benjamin, W. (1935). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In H. Arendt (Ed.) & H. Zohn (Trans.), Illuminations: Essays and Reflections (pp. 1-26). New York: Schocken Books, 1969.
Deuze, M. (2006). Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of Principal Components of a Digital Culture. In H. Sawhney (Ed.), The Information Society (pp. 63–75). Abingdon: Taylor & Francis Group.
Kassim, S. (2012, July 3). Twitter Revolution: How the Arab Spring Was Helped By Social Media. Mic. Retrieved from https://mic.com/articles/10642/twitter-revolution-how-the-arab-spring-was-helped-by-social-media#.gABHmdpLS
