Hyper - reality and the digital renaissance

1) Create a new blogpost called 'Hyper-reality and the digital renaissance' and make notes from the article under the following headings: 

• examples
• theories 
• positive aspects of new technology (or 'digital renaissance')
• negative aspects of new technology on audiences and society  
• wider issues and debates 

2) The article was written in 2009. Offer three examples of more recent social networking sites or uses of technology that support the idea of a 'digital renaissance'.

3) How do live streaming services such as Periscope or Facebook Live fit into the idea of a 'digital renaissance'? Are these a force for good or simply a further blurring of reality?

4) How can we link the 'digital renaissance' to our case study on news? Is citizen journalism a further example of hyper-reality or is it actually making news more accurate and closer to real life?

1)  Examples

• Graham Bell launched telephone in 1876 - Revolution in communication systems and sewed the seeds of a more wide ranging transformation about the way in which society thought about itself and culture.
• Substitution of face to face interaction interaction with a hyper real experience mediated by technology
• Skype dinner parties 
• Eadweard Muybridge's experiments with stereoscopic images in the 1870's - developed into a staple venue for romantic courtships in the 20th century
• Cinema,television, music videos and computer games all invite the audiences to suspend disbelief and inhabit of a paperless fantasy world.
• BAUER's Kerrang! - Successful brand that exists in a post digital age across multiple platforms (website, TV and radio station)   
• Bebo, Facebook and MySpace embody postmodern culture
• September 11th - Terrorist attacks on America in 2001  

Theories

• Jean Baudrillard - Simulacrum and Simulacra
• Frankfurt School theorists like Theodore Adorno: Viewed the gramophone record and cinema as a means of distracting the working class from their disadvantaged social positions.  
• Mark Zuckerburg  - Bullying
• Albert Bandura - The Bobo Doll Experiment 

Positive Aspects of new technology (or 'digital renaissance')

• The way in which technologies are embedded into our lives reinforces traditional structures of society and culture
• Interactivity
• Prejudice no longer matters
• Re birth in the way that we think about society and culture in the developed world from the proliferation of creative digital hardware to social networking
• More innovation and social interaction

Negative Aspects of new technology on audiences and society

• Impossible to take a moral stance on media technologies
• Body image issues
• The use of telephones/television and the internet are all symptomatic of societies decay

Wide issues and debates

• Is the advancements in the digital world a positive impact on today's society or a negative impact?
• Have the advancements in technology come to fast? Are we struggling to keep up with the developments?  
• What do these advancements that keep coming in technology mean for society in terms of work? (Print media industry - Journalists lost/loosing jobs with the takeover of User Generated Content) 

2) Instagram - Providing live videos and the ability to create stories in a matter of minutes that can be shared with thousands of people at the click of a button. 

Skype - The ability to have a live video stream going and share one moment or experience with millions of family and friends - Skype dinner parties

Facebook - Live streaming service

3) Live streaming services like Periscope and Facebook fit into the idea of the digital renaissance as these services are an advancement in technology. Users of the services can easily record their surroundings or something they are doing in the moment and share it with millions of people within a matter of minutes with a few simple clicks. These types of live streaming services are a force for good because they encourage better audience interaction and discussion of views and values etc. However, these services are a further blurring from reality because some people begin to hide behind the camera and deceive others from what is the truth (Reality); they live every second of their lives behind the lens of a camera. 

4) I think that the digital renaissance can be linked to our case study on news because it allows us to see how the advancements in technology over the years has changed the way in which we consume and distribute news and how our views of the media and other things have changed because of the way in which technology has changed. I feel like citizen journalism is both a further example of hyper reality and also making news more accurate and closer to real life. Citizen journalism provides us with first hand accounts of uncensored news which is real life and it could be more accurate because it is shared in the moment with thousands of people. However, citizen journalism could also be an example of hyper reality because is what we are fed through citizen journalism an imitation of real world processes or is it an actual representation of someone or something.