Cultural Intermediaries – how concepts discussed in lectures have contributed to my understanding of our web feature topic
The notion of cultural intermediaries is one that has been discussed throughout this unit so far. I most specifically recall this being discussed in lecture one as a core media concept. It refers to the mediation between culture and economy as well as production and consumption, most commonly through occupations and workers (Maguire and Mathews, 2012).
Thinking about this in the context of social media, assisted me in understanding the cultural role of social media influencers. In particular, I was able to view AI influencers as circulating the ideals of society, most evidently society’s desire for perfection. AI influencers also act as a mediator between society and Instagram as a money making platform.
References:
Maguire, J., & Matthews, J. (2012). Are we all cultural intermediaries now? An introduction to cultural intermediaries in context. European Journal Of Cultural Studies, 15(5), 551-562. doi: 10.1177/1367549412445762
Our target users
The designated publication for our web feature is vice, an online platform with a majority audience base of 18-34 year olds (vice, 2016). However, not only do we want to target the audience of vice, but we want to target millennials in general.
We especially want to target Instagram users because our idea focusses on Instagram and the various questions raised by influencers on the platform. 70% of instagrams users are under the age of 35 (khoros, 2018), only confirming our decision to target the millennial generation. We believe that this chosen group are among those most interested in its contents due to the attention they pay to influencers.
With Vice’s own Instagram account consisting of 2.9 million followers, it is evident that Vice’s audience are also users of Instagram, supporting the notion that they will benefit from the information in our feature.
References:
Khoros. (2018). The 2018 social audience guide. Retrieved from: https://khoros.com/resources/social-media-demographics-guide
Vice. (2016). Digital media kit. Retrieved from: https://upload-assets.vice.com/files/2016/01/15/1452894236compressed.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2tq-fL9KhjX6EY6y49XLJFAB3s94QtaocB29EOuIqLH55c49Na3oXnQfk
Different angles for our feature
It was clear to us that AI influencers have begun to accumulate a large following and hence have the potential to significantly impact the choices and perceptions of other Instagram users. This caused us to question the purpose of Instagram, and introduced us to two possible angles for our feature:
Angle one: Instagram as reflecting the perfect life
These AI influencers have an advantage over human influencers: they don’t age, get hungry or tired. They hence present a level of perfection that is unobtainable to the regular Instagram influencer. This could lead us to investigate the culture and need for perfection on Instagram, and how this growing trend of AI influencers is an extreme extension of that. This would include questions including have humans become too imperfect for Instagram? And are AI influencers more popular and affective than regular human influencers?
Angle two: The economic purpose of Instagram
These AI influencers have the potential to be the perfect embodiment of an Instagram influencer who has the ability to make money off sponsored posts and promoting brands. This exemplifies the entrepreneurialism of Instagram and could lead our web feature in the direction of investigating Instagram as a money-making platform. It brings forth questions such as are these AI influencers just another way of maximising capital on social media?
Phase two: Our chosen idea and discoveries made – Lilmiquela
After taking time out to further investigate our three ideas, we came across the Instagram account Lilmiquela.
See Miquela’s instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/lilmiquela/?hl=en
Miquela Sousa is a seemingly real person on Instagram as she posts photos of herself in designer clothes and shows support to social causes (Yurieff, 2018). She has becoming highly recognisable on social media, acquiring large following and numerous brand deals.
It wasn’t until April of 2018 that Lilmiquela announced in an Instagram post that she is not a human being (donoughue, 2018).
What alarmed us most about Lilmiquela, was that she had acquired 1.6 million followers. That is 1.6 million people who are potentially impacted by the images and recommendations that Lilmiquela posts on social media. Some comments from her followers include “omg where did you get those shoes” and “genuinely makes me happy to see you happy”, as if she is a living human being with real feelings and emotions. This poses questions about the impact these virtual influencers are having on other users of Instagram.
It was this discovery of Lilmiquela that led us to decide upon pursuing our third idea for the web feature.
References:
Donoughue, P. (2018). Instagram star Miquela Sousa is testing the boundaries of social media authenticity. Retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-21/miquela-sousa-instagram-famous-influencer-cgi-ai/9767932
Yurieff, K. (2018). Instagram star isn’t want she seems. But brands are buying in. Retrieved from: https://money.cnn.com/2018/06/25/technology/lil-miquela-social-media-influencer-cgi/index.html?fbclid=IwAR13pmsTkZYALcc1IQ_tUulAwKwoBZAslPxrtE9VlhRk0DgCpZIv2mqlwzc
Phase one: Group formation and discussion of ideas
In this initial stage of the pre production of our web feature, we formed our groups based on our preferred roles and came up with three ideas to choose from.
https://blog.schoolspecialty.com/creating-classroom-collaboration-center-group-work-activities/
In the first tutorial for online media, our web feature group was formed off the basis that Vanessa was interested in design work, Jemma wanted to be involved in content creation, I prefer to work in researching and writing, and Rachel was happy to act as project manager.
After deciding our roles based off these interests, we began our discussion of ideas. Between the four of us, we came up with three ideas which we then went on to research and contemplate for the next two weeks.
Idea one: The censoring of nude photography on Instagram.
We spoke about this idea in relation to Rachel’s contact, Imogen Ivy, who has had her Instagram account shut down multiple times for containing inappropriate content.
Idea two: How far are social media influencers willing to go for attention or ‘clout’?
This idea was brought up in discussion by myself, following my interest in the extravagant event of the marriage between the two profound YouTube vloggers, Tana Mongeau and Jake Paul.
Idea three: AI Instagram influencers.
We have been seeing these accounts emerging more frequently on Instagram and discussed that this may be an interesting topic to investigate.
The Red Meat Footprint
Science weekly feature: By Bianca Nogrady (1st September, 2011)
In western Industrialized countries, our diets revolve around red meat. But, there are rumours that being vegetarian is better for the environment. Could there be some truth to this? In this article, we investigate the evidence.
Death row inmates in the United states put a lot of thought into their final meal choice. After all, it’s the last food they will eat on this Earth. Their choice is telling, as overwhelmingly they want meat. Pork chops, fillet mignon, steak, hamburger, meatloaf, fried chicken , sausages… wuth not a lentil, slice of haloumi or vegetarian lasagna in sight.
Prisoners on death row might not be the most representative of social groups, but their choices give an inkling of the central role meat plays in everyday diets.
Recent news story: Sydney Stabbing Rampage
At 2pm Yesterday i was going about my day to day uni life. I finished my strategic marketing class, purchased a coffee from ABS cafe, and made my way to redfern station where i waited for the train and begun my commute home.
However, also at 2pm yesterday, the horrific events of the Sydney stabbing rampage occurred, whereby one innocent victim was tragically stabbed to death and another received a stab wound to her back.
Completely oblivious of what was occurring only a few stops away from me, i received a text message from my boyfriend:
“Where are you????? The CBD is in lock down”
The madman was spotted on York street waving around the black kitchen knife yelling “shoot me”. He was chased down by heroic members of the public who restrained with two chairs and a milk crate until police made it to the scene.
The killer, who is currently undergoing treatment in hospital for a knee injury he obtained in the massacre, is believed to have escaped from a mental institution in blacktown. The attack is not linked to any associations or terror organisations.
What is most devastating about the ordeal is that those victims were only going about their day to day life in the city. The woman who lost her life was only 21 years old. It comes as a true eye opener that that could have been anyone who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a reminder to live everyday as if it were your last.
Online Media blog 