Konzervatív fordulat a zeneiparban és a digitális zeneipar új vállalkozói

Author(s): Emília Barna / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 23/2018

In this paper I argue that by looking at dominant discourses and narratives surrounding the digital music industry – channels of which include the music industry press, the themes and language of music business conferences, the popular media as well as informal interactions in the music industry – we can observe an ideological turn taking place in the last few years. The emergence of the digital music industry was accompanied by the following optimistic narratives and the corresponding consumer image: the “long tail” (Anderson 2006) and the end of the “tyranny of the hit”; technological triumphalism and democratisation; and the power of individual choice, i.e. a mature and conscious music consumer. In recent years, however, contrary narratives seem to have strengthened: “digital music pollution” and the “tyranny of choice”; record companies as the guarantees of quality; and infantile (and feminised) mass consumers who need the guidance of expert tastemakers. By looking at ideology together with the economy of music, it is possible to conclude that the frequently mentioned plenitude of music available via digital and online platforms simultaneously masks and facilitates industry concentration. Based on the results of qualitative interview research conducted in 2014 on the Amsterdam-based platform 22tracks, I explore the ways in which music curation platforms using playlists are able to challenge this concentration process by acting as a counterforce, while, at the same time, also forming part of it.

Use of Social Media for Political Purposes: The Case of Diyarbakir

Author(s): Remziye Erdem,Ibrahim Ozejder / Language(s): English Issue: 72/2021

The use of social media, which has turned into a different area of communication with the developments in technology, creates a participatory, free and democratic space according to some approaches, and can turn into an easily controlled surveillance and pressure area according to some approaches. The main point in these different approaches is whether social media creates an alternative space that increases the opportunities for political participation, provides freedom of expression to opposing views and contributes to the advancement of democracy. In this study, individuals' political preferences and identities of social media political-based use of the axis, effect, inhibiting factors of the use of social media what is happening has been aimed to examine regarding the current discussions in Turkey, in Diyarbakir where ethnic identity is the focus and in this sense having an identity opposing to the widespread political say. Questionnaire technique was used as data collection tool in the study. The survey was conducted face-to-face to 618 people with the method of “random sampling”. Survey forms of 540 social media users out of 618 people were included in the evaluation. The data obtained from the field study were analysed by using descriptive statistical techniques. In terms of the level of political participation, the percentages of the participants towards the behaviours of political participation in the axis of both political identities and political preferences were found to be relatively different from each other.

Russian attitudes towards humour and laughter

Author(s): Alyona Ivanova,Ekaterina Stefanenko,Sergey Enikolopov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Different phenomena related to humour and laughter, such as humour styles, gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism, were investigated in a series of psychological studies in Russia. As far as the samples were rather heterogeneous in regard with age, gender, region of Russia, and included besides big cities also small towns and villages, the data allows to discuss not only psychological, but also a certain cultural perspective. It is concluded that self-defeating humour style plays an important role in the structure of Russian cultural attitude towards humour and laughter. The most adaptive affiliative humour style is highly connected with self-defeating and aggressive styles. Similar pattern was shown for humour and laughter perception: a fear of being laughed at paradoxically provokes active involvement into exchange of jokes. A comparison between the two Russian capitals and regional sample revealed more similarities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg with western data than with the regional Russian sample which is supposed to reflect more of traditional national character.

Editorial:

Author(s): Eric Weitz / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

“Laf wan kill me die” (I almost died laughing):

Author(s): Ibukun Filani / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

Studies on humour have acknowledged that responses to jokes are important aspects of a joking exchange; however, investigation of joke recipients’ responses has received little attention from humour scholars. Moreover, the linguistic investigations of jokes have been limited to native speakers’ contexts, leaving ESL contexts out. Therefore, this study examines readers’ responses to a genre of jokes in Nigerian online spheres, Akpos jokes, with a view to characterising their forms and functions. Akpos jokes are humorous narratives created around an imaginary character called Akpos. Jokes are randomly collected from a blog and readers’ responses were derived from a Facebook page in which Akpos jokes are published. Using computer paralanguage and language mixing in writing the jokes and the responses, the jokes and the reactions to them mirror the online and the Nigerian ESL contexts in which they are situated. Readers use their responses to indicate affiliation, disaffiliation with the joke, or to introduce something that has nothing to do with the subject of the joke or humour. Readers also use their responses to argue for and/or against the humorousness the jokes.

Looping out loud:

Author(s): Vittorio Marone / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

Launched in 2013, Vine is a popular microblogging service that allows users to record, edit, and share six-second videos that loop ad libitum, until another video is selected. At this time, the communicative, expressive, and semiotic affordances of Vine and similar services have still to be fully explored by users and scholars alike. Through a multimodal analysis approach drawing on New London Group’s (1996) work, this paper investigates how people construct humour on Vine by artfully arranging different modes of expression. The analysis focused on user-enacted humour, as opposed to captured comical scenes or bare samples taken from TV shows or movies. The study hypothesises the social construction of a novel humorous language that draws on extant forms of humour and a variety of modes and techniques derived from audio-visual media and computer-mediated communication, as users inventively exploit the framework provided by the Vine platform. Findings show that users create instant characters to amplify the impact of their solo video recordings, use Vine as a “humorous confessional”, explore the potential of hand-held media by relying on “one hand and face” expressivity (the other hand holding the device for the video “selfie”), and use technology, internet slang, internet acronyms, emoticons/emojis, and hashtags to convey humour and complement the messages of the videos they post on Vine. The goal of this study is an exploratory analysis of humour and its discursive functions in an emergent social medium by considering its affordances, as users find new and creative ways to harness its expressive potential.

Pussy Riot’s humour and the social media:

Author(s): Berenice Pahl / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

This paper seeks to demonstrate that both the media impact and political success of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot rest on their use of new media, on the one hand, and on an aesthetic principle of humour, on the other, or, more specifically, on a kind of humour that is both self-reflexive and subversive. Pussy Riot operate through a style of guerrilla communication that re-signifies signs and symbols for their own purpose in a self-ironical, comical manner. I will indicate the contradictions and ambiguities of various interpretive frameworks – which not only create humour but are particularly motivating factors in the (personal) decision to become politically active. The speed with which one can communicate within social networks made it possible that infectious laughter about the absurdity of the events in Moscow was able to spread so rapidly. Reassurance and the community’s solidarity were closely connected to the fun and joy of the individual internet user.

Is it OK to laugh about it yet?

Author(s): Liat Steir-Livny / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2016

The Holocaust was and remains a central trauma in Israel’s collective memory. For many years, the perception was that a humorous approach to the Holocaust might threaten the sanctity of its memory. Official agents of the Holocaust memory continue to believe in this approach, but since the 1990s, a new unofficial path of memory began taking shape in tandem with it. It is an alternative and subversive path that seeks to remember – but differently. In the last decade, YouTube has become a major cultural field including new humorous representations and images of the Holocaust. The article analyses a virtual phenomenon – “Hitler Rants” (or “Hitler Reacts”) parodies in Hebrew. These are internet memes in which surfers take a scene from the German film Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel 2004), showing Hitler ranting at his staff as the end of WWII approaches, and they add parodic subtitles in which Hitler rants about completely different things – current affairs and pesky little details. The incompatibilities between the visuals, the German screaming, and the subtitles turn Hitler into a ludicrous individual. The article objects to the notion that views the parodies as “cheapening” the Holocaust, and rather claims that they underscore humour’s role as a defence mechanism. Israelis, who live in a society in which the Holocaust memory is intensive and creates constant anxiety, seek to lessen reactions of tension and anxiety, even for a few minutes, and they do so through humour.

Jokes, the unconscious and social subjectivity:

Author(s): Marc Barbeta Viñas,María Jesús Izquierdo Benito / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2016

The purpose of this paper is to propose a psychosociological approach to the configuration of human bonds, on the one hand, and a methodological reflection on the analysis, on the other. The bonds are analyzed in their less explicit side, in order to reveal those emotional and representational elements which tend to express themselves an unclear and obscure way. The empirical research material has been a set of jokes told in different focus groups, with participants located in similar social positions. We analysed the associative chains developed in group dynamics, presenting methodological schemes for each particular analysis. The “latent accounts” arising from the analysis of each discussion group exhibit significant differences which are expressive of link models specific to each social context. Additionally, the phenomenon of the joke is confirmed as a valuable tool for social research.

Book review

Author(s): Liisi Laineste / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2016

Humour in colloquial conversation

Author(s): María Belén Alvarado Ortega / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

Researchers from the GRIALE group (Irony and Humour Research Group) have developed a theoretical method that can be applied to humorous ironic utterances in different textual genres, depending on the degree of the violation of conversational principles in conversation. In addition to this, the General Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo and Raskin, 1991) will be taken into account in the analysis. Therefore, I will study irony and humour in conversational utterances in real examples of Peninsular Spanish obtained from the COVJA, (Corpus de conversaciones coloquiales [Corpus of Colloquial Conversations]) and CREA, (Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual [Reference Corpus of Present-Day Spanish]). The focus of this paper is then the application of the aforementioned theories to humorous ironic statements which arise in conversation. I will also examine the positive or negative effects caused by them, which will additionally verify if irony and humour coexist in the same conversational exchange, and if this has a communicative goal.

Discourse types in stand-up comedy performances:

Author(s): Ibukun Filani / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

The primary focus of this paper is to apply Discourse Type theory to stand-up comedy. To achieve this, the study postulates two contexts in stand-up joking stories: context of the joke and context in the joke. The context of the joke, which is inflexible, embodies the collective beliefs of stand-up comedians and their audience, while the context in the joke, which is dynamic, is manifested by joking stories and it is made up of the joke utterance, participants in the joke and activity/situation in the joke. In any routine, the context of the joke interacts with the context in the joke and vice versa. For analytical purpose, the study derives data from the routines of male and female Nigerian stand-up comedians. The analysis reveals that stand-up comedians perform discourse types, which are specific communicative acts in the context of the joke, such as greeting/salutation, reporting and informing, which bifurcates into self-praising and self denigrating.

Online humour as a community-building cushioning glue

Author(s): Vittorio Marone / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

This article examines the uses and functions of humour in an online community of gamers and nonprofessional game designers who present and critique user-generated artefacts created with the popular game series LittleBigPlanet. Findings show that participants use humour and “good humour” to achieve a variety of social goals: to veil statements of ability and effort, alleviate negative comments, present user-generated content, attract new players, support other participants, and overall engender a smiling atmosphere that incentives collaboration, peer feedback, and social cohesion. Far from being a trivial ornament, humour emerges as a community building “cushioning glue” that connects, seals, and buffers different gears of computer-mediated interaction, contributing to defining the boundaries and the identity of the analysed online space.

Book review

Author(s): Attila L. Nemesi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

Editorial:

Author(s): Mike Lloyd / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014

This special issue arises out of an annual conference of the Australasian Humour Studies Network (AHSN). These have been held for two decades, but despite that longevity and the fact that the word Australasian refers to Australia and New Zealand, it was not until 2014 that the first AHSN conference was held in New Zealand, with the theme “Anything Goes?”.

Mad rant or “taking the piss?”:

Author(s): Bronwyn McGovern / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014

In 2010, Brother a well-known local identity living on a busy street corner in Wellington, told court appointed psychiatrists he boogied with the dead and was enjoying life in 1984. Though academic writing on the homeless experience unanimously proposes that street life existence is essentially ‘no laughing matter’, and while Brother’s talk could be dismissed as the ramblings of a mad man, here I argue that his banter can be understood as displaying an acute sense of underdog humour (Coser 1959). Drawing from participant observational research spanning a three-year period and forming the empirical component of my doctoral work, I examine humour as a “quintessentially social phenomenon” (Kuipers 2008: 361) that is often particular to a specific time and place. Speaking to broader themes of sociality, spatiality, embodiment, domination and resistance, I reveal how humour is used by Brother to manage a life lived in public. I also consider how Brother’s jovial talk and actions disrupt mundane understandings of ‘normal’ boundaries. In arguing “agency and structure” collide in the case of Brother, I look at how this evokes a simultaneous “making, remaking, and unmaking” of the person (Hacking 2004).

Binders full of LOLitics:

Author(s): Geniesa Tay / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014

This paper examines the phenomenon of humorous Internet memes within the context of news and political culture, sometimes referred to as LOLitics. LOLitics are a category of digital texts created by ordinary individuals that, like most political humour, are usually responses to news events or gaffes committed by political figures. The analysis situates LOLitics as popular culture products that exist within the intersection between pleasure-driven ‘play’ and (arguably) genuine political discourse. LOLitics are prominent due to their spreadability and replicability, and the amount of texts being produced has visibly risen over the last election cycle. Internet memes have become one of the default ways to respond to particular situations online, and this certainly reflects the reaction towards news and political culture. The 2012 US Presidential election is applied as a case study in examining the significance of these Internet memes to everyday citizen discourse, and the relationships between ordinary citizens, the mainstream media, and politics. The results argue that humorous viral texts, both visual and verbal, reveal the potential power that ordinary people have in setting the agenda for newsmakers, and to communicate political criticism through popular culture.

Breaking the mainstream mold:

Author(s): Ronald Stewart / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014

This paper introduces the Disaster Picture-Diary political cartoons of Asakura Yūzō which appear in the Japanese regional newspaper Fukushima Minpō. After the so-called 3.11 disaster’s triple blow of earthquake, tsunami, and multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns in 2011, intense public and media interest and debates erupted over: how to help the victims; how to rebuild; what to do about the ongoing nuclear problem; and what should be the future of direction the nation. Yet, cartoonists in national daily newspapers failed to get involved in much of this debate. They basically continued on as they had done before the disaster merely lightly mocking politicians, their eyes closed to wider problems. In contrast, Asakura’s cartoons which began in the wake of 3.11 in the disaster affected region, broke away from this mainstream form of cartoon discourse to comment on a much greater variety of post-3.11 issues using a much more diverse range of drawing styles. In this sense, though still seemingly restrained to an outside observer from a country with a more aggressive satirical cartooning, for Asakura it is definitely a case of “anything goes”. This paper gives an overview of the disaster, and mainstream political cartooning before and after 3.11. It then introduces examples of Asakura’s Disaster Picture-Diary political cartoons, contrasting them with mainstream national cartoons to underscore how his work differs. In concluding, a number of reasons for these differences are provisionally forwarded.

Too far West (dangerous curves ahead)

Author(s): Will Visconti / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014

In a career that lasted over eighty years, the performances of Mae West were famous, or infamous, for their power to shock, their transgression of boundaries of class, gender, sexuality and propriety, and for the frequent opprobrium that West seemed to attract. Moreover, there was no subject matter considered “off-limits” within Mae West’s work, and her plays and films were marked by her fearless approach to topics that even today are often seen as problematic (substance abuse, abortion, rape, and the idea of the “expiry date” of the female performer and her sexuality). West also broke new ground by both bringing taboo subjects into mainstream view, and by combining a sympathetic and humorous treatment of serious topics. Despite her reputation as a screen icon with a rapier wit, her work as a writer, and indeed, the effort she put into creating and maintaining the style and content of her act is frequently overlooked. Throughout her plays, films, radio appearances and written work, she consistently pushed the envelope in terms of what was deemed acceptable, normal or humorous for her age (and her era). When castigated for going “too far”, she simply edited her material and tried again, inching forward and gradually setting a precedent for later generations of comics and comic writers, while situating herself within an extant framework of shocking and subversive performers. This paper is intended as an exploration not only of West’s much-publicised transgressive use of humour, or the subversiveness of her humour itself, but also the way in which her career trajectory embodied the notion of going “too far” with her final films, and how Mae West’s life so frequently imitated her art.

Book review

Author(s): Margherita Dore / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014