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From Link to Link. The New Geometry of the Social

This title, calling to mind the lines “From cliffs to cliffs, and from century to century” from Ivan Vazov’s well-known poem, was made up by Julia Rone when we were working on the “New Youth and New Media” research project. We suddenly realized that today’s twenty-something-year-olds no longer read electronic magazines and news websites, nor do they normally watch TV– they forward Internet links to each other. It does not by all means follow that they are less informed than the adults, it follows rather that instead of the media institution, the internaut is faced to the network of his or her friends. If you project this onto the social contacts, the civic mobilizations, the aesthetic tastes, you find that the Net confronts us with an entirely new geometry of the social in which there is no center, no coercion, no canon. This new geometry was referred to as “network society” by Castells, “liquid modernity” by Bauman.

Taking as points of departure social networks such as YouTube or Facebook, phenomena such as emotions or nationalism, and cultural practices such as protests or interactivity, the articles featured here reflect upon the issue of how new this virtual sociality is, and to what extent it comes down to the intensification of the old interpersonal relationships.

Ivaylo Ditchev, Editor of Seminar_BG #1

21 Март 2011г.

The Age of the “Mediums”

Julia Rone

Information from Link to Link, and from Mouth to Mouth

I feel stupid and contagious,
Here we are now: entertain us.

The Bricoleurs

Vbox7, YouTube, Facebook, and even blogs, rarely produce news. As Geert Lovink notes (Lovink, G. 2007), the chances of finding bloggers committed to carrying out independent journalistic research are slim. What online platforms do is emit a thick cloud of impressions around given news and let loose the public opinion. News are extracted from the closed circle of the traditional media and released in the open Internet space. Here, they grow thick with opinions, comments, and interpretations. It is rather telling which news arouses the interest of Internet users. The Facebook cause "Miss Bulgaria 2009 is a crocodile" might turn out to be a lot more exciting for them than the economic crisis. New media are clockwork media. It is never known for certain which news would detonate the public opinion.

The relation traditional – new media may be examined through the strategies – tactics dichotomy offered by Michel de Certeau (Certeau, M. 2002). Newspapers and television constitute the official discourse, the neutral point of view. Internet users creatively consume, use the official messages. In this case these are not necessarily technologies of resistance. Video websites offer a perfect example at hand. There we see the political entering the field of the quotidian, the entertaining, the personal reading. In other words, new media enable us to take the well-known faces out of their institutional context and plug them into self-contrived plots and narrative configurations; to act as bricoleurs at their expense and deal with the available in unexpected ways.

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21 Март 2011г.

Social Networks and Politics 2.0

Orlin Spassov
Social Networks and Politics 2.0

The world of politics has rapidly changed in the recent years, becoming increasingly dependent on the new technologies. One of the key questions is to what extent the practices pertaining to the social internet could stimulate political and civic activities. In this context two driving forces have been clearly recognized: traditional political structures making their way into the Net, and activism taking place “from below”, encouraged by the revolution of the users. In the first case, the Net accommodates hierarchically organized institutions, whereas in the second, people take action by their free will and determine themselves the load and the nature of their involvement.

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21 Март 2011г.

Poke Bulgaria!

Milla Mineva

It is rather easy now to find out how many fans Bulgaria has: thanks to Facebook we’ll discover that “Bulgaria” – a group defined as a “state government” type – has 181 friends; its profile picture is the Bulgarian coat of arms, and the news posted on its Wall reads “Bulgaria has changed its website”.

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