scholarly journals Wikipedia and participatory culture: Why fans edit

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Thomas

Online, fans of popular culture media partake in participatory culture in various ways, such as writing fan fiction and scrutinizing media on message boards. Another way they do so is by editing relevant articles in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. In fact, research has shown that Wikipedia articles skew heavily toward pop culture, suggesting that fans of pop culture are among the most enthusiastic of Wikipedia's editors. Of course, the question emerges: Why are pop culture fans in particular so interested in editing Wikipedia? Building on previous research, I argue that fans want to take part in the production of the media that they enjoy, that Wikipedia allows editors to create their own paratext (i.e., the Wikipedia article) in relation to a main text (e.g., a movie, a television show, a book series), and that this paratext may be heavily used by the general public. Such usage is a form of implicit approval that affirms the editors' knowledge and encourages them to make more edits. Thus, Wikipedia validates the fan editor's work in a way that other outlets for participatory culture (e.g., fan fiction, fan art, songwriting) cannot.

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soonkwan Hong ◽  
Chang-Ho Kim

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to unpack an Asian-born celebrity culture in which celebrities become everyday necessities for global consumers’ identity struggle, prototypes for global branding strategy, contents for the media industry, and agents for sociocultural transformation. Design/methodology/approach In order to better elucidate such a significant phenomenon, the authors also introduce two mostly palpable and more relevant domains of celebrity culture to global consumer culture literature − politics of aesthetics and memetics − as analytical tools. Observations and publicly available narratives are also incorporated to enhance the review and critique of the global celebrification process. Psy’s Gangnam Style (GS) is chosen as an archetype, due to its exceptionally vulgar but highly replicable nature. Findings The specific case of GS exposes three unique qualities of kitsch − exaggeration, disconcertment, and subversive sensibility − that are substantially commensurate with prototypical characteristics of globalized online memes − ordinariness, flawed masculinity, theatricality, and ludic agency. Polysemy and optimism also facilitate the celebrification process in global participatory culture. Research limitations/implications The “radical intertextuality” of online memes sustains the participatory culture in which kitsch becomes a global icon through a reproductive process. Korean popular culture cultivates reverse cosmopolitanism through a nationalistic self-orientalization strategy that paradoxically indigenizes western pop-culture and transforms power relations in global pop culture. Originality/value This paper presents further elaboration of current discourses on global-celebrity culture by incorporating popular concepts and practices, such as kitsch, meme, parody, and sharing, which synergistically advance aesthetic liberation on a global scale.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 525-532
Author(s):  
Qing Guo ◽  
Zao-he Wu ◽  
Ming-liang Qian ◽  
Binhe Gu

The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of coral sands in the enrichment and isolation of ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). We hypothesized that the porous coral sands provided additional surface area and nutrients for the growth of periphytic AOB. In the present study, an orthogonal test was designed to compare the AOB conversion rates of ammonium-nitrogen (NH4+N) to nitrite-nitrogen (NO2--N) among various combinations of culture media. Results showed that the conversion of NH4+N to NO2--N increased significantly when the coral sands were added, implying that coral sands were beneficial to the growth of AOB. Additions of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4) or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) to the media became unnecessary when coral sands were used, but the addition of KH2PO4was needed when the molar nitrogen to phosphorus (N:P) ratio reached 10 in the enrichment media using calcium carbonate (CaCO3) powder as a calcium source.


Author(s):  
Gabriela de Oliveira Fernandes ◽  
Marcella Pecora Milazzotto ◽  
Andrei Antonioni Guedes Fidelis ◽  
Taynan Stonoga Kawamoto ◽  
Ligiane de Oliveira Leme ◽  
...  

Abstract The present study aimed to identify biomarkers to assess the quality of in vitro produced (IVP) bovine embryos in the culture media. IVP embryos on Day (D) 5 of development were transferred to individual drops, where they were maintained for the last 48 h of culture. Thereafter, the medium was collected and the embryos were transferred to the recipients. After pregnancy diagnosis, the media were grouped into the pregnant and nonpregnant groups. The metabolic profiles of the media were analyzed via electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, and the concentrations of pyruvate, lactate, and glutamate were assessed using fluorimetry. The spectrometric profile revealed that the media from embryos from the pregnant group presented a higher signal intensity compared to that of the nonpregnant group; the ions 156.13 Da [M + H]+, 444.33 Da [M + H]+, and 305.97 Da [M + H]+ were identified as biomarkers. Spent culture medium from expanded blastocysts (Bx) that established pregnancy had a greater concentration of pyruvate (p = 0.0174) and lesser concentration of lactate (p = 0.042) than spent culture medium from Bx that did not establish pregnancy. Moreover, pyruvate in the culture media of Bx can predict pregnancy with 90.9% sensitivity and 75% specificity. In conclusion, we identified markers in the culture media that helped in assessing the most viable IVP embryos with a greater potential to establish pregnancy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Goldberg ◽  
Neal Rosenburg ◽  
Jean Watson

Although health care institutions continue to address the importance of diversity initiatives, the standard(s) for treatment remain historically and institutionally grounded in a sociocultural privileging of heterosexuality. As a result, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities in health care remain largely invisible. This marked invisibility serves as a call to action, a renaissance of thinking within redefined boundaries and limitations. We must therefore refocus our habits of attention on the wholeness of persons and the diversity of their storied experiences as embodied through contemporary society. By rethinking current understandings of LGBTQ+ identities through innovative representation(s) of the media, music industry, and pop culture within a caring science philosophy, nurses have a transformative opportunity to render LGBTQ+ visible and in turn render a transformative opportunity for themselves.


HortScience ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 1487-1493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doina Clapa ◽  
Claudiu Bunea ◽  
Orsolya Borsai ◽  
Adela Pintea ◽  
Monica Hârța ◽  
...  

The current research was carried out to investigate the effects of iron source in the culture media for Vaccinium corymbosum L. ʻBluerayʼ, ʻDukeʼ, and ʻPatriotʼ cultivars grown on five different types of medium (Woody Plant Medium supplemented with 1.0 mg·L−1 zeatin and 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg·L−1 Sequestrene 138). After 10 weeks of culture, seven physiological parameters were measured, such as the number and length of axillary shoots, rooting and acclimatization percentage, as well as chlorophyll (a, b, a/b) and carotenoid content of the leaves. Adding Sequestrene 138 to the culture media led to a slight decrease of the proliferation rate but increased the length of the shoots. The chlorophyll and carotenoid content in all of the three cultivars was considerably increased as the iron concentration of the media increased. The shoots developed on the Sequestrene 138–free medium were chlorotic and short, whereas at different concentrations of iron in the culture medium the shoots were dark green and vigorous, providing a greater acclimatization success than those grown in iron-free medium.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eckehart Velten Schäfer
Keyword(s):  

ZusammenfassungDer Aufsatz untersucht am Beispiel der Skateboard-Praktik den Einfluss audiovisueller Medien auf die Produktion von Bewegungen und die Konstitution von Stil-Kulturen in neuen sportiven Prakti­ken. Der Zusammenhang von Bewegungen und Bildtechnologien wird als „intermediale Konstella­tion“ (Stern, 2010) analysiert. Zeigen lässt sich, wie seit den 1970er Jahren der Gebrauch sich wan­delnder Medientechnologien nicht nur das Aneignen von Manövern beeinflusst und beschleunigt. Auch auf die Vergemeinschaftung der Teilnehmer zu stilistischen ‚Kulturen‘ hat diese Entwicklung erheblichen Einfluss, indem sie immer wieder neue AutorenInnen und Bildgenres zulässt. Eine Zä­sur markiert der in den frühen 1980er Jahren durchgesetzte Videorekorder, auf dessen Basis sich das ‚klassische‘ Skateboard-Video etabliert: Die Praktik verbreitet sich in körperlicher Aneignung von „Rockvideos über Sport“ (Klein, 2005), die zugleich Imagefilme von Jugendmarken sind. Dieser Prozess, so die These, platziert ihre Träger exakt im Schnittpunkt von Sport- und Popkultur - und macht die Skateboard-Praktik zu einer exemplarischen Selbsttechnik, in denen sich ab 1980 das „konsumatorische Kreativsubjekt“ (Reckwitz, 2006) der postmodernen Ordnung heranbildet.


1994 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. H. Goodwin ◽  
C. R. Sopher

The diffusible brown pigment produced by some strains of Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli was found to be due to the secretion and subsequent oxidation of homogentisic acid (2, 5-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid) rather than tyrosinase activity as previously reported. Homogentisic acid is an intermediate in tyrosine catabolism for a number of bacteria. Brown-pigmented strains appeared to be disrupted in tyrosine catabolism and could not use tyrosine as a nutrient. Nonpigmented strains, however, could utilize tyrosine as a nutrient, and although they secreted homogentisic acid, the levels were approximately 1/100th that of brown-pigmented strains. Production of brown pigment was stimulated by tyrosine and repressed by glucose. Growth in glucose resulted in a drop in the pH of the media, and the greatest pigment formation was associated with a shift to alkaline conditions in the culture media. By buffering the media near pH 7.0, brown pigment formation was repressed, even though unoxidized homogentisic acid accumulated in the culture media. The disruption of tyrosine catabolism corresponds to other reports describing differences between brown-pigmented and nonpigmented strains, and provides further support for the retention of a special taxonomic status for the brown-pigmented strains.Key words: homogentisic acid, pigments, Xanthomonas, fuscans.


2013 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Regan Wills

Fandoms can constitute discourse communities, where fans make claims about issues of real-world political importance, such as the relationship between gender, power, and autonomy, and where other fans engage with and evaluate those claims. In fan works and fan analyses of Dana Scully in the television show The X-Files, fans pose claims both in discussion spaces and in the creation of fan fiction, and these fannish evaluations and discussions of these fictions analyze those claims.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-777
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Artero-Muñoz ◽  
Ricardo Zugasti ◽  
Sira Hernánez-Corchete

In Spain, the media market structure is made up of very different media groups, making it necessary to identify and classify them in a clear and coherent manner. To do so, this article collects secondary information from media companies’ websites and from audience measurement institutions. Results identify 50 media groups with activity in the Spanish market. They are classified into three categories according to the type of outlet, including national, sectorial, and regional. The current structure is based on recent developments in the last four decades of democracy among newspapers, magazines, radio, television and digital media.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Anna Miotk ◽  

The text analyzes social media in terms of the possibility of conducting a democratic debate through them. Initially, their users had great hopes to do so. Social media were to be not only a tool for expressing opinions or presenting statements but also for disseminating the model of liberal democracy. However, the business model of these media, as well as content filtering algorithms, introduced to protect users against information overload, prevented this from happening. To prove this thesis, the author referred to Sunstein's public forum doctrine and proved that social media do not constitute its equivalent. Although the media provided a space for discussion, they did not ensure equal access for senders of messages to recipients and recipients to a variety of content. The topic of the negative impact of social media on liberal democracy is already raised in English scholarship (and is already present in Poland through its translations) and it is also gradually gaining academic currency among Polish researchers. What constitutes a novel contribution to the already available research is the presentation of social media in the context of the utopian high hopes the media initially raised.


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