Blog Theory Part 1: Communicative Capitalism / Symbol Efficiency

Let's just say that I am better understanding the text after re reading it a few times and thanks to our class discussion. This is what I understood. Correct me if I got the idea all mixed up. However, I am hoping to understand to the best of my ability. This blog represents what I understood from the first part of the text. As we proceed to reading other chapter's my understanding has become better. I am better able to get a full grasp of the text as we go.  It help's to have google open while reading the text. I was able to define terms/ words I didn't quite understand and put the texts into my own words. Once I broke down the texts I can say I had a better idea of the message. It took me a while. Im still trying to understand the first part. These are my thoughts.....


" E-books and articles as well as blog posts on theoretical topics are convenient ways to store and share ideas. But these benefits come at cost : We pay with attention. "

Deans Argument: "communicative capitalism is a formation that relies on this imbalance, on the repeated suspension of narratives, patterns, identities, norms, etc."

Blog Settings 
( Reading this chapter helped me understand that through blogs we are able to put our idea's for the world to see. Blogging is a new convenient way to do so. However, although we have freedom of speech some consequences do form.)

The media is constantly changing. It is designed to be fun, fast and a way to grasp the attention of a full range of users. Media is seen, thought, recorded and saved. People are always bringing new ideas to the table with media. Hence "blogging" a type of way in which people can discuss their ideas.  "Thought can be immediate, an element of its moment or more precisely. of the fantasy that attempts to delimit a moment out of the present's rush to the future and the absorption into the past"

In the media there is is an overwhelming amount of information for us. So much that one becomes overwhelmed by how much their is. Although their is a massive amount of information that as seen as equal amount (it can easily be changed or put into different concepts).Ideas are not really stable. There is so much information that is put out there that we no longer take the time to think and analyze information. We are distracted by the amount of information that is out there and the idea that the media is meant to be exciting and fun other than informative.  Once again correct me if I get the idea mixed up?

Communicative Capitalism: "captures critique and resistance, formatting them as contributors to the circuits in which it thrives."

"fragments thought into ever smaller bits, bits that can be distributed and sampled, even ingested and enjoyed, but that in the glut of multiple, circulating contributions tend to resist recombination into longer, more demanding theories."

What I got from the idea of Communicative Capitalism is the idea that information is produced however the focus of the quality of the information is lost because people become focused on the production and for entertainment focuses. Communicative Capitalism provides a sense of Democracy ( in terms of allowing us to express ourselves and express freedom of speech) However, the speed and the other qualities "produce massive distortions"

Dean explains that "Communicative Capitalism"
   assigns name to two things coming together democracy ( equality, freedom of speech) and capitalism ( decisions regarding distribution)  
However, from this idea there is a problem with the symbol efficiency.

Symbol Efficiency: A fundamental feature in Communicative Capitalism. " decline of symbol efficiency points to an immobility or failure of transmission." It is difficult to tell when a blog is serious or when it is funny. People interpret ideas differently. The more information formed, symbols fade because of the mixed signals people receive. As new ideas form, symbols start to decline. An example that I thought about was brought up in class. It helped me understand this point more.

Britney Spears is a symbol of pop culture. A political Theorist has its own kind of symbol. A Political Theorist is a symbol of the academic. As new media forms and people are able to give feedback new ideas form taking away meaning from the original symbols. Symbols fade.

 The page that helped me kind of wrap the chapter in my head was ( p.29) The first paragraph there states that " Blogging's settings then, include the decline of symbol efficiency, the recursive loops of universalized reflexivity, the extreme inequalities that reflective networks produce, and the operation of displaced mediators at point of critical transition."

Although, we are free to blog messages are misinterpreted many times simply because of the way blog settings work. We are able to give feedback and its a very great way to share your ideas and put ideas for the world to see. However, meaning is many times lost due to the absence of meaning. A blog can be written and have no meaning.