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May 28, 2004
“They’re selling Jesus again” Paper outline
I have to admit that I had some trouble coming up with a good idea to write a paper on. Sometimes ideas just have a way of coming up when you least expect them. A couple of Sundays ago I was sitting in church. We were having a discussion about the influence of media on peoples’ ability to choose. Off course, commercials and internet also came up in the discussion.
In class we talked about the commercial use of the internet. Big companies like Coca cola use it too promote a lifestyle, while others promote their product. It made me wonder how the Christian faith is represented on the internet. If I type the word Jesus in Google.com, will I get a list of sites telling me about Christianity, or sites about where to buy bibles? This way I came up with the following subject:
The representation of Christianity on the internet as a lifestyle and/or as a product.
Further more, I came up with the following sub questions
- What kind of marketing techniques are used to promote the Christian religion?
o Participation
o Games
o Lifestyle
o Products
- Are they different from those used by other companies?
- What are the results of these techniques?
Methods
I will study a couple of religious websites, who are serious about promoting the Christian faith. I will look for those that are more commercial oriented and also for community oriented websites. I will look for ways of participation, like online games, forums and other forms. I will do a textual analysis on these sites. I will look at their features, describing them. I will also look for information on who made these sites and for what purpose. Some background research may be required for this. I will also try to give compare the methods to those used by other companies. Features like community building or questionnaires on consumer behavior.
Literature
So far I have found two website that I would like to include in this paper. The first one is one that I think is more commercial. http://www.wayofthemaker.com I found this site in a magazine. It features actor turned evangelist Kirk Cameron, and a whole lot of ways you can spend money to learn how to become a better Christian. Some features of this site are quizzes, columns, tv-show episodes, links to books about the program, and a faq
An other site I found, http://www.gospelcom.net , is more lifestyle oriented. It features articles, Christian reviews of movies and music, cartoons, a search engine for bible passages, and links to lots of other sites and also to shops.
What I still intend to look for are online Christian promotional games and a Christian forum.
Christian forum.
If someone has tips for other literary sources and theories, please let me know. Posted at 02:07 am by Rockman
May 4, 2004
Today is May 4th: the day we remember the soldiers and people who fell in World War II. I am very fond of Dutch traditions like this, so at about 8:45pm I turned on the TV to watch the Queen lay down flowers at the memorial on the Dam in Amsterdam. I held my mouth for 2 minutes at 8pm, an I quietly mouthed the words to our national anthem as the band played it.
After that, I went to see Dawn of the Dead. Good movie. Posted at 11:10 pm by Rockman
May 3, 2004
Week 3 Questions and answers
I. Hutchby "The Communicative Affordances of Technological Artefacts
Hutcby writes the following: "One of Hughes's most impirtant ideas was that the most succesful developers of large-scale technologies were those who did not merely design devices, but also designed societies into which their devices would fit" (page 17)
What would be an example of these technogies?
An example of a developer of large scale technologie who did this would be Bill Gates and his Microsoft company. They were able to sell their operating systems Dos and Windows by making a deal with IBM in 1981, who was the leading computer manufacturer at that time. DOS was installed on IBM's first Personal Computer. Because of the PC's succes DOs became also became the leading operating system. Other softare desigens made sure their product was DOS-compatible. This eventualy left people no choice but to use the MS-DOS and later windows operating system, if they wanted to use their favorite software.
M.Dodge "Geographies of the Information Society"
Dogde writes: "According to Mcluhan's vision, global communication will be used to transcend the diffirence between cultures and societies. to create a new global village where people will come together and work towards mutual trust and understanding, creating a world that is smalle and more democratic" (page 33). Are the things that are going on on the internet these days leading t a global village?
In some ways it is. The internet is beign used to share information. There is all sorts of information t be found on all sorts of subjects. It also enables people to make contact with other people all over the world. It could be argued that borders are erased on the internet. However, the interet is also used to form small interest groups and as a platform for these groups to come together, like on fansites or forums. To me this seems like new borders are being created. It seems that the world does not become smalle, but just changes with use of the internet.
Posted at 09:31 pm by Rockman
Apr 26, 2004
H.Vogel:
Vogel speaks of a problem with using the term leisure to characterize “time not spent at work (where there is an obligiation to perform). “ ”There is…a question of how to categorize work-related time such as that consumed in preparation for, and in transit to and from the workplace. ” (page 4) My question is, how would that kind of time be categorized?
I believe that the term for leisure as time not spent at work is correct. Leisure to me would be spending your free time. If you decide to spend your free time with doing work-related activities, than you are either not really free, or you see work as a hobby. Those are the same kind of people that “work pretty hard at their hobbies.” Time consumed in transit to and from your workplace would be considered work-time in my opinion.
Posted at 03:58 pm by Rockman
Apr 25, 2004
What do you do when you've got some American people coming over to visit Holland? Well, you try to show them as much of the real Netherlands as you can. After all, Holland isn't just about windmills, wooden shoes and tulips is it? No, we have a very diverse culture. Good architecture, nice museums, and even good shopping. Now if you want to make sure that your american guests see these good sides of Holland, you never ever ask them the following question:"What do you want to do today?"
So, today I went and took my American hostparents (with whom I lived for a year in 95/96) to the Keukenhof , or as I like to call it, the Pit of Dutch Tourism Doom. After standing in a traffic jam for one hour we were greeted with all the great Dutch things. Flowers everywhere off course, with nice names as Willem Alexander, Pretty Delight and Perfect Beauty (real prizewinners). Also they have a real replica of a windmill, and ofcourse a bunch of little shops where you can buy wooden shoes and tulip bulbs. The nasty part about those are that you can't even take them with you as American tourist, because they have to be decontaminated first before they can cross the ocean. But luckily you can buy some more at Schiphol.
Yep, I've been too the Dark Side of the Netherlands. And its open from 8:00 to 19:30 untill May 20th. Posted at 11:35 pm by Rockman
Apr 24, 2004
Well, this is it. My very first entry on my very first weblog. Lets start with the usual introductory stuff. This log has been created as an assignment for the course Participatory Culture, which I am currently taking at the University of Utrecht. During the next couple of weeks I will post the critical questions an answers of each text that I have to read every week. Also, If I feel like it, I will post some other stuff that I feel like is worth positng about, like sites I saw or movies that I have seen. Well, enjoy.
Posted at 04:01 pm by Rockman
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