In the book Practices of Looking: An Introductoion to Visual Culture Authors Sturken and Cartwright take readers on the roller coaster ride that comes to define new media. They break down the relationship between images or text, the viewer and the context or circumstances surrounding the two. They theorize who owns media and who or what gives it meaning. Sturken and Cartwright show how media has gone from the local to Global and how this has altered production and circulation which also contributes to the meanings made by texts.

Cultural Flow Globalized

To understand the meaning of a text one must understand the viewer. The viewer is an individual entity that values and defines images through aesthetics and taste. Aesthetics are the pleasure given from the beauty, style, creativity or technical prowess of an image. Aesthetics are determined by taste which are culturally specific and informed by class, culture, education and any other characteristic of identification.Taste is learned through cultural exposure and is thought to be highly rated based of education and class level. Value is also given through the art culture system, which constitues art institutions such as museums.

Even though this has been the habitus art and imagery has been turned upside down as the speed and scope of the circulation of images has created a high to low, low to high flow. What was considered low class or of bad taste has become mainstream through avenues such as the internet and satellites. Images are broadcast around the world in seconds creating a global cultural flow. The culture does not stop with images, the flow of resources such as location, directors, actors and other means of production have also become commonplace.

But what does it all mean? The meaning lies in the viewer in respect to cultural aesthetics and tastes. The author can have an intentional meaning but that does not it will be interpreted in such a way. Viewers based on class and education will relate to the piece in different ways. The power is definitely with the people and is growing as as individuals use tools like Adobe Photoshop and Youtube to bricolgae and transcode dominant imagery into something more fitting to their personal aesthetics and taste.

One example of this entire process at work is the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog Millionaire is based on an Indian adaptation of the English game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which shows the globalization of new media. The main character Jamal Malik is a contestant on the show and about to win 20 million rupees, when he is arrested for suspicion of cheating. The games producers are stunned that a boy from the slum thought to be of low class could have the knowledge to answer all the questions but do not realize that he has textually poached the information from his life’s experience an example of “making do” from what he had. Jamal goes on to win the show and is bombarded by a large crowd outside of the studio because of the speed and scope of the transmission. New meanings through signifying practices were made from everyday occurrences, just as new media does in everyday life. This examples shows that the power is definitely with the people as the individual viewer gives meaning.