The Remix

Old school meets new school with the remix. Remixing is about taking something that already exists and adding your personal touch to make it your own. The remix started in the music industry and evolved into a movement throughout our culture today.  

This video is a perfect example of how taking something old and something new and meshing them together can create something that seems to just fit. Our youth can take past trends and mash them with new trends creating the hottest fads, products and sub-cultures.

In a fast passed world that is rapidly changing, the remix is more than mashing two songs together; it is a way for companies to reinvent products, images, songs, ideas and brands. Rather than a company taking risks on investing in new products and new brands companies can reinvent, repackage and remind audiences of a product by making simple changes. By taking original ideas and repositioning and reinventing them, companies are able to sell old products as new products and make a quick buck.

Today we are surrounded by remixed culture, from the styles we wear to the music we listen to. Our culture is taking old ideas and rejuvenating them so they fit in society again. This concept is very exciting, the remix gives us the opportunity to take what we have seen in the past and do what we want with it. We are able to reinterpret ideas and find a place where they fit in our world today. The Internet enables us to write messages for the world to see. Today we are able to remix anything and find a specific audience to target. The future of technology and the current era of Web 2.0 enable our youth culture to pick and choose what we see, hear and speak about.

The Relationship Between Media and Culture

We are social beings and in a world of advancing technology we must have a solid understanding of the effects these technologies have on us and be observant in how these technologies influence us as persons and intellectuals so we do not become consumed by these technologies.


Four theories of media culture to be considered:
• No effect: media and culture are not related
• Mirrored effect: media reflects our culture
• Determinist effect: media determine and shape our culture
• Mutual influence effect: our media and our culture shape each other


These four theories give us a direction in forming our own opinions on advancing technologies. When considering these four ideas we gain a better understanding of the topic and can form our own opinions based on what theories we feel are better representation of the effects these technologies have on us.


Bayms uses four frames of thinking to make sense of how we look at new media and concepts to help us analyse and take a perspective on the topic. The four frames of thinking are as follows:
• Technological determinism: new technology changes us and their active forces that humans do not have the power to resist
• Social construction of technology: people are the source of change in society and in technology
• Social shaping of technology: influence comes from both directions (technology, people and institutions all drive change)
• Domestication of technology: technology is taken for granted and no longer influences change

I believe that our media and our culture shape each other. Based on our current economics I believe that in order for media to shape our culture it must reflect our culture and in turn both have equal effect on each other. Media has to appeal to its audience in order to get into the audiences head to sell and promote images and products. The social shaping of technologies is prevalent in today’s society.