Once basked in the Golden Age of Capitalism, the post-war Americans were caught unprepared when the world oil crisis hit. The following stagflation plagued the 1970s and pressured the Americans to resort to a different mentality in order to weather the economic trauma. It was apparent that in face of the global competition, survival and success required both mental and physical strength. This is when running, as an individual sport, took off—the people realised that only through the reignition of the rugged individualism can the American Dream be relived. Since then, running has been universally embraced as the means to challenge oneself and to achieve holistic health and fitness (Holt & Cameron 2010, pp. 23-26). As we enter the Information
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Through an analysis of the affordances, how this particular platform and the practices of self-tracking and social-networking facilitate self-representation and a collective identity is elucidated. In order to rise above the limitations of the original ‘circuit of culture’ model, this essay acknowledges issues that were previously neglected, including the obfuscated boundary between public and private as the basis for regulation, the off-label uses derived from the affordances, and the grasp of industrial roles drawing on Qiu et al.’s ‘circuit of labour’ model. A comparison between Nike+ Run Club and its analogue device—the pedometer, probes into the similarities and disparities through various angles including representation, identity, consumption, production, regulation and labour. While not exhaustive, this essay detaches from both technological and social deterministic views when investigating the qualities built into the chosen digital platform. The research on Nike+ Run Club illuminates that the facilitation of self-representation on the chosen platform is not a fixed and linear process. It is imperative to understand that when conducting media studies, the producers, consumers and the digital platform or practice itself are all active agents that should be fully
Through an analysis of the affordances, how this particular platform and the practices of self-tracking and social-networking facilitate self-representation and a collective identity is elucidated. In order to rise above the limitations of the original ‘circuit of culture’ model, this essay acknowledges issues that were previously neglected, including the obfuscated boundary between public and private as the basis for regulation, the off-label uses derived from the affordances, and the grasp of industrial roles drawing on Qiu et al.’s ‘circuit of labour’ model. A comparison between Nike+ Run Club and its analogue device—the pedometer, probes into the similarities and disparities through various angles including representation, identity, consumption, production, regulation and labour. While not exhaustive, this essay detaches from both technological and social deterministic views when investigating the qualities built into the chosen digital platform. The research on Nike+ Run Club illuminates that the facilitation of self-representation on the chosen platform is not a fixed and linear process. It is imperative to understand that when conducting media studies, the producers, consumers and the digital platform or practice itself are all active agents that should be fully