The Cultural Significance of Web-based Exchange Practices
Gordon Scott Fletcher B.A. (Hons)
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
School of Arts, Media and Culture — Faculty of Arts
Griffith University — September 2004
Abstract
This thesis considers the cultural significance of Web-based exchange practices among the participants in contemporary western mainstream culture. The thesis argues that analysis of these practices shows how this culture is consumption oriented, event-driven and media obsessed. Initially, this argument is developed from a critical, hermeneutic, relativist and interpretive assessment that draws upon the works of authors such as Baudrillard and De Bord and other critiques of contemporary ‘digital culture’. The empirical part of the thesis then examines the array of popular search terms used on the World Wide Web over a period of 16 months from September 2001 to February 2003.
Taxonomic classification of these search terms reveals the limited range of virtual and physical artefacts that are sought by the users of Web search engines. While nineteen hundred individual artefacts occur in the array of search terms, these can be classified into a relatively small group of higher order categories. Critical analysis of these higher order categories reveals six cultural traits that predominate in the apparently wide array of search terms: freeness, participation, do-it-yourself/customisation, anonymity/privacy, perversion and information richness. The thesis argues that these traits are part of a cultural complex that directly reflects the underlying motivations of contemporary western mainstream culture. The daily practices of Web-based search and exchange thus reproduce and reinforce this cultural complex. The empirical work of the thesis validates the critical assessment of western mainstream culture developed in the initial chapters of the thesis.
Statement of Originality
This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Gordon Fletcher — 14th September, 2004
Acknowledgements
A range of people have supported the lengthy process of producing this thesis. It has been a sometimes rocky but always interesting journey but nonetheless one that I am glad to have completed.
My first thanks must go to Malcolm Alexander who as my supervisor had the patience and faith in allowing me to bring this thesis to fruition. Malcolm’s generous support in various roles during my time at Griffith University has always been positive and is very much appreciated.
I blame Dan Harries for initially setting me on the track that evolved into this project. From the first conversations we had about animating Web pages (the hard way) and changing background colours to discussions about producing a thesis and postmodernism it has always been a learning experience.
I also thank my previous supervisors Gillian Swanson and Amanda Howell for maintaining a belief in my capabilities even when I was at my most unproductive. Rosemary Pringle, David Holmes and Phil Cohen have all provided me with direction and understanding at various unexpected junctures of the PhD process.
This thesis would be nothing more than a vague set of ideas in my head without the support, conversation, patience, suggestions and sometimes insistence of Anita Greenhill. That is a debt I can never repay. Keith Fletcher helped those vague ideas become more intelligible to others with tolerant attention to my consistent misspellings and bizarre grammar. Aldus and Harland provided me with entertaining excuses to “get off the computer” and helped to define “work time.”
Conventions used in this thesis
The specific search terms discussed through this work are formatted in a fixed-width
(monospace) font, adopting the conventions of programmer’s source code to
indicate “raw” data. Business names and the names of specific software are
italicised. References to specific Web sites in the body of the text are underlined, mirroring
the convention of hypertext links on the Web.