SONG - LINES AND NARRATIVES....PRETTY MUCH THE SAME!!
By Alice Carter
According to Victoria Kuittanen (Lecture 5, Learn JCU: Power Point. 2015), song-lines have been known for generations as the ancient, narrative way of the aboriginal people being able to map out their own scenery of the Australian continent. It was believe that song lines were tribal chants or tunes that were sung by certain groups of Indigenous Australians, as they tracked along the rural ground of the land; as these groups reached certain points, they would then chant their “song” to the next tribe (who lived on the neighbouring land), who would then carry on the “line of song” down their own homeland track.
This concept of song lines creating paths within Australia, strongly symbolises an ideology of how our country was first a “network narrative”. I think that by looking at song lines from this point of view, people can easily connect similarities between a virtual social network, and the song line network that was created through history. An example of this, looks at space and place of Facebook, and how it to has a way of expressing “network narratives” (networks being the connections between people, and narratives being “storytelling that converts mere objects ‘out there’ into real presences” (Tuan, 1991, p.686) ).
Every day I have seen people post regular updates on Facebook, weather it be about their children, diets or husbands. This then creates their own online place, to which then creates an identity. The ability of others being able to comment on these “daily updates”, uses the concept of network by being connected by the use of word and opinion (a network that was started by an individual, which then turned into multiple connections between individuals. These multiple connections between individuals shows me that it is very easy for Facebook to be labelled as a networked narrative, and it also makes the similarities between song lines and Facebook quite outstanding.
References:
Kuittanen, V. Lecture 5, LearnJCU: Power Point, 2015
Tuan, 1991. page 686
After reading this post several times, I am quite satisfied with your argument of Facebook being a "Network Narrative" and how posts create somewhat of an identity. However, I believe the argument could have been made more apparent towards the start of the post. Furthermore, I think you may have spent too much time explaining what Song-Lines (Kuttainen, 2015) are. Perhaps it would have been wiser to link to a page to educate one about them.
ReplyDeleteAlso a problem within your post is your use of grammar, It should be consistent throughout the text. Your sentences seem short and to the point which is great. Your referencing does need a lot of work on it. I can recommend the JCU Library LibGuide for Referencing. Or if you are slack like me, you could use citethisforme.com . Good luck.
References:
Kuttainen, V. (2015). Stories and Places. Lecture, James Cook University.