Seneca Professor goes to extremes for pop culture

Toronto, June 30, 2005 – Seneca College communications professor Beth Agnew has taken up an extreme sport so she can better interpret how the Internet creates culture.

“By definition, Popular Culture is something that captures the imagination, attracts our attention, and gets us involved,” says Agnew. “We begin communicating with each other about the area of interest, and a dynamic subculture is born.”

A self-styled cyber-anthropologist, Agnew’s communications expertise and technical background drew her to the ways technology supports the development of cultural groups, particularly on the Internet.

“Pop culture is full of memes,” she says. “Basic elements of culture that are transmitted from one group to another. People create communities on the web around a shared interest or quirk. They then use the power of global connectivity and the media to communicate with other like-minded individuals,” says Agnew. “Technology connects us in multiple ways that transcend the barriers of time and distance, so anyone who wants to participate can join in.”

So what is Agnew’s new sport? — Extreme Ironing.

“It’s hot right now. I practice the Urban Style, which is ironing amid the hazards of a city setting.”
[See photo at http://www.senecac.on.ca/marketing/BethAgnewEI.JPG]

“Extreme ironing has become a worldwide phenomenon because of the website, and subsequent media attention,” she says. “These forms of communication sweep the concept around the globe, and the idea catches on among people who want to play along. It’s an effective way to transmit a meme.”

In her presentation for the upcoming New Perspectives on Popular Culture Conference to be held at Seneca today, Agnew will demonstrate how groups metacommunicate, or shorthand their communications within the culture.

Agnew is also a certified laughter leader, and an acknowledged morale booster.

“I am a serious academic … the way Cher is a serious actress.”

Seneca’s third annual New Perspectives on Popular Culture Conference runs June 30, 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at the Seneca@York Campus, 70 The Pond Road, Toronto.

For more information visit the conference website at http://www.senecac.on.ca/popculconference.

Seneca College is Canada´s largest college with more than 100,000 full and part-time students on campuses across the Greater Toronto Area. Seneca provides internationally and nationally recognized career education and training key to graduate success. Every Seneca diploma, certificate and degree program is developed to a high academic standard, in consultation with industry, integrated with information technology, combined with technical and transferable skills, and reinforced by opportunities for ongoing education and re-training. www.senecac.on.ca

For more information:
Laura Mandell
416-491-5050, ext. 2352
Seneca College