Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Is it really the death of closed media? - comment

I wanted to address this issue as it took somewhat of a different approach to research it. Unlike the other blogs which could easily have been written relying solely on course content and podcasts, the death of closed media, like online predators required far greater research to provide a true insight.

The blog itself addresses the death of closed media; however develops further to include comment on possible directions it could take to survive. To impress this stance on my readers I opened with a quote from Musings, in which he states, ‘The handwriting is on the wall: whether you like it or not, traditional closed media is screwed unless and until they learn how to function in a computer network-centric environment’ (2007, 3). From this I commented further on what taking this direction would cost closed media and questioned its worth.

My favourite point was questioning whether or not you could kill closed media, referring to the quote, ‘Personally i don't think we could ever lose closed media, because i will never curl up in bed with a cup of coffee and a good computer screen’ (Closed Media blog 2008, 2).

I would have liked to include a graph visualising the growth and decline of closed media abundance, however I could not find any that clearly displayed this trend.

Is it really the death of Closed Media?

As we strive towards the new, newer and newest media, what is happening to the media that drove the foundations of media for so long? Are we seeing the death of our traditional closed media? ‘The handwriting is on the wall: whether you like it or not, traditional closed media is screwed unless and until they learn how to function in a computer network-centric environment’ (Musings, 2007, 3). It has been said again and again, closed media is losing the business battle. ‘…declining readership, access to content and illegal, but free, downloads are driving the knife into the heart of traditional media. It will be a slow death, but a death none the less’ (Sinclair 2008, 2).

As sad as it may be, there is a large combination of forces ‘including remarkable innovations in technology, surging consumer demand, industry consolidation and policy mistakes’ that are adding to this decline (Karr 2008, 3). But that just the beginning, open media in the most literal sense means, ‘anybody with a computer and a modem can be a journalist’ (Katz 2000, 10). ‘On the Internet, there is no workable definition of what a journalist is. That's a good thing. Anybody who sees him- or herself as a journalist becomes one, which is the way it ought to be and, in fact, used to be. Journalism was never meant to be an exclusive elite, and the Net has re-democratized it. Online journalism may be adolescent and chaotic, but it is freer, more diverse and participatory than its offline predecessors’ (Katz 2000, 7).

So what happens now, if traditional closed media tries to break into the open media domain, is it still considered traditional media? Closed media has been defined as ‘anything online or on paper or on cable or on the airwaves -- try to set agendas rather than permit agendas to be set by others… not trusting their consumers to really participate, they aren't willing to share the power; instead they project a formal, rigid image, preoccupied with increasingly irrelevant formats’ (Katz 2000, 12). If a newspaper goes online allowing people to view for free, at their discretion the same information paid for in a physical copy, is it still closed media?

You may say yes, in which case closed media lives on, you may say no and claim again that closed media is dying. But let me ask you a question? Can you truly abandon Closed Media? After all how do you turn your back on a printed word fixed to a page? Even if you stop buying the paper, you can’t remove the word. In an open media environment, where the words are as susceptible to change as women’s fashion, is it really traditional media that we should be worried about. ‘Print encouraged the ‘private ownership of words’, the resentment of plagiarism developed as a result’ (Pearson 2008, 1). But at least closed media warrants protection; online opinions don’t hang around long enough to come under threat of copyright or plagiarism.

‘In contrast with print, open media is, most importantly, never final — the reverse chronology of blogs, posts and content creates an implicit open-ended form’ (Pearson 2008, 2). Even once an opinion has been added to a page, ‘frequent use and ‘updates’ continually add new information, never leaving the same words behind’ (Pearson 2008, 1). The beauty of collaborative user-led content production.

The end of another debate, a new peice of content for over information overload. Personally i don't think we could ever lose closed media, because i will never curl up in bed with a cup of coffee and a good computer screen. But who knows... times change.
Blessed Blogging
Cheers gemini21

The Internet: A Masquerade Ball and everyone is invited - comment

My interest in creating an online anonymity blog arose from the relationship i drew between it and online predators. As stated in my blog, ‘Online Communities: Predator Paradise’, ‘many young people are being subject to, or at least exposed to dangerous and inappropriate experiences on and through the internet’ (Youth Internet Safety Survey 2001). What the rest of that quote stated was, ‘The offenders and their offences are so diverse and their anonymity is crippling’ (Youth Internet Safety Survey 2001). This idea of anonymity in online communities triggered my desire to research the issue further.

What i found in researching this issue was that there was indeed a relationship between individuals being able to attain anonymity and the number of predators lurking across the internet. What was even more concerning was the stronger relationship between anonymity, online social networks and young people, thus the original article.

In continuing my research, i found that what we are confronting is not just an anonymous market, but a global online domain that people can pretend to be anyone they want to be. This was clarified in the quote by Bruns in which he states, ‘it doesn’t matter who i am, as far as physical appearance; it doesn’t matter where i am, as far as physical location... i can find others’ (Bruns 2008, week 6). This quote exemplifies the major problem associated with online anonymity; however the problem does not end there.

The article continues to comment on related issues such as online communities and the inability to control them. My favourite point here is that an echochamber could form anywhere inside an online community, decide on anything they wanted to and no-one would have any idea. This is stated in the quote, ‘So you have your little group that decides to lock down and cult up… you produce your little echochamber (Bruns 2008, week 6), and inside that echochamber your technoculture decides that they don’t like the colour blue anymore and they are going to eradicate the colour blue. How does anyone know? How would you stop them? Who is ‘them’?’ (The Internet blog 2008, 1). Just another way anonymity is eroding the positives created by online communities.

But there are a number of ways i could have improved my blog. The first would have been to develop my research further to include the protection anonymity provides to scam artists, online hackers breeching security and safety on including personal details online as far as identity fraud. This was not included, as i believed it deviated too far from the main idea of the blog, which was related directly to online anonymity affecting online communities.

In suggesting this, another way i could have improved it would have been to present a more balanced argument. I took a fairly strong stance against anonymity in online communities. Just as you could say the way anonymity removes the social and peer pressures of society is a good thing; i stated that for the same reasons and more, anonymity is bad.

The Internet: A masquerade ball where everyone is invited.

Information... creation... produsage...socialising... all great commodities offered by the Internet. And ‘as we become more aware of how to use the available technology properly and deliberately... we learn also how to locate interesting and relevant information to share with others’ (Bruns 2008, week 6). This technoculture trend, defined as, ‘the process of focusing on a particular point and sharing these with others in an online community’ (Bruns 2008, week 6) is just another internet platform that is able to ‘transcend the limitations of physical space... finding others that are like minded and engage with them online for a very long time’ (Bruns 2008, week 6). But in the glory of these capabilities is the ability to bypass all limitations placed on anything a good thing. I mean think about it, the internet is a platform where who, what, when, where and why all become irrelevant. Every man is Hugh Grant, every woman Cameron Diaz.

I mentioned in the related article, Online Communities: Predator Paradise, a comment made by Dr. Axel Bruns. He states in a lecture given to his Virutal Cultures class that in an online community, ‘it doesn’t matter who i am, as far as physical appearance; it doesn’t matter where i am, as far as physical location... i can find others’ (Bruns 2008, week 6). This is an interesting statement outlining the concern surrounding the ‘anonymity’ of online users. Now I am not just taking about what someone looks like, or where they work during the day. The internet provides complete security for those who can online, pretend to be anyone they want to.

A scary concept, but as always, it doesn’t end there…

Once you have one of these online communities. What happens then? Who governs it for example? Does anyone tell you who to allow in and how many… how often… how you communicate or what you communicate about? For each little group that forms across the internet, does anyone have control? And this is my next point.

So you have your little group that decides to lock down and cult up… you produce your little echochamber (Bruns 2008, week 6), and inside that echochamber your technoculture decides that they don’t like the colour blue anymore and they are going to eradicate the colour blue. How does anyone know? How would you stop them? Who is ‘them’? Our online environment has numerous sites that ‘support causes that we might generally see as socially distruptive; as problematic. They are online communities that work perfectly well as online communities in their own right, but ultimately support extremist political views, or ideas that are seen as outdated or no longer acceptable’ (Bruns 2008, week 6).

With this in mind, is it really so great that we can be anyone we want to? Is the freedom an overweight 40 something man gets from anonymous blogging truly worth the sacrifices of knowledge we are making? 'Anonymity can be used to protect a criminal performing many different crimes, distribution of child pornography, illegal threats, racial agitation, fraud, intentional damage such as distribution of computer viruses, etc. Who would be accountable, how can you jail a website full of words?' (Palme & Berlund 2007, & Rogers 2005)

For a closer look at the pro's and con's of online anonymity click here, for the related article, Online Communities: Predators Paradise click here.

Blessed Blogging
Cheers gemini21

Monday, April 28, 2008

Online Communities: Predator Paradise


I was sitting, the other day, reading an article on online vulnerability. The article reproduced the findings of the 2001 National Youth Survey, conducted by the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children and was responsible for making recommendations on this. One of the comments made was that, ‘Many young people are being subjected to, dangerous and inappropriate experiences on and through the internet. The offences and offenders are so diverse and their anonymity is crippling’ (Youth Internet Safety Search 2001, 1).

The issue of protecting children from the potential hazards on the internet has been well documented (Nair 2006, 114). Nearly 12,000 cases of online child abuse were reported in September 2002 alone. Cases originated in the areas of child pornography (9015 incidents), child prostitution (277 incidents), child sex tourism (188 incidents), child sexual molestation (690 incidents) and online enticement of children for sexual acts (1533 incidents)’ (USF Institute for Children 2002, 4). And even though i am no child physiologist, i can establish that having an open, geographically boundless environment is no good thing in this case.

It is this that raises one of the mains criticisms of the online, in comparison with the offline environment. ‘The internet has allowed young people to become a naive and willing audience to behaviours and ideas online, that would not have been condoned in an offline environment’ (USF Institute for Children 2002, 12). Children and young people are becoming less and less scrutinising of those they interact with online, and parents are being pushed further out of the loop. ‘Many teens reported that their parents knew they had an Internet social networking site but only a small percentage of teens reported that their parents had actually seen their site’ (Peirce 2006, 1). It could be put down to a decrease in parental concern for their children, but i believe there is more to it than that.

Security and access passes, like usernames, passwords and key locks are all restricting the control parents can have over their children online. You may suggest that each person under the age of 18 has to have parental controls and access in place, but anonymity isn’t reserve for the predators, the prey has it too. After all how hard is it to click 18 instead of 16 when setting up an account?

So this is where we find ourselves. We have created an environment that supports creation, development and removes the boundaries of physicality (Bruns 2008, week 1), while at the same time opens up a new door for access to our nations’ youth. Predators are given a front row seat to anything and anyone, its like making a house out of glass and not expecting others to look in.

If you are interested in stories like this, feel free to follow this link to the related article, The Internet: A masquerade ball where everyone is invited.

Blessed Blogging
Cheers gemini21

Online Communities: Predator Paradise - comment

This blog was one of my favourites to create and include for a number of reasons. The most important was the fact that i was interested in the issue of child predators in an online environment to begin with. The dynamics of creating another environment from which predators could access possible prey, in particular children and young people was an extremely interesting concept. One i wanted to further explore.

As i had a negative predisposition to this issue, one of the major battles i faced was ensuring my blog addressed all the important elements of the issue, without weighing too heavily on my feelings. Although i did carry a bias throughout the blog, most of the information supported my feelings, so i was able to reflect personally without affecting the overall success of the blog.

To achieve this balance i opened my blog with information on online communities in general, commenting on their benefits and uses throughout internet networks. From there i narrowed my field of focus to the issue of online predators and how online communities harbour this. I was also able to use this framework to address other online community elements that indirectly support predatory behaviour; commenting first on the relatively unmonitored nature of online environments and further on how the existing security acts as both a safeguard and restriction on parental guidance in these domains.

In retrospect, information on legislation and restrictions, or suggestions on possible ways to improve online domains would have added depth to my blog. But in the absence of these details, the flaws were overcome in a number of ways.

1. I addressed the issue of what was being done by making personal suggestions on how to improve the environments, such as underage children have parent peepholes to enable them access to certain areas of their children’s online share sites.
2. I commented on the required balance between parental access to their children’s sites, as well as respecting their privacy in an online environment.
3. I strengthened my argument against online communities by linking this article to the related article, ‘The Internet: A masquerade ball and everyone is invited, which raises the issue of anonymity in online communities and how this could increase predatory behaviours.

But the most effective element of this blog was the referencing i used. I started with the frameworks provided to me in the related podcast and lecture and from there moved to find external sources to support or reject those claims. As online predators are such as an opinion based subject i made sure the opinions i were quoting were from scholarly articles. This enabled me to make accurate judgements on the issue at hand and also to know that what i was saying was more likely to be true. In addition to scholarly articles i also referenced a wide range of journals and relevant statistics to ensure my statements were as accurate as they could be.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Cultural Understanding: Part Two - comment

I included this blog obviously for two different reasons. One because it completed the second part of my two part Cultural Understanding series, but also because it enabled me to explore several important course theories in the same blog.

These theories, namely the 80/20 rule and Chris Anderson’s ‘The Long Tail’ concept helped to define how cultural divergence has occurred, but also created a platform from which the application of these processes could be addressed.

Essentially the blog started with defining diversity, explained then how the 80/20 and long tail concepts explain this diversity trend and concluded with how the web 2.0 environment is taking advantage of this.

After this however, the blog moves to address the issues that arise with divergence, and the threats we face, based on social norms and behaviours of losing divergence with a social push towards convergence.

I would have liked to address how this could be overcome in a virtual domain, however did not at the time. In retrospect this would have added depth, but all in all this blog would have to be my favourite for overall content and depth of analysis.

Cultural Understanding: Part Two

Well here we are again delving into the new media world. And just as promised here is the second part of our Cultural Understanding segment.

Cultural Diversity is defined as, 'the preservation of varying ideas, beliefs, codes and creeds in their original state' (Hamner 1988, iv). Although this seems geographically distinctive, the same theory can be applied to global, state, local or hyperlocal cultures (Bruns 2008, week 4). After all it is the presence of so many cultural levels that creates cultural divergence; the topic under discussion today. (Saunders 2008, lecture 4).

Now there are a number of ways you could explain cultural divergence. But for ease of explanation I will break it down for you into a three stage process.

1. The 80/20 rule*
2. Chris Anderson's 'The Long Tail' concept
3. Application in New Media

Put simple the 80/20 rule states that of everything that is produced, 20% will appeal to a large audience, the remaining 80% only attracting small audiences. Now although business sense would tell you to target the large audiences; new media has framed its technology around the remaining 80%; using the Long Tail concept (Anderson 2004, 1).

‘The Long Tail concept can be defined as, ‘the future does not lie in hits – the high-volume end of a traditional demand curve – but in what used to be regarded as misses, the curve's endlessly long tail’ (Anderson 2008, 2). Technologies such as blogger.com, last.fm and amazon use this framework and target those consumers with interest beyond the mainstream (Bruns 2008, week 4). By media allowing, developing and harnessing this left over 80%, they are feeding the niche cultures that create cultural diversity (Anderson 2008, 1 & trendwatching.com 2008, 1).

The new media environment has only eased this process. ‘With the rise of the Internet around the globe, intercultural communications have become "a mouse click away".’ (Dahl 2000, 1).With online buy, sell and swap forums like ebay and gumtree, each new and diverse frame of mind can search, sell, buy, swap or create their own content adding to our diverse cultural framework. It is this ease of production that creates diversities first threat.

Figure 1: Innovation control curve

Brown and Eisenhardt state ‘the central dilemma of current business is how to achieve adaptive innovation and consistent execution without loosing control’ (2000, 28). This is explored in figure 1, which shows, ‘a company must balance on the edge of innovation without falling into the chaos trap’ (Glaser 2000, figure 1). Because new content is encouraged so strongly to create diversity, new media technologies face the risk of being overrun, unable to support all the new content. A problem which questions whether or not cultures can exist without being constantly supervised.

Milliken and Martins argue that ‘groups and organizations will act systematically to drive out individuals who are different from the majority, unless this tendency to drive out diversity is managed’ (1998, 420). From this it stands to reason that cultural levels, just the same as cultural groups will not remain different and therefore diverse unless they are constantly monitored. Social groups will naturally pull these diverse groups closer and closer to the norm, until we are instead facing cultural convergence, instead of divergence.

So you have seen both sides of the story, the decision is now yours. I look forward to hearing from you, in regards to what you think of these issues. Until then blessed blogging.

Cheers
Gemini 21

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Cultural understanding: Part One - comment

The interesting thing about Cultural Understanding: Part One, is that it provides such an in depth look into the issue of cultural communities and yet it is one of two blogs that do so. The blog starts with a foundation in course content, developing onto course readings and Henry Jenkins, ending on how the theories relate to a larger community picture.

I like how this blog provides a general overview of cultural understanding and only needs to develop onto cultural convergence. Given the 500 word, word count, I would have been rushed to try and address all of the important points in cultural understanding, cultural convergence and divergence. It also gives the readers something to think about and look forward to with the posting of Cultural Understanding: Part Two.

I would have liked to go further in depth with the ideas of Henry Jenkins; I was forced to use him only as a lead in to cultural convergence. However, the foundations he provided my blog comment opened up a platform from which I could also comment on the global village trend. This in turn helped me to take the cultural convergence trend and, ‘give it life in a new media sphere (Cultural Understanding 1 blog 2008, 2).

Cultural Understanding: Part One

Culture... 'the sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. An understanding transmitted through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next' (Dictionary.com 2008). A stock standard, 100% accurate definition, given by a man viewing the world through a microscope with both eyes shut. Now if your happy to see the world this way, fine, I'll take no prisoners. But in an age where the web 2.0 and technology rule, culture is so much bigger than that.

Scholars will tell you that 'culture exist on numerous levels' (Bruns 2008, week 4), that each one 'interweaves and interconnects' (Jenkins 2006, 1) and that 'we all play a part' (Trendwatching.com 2005) and that’s what makes it so wonderful. Just by taking a step outside your front door you are emersed in global cultures, geographical culturals, local, state and hyperlocal cultures, (Bruns 2008, week 4), all waiting to be crafted, evaluated, updated and challenged by you and your imagination. Each culture developing in and around one another to the point where we can only guess where one begins, another stops and which one effected the other first.

And this my friends is where things get interesting… because culture is so interconnected it is hard to say whether we are facing one culture or many. So we find ourselves at a cross road of understanding. Some argue cultural convergence, others divergence, who's right? Are they both right?

Now if you were to discuss the idea of cultural convergence, you could not go past mentioning Henry Jenkins. Although he provides the media focused definition, ‘the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want’ (Jenkins 2006, 1). He continues to argue that convergence is not restricted to media, rather, ‘it is a word that manages to describe technological, industrial, cultural and social changes depending on who’s speaking and what they are talking about’ (Jenkins 2006, 4).

A perfect point in the discussion to introduce you to Wyndham Lewis and Herbert Marshall McLuhan; the gentlemen responsible for creating and validating the ‘Global Village’.

The Global Village term takes Jenkins idea of cultural convergence out of its media shell, and gives it life in a new media sphere. It is no longer just how consumers take in the shows they watch, or the information they are given. The Global Village explores the internet, mobile phones, social networks, plainly technology as a whole and how it all seems to be slowly converging into one small convenience network (Bruns 2008, week 5). Not only are we crossing, co-operating and migrating (Jenkins 2006, 1), ‘humankind is moving from individualism and fragmentation to a collective identity. Instead of tending towards a vast library, the world has become the equivalent of one computer moving into a phase of total interdependence, and superimposed co-existence’ (McLuhan 1962 & Lewis 1948).

So we leave it there, and ponder the effects of convergence. Join me again for Cultural Understanding: Part Two where we will discuss Cultural Divergence, hopefully finding our feet in amongst this crazy culture.

Cheers Gemini21

Thursday, April 17, 2008

General Introductions only

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to my new blog. We are now entering together a new phase in New Media understanding. Driven by the Master our UNIverse, Axel Bruns, we will learn, link and laugh at just what New Media offers us in our Y Generation.

Welcome again bloggers!

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