Category: Brittany Glover

1. After writing my research paper on blogging and how it strengthens democracy on a number of levels, this statement further intrigued me because it is so accurate: “Public spaces have many purposes in social life – they allow people to make sense of the social norms that regulate society, they let people learn to express themselves and learn from the reactions of others, and they let people make certain acts or expressions ‘real’ by having witnesses acknowledge them (Arendt 1998)(Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?/Boyd) How does affect people and how can we observe the effects in that people are becoming better members of society and humanity?
2. Its interesting to me when people say, “you know when you post something on  the Internet, it’s there forever” or something to that extent. Is it really? How accessible is it? And how does this really affect us?
3. Mediated publics have four properties: persistence, searchability, replicability and invisible audiences. How have these four properties made us outgrow traditional media resources? For example, I hardly ever really read anymore unless it’s self-interest. I usually scan so logically I would read a e-book, internet article or pdf before reading a novel (that isn’t of self-interest).
4. Often we blame technology for being the sole cause of problems, but realistically they just reveal the behavior in a more public facet. The authors discuss teenagers being a prime example of this behavior. What more effective and efficient ways can we encourage social networking and Internet rules that don’t necessarily control our youth, but better inform them. On a larger scale, is there any possible way to do so? What does media literacy really mean?
5. Privacy issues are always discussed, but as far as I know— I’m basically non-existent on Facebook unless you know me. I understand that there are some reckless individuals on Facebook who don’t care to make there sites more secure, but it doesn’t apply to everyone. Since this information is “forever” accessible and available on the Internet, I’d like to know how this process goes. What ways can employers find information about me?

1. As we know, many websites now give you the option/opportunity to like, dislike, comment, recommend, etc news stories. It’s a fun way of feeling like your opinion matters. But how does this affect mainstream professional media like New York Times, Washington Post, etc? Although it is a very broad question, I am curious to see how media (and conglomerates) analyze and process this new type of feedback.
2. Goode discusses citizen journalism and like many of us know, citizen journalism and professional media have some oppositional characteristics. These opposing characteristics present a challenge to corporate media, but if this challenge is so detrimental— why do we witness so many mainstream corporate media utilizing it’s tools and power to reach masses?
3. If new media has proven itself to be so promising and effective in strengthening democracy, what are the aspects that professional/mainstream media fear?

In Chapter 11 of Applied Mass Communication Theory, the authors discuss the concept of supply and demand. But in today’s society where the majority of media people utilize is free, how has supply and demand changed. In what ways do we supply and demand in the social and interactive media emergence?

What is the possibility that social media will become a monopoly? Can we envision a day where we will actually pay to use this social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter?

Do we see interactivity and the Web in general as horizontal or vertical integration (255)? What are some examples of horizontal integration in interactivity today? Vertical integration?

Lessing informs us that “Today there are more than 100 million blogs worldwide, with more than 15 added in the time it took you to read this sentence” (58). How many individuals actually read blogs as much or perhaps more than they read/view online or offline news reporting?

Lessing discusses the idea of remixed media and what it really means to collaborate all of these traditional and new media tools in one. How will this affect us in the future (15 years)? Will we regret the level of interactivity we desired so much? Will we ever want to step back and put news reporting back into the hands of professional/traditional media?

With interactivity and Internet changing the ways news is reported, how will this change copyright laws?

1. Participatory culture has and continues to play a huge role in implementing interactive media and further developing it to what it is today. It challenges corporate companies across the world. Like Jenkins, I would agree that participatory culture is definitely running ahead of technological developments in the corporate (credible) world. How have we directly (or indirectly) seen this?
2. In Friday’s lecture CEO of IQ, Tony Quin, stated that a 19-year-old ran there social media platforms. This reminds me of amateurization at it’s best- when individuals without specific degrees take control of what was once a platform that specific people with degrees or much experience held. In five years, when these amateurs are even more experienced, how will amateurization affect corporate companies? How will we be able to separate professional and non-professional production? Or will this even be an issue?
3. In general, I believe we see credibility slowly diminishing. We see people reading blogs via computers and smart-phones almost or just as much as we see people utilizing “credible” popular news websites such as CNN.com. At least with blogs, you know there is a biased standpoint opposed to having to decide whether a professional news article is biased or not. It seems that there is a underlying idea that maybe people are becoming more consumed with reading diverse opinions and thoughts rather than news articles. How does Lanier support this theory?

Truth over Facts:

How blogs have transitioned citizens from popular news reporting to stranger’s perceptions

Have you found yourself reading blogs in the morning, yet? Something to stimulate your mind, perhaps something that is a little more thought provoking. Maybe fewer facts and more real life perspectives or maybe just a little something different than the normal negative news. Well it seems that you may not the only one. There are many individuals, including myself, who wake up the morning and have become accustomed to browsing blogs over reading traditional newspapers and online news. We could agree that most blogs are streams of conscious, various thoughts, perspectives and emotions in a text format that we as human experience on distinctive levels in life. But why are blogs becoming so intriguing to citizens who for years have been used to turning to news for information?

In my research paper I will study these positive and negative effects of blogging, and analyze the system and perceptions behind blogging. In detail, I will evaluate citizen journalism to prove the popular theory that people would rather read opinions than facts. With the emergence of interactive journalism where users control their information flow, blogs have become extremely popular sources of information. They do not always discuss breaking new stories or politics, but are more than often perspectives that keep people’s attention.

The purpose of conducting research regarding blogs is to more accurately analyze the audience (both writers and readers) and the theories behind the blogging system in order to understand the transition that continues to become increasingly popular. A variety of methodology (content analysis, virtual ethnography and Skype interview with interactive media professional) will be conducted in order to see what blog audiences have in common and perhaps explain what exactly people are receiving and taking away from the blogosphere. I will analyze and report why the distinctive features of blogs are so attractive, whether it be the technological component or democratic liberty of self-expression. Hence, this research paper will evaluate audience analysis, the theories behind blogging and how all of these factors affect new media.

I would like to briefly define and analyze citizen journalism for those who may not be as knowledgeable and show how it is relevant to blogs and conversation style journalism. Interestingly enough, blogs are being incorporated in corporate web sites across the world for various reasons, which I wish to explore. I will use Essence magazine online (www.essence.com) as an example website to help explain how web standards and interactivity have encouraged this large mass movements from traditional news reporting websites to blogs. Over the past few years Essence.com, as well as many other news-related companies, have integrated multiple bloggers into their website to support the movement of citizen journalism and perhaps give their audience what they want. These companies seem aware of the urgent shift and to remain reputable and in competition with other top companies, have made a transition into the blogging world. Some companies are even demanding employees to blog about their job duties and personal lives, while other companies are strategically selecting average “joe” bloggers to blog on their sites. I intend to find research supporting the argument that the average blogger is getting just as much, if not more attention, as the popular presidents and executives are top companies.

In conclusion, this research paper will be an effective review of audience analysis of blogs. Although we know surface level information concerning blogs, it is important to accurately analyze the factors surrounding the blogosphere and how they affects individuals who choose or choose not to participate in reading or writing blogs. This study will help to evaluate these open-ended issues regarding blogging we observe so often during the evolution of new media.

In “The Wealth of Netowkrs,” (Benkler), in Chapter 10 he discusses social ties in technological world and how the Internet has changed pre-existing relationships and created new ones? How has social networking affected your life to the extent that you communicate with these people on (virtual) and off-line (physical)?

Benkler brings up a good point in saying the following: “This is not to say that the Internet necessarily effects all people, all social groups, and networks identically. The effects on different people in different settings and networks will likely vary, certainly in their magnitude” (357). Briefly, it seems like there are primary social groups and secondary social groups. Who would be defined as primary opposed to secondary? What does each main group get out of these social ties? Since it has a different effect on different individuals and social groups, what does this tell us about social networking?

Now more than ever, it seems like technology cannot be ignored. Many corporate companies require employees to blog and have twitter accounts, and the majority of staff use some type of technological tool to communicate in the office. What are the advantages and disadvantages of social networking and using technological tools (such as AIM, skype) strictly in an office environment?

What I love most about social ties and networks is my freedom of speech. I find it very liberating that I can blog or comment about universal laws, values or simply thoughts that are meaningful to me or disgust me. I can write with respect or as distasteful as I please. I can even tweet a celebrity or political figure and tell them what I absolutely love or hate about them. However, how much power do I actually have in social networking and how will that change over time?

1. Jack and Vickers tell us that a paradigm is “a generally held belief that dominates thinking in a discipline” and that various theories can be within one paradigm. What paradigm’s (umbrella set of assumptions or way of thinking about an aspect of the world) can we analyze in the transition from old to new media?
2. It’s interesting that prior to “penny press” newspaper, communication wasn’t ‘mass communication’ or in other words, it was personal and without aid from a resource that reached a larger audience. What type of ‘new’ media sources were personal before massed to populations?
3. In chapter 5, the authors discuss what makes mass communication “mass.” In the late 1990s, the authors tell us that “the Internet ‘didn’t fit researchers’ ideas about mass media; however, if you really study the definition of mass communication in their words- traditional mass communication and new media are almost one-in-one. With that said, it seems like one of the bigger issues researchers were afraid of was change without a predetermined purpose. Perhaps initial researchers were afraid to collaborate the two very similar media and accept that it was more evolutionary. Would you agree?

1. Interactive media is more than just multimedia tools we use to our advantage. It also affects us individually and socially in social science ways (fields of study that seek to explain how people operate within societies by using the scientific method to study social phenomena). What areas of social sciences are included within the interactive media umbrella and how so? How are we impacted by these as individuals and on a social level?
2. Normative theory address not how things are, but how they should be. This seems to refer to predetermined rules, but new media encourage personal liberty. Theory somewhat contradicts this notion so although we can brainstorm how new media will operate, can we control it?
3. Right now it seems like new media is available to the public. However, although it is available doesn’t mean it is accessible, financially speaking. How will new media be shaped with it is more readily available to more individuals.
4. What are the pro’s and con’s of qualitative and quantitative method? Is one better than another?
5. Now more than ever, I feel like we are at a constantly evolving state in the growth and functionality of multimedia. Although we can use media determinism to understand how society ends up being structured, I don’t believe their is a perfect answer to the future of new media right now. It seems as if there are many theories, but many lack support that will be better developed through time. Do you?