Archive for October 2010
The Wrap-Up
My assessment requirements to blog have come to an end, and I am surprised by how much I’ve learnt simply by reflecting on the content discussed in our seminars.
With a little extra reading and research, I have broadened my understanding of digital media cultures, and the issues surrounding the use of the Internet such as privacy.
Blogging has been a great form of assessment, easily achievable, and perfect to work within a weekly deadline. It really concretes the content, and while adhering to academic standards, it has been a great tool for developing my writing and forming an opinion.
Since starting DMC, it has really opened my mind to seeing how much the Internet is a part of our lives. How it forms the content for news, how it affects us.
The other day I was listening to the radio and they mentioned that a Google boss said the following after privacy remarks concerning Google street view: “If you don’t like Street View, move house”. See here.
The news blast immediately made me think of blogging the story and commenting on the increase risk of privacy concerns in digital media cultures. Ever since I started blogging, every news story that comes up reminds me to construct an opinion to blog. Where will all my thoughts go once the blogging is over?
I have also found the time to read the blogs of my fellow peers, enjoying reading differing opinions on the same topics. While I do read other blogs however, for some unknown reason I prefer not to comment on other blog posts. Does that mean I’m a terrible participant of the online public sphere?
Now that the blogging task is over, I wonder if I’ll continue to blog. This has been a good exercise to see if I can commit to a weekly task, however, it was useful because there was a given topic and sufficient material to sustain weekly posts. Without a theme or topic, I wouldn’t have managed this any other way.
The wiki requirement on the other hand was a slight chore. I found it difficult to write an entry, which is technically meant to replicate an encyclopaedia type reference entry. It’s hard to write something that hasn’t already been said, as it’s based on fact not opinion.
While I noticed that some entries were very similar to already existing Wikipedia entries, I found it easier to browse through my uni textbooks for source content for my wiki entry.
As a collaborative space, it was slightly difficult as many had different font types and sizes, and different styles of writing and referencing, making it difficult to edit it to a uniform layout. Although I did edit some entries, I slightly felt like I didn’t have a right to correct grammar or spelling errors, because I didn’t want to judge another persons work.
I found it harder to monitor and update/edit/add to the wiki compared to the blog, and much preferred the blog assessment requirement.
Looking at the final product of the wiki, I am pleased to see that it has been updated, as I felt that when I included my entry only a handful of others did the same, making me wonder how it was going to work as a group collaborative.
However, it shows that for the sake of each other’s grades, new entries have been posted and edited. Thanks guys!
Overall, the tasks have been educating, challenging and worthwhile. The weekly posts to collaborate an assessment piece made it all the much easier rather than constant essays, which was refreshing compared to other subjects.
Above all, I realised the importance of participation in digital media cultures – the active users, the gatekeepers, and even those who watch from the sidelines, are all major players in cyberspace, to create, add and edit content for our use.
Viral Legalities
So far, privacy and safety on the Internet have been particular issues of focus in my blog discussion concerning digital media cultures.
While Facebook has been a large topic of discussion, due to being the Internet’s largest social networking site and the one I am most familiar with, today I heard about a new issue concerning another digital community, opening my eyes to a whole different aspect of privacy and safety on the Internet.
This morning on Seven’s Sunrise, the news bulletin blast announced that Lara Jade Coton from Tamworth, Staffordshire, received $132,000AUD in her lawsuit win against a US porn film company who used a portrait shot of her 14-year-old self as the front cover of one of their X-rated DVDs.
As the story goes, 21-year-old Lara, a well-known photographer, took a self-portrait when she was 14 and submitted the image on deviantART – an online community of artists, at the age of 17.
TVX Films took this image from the site without her permission, overlooking her copyright clauses, and used it as the cover image for one of their adult films.
Lara first found out about the infringed use of her image back in 2007, when a member from deviantART told her about the DVD. For Laura’s reaction, read here.
Three years on, Lara has finally won her legal battle on the grounds of copyright infringement, invasion of privacy and misappropriation of her image, as well as damaging her reputation. See here.
While Lara was fortunate enough to win her case, this would not be an isolated case brought before the courts, with other likely stories of copyright infringements and defamatory outcomes fuelled online.
While Facebook has an increased matter of privacy concern due to its global reach and popularity, it is important to realise the other aspects of the Internet which could possess damaging effects, with this particular instance putting into perspective the potential misuse of data and file and information sharing amongst digital media cultures.
Trust Issues
Remember those trust building activities your teacher used to make you do back in school? Or maybe even your employer makes you do them as part of team building. You know the ones – falling into your partner’s hands and trusting they will catch you, or being blindfolded and having someone direct you to your destination trusting they will keep you away from obstacles in your way.
Consider the following quotes:
You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.
– Anton Chekhov (Russian playwright)
I’m not upset that you lied to me; I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.
– Friedrich Nietzsche (German scholar, philosopher and critic of culture)
Without trusting the person, you won’t know if they will catch you or not. But sometimes if you take the risk and fall, it can affect your judgement of trust in the future.
The Internet for example, requires a lot of trust, but you don’t have a partner there that you know will catch you when you fall. So when it comes to the World Wide Web, which safe hands do you trust you can fall in?
Back in the day of the social chat room mIRC, my sister’s friend at the time sent a photo of herself and my sister to a social stranger – after all, she felt like she could trust the person after numerous chat discussions. This photo was then uploaded on an adult website with an inappropriate comment, resulting in issues of the law, trust, privacy and resulting in an ended friendship.
I remember back in primary school I used to have different pen pals. The program was arranged by the school and consisted of correspondence with other school students, both in rural Victoria and overseas. While we were ‘pen friends’, I never would go far enough to trust them – with my ‘childhood secrets’ for instance. Even the teachers warned us not to disclose too much information.
Trust online however is somehow defied in cyberspace. Instant messaging and Facebook profiles somehow immediately classify as ‘friend’ status, and the barriers of trust are slowly deteriorated. How can we really trust that the person behind the screen is exactly who they say they are?
Hackers steal privacy information such as bank account details causing fraudulent affairs, and downloaded files require precaution if they carry a virus. Even sellers on the Internet’s largest marketplace, eBay, can’t always be trusted despite saying that the item is new with tags and despite their star rating.
What provokes people to ruin the Internet experience for others? Like with all things online, trust should be exercised with caution.
How do you YouTube?
Love a good movie? Now you can love a good video even more with YouTube.
The video-sharing website promotes itself as “Broadcast Yourself”, appealing to its users to discover, watch, upload and share videos in this digital media-sharing culture.
According to Jean Burgess and Joshua Green, authors of YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture, “YouTube is a site of participatory culture”. Videos are uploaded, and can allow for comments, fuelling discussion and threads to take place. Others also recommend viewers to view their own videos and thus the social cohesion of YouTube is formed, with many uses for this form of media.
Vloggers (video bloggers) use the medium as a new form of sharing and expression, with particular popularity with “how-to” videos such as
I must admit; I’ve previously used YouTube to learn how to pitch a tent!
This year YouTube celebrated it’s 5th birthday, announcing more than two billion views per day.[1] The global phenomenon of YouTube has definitely spread, with traditional news media utilizing it for news content, particularly when it comes to commenting on posted videos.
Cyber bullying for example has been on the rise with the shift of social relations to cyberspace, with many courtyard-bullying episodes filmed and shared on YouTube. These are often brought up within the news media on TV or in newspapers, highlighting the consequences of technology when it comes to privacy, presenting YouTube in a not-so-utopian view.
On the other hand, YouTube sensations can become newsworthy for not-so-severe reasons and can receive attention on a global level. For example, Bieber Fever is a result of the Canadian pop singer, Justin Bieber, being discovered on YouTube.
The increase of video sharing and viewing has become all too easy in this digital media culture, and it seems that this phenomenon is continually rising, particularly after being bought by Google and increasing its empire through advertising and cross-collaborations with other businesses.
iPhones come with an inbuilt YouTube application, so you can watch videos on the go. How often have you been in the situation where someone has commented on a recent clip they’ve seen on YouTube? Conveniently enough, someone in the group is likely to have an iPhone and the clip is viewed and shared and then discussed or laughed about with those around.
Crossing across other social media platform, videos can easily gain popularity by tweeting the link or posting it on your Facebook wall and sharing it with your friends, so even the most ‘unpopular’ video has the potential to reach a mass audience.
Fact: more than 14,899,978 people “like” YouTube on Facebook[2]
In recent news for example, Queensland’s latest tourism campaign has been a hit on YouTube, generating 12,600 views within a week and more than $3.7 million in publicity value for Queensland. See here.
Whatever the future brings for the video-sharing website, for now, it is evident that YouTube remains to be a novelty and popular amongst the masses. So, how do you YouTube?
Further reading:
[1] YouTube marks fifth birthday by announcing two billion views per day
Digital Media Cultures 