After missing today's tute (thanks to my tank of a car engine) I spent the morning reading some very insightful blogs! Truth be told the quality of these blogs are so good that I would not want to trade places with the tutors for the world.
Marking these bad boys is going to be tough!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
It had to end sometime
So as this assessment draws ever nearer the end date it has to be said that this is not how I expected the blogging adventure would go. I was truthfully terrified about blogging after so many years of 'and don't even think of using 1st person' being drilled into my high school mind, I wasn’t sure I could even do it. But after a couple of weeks of getting my mind around the concept I have actually enjoyed the experience – weird!
So who knows maybe this blog will be used in weeks to come anyway – despite the completion of this assessment piece!
So who knows maybe this blog will be used in weeks to come anyway – despite the completion of this assessment piece!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Comment to Melinda's Power to the People (for submission)
Melinda, I found your article about citizen journalism very interesting and very valid. As a journalism student myself, I am often frustrated by the conflicting perspectives I receive about the benefits and credibility of citizen journalism. From the CI faculty, citizen journalism, allows for individuals to create and recreate work, as illustrated through produsage. From the Journalism faculty however, citizen journalism is simply freedom of speech in action, personal opinions on various topics of no more importance than the next.
I agree further with your statement that citizen journalism is no less significant or influential compared to credited media sources (Cunningham and Turner 2006, pg 57) as so clearly demonstrated with Lynx’s advertising campaign. This is further demonstrated through BASE, a Canadian branch of the Body Shop makeup company, declaring bankruptcy in 2005 due to backlash resulting from citizen journalism in the form of online blogs.
This company, similar to the Coke Zero advertising strategy, created a website and blog for collaborative discussion about their products. Unlike in Coke Zero’s case, which revealed Coca Cola employees posing as ‘fans’ to promote their product, BASE’s blog was used as a forum to discuss rumours that a particular product was created using unnatural ingredients. As more details were revealed and the rumour proven to be valid, the company was forced to publicly acknowledge its mistake, which cost the company millions followed by millions more in lawsuits from stakeholders and competitors. Whilst this is only one example, it clearly illustrates the influence that citizen journalism can have in society.
References
Cunningham, S and G. Turner. 2006. The Media and Communications in Australia. Allen and Unwin: Crows Nest.
I agree further with your statement that citizen journalism is no less significant or influential compared to credited media sources (Cunningham and Turner 2006, pg 57) as so clearly demonstrated with Lynx’s advertising campaign. This is further demonstrated through BASE, a Canadian branch of the Body Shop makeup company, declaring bankruptcy in 2005 due to backlash resulting from citizen journalism in the form of online blogs.
This company, similar to the Coke Zero advertising strategy, created a website and blog for collaborative discussion about their products. Unlike in Coke Zero’s case, which revealed Coca Cola employees posing as ‘fans’ to promote their product, BASE’s blog was used as a forum to discuss rumours that a particular product was created using unnatural ingredients. As more details were revealed and the rumour proven to be valid, the company was forced to publicly acknowledge its mistake, which cost the company millions followed by millions more in lawsuits from stakeholders and competitors. Whilst this is only one example, it clearly illustrates the influence that citizen journalism can have in society.
References
Cunningham, S and G. Turner. 2006. The Media and Communications in Australia. Allen and Unwin: Crows Nest.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Comment to Bre's 'Internet and Jamming Culture' (for submission)
Hey Bre – I have to agree with the others on this, this was one of the best blogs I have read thus far. Previous to reading your blog I was unaware of what culture jamming meant (embarrassing considering this is far from my first CI subject). As I am now comfortable with the concept, I realize you structured your blog really well, including a clear understanding of this concept’s definition to cater to those of us not as familiar with the content that followed.
Once I had finished reading your blog and had time to digest its content I realized how correct you were in describing the significant effect that the internet has had on culture jamming. Based on your suggestion, I carried out a number of searches and was able to successfully amuse myself for an hour with the huge number of computer altered advertisements in circulation online. During my searches I even found a number of online communities, whose aim it were to alter the meanings of various advertisements, in an attempt to poke fun at popular culture (Lasn 1999, pg 77). There truly is an online community for everything.
It would have also been interesting had you explained in more depth the current legislation that control technological developments and usage of it for reputation tainting purposes. I suggest this because in 2007, legislation was passed in Australia, which enforces stricter policies on published works, which are an altered representation of someone else’s and it would have illustrated your point perfectly. Otherwise – fantastic read!
References
Lasn, K. 1999. Culture Jam. New York: Eagle Brook
Once I had finished reading your blog and had time to digest its content I realized how correct you were in describing the significant effect that the internet has had on culture jamming. Based on your suggestion, I carried out a number of searches and was able to successfully amuse myself for an hour with the huge number of computer altered advertisements in circulation online. During my searches I even found a number of online communities, whose aim it were to alter the meanings of various advertisements, in an attempt to poke fun at popular culture (Lasn 1999, pg 77). There truly is an online community for everything.
It would have also been interesting had you explained in more depth the current legislation that control technological developments and usage of it for reputation tainting purposes. I suggest this because in 2007, legislation was passed in Australia, which enforces stricter policies on published works, which are an altered representation of someone else’s and it would have illustrated your point perfectly. Otherwise – fantastic read!
References
Lasn, K. 1999. Culture Jam. New York: Eagle Brook
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Citizen journalism - Why not embrace the concept Time?
For those of you out there who have been keeping tabs, yes I do in fact reference Time Magazine a lot! During the course of my degree, I have developed a sick addiction to the publication, both physical and virtual, as a result of my journalism major. However Time Inc.’s recent announcement that it has again decided against public contribution as a source of news, unlike network broadcasters like CNN and ABC, has caused a sway in my opinion of the company.
As a student in the Creative Industries faculty also, I am continually introduced to innovative styles of relaying news to the public, which have been enabled through development of Web 2.0. An example of such a style includes citizen journalism.
As described in Bruns’ lecture, citizen journalism stems from individuals with no professional journalistic education who rely on the internet as a voice medium (Wilson, 2008). Consequently, people are using blogs, video sharing sites like YouTube and podcasts as a means of both publishing and consuming informative and up-to-date news broadcasts (Wilson, 2008).
Through this, dependence on the elite reporters for news information is reduced and replaced by reliance on a wider group of informal writers (Bruns, 2008, pg 77). This idea is expressed through Surowiecki’s theory (2005) which describes a group’s collective intelligence as more valuable compared with that of an elite few.
Through assessment of my own experiences, I found this to be of great reality. For assessment in another subject, students were divided into groups and presented with a number of facts on a recent incident. These facts were identical to those presented to Channel 7’s Brisbane reporters a month ago. Through this exercise it was concluded that often the material created within a group of students was of equal if not greater quality to the material produced by professionals.
Another description of citizen journalism is expressed by Saunders (2006), in his 2006 thesis Citizen Media and Investigative Journalism. In this thesis, Saunders claims that journalism is created through continual editing and public critique of existing stories (Saunders, 2006, pg 113). Consequently for Time Inc., a company recognised for innovative broadcast practices, to dispute the value of public contributions, seems very backwards.
Interestingly, Time Inc. did provide reasons for its decision, which largely focused on concerns about monitoring content quality of contributions associated with the Time name. Subsequently this apprehension is understandable as the company is acting in a manner which protects their interests. However I felt it naïve of Time Inc. to believe that the traditional news process of gatekeeping would not evolve to match the growth of citizen journalism.
This is evident through similarities existing between citizen journalism and open source software. Thereby, in citizen journalism the notion exists that pieces are never complete as there is always room for improvement (Wilson, 2008). Since production is made available to everyone, an illustration of produsage (Bruns, 2008, pg 78), better quality sources are realised through ‘power of the eyeball,’ a concept, which, through critique and debate of articles, results in better articles ‘rising to the top’ (Wilson, 2008).
As a student in the Creative Industries faculty also, I am continually introduced to innovative styles of relaying news to the public, which have been enabled through development of Web 2.0. An example of such a style includes citizen journalism.
As described in Bruns’ lecture, citizen journalism stems from individuals with no professional journalistic education who rely on the internet as a voice medium (Wilson, 2008). Consequently, people are using blogs, video sharing sites like YouTube and podcasts as a means of both publishing and consuming informative and up-to-date news broadcasts (Wilson, 2008).
Through this, dependence on the elite reporters for news information is reduced and replaced by reliance on a wider group of informal writers (Bruns, 2008, pg 77). This idea is expressed through Surowiecki’s theory (2005) which describes a group’s collective intelligence as more valuable compared with that of an elite few.
Through assessment of my own experiences, I found this to be of great reality. For assessment in another subject, students were divided into groups and presented with a number of facts on a recent incident. These facts were identical to those presented to Channel 7’s Brisbane reporters a month ago. Through this exercise it was concluded that often the material created within a group of students was of equal if not greater quality to the material produced by professionals.
Another description of citizen journalism is expressed by Saunders (2006), in his 2006 thesis Citizen Media and Investigative Journalism. In this thesis, Saunders claims that journalism is created through continual editing and public critique of existing stories (Saunders, 2006, pg 113). Consequently for Time Inc., a company recognised for innovative broadcast practices, to dispute the value of public contributions, seems very backwards.
Interestingly, Time Inc. did provide reasons for its decision, which largely focused on concerns about monitoring content quality of contributions associated with the Time name. Subsequently this apprehension is understandable as the company is acting in a manner which protects their interests. However I felt it naïve of Time Inc. to believe that the traditional news process of gatekeeping would not evolve to match the growth of citizen journalism.
This is evident through similarities existing between citizen journalism and open source software. Thereby, in citizen journalism the notion exists that pieces are never complete as there is always room for improvement (Wilson, 2008). Since production is made available to everyone, an illustration of produsage (Bruns, 2008, pg 78), better quality sources are realised through ‘power of the eyeball,’ a concept, which, through critique and debate of articles, results in better articles ‘rising to the top’ (Wilson, 2008).
References
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.
Saunders, B. 2006. Citizen Media and Investigative Journalism . Honours these, Creative Industries - Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology.
Surowiecki, J. 2005. This Wisdom of Crowds. New York: NY Ingram International Inc.
Wilson, J. (2008). KCB201 Virtual Cultures: Week 10 lecture notes. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au (accessed May 8, 2008).
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.
Saunders, B. 2006. Citizen Media and Investigative Journalism . Honours these, Creative Industries - Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology.
Surowiecki, J. 2005. This Wisdom of Crowds. New York: NY Ingram International Inc.
Wilson, J. (2008). KCB201 Virtual Cultures: Week 10 lecture notes. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au (accessed May 8, 2008).
How strange!
After class discussions it has been agreed that in our collective efforts to do well on this assignment (as illustrated through our fantastic comment posting on one another's pages) we have in fact created another online community!
Go team!
Go team!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Comment to Emmy's: Get Smarter Facebook! (for submission)
I could not agree more with your request for greater control of Facebook profiles. In the second half of last year, after weeks of irritating ‘your friend wants you to join Facebook’ emails, I created myself an account to see what all the fuss was about. It did not take long for friendships to be made and for embarrassing photos to appear. Like many others, I use this account to keep in contact with overseas relatives and friends. However it becomes awkward when you try and portray yourself in a positive light despite photos of you, in frankly a less than healthy state, following your post. Consequently I completely agree that a little more control on Facebook could go a long way!
Interestingly, I read recently in Time magazine that Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook.com, agreed to allow users to adjust his original settings of the site (Kirkpatrick, 2007, online), through individual programming (Grossman, 2008, online). In previous times, when users have attempted to alter a site and still use the trademark name, court cases have ensued. This is demonstrated through Yahoo’s 1996 case against a group of French teens who attempted to better its literature search engine (Yahoo!, 2008, online). Consequently, someone endeavouring to become the next Bill Gates might create a tool which allows Facebook users to control their own ‘online communities’ more successfully. Either way, your blog has brought about some interesting ideas!
Interestingly, I read recently in Time magazine that Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook.com, agreed to allow users to adjust his original settings of the site (Kirkpatrick, 2007, online), through individual programming (Grossman, 2008, online). In previous times, when users have attempted to alter a site and still use the trademark name, court cases have ensued. This is demonstrated through Yahoo’s 1996 case against a group of French teens who attempted to better its literature search engine (Yahoo!, 2008, online). Consequently, someone endeavouring to become the next Bill Gates might create a tool which allows Facebook users to control their own ‘online communities’ more successfully. Either way, your blog has brought about some interesting ideas!
References
Grossman, L. 2008. Facebook: the future. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,00.html (accessed May 1, 2008).
Kirkpatrick, D. 2007. Facebook’s new face. http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/24%20/fastforward_facebook.fortune/ (accessed April 31, 2008).
Yahoo! Developer Network. 2008. http://developer.yahoo.com/history (accessed April 31, 2008).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
