Good morning my hordes of followers! Though seeing as this is a blog it may be evening when you read this. This weeks blog is about the act of blogging! I hope you are all riveted to hear about this one?
As our good friend McIntosh points out to us and as I went over in my P.R. post “blogs have a huge influence on individuals” (McIntosh, 2007). McIntosh continues to outline the very effects of blogging that I have stated in the PR blog. He even goes into how Wal-Mart screwed up in their P.R. department. As I have stated it is becoming extremely hard to 'pull the wool over the eyes' of modern society. I find it funny that Wal-Mart recognised the power of blogs, then abused it, then got stung! HA!
I would also like to add here that 'Blogs are conversations - so converse!' (McIntosh, 2007). This is about the collaborative form of blogging. Users have the ability to leave comments and to have 'conversations.' This is why i believe blogs should be written in an informal tone with greetings and personal writing. Dont you agree my lovely followers? Isn't it more engaging to be talked to than talked at?
In review of my blog I would like to say I am quite pleased with my tone, content and style! Although I could have made use of pictures and multimedia for depth. Also more links to relevant sites and sources would have been helpful.
Thankyou for tuning in this week my lovelies and I hope you have a good weekend!
McIntosh, E. 2007. Six Points for Organisations Entering the Web.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Health and Wellbeing in new media
Are you feeling ill today my darling readers? What are your symptoms? Where does it hurt?
Your in luck because today I will be blogging about health and wellbeing!
Lets start with a case study on one of my fellow students from this unit. We were sitting in the lecture when suddnly the topic of self diagnosis was brought up and my serene listening concentration was broken. Miss Student turned to me and frantically began telling me about her self diagnosis history and the excellence of her findings.
"Oh and all my doctors really love me because I usually have it all figured out already!"
In response to this I quote my collegue Lewis (2006) who states "The web in some ways represents a kind of unregulated knowledge commons where diverse forms of information are theoretically available to anyone who can access them," (Lewis, 2006).
Enough said.
Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539.
Your in luck because today I will be blogging about health and wellbeing!
Lets start with a case study on one of my fellow students from this unit. We were sitting in the lecture when suddnly the topic of self diagnosis was brought up and my serene listening concentration was broken. Miss Student turned to me and frantically began telling me about her self diagnosis history and the excellence of her findings.
"Oh and all my doctors really love me because I usually have it all figured out already!"
In response to this I quote my collegue Lewis (2006) who states "The web in some ways represents a kind of unregulated knowledge commons where diverse forms of information are theoretically available to anyone who can access them," (Lewis, 2006).
Enough said.
Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Working in New Media
The workforce is changing and changing rapidly it's no lie my beloved readers. I am studying mass communication and my other major is P.R. so I will try to angle this from my point of view.
Last semester in the U.S.A I was being taught about so called Public Relations 2.0. Quite interesting in fact. The main point there is that communication has now changed dramatically. PR can no longer revolve around a defined message strategy that comes from one (organization) to many (publics and stakeholders). It is now forced to adapt the 2.0 model and go from many to many. A main objective here in my point of view is to target opinion leaders alongside publics. It has become almost impossible to 'spin' issues under the rug when those beneath the rug can cause such massive reactions at the click of a 'post' button.
Have you heard of a blogstorm? This is what will occur if caution is not used while handling delicate issues. A blogstorm is a massive attack from many angles about the issue in concern from almost anyone who has an opinion, and in the ever expanding networks of today this is a substantial part of the job.
There are also massive implications for journalists and all media savvy professions. As Gill (2007) put it 'all kinds of freelance, casualized, informal, and otherwise contingent labor arrangements' are popping up. I guess this means more opportunities for those with less privelige and more skill? Or perhaps a general degredation of everything? Or most probably vica-versa. Is it the death of newspapers as we know it? I know I for one get my news offline. I wonder what th world will be like when I am an old man, going by Moore's law it should be extremely interesting.
Gill, R. (2007). Informality is the New Black. In Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New Media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures: 24-30 & 38-43.
Last semester in the U.S.A I was being taught about so called Public Relations 2.0. Quite interesting in fact. The main point there is that communication has now changed dramatically. PR can no longer revolve around a defined message strategy that comes from one (organization) to many (publics and stakeholders). It is now forced to adapt the 2.0 model and go from many to many. A main objective here in my point of view is to target opinion leaders alongside publics. It has become almost impossible to 'spin' issues under the rug when those beneath the rug can cause such massive reactions at the click of a 'post' button.
Have you heard of a blogstorm? This is what will occur if caution is not used while handling delicate issues. A blogstorm is a massive attack from many angles about the issue in concern from almost anyone who has an opinion, and in the ever expanding networks of today this is a substantial part of the job.
There are also massive implications for journalists and all media savvy professions. As Gill (2007) put it 'all kinds of freelance, casualized, informal, and otherwise contingent labor arrangements' are popping up. I guess this means more opportunities for those with less privelige and more skill? Or perhaps a general degredation of everything? Or most probably vica-versa. Is it the death of newspapers as we know it? I know I for one get my news offline. I wonder what th world will be like when I am an old man, going by Moore's law it should be extremely interesting.
Gill, R. (2007). Informality is the New Black. In Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New Media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures: 24-30 & 38-43.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Information Education and Work
Greeting and salutations to all, and welcome to another week of blogging.
This week we go further into the idea of information as power by looking at search engines and the power that the giant search companies possess over the information that we have access to.
Howard and Massanari (2007) claim that "searching for information is a social act, shaped by the political, economic, and cultural contexts' of the time we live in. This is indeed true as acquiring new information alongside what you are searching for almost helps to define a person. As we saw in the lecture through the alaskan web searcher, it is quite easy to discern a users personality or interests through their search results. This is reinforced by Howard and Massanari (2007) when they state "being more educated or being in a higher income bracket predicts most of the variation in Internet users' experience." This then ties into knowledge as power and almost forms a sort of cycle with the knowledgeable getting more knoledgeable. At least these days it is now possible, and facilitated by the internet medium, for the poor to become knowledgeable. When a search is done and results processed, data becomes knowledge.
Just as the human mind operated by assosciation, as we saw in the word game where pepper turned to steak (peppersteak yum), so too do search engines. Here is something interesting about search engines. When we search we are searching only the engines database, not the entire web. This gives raise to censorship and bias issues.
An example of one such issue occured when MIA's new film clip got banned from YouTube after intervention from powerful forces. Also it is almost mind boggling to me that more Australians arn't up in arm about the proposed censorship laws for Australia. If information is knowledge then cut mine down and I WILL riot. (maybe?)
Howard, P.N. and Massanari, A. (2007). Learning to Search and Searching to Learn: Income, Education and Experience Online. Journal of Computer - Meditated Communication, 12(3). Article 5.
This week we go further into the idea of information as power by looking at search engines and the power that the giant search companies possess over the information that we have access to.
Howard and Massanari (2007) claim that "searching for information is a social act, shaped by the political, economic, and cultural contexts' of the time we live in. This is indeed true as acquiring new information alongside what you are searching for almost helps to define a person. As we saw in the lecture through the alaskan web searcher, it is quite easy to discern a users personality or interests through their search results. This is reinforced by Howard and Massanari (2007) when they state "being more educated or being in a higher income bracket predicts most of the variation in Internet users' experience." This then ties into knowledge as power and almost forms a sort of cycle with the knowledgeable getting more knoledgeable. At least these days it is now possible, and facilitated by the internet medium, for the poor to become knowledgeable. When a search is done and results processed, data becomes knowledge.
Just as the human mind operated by assosciation, as we saw in the word game where pepper turned to steak (peppersteak yum), so too do search engines. Here is something interesting about search engines. When we search we are searching only the engines database, not the entire web. This gives raise to censorship and bias issues.
An example of one such issue occured when MIA's new film clip got banned from YouTube after intervention from powerful forces. Also it is almost mind boggling to me that more Australians arn't up in arm about the proposed censorship laws for Australia. If information is knowledge then cut mine down and I WILL riot. (maybe?)
Howard, P.N. and Massanari, A. (2007). Learning to Search and Searching to Learn: Income, Education and Experience Online. Journal of Computer - Meditated Communication, 12(3). Article 5.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Visibility on the social stage
Hola readers!
Sharing interpersonal connections and the ways in which a user knows other users is an effective way to build status and reputation in an online society. An example of this is the professional networking sit LinkedIn. On this site users can utilise buisness connections online through liks with those in their field, making collaboration and progress easier for all. This can also be seen on sites such as Facebook where people who boast the most friends are seen as the most popular. As the information age flourishes "access to information is a key element of status and power” (Donath and Boyd, 2004, p. 71) and those with the best ways to attain knowledge (e.g LinkedIn) are those with the power. Knowledge is no longer only for those with power but can be attained by anyone with a connection to web 2.0.
The many advancements in technology over the past few years have lead to a boom in constant connection to the ever expanding network. The theatre group Blast Theory focus their work around these enhanced concepts such as locative media and live video streaming. The ties between the corporeal and the virtual are getting harder and harder to discern as it is now possible to carry your connectivity around in your pocket.
Here is a link to the Blast Theory website, anyone who is in the know in emerging technologies sould know of the work being done by this group. http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/bt/index.php
I would also like to include a link to my previous blogging on emerging technologies for those who are interested. http://jackmartellocarroll.blogspot.com/
This is a link to an article about augmented reality for those interested it can also be found on my previous blog.
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=emerging&id=18291
Donath, J. and Boyd, D. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal , volume 22 (4): 71-82
Sharing interpersonal connections and the ways in which a user knows other users is an effective way to build status and reputation in an online society. An example of this is the professional networking sit LinkedIn. On this site users can utilise buisness connections online through liks with those in their field, making collaboration and progress easier for all. This can also be seen on sites such as Facebook where people who boast the most friends are seen as the most popular. As the information age flourishes "access to information is a key element of status and power” (Donath and Boyd, 2004, p. 71) and those with the best ways to attain knowledge (e.g LinkedIn) are those with the power. Knowledge is no longer only for those with power but can be attained by anyone with a connection to web 2.0.
The many advancements in technology over the past few years have lead to a boom in constant connection to the ever expanding network. The theatre group Blast Theory focus their work around these enhanced concepts such as locative media and live video streaming. The ties between the corporeal and the virtual are getting harder and harder to discern as it is now possible to carry your connectivity around in your pocket.
Here is a link to the Blast Theory website, anyone who is in the know in emerging technologies sould know of the work being done by this group. http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/bt/index.php
I would also like to include a link to my previous blogging on emerging technologies for those who are interested. http://jackmartellocarroll.blogspot.com/
This is a link to an article about augmented reality for those interested it can also be found on my previous blog.
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=emerging&id=18291
Donath, J. and Boyd, D. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal , volume 22 (4): 71-82
Friday, March 19, 2010
My Face
My dear loyal readers we now come to the social networking side of things, the creation of profiles, the neverending status updates, the use of your information for marketing and the overarching human desire for gratification and acknowledgement.
There is such a wide range of issues and topics I could write for days on this topic but let me begin with the buisness side of things. Certain social networking sites such as Facebook "encourage[s] people to share their personal goals" (Rosen, 2007). This in turn begins a cycle of what is called connected marketing. If you were to join the Mi-Goreng appreciation society group on facebook there is a good chance you will be targeted by cheap food advertisements. But that is the smaller side of the scale. When every user signs up for Facebook they are signing away everything they upload to be the property of Facebook. That includes photographs and everything that is written. There was an instance where a user saw themselves on a billboard advertisement. Their picture had been sold by Facebook to an advertising company.
That is not all. So you sign over your account and you join up to groups, you also put in all your demographic details. These details are then sold for money!
Relationships are also called into question online. Perhaps people are only your Facebook friends so they can stalk you? Spy on you? It is possible to create fake accounts so the deception deepens! And then when we get deeper are your friends actually your friends, or just aqquaintences, or someone you met once at a party? I have all three but only really communicate with those i value most and who will write back to me, feeding my need for acknowledgement, for notifications. I only "interact with those few that matter and that reciprocate my attention," (Huberman, et all., 2008).
I wish I could continue but space is small and time is little! See you next week amigos.
Rosen, C. 2007. Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism. The New Atlantis, 17: 15-31.
Huberman, B.A., Romero D. M. and Wu, F. (2009) Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope. First Monday, Volume 14
There is such a wide range of issues and topics I could write for days on this topic but let me begin with the buisness side of things. Certain social networking sites such as Facebook "encourage[s] people to share their personal goals" (Rosen, 2007). This in turn begins a cycle of what is called connected marketing. If you were to join the Mi-Goreng appreciation society group on facebook there is a good chance you will be targeted by cheap food advertisements. But that is the smaller side of the scale. When every user signs up for Facebook they are signing away everything they upload to be the property of Facebook. That includes photographs and everything that is written. There was an instance where a user saw themselves on a billboard advertisement. Their picture had been sold by Facebook to an advertising company.
That is not all. So you sign over your account and you join up to groups, you also put in all your demographic details. These details are then sold for money!
Relationships are also called into question online. Perhaps people are only your Facebook friends so they can stalk you? Spy on you? It is possible to create fake accounts so the deception deepens! And then when we get deeper are your friends actually your friends, or just aqquaintences, or someone you met once at a party? I have all three but only really communicate with those i value most and who will write back to me, feeding my need for acknowledgement, for notifications. I only "interact with those few that matter and that reciprocate my attention," (Huberman, et all., 2008).
I wish I could continue but space is small and time is little! See you next week amigos.
Rosen, C. 2007. Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism. The New Atlantis, 17: 15-31.
Huberman, B.A., Romero D. M. and Wu, F. (2009) Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope. First Monday, Volume 14
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Marketing in New Media
Greetings readers. This week we are focusing on avatars and marketing in an evolving mediated society.
An avatar is a graphical representation of a real person or user in an online community. Somewhat like a pseudonym in times past, an avatar can voice concerns that the user would not dare say in person. But this is just one slice of the cake. An avatar allows a user to be liberated from their day to day identity, which in effect takes the user back to square one. It is possible to craft an identity from the ground up, the identity could represent the user like a mirror but on the other hand it could be completely fabricated. Can you see the complex issues that begin to arise in this situation? These identities can be used for anything from allowing the handicapped to roam second-life or presenting a professional likeness to peers, to luring the unsuspecting into traps.
As Chen outlines in the table 'Definitions of Impression Management (IM) Tactics' there are extremely diverse ways of deciving, altering or straight up fabricating one's identity. Some examples of the way YouTube performers attain fame include boasting, blurring, supplication and basking. Basking revolves around claiming a relationship with a celebrity whether false or otherwise. The creation of an avatar filters out the cues that would be found in face to face communication such as body expression and tone making it simple to embellish, decieve or just have fun in an online game! According to Cooper (2007) there are “10 million gamers across the globe.” and the online societies they inhabit have become woth real money "other world's are subject to real money trading (RMT)," (Cooper, 2007). I have experienced this firsthand through addicted gaming friends and even Facebook applications that accept donations for items.
As so many people have so many personal and accesible details online market research is becoming exceedingly easy (I will elaborate in next weeks post as we are presenting on this topic). Viral marketing campaigns have also been succesful, shamed as I am I must admit that I have sent away for an OraBrush with a fellow student after being exposed to the campaign.
Until next time, stay classy world.
Chen, L. C. P. (n.d.). Individual Online Impression Management: Self-Presentation on YouTube.
Cooper, R. (2007). Alter Egos: Avatars and their Creators. 15th May
An avatar is a graphical representation of a real person or user in an online community. Somewhat like a pseudonym in times past, an avatar can voice concerns that the user would not dare say in person. But this is just one slice of the cake. An avatar allows a user to be liberated from their day to day identity, which in effect takes the user back to square one. It is possible to craft an identity from the ground up, the identity could represent the user like a mirror but on the other hand it could be completely fabricated. Can you see the complex issues that begin to arise in this situation? These identities can be used for anything from allowing the handicapped to roam second-life or presenting a professional likeness to peers, to luring the unsuspecting into traps.
As Chen outlines in the table 'Definitions of Impression Management (IM) Tactics' there are extremely diverse ways of deciving, altering or straight up fabricating one's identity. Some examples of the way YouTube performers attain fame include boasting, blurring, supplication and basking. Basking revolves around claiming a relationship with a celebrity whether false or otherwise. The creation of an avatar filters out the cues that would be found in face to face communication such as body expression and tone making it simple to embellish, decieve or just have fun in an online game! According to Cooper (2007) there are “10 million gamers across the globe.” and the online societies they inhabit have become woth real money "other world's are subject to real money trading (RMT)," (Cooper, 2007). I have experienced this firsthand through addicted gaming friends and even Facebook applications that accept donations for items.
As so many people have so many personal and accesible details online market research is becoming exceedingly easy (I will elaborate in next weeks post as we are presenting on this topic). Viral marketing campaigns have also been succesful, shamed as I am I must admit that I have sent away for an OraBrush with a fellow student after being exposed to the campaign.
Until next time, stay classy world.
Chen, L. C. P. (n.d.). Individual Online Impression Management: Self-Presentation on YouTube.
Cooper, R. (2007). Alter Egos: Avatars and their Creators. 15th May
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