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.

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

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

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

First week of blogging for new media!

Welcome dear readers to my new media blog for COM201!
Throughout my blog I will be focusing on topics covered in the lectures and readings, despite this I will not be afraid to add relevant comment from my own personal experiences. I believe a blog is a space for information mixed with individual opinion alongside peer review and collaboration. A blog is a 'potential broadcaster of one’s taste’ (Levy, 2006, p. 23) just as every form of mediated communication can be.

Recently the forms of communication have been widening and diversifying to the point where a persons music preference through their 'playlist', a word that would not have been recognized 10 years ago, can dramatically change the public's views. The release of Obama's diverse playlist was able to create immense amounts of coverage and humanize him as a candidate.

An interesting point that I took from the McLuhan reading involved the 'electric light' as a pure medium for communication. The medium not only facilitates the communication but "it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action" (McLuhan, 1965). For example without social networking sites I could not easily keep contact with the friends I have made overseas. This then changes the question to, would I keep contact? To be honest the simple answer is no. The medium shapes the style and frequency of communication therefore altering and forming social structures

Thanks for reading along this week my loyal followers, stay tuned for more riveting insight into the world of new media!

Levy, S. (2006). The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness, New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 21-41.

McLuhan, M. (1965). 'The Medium is the Message' in Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill, pp. 7-21.