NMEP (#4)

Final week: Wikimarathon, Digital Divide and Postnationism

Posted by Mushon
at April 22, 2008 | comments: 1 |

The next week would be our last, so I want us to go on a wikimarathon and get the process we discussed in class going. The main focus in my view would be to discuss our work this semester through the themes - meaning not make this deliberately a summary of the course, repeating information which is already in the blog, but work on a manual addressed at the embed researcher. Write theme pages and then refer to the your travelogues with links from it. No need to repeat what we already have on the blog. Ideally we will have a theme which refers to several different travelogues to make its point.

Please continue the good work here: http://www.mushon.com/spr08/nmrs/wiki/ (don’t forget to log in)

Before you do anything, please log in and provide your real name (or something we can cross reference with the blog). Now you are welcomed to start editing.

More discussion can happen on the wiki discussion pages, here on our blog, or on Max’s weird chat thingie… (any chance we can embed it in the wiki’s sidebar?)

Please make sure to each make at least 20 edits this week, or in other words, make sure you edit so much that you stop counting. This wiki is what we leave behind this class and will be what you take with you from it.

Required Reading:

Frost, Catherine “Internet Galaxy Meets Postnational Constellation: Prospects for Political Solidarity After the Internet” (a pdf will be emailed to you, please do not share.)

Required viewing:

Nicolas Negroponte, ”Interview with Riz Khan” Al-Jazeera October 2007:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyLGyYcKAmA

For Stephanie & a volunteer:

Brief, NMEP (#4)

Brief: The New Media Embed Program Manual + Ubicomp

Posted by Mushon
at April 15, 2008 | comments: 14 |

We will now embark on the last assignment of the semester:

NMRS presesnts: The New Media Embed Program

During the next two weeks we will gather our knowledge and compose a collective manual for the New Media traveler. It will include some lessons you gathered both about your own travelogues and about others, browse your author pages to recap the semester and the three travelogues for that matter. Other notes and tips will be about your own ideas of how to publish, when to publish, how to compose a post, what will users read? what would they comment on? Does or how do rating works? How does chat works? How does it fail? The importance of context, image vs. video, on participation vs. authorship… Moreover, each one of you presented a reading in class, try to contribute your takes from that reading into the NMEP manual. We will try together to finish the class with the essence of what should an embedded reporter consider while exploring new media environments.

Reference: military journalism, travel guides, tutorials, cooking recipes…

Like many other things in this class, this is an experiment… It will become what you make of it, and it starts right now. Please point your browsers at http://www.mushon.com/spr08/nmrs/wiki/

Before you do anything, please log in and provide your real name (or something we can cross reference with the blog). Now you are welcomed to start editing.

You are welcomed to propose some structure on the wiki discussion pages, here on our blog, or on Max’s weird chat thingie…

Please make sure to each make at least 4 edits this week (from creation of full pages to typo corrections

Recommended Reading:

Required Reading:

Brian Holmes - Drifting Through the Grid: Psychogeography and Imperial Infrastructure

Required Viewing:

For Patty & a volunteer:

Brief, NMEP (#4), tools

Traveler’s Log Article: “Where the Road Takes You”

Posted by egor
at April 15, 2008 | comments: 0 |

Surprise, Surprise

 

My ideas on starting my traveler’s log were pretty structured, or so I thought.  I started my journey packed with preconceptions, snug/smug in my own beliefs.  Already surmising my findings in my head, before I had a chance to actually explore the topic(s) and themes I encountered.

 

Disability and New Media

 

Case in point:  my first foray into new media explored how those with disabilities were empowered by the ability to produce, distribute, and interact with not only their own community but the overall public sphere.  Organizations like ConnecTV, profiled in my first post, were exemplary models of how new media is able to bring together disparate communities, united for a common cause.  By providing resources and media training to the disabled, these organizations facilitate the inclusion of these seldom-heard voices/perspectives.   And when they were heard it was through stereotypical/condescending depictions. Advances in production have made it possible for content to be produced economically, and new media has enabled the global distribution of this content (YouTube), as well as fostered discussion around it.

 

Arguably, advocates for the disabled were found in the most unlikely places.  As an irreverent source of social criticism, South Park, also took on and challenged media portrayals of disabled characters (Timmy, Jimmy, et. al), and considered them just as worthy of mockery as the rest of the cast of South Park characters.  In this aspect, South Park producers used new media to not only promote their own content via their own website, but also incorporated a character’s disability (wheelchair and all) into an online game.  This unapologetic inclusion was surprisingly welcomed and encouraged by the disabled audience, who in turn were able to express their sentiments/opinions through new media (blogging). 

 

Textual Harassment and CyberBullying

 

Unfortunately, my renewed faith in the good of human nature was tempered soon enough during my next foray into new media.   Recent headlines on the so-called “MySpace suicide” committed by Megan Meier after being textually harassed by a neighbor(s) posing as a potential boyfriend, provided a window into the dark side of new media.  The perceived anonymity, made possible online, allows users to feel there are no repercussions or consequences to bad behavior.  (How many of us would act up, if we knew we wouldn’t get caught).   But there are and were tragic consequences in the Meier case, and current legislation against intentional misrepresentation online is making its way through the court system nationwide. No doubt the prospect of being responsible for false comments made online will alter our online behavior.

 

But increasingly, even the prospect of anonymity seems to be less important; taken over by the need to BE noticed for bad behavior.  The recent attack of a teenage girl, lured to a friend’s house and set upon by a gang of girls was posted on YouTube, subsequently leading to the attackers’ arrest.  These perpetrators seemingly wanted the infamy that came along with the conviction.  To that end, producers of the “Dr. Phil” show posted bail for some of the attackers in order for them to appear on the talk show (after receiving negative media attention, the show was pulled).  The instant attention and notoriety that new media makes possible through websites like YouTube, and social networking sites such as MySpace continues to affect, and in some respects encourage the worst type of behavior.  Anything goes as long as it’s popular.  But how far is too far…?  And what role do we play in encouraging this type of behavior (media coverage, public discussion, distributing said content, etc.).

 

My ongoing media intervention on JuicyCampus, a gossip website for the college community, is trying to find an answer, or at least further the discussion.  Prompted by NYU student  Brian Dargiewicz’s case, in which false information about him was posted on the site, I decided to post an innocuous subject and assess the response.   After having received harmless enough responses to the post (“Best TA - Worst TA”), I will up the ante, and post something “juicier.”

                                                                                                                                                 

Human Nature (platforms change, human nature doesn’t)

 

In general, my traveler’s log experiences have made me realize that although the platform may change and evolve through innovation, human nature is fundamental and predictable not matter what the method of expression.  We have an enormous capacity for good and an equal aptitude for evil.  New media is just the latest platform that facilitates this expression, for better or worse.

 

-egor

 

NMEP (#4), Uncategorized, travelogue3