Tactical Media

Wikipedia describes tactical media as "the appropriation of mass media in order to oppose and criticize a target which often occupies a certain position of power. This modern form of activism can be recognized by its use of current technology and its ‘hit-and-run tactics’ media campaigns which are often short-lived in nature. The purpose of tactical media lays within the type of information it distributes and the warnings it can sometimes produce. By generating this information and creating this reaction, tactical media attempts to reverse the one-way-flow of communication and power and give some of the control back to the public." The authors consistently emphasize tactical media's success is due to the avoidance of "essentialized identity" or ultimate goal, allowing groups the freedom of critique as well as self-criticism.

Chapter 2: The Space of Tactical Media
The author emphasizes that tactical media are "expressions of dissent that rely on artistic practices and 'do it yourself' (DIY) media created from readily available, relatively cheap technology and means of communication." These approaches are constantly evolving and produced collectively. Tactical media can be separated from other forms of political activism by the distinction between tactics and strategies, with tactical media focusing on shorter-term actions. Renzi views tactical media less as a movement or practice, but as a space where "tactical things" happen. Social software (blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, etc.) are dynamic places or means for groups to meet and prepare tactical action.

Chapter 13: Media Interventions and Art Practices: Interview with Shaina Anand
Shaina Anand is an artist and media activist in India, working primarily through the medium of film and documentaries to produce works engaging the local communities in India as subjects, producers and audience. She works mainly in places where there is very little or no existing local media. One of the primary questions she asks in her work is "Where is the power reversal for these people who have become your subjects?" Her focus is on micropolitics and very local effects, as her project Rustle TV clearly shows. In it, Rustle TV was designed to flip normal filmmaking on its head: the entire market was participatory as it became their channel, produced by a student crew that worked to produce content desired by the market.

Rustle TV

Chapter 14: The Gambiarra: Considerations on a Recombinatory Technology
Gambiarra is a Portuguese word that means essentially, "to make do" or a quick-fix solution, an "improvisation as a means of survival." Gambiarras were used in acts of urban terrorism in Madrid and Sao Paulo, but are also seen as positive solutions in recycling discarded technologies. The author argues that we need to pay attention to what is happening around us on the streets instead of merely keeping up with North American and European trends.

Bricolage and Gambiarra

Chapter 15: Where the Activism Is
Scholz refers to it as the "social Web", a place with potential for social life. He argues that activism extends beyond the traditional protests, strikes, donations, letters to Congress, etc., and now includes "the toolbox of the social Web." In the developed world, blogs and wikis are the dominant forms used by activists. The developing world, however, are using mobile phones and inexpensive phone plans for innovative activist purposes. More people are spending time online in networked activism, fundraising, and self-expression due to a disappearing public sphere in the economically developed world.

Chapter 17: The Daily Show and Crossfire: Satire and Sincerity as Truth to Power
"Jon Stewart's 'court-jester' critiques not only offer a much-needed antidote [to mainstream media coverage], but they also represent a niche of media convergence for news content as well as circulation." Stewart's legendary appearance on Crossfire in 2004 was a demand for traditional new media to return to truthfulness in reporting and representation. While Stewart wasn't a funny man on that appearance, his typical MO through The Daily Show is to use satire to speak "truth to power."

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

Chapter 18: Cybersupremacy: The New Face and Form of White Supremacist Activism
We'd talked in class last week about how not giving voice to neo-Nazis helps lead to their growing insistence. It was interesting to read in this chapter about the expanding white supremacist movement online through Stormfront.org. I found it quite disturbing, actually. This is a case in point of how the internet is not exclusively a democratizing force and that tactical media doesn't always have the goal of redressing inequalities. Stormfront's goal is to "provide information not available in the controlled new media and to build a community of White activists working for the survival of our people." As unsettling as it is, the author points out that because of the lack of broader conversations about race and racism online, Stormfront is left as one of the few places where whites can work through their concerns about race without fear of personal stigma.

Stormfront.org

Chapter 19: Re-Visioning the State of the Media: Concluding Interview with Brian Holmes
Holmes was interviewed in the middle of an event called "Emergent Geographies" that was sponsored by the tactical media group Hackitectura. They were there to think about "how to replay the twentieth-century modernities that failed…to put another myth into circulation, to tell a different story about the world and build it at the same time." Hackitectura is based on free software development and the idea that urban spaces can be transformed from below.

Hackitectura.net

QUESTIONS:
1. Why is it that "If tactical media were ever to attain their legitimate objectives they would immediately become redundant"?

2. Shaina Anand is cynical about the "permanent thing" and how it follows the currency of social capital or commerce. How does the temporality of tactical media combat the power dynamic?

3. How can Gambiarra be significant in North American society?

4. Satire has been historically successful in its critique on current power structures. How is it that this form of humor strikes such a powerful note?

5. In the chapter on Cybersupremacy, Statzel makes an interesting point that "the distinction between 'the real world' and 'virtual reality' is often actually quite blurred." Do you agree with her that as regards "power, politics, and structural relations … cyberspace is as real as it gets"?

FYI Granger

Starbucks Tries Social Media on Flickr, Fails, Locks Down All Discussion Threads to Silence Their Critics

Starbucks Tries Social Media on Flickr, Fails, Locks Down All Discussion Threads to Silence Their Critics | Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

Articles on Demand Justice for Buddy and WoW

These are the articles I mentioned in class on Tuesday - I apologize for not posting them earlier, I was pretty swamped yesterday.


100,000 petitions call for severe penalty in Buddy the dog's dragging death

Can games make your kid a better citizen?


Enjoy!

New Study Traces History of Government Subsidies for the Media

The Media Decoder

Series: Digital rights, digital wrongs Previous | Index Copyright, companies, individuals and news: the rules of the road

http://bit.ly/8ZY3jT

We're going on a field trip Thursday...

This will be a great compliment to our brief discussion of broadband access working toward inclusiveness.
There is a panel from 1:15-2. I know some of you will need to leave a bit early but at least you'll catch some of the discussion.
DOM is about 15 min from DU at 700 Kalamath/7th.

You are Invited to a Panel and Discussion Sponsored by Open Media
Foundation, Colorado Common Cause, and the Media and Democracy
Coalition:

“Bringing Universal Broadband to Colorado”
Thursday, January 28, 2010, 1-3 p.m.
The Studios of Denver Open Media, Denver, CO


Forty years after the invention of the Internet in the United States,
many regions of our country do not have access to affordable,
accessible broadband Internet. What was once a luxury service is more
and more indispensable to our lives – like a utility, like electricity
or water.

Please come to hear about plans to assure lower rates and fast service
for all Coloradans, and hear from the community organizations that are
working to make this vision happen through the federal broadband
programs.


Presenters:

Denise Atkinson-Shorey, Centennial Board of Cooperative Educational Services
Ken Fellman, President of the National Association of
Telecommunications Officers and Advisors
John Conley, Office of the Governor’s Office of Technology
Tony Shawcross, Executive Director of the Open Media Foundation
(more to be added)


PLEASE RSVP TO hmiller@media-democracy.net or call (215) 888-8036

Location: The studios of Denver Open Media
700 Kalamath Street
Denver, CO 80204

Panels will also be live on Channel 56 and rebroadcast on 57 and 219
(digital tier). For more information, contact Hannah Miller at
215-888-8036 or email hmiller@media-democracy.net.
Open Media Foundation: www.openmediafoundation.org

Cosponsored by the Media and Democracy Coalition
www.media-democracy.net

Reading Response

I found the chapter 6 to be an interesting chapter that addressed some important issues in regards to mainstream and alternative media. In particular, I felt the issue of establishing credibility through reliable sources to be an important problem in regards to mainstream media. History has shown that journalists, such as Steven Glass, have not only been able to makeup facts in their stories, but have gone as far as fabricating stories in their entirety. The case of Steven Glass is also quite disturbing due to the fact that he reported for a reliable magazine that did thorough background checks on their publicized articles. Although this may be an extremist example, it does cause one to ponder what else may be fabricated in the media today. Alternative media, although sometimes more subjective, also raises issues of credibility due to the fact that most bloggers and amateur producers do not have the resources to accurately investigate a story. Its seems it wouldn't be hard to list sources and links in order to allow the public to further investigate a story if questions of reliability came up. As Moeller points out, this would help the public to regain its trust in the media.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/07/60minutes/main552819.shtml

Another issue I found to be quite concerning was how mainstream media depicts troubling issues such as war. In a society that is plagued with violent images, it is quite interesting that the realities of war are often watered down by mainstream media. I think alternative media can play an important role in this issue, by displaying casualties of war that may be more accurate in comparison to mainstream media. However I think mainstream media needs to be held accountable for delivering accurate news to the public so the audience understands war from the same perspective as the military.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/media/26carr.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1211821486-I10AfxcsvGLukXbVlomPKA

In regards to Darwin's discussion of Journalism vs. Activism, I tend to agree that reporting from both sides is important for accurately delivering a story. I think this not only helps establish credibility for a journalist but also causes the reader to view the story from a perspective they may not have considered. I think the story of the Chiapas massacre was particularly difficult for Deepa because she had witnessed the aftermath of the massacre. The idea of being a truly objective reporter seems not to be important for Deepa, which is why she might have wanted to report the story from only the side she sympathized with. However, this type of reporting can tend to lend itself more towards activism then journalism.

things to talk about in class: the changing face of news media

Darwin provides a good summary and poses great things to think about below. Here are few additional questions I'd like us to address in class tomorrow. Feel free to add additional questions in the comments:

1. What were the conditions that led to such a failure of the press in the lead-up to the Iraq War? And why didn't alternative/new independent media news sources succeed in altering significantly the tightly controlled news environment?

2. There are some great innovations in international media developed, to varying extents, to make up for commercial news shortcomings, for example Global Voices Online, Witness, Reuter's Alertnet, Global Post, and AlJazeera.

a. Do you think that the new media landscape is richer today for those who care and who have access to the Web?

b. And can we expect the same degree of innovation to emerge to fill the role of the government watchdog left empty by thinning newspaper staffs?

3. What are the different ideas about the changes in the news media landscape expressed by Robert McChesney, Deepa Fernandez, Amy Goodman, Chris Atton, and Henry Jenkins?

4. Fernandez says that participatory journalism is the the most concrete step we can take toward strengthening community. What does she mean and how would it work. Conversely what are the impediments to this vision?

5. What is the nature of "truth" and of "quality" in the news news media landscape. That is, how are truth claims made by news producers who don't follow the norms of objectivity in their work? And how is quality established by those whose work is not backed by a brand?

Response to Reading for Jan 26th

Overview of Reading: Digital Media and Democracy

Chapter 6: Media and Democracy

This chapter opened with a discussion of the Bush administration’s co-opting of the work “democracy” as a tool to describe his actions while making it difficult for critics to appear to be, in any way, patriotic. The loaded meaning given to “democracy”, “family” and “terror” (or “terrorist”) became a consistent part of the White House’s policy statements; these words became an important part media statements, because they could imply a lot of meaning into the short sound bites reported by the media.

The chapter went on to discuss the problems of the mainstream professional media, describing problems with the media business (both regarding profit motive and the 24/7 media timeframe), the difficulties presented by new technologies and the changing audience expectations. The chapter concludes with a compelling description of the Asian Tsunami as a widely covered (and easy-to-report) story that did not challenge media goals and expectations. My overall feeling after reading this chapter was primarily a negative one toward current mass media.

Chapter 7: Democracy on the Airwaves

This is an interview with Amy Goodman, the host and producer of Democracy Now!, as well as author of many books on reporting issues. She spends much of the interview talking about fairness of reporting and public empowerment. I was encouraged by seeing the following: “You don’t have to agree with someone to let them speak” – something that is often forgotten in the highly politicized media of today. Some of the technology discussed is somewhat out of date, but her descriptions of local public-driven media outlets were heartening.

Chapter 8: Alternative Media Theory and Journalism Practice

In this chapter, Chris Atton covers some of the changing theories of alternative news media as related to production participation. His critique of the GUMG and Herman/Chomsky views of media seems appropriate in the light of current trends; he points out that the production of media by smaller (or local) groups is easily ghettoized by researchers that view widespread distribution as a prerequisite for serious study. He makes many good points that the alternative media outlets provide a new media mechanism that improves diversity and discourse in reporting.

Chapter 9: Community Radio, Access and Media Justice

This is an interview with Deepa Fernandes, most widely known as the host of Wakeup Call on WBAI (part of the Pacifica Network). Some of the interview was focused on her history and the particulars of creating a show on the Pacifica network. She also has a bit to say about media availability (especially the Internet availability in low-income areas) and local activism. But, in this reading, the thing that popped out most for me was the blurring of journalism and activism (which I discuss below).

Specific Areas of Note

The Business of Media

The very first “Problem” that is listed is titled “The Business of Media is Profit Not News in the Service of Democracy”. This is an often-stated theme, and something we’ve already seen several times in the discussion of “Old School” media. While I respect the difficulties presented by for-profit news media, I think that this underplays one point: while the managers of media businesses are focused on profitability, I’ve met few journalists that are profit-centered. The business issues may be reflected in a reduced number of foreign desks, limits in the scope of coverage and difficulties with unpleasant stories, but we still often see reporting that could only exist because of the vigor and dedication of professional journalists.

To my mind, a good example of the dual issues can be seen in today’s headlines. In most American news streams, there is little world news outside the Haitian earthquake. This, like the Asian tsunami, has little in the way of moral issues, and a built-in feel-good story in the coverage of relief efforts (via money collected).

Slid very deeply in the world news is a short article about a sole lawyer trying to get attention for a Hong Kong dissident, Zhou Yongjun, who was inappropriately turned over to Chinese authorities. This story is a complex web of events, including alleged bank fraud, a student protester stripped of his nationality and the separation of Hong Kong rule from mainland Chinese rule. The reporting journalist, Edward Wong, did a good job of wedging in many of the details into a painfully short article, and helped raise (some little) awareness about the sad state of dissidence in the Chinese sphere.

Dealing with the Problem of Sources

The issues of Sources, described in Chapter 6, resonates strongly with me, and represents problems I have with both mainstream and public-driven journalism. As stated in the book, most bloggers literally site no sources – meaning that the statements made could just as easily be a cute quote made for effect by the blogger as a statement heard on the TV. In any case, there seems to be little requirement for backing up blog and public forum statements with journalistic source standards – it’s just not part of the plan.

The discussion of the “expert” source as used by mainstream media is equally troubling. I probably never worried about this in the past, since I always assumed there was a trusted editor making sure the sources were appropriate (ala All The President’s Men); it would seem that current conditions have led to a breakdown in that (especially based on the various bogus articles published by respected media sources over the years).

Embracing the public as reporters

Atton, in Chapter 8, does an excellent job of discussing the new importance of small, alternative media mechanisms. The specifics that he discusses (Wiki-based media and especially Indymedia) helps me understand a useful space between “Big Business” media and crotchety individual bloggers. The fact that independent, alternative media systems are replacing major news outlets (especially for local coverage of political issues) points to the importance of these systems within the gamut of news sources.

Journalism vs. Activism

I found the enthusiasm of Deepa Fernandes to be exciting and fun, but I also found some of her statements a little disconcerting. Maybe I fall under too many illusions about journalistic standards, but when she states that she refused to get the Mexican military’s and government’s view of the Chiapas massacre, it seemed to jump from having a journalist’s stance to having an activists stance. While I won’t (actually, couldn’t) support the Mexican military in its actions, it does seem like having the government’s statements on the subject could have been useful for a complete story – even if it ended up being used to display the delusional views of the government.

I would like to discuss this, in particular, in class.

Link(s) and discussion

NY Times link for dissident story
Indymedia link
NY Times link following up on the Chiapas massacre

The brave new world of slacktivism

I thought this article brought up some really good points and questions about this idea of "slaktivism" - like is this more passive activism of mouse-clicking and joining FB groups taking away from so-called actual activism (sit-ins, demonstrations, etc.) ?

The Brave New World of Slaktivism

Bye Bye Dreams of Net Neutrality?

A bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

Here's that link again...

...with some text actually linked:

Link

Robert McChesney on journalism survival

Reprinted on NPR from The Nation:

Survivor Spoilers

Here are some links to Survivor Spoilers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAeRkK1JX04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxny4JRjklQ&feature=related

This is a fan website where they can all be very excited about Survivor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxny4JRjklQ&feature=related

Re: its a little late but...

The Volgbrothers really stand as a testament to everything this chapter spoke about, so i will essentially use them as a case study for the purposes of relating this response to the readings. When discussing convergence culture in general you have two brothers who communicate solely through video blogs while allowing thousands of people in on their conversations. This eliminated the conventional phone call. John green (one half of the VB) is an award winning author, and often uses YouTube as a venue to discuss literature, authorship, and the characters in his books. This one channel has capitalized on how they use their new media to merge and find new avenues for technologies that have been in existence for hundreds of years.

Chapter one of convergence culture greatly interested me when discussing online communities and their requirements for acceptance into their communities. There are countless examples of this on YouTube with channels that have developed a strong subscriber base based on the fact their communities have guidelines and restrictions and slash or like minded followers that assume a group persona slash identity.

see Nerdfighteria

When speaking to the collective identity and knowledge, the VB's have developed a mass following of "nerdfighters" that can accomplish globally just about anything. Once a year their channel "highjacks" Youtube by having the project for awesome in where a vast majority of subscribers all create videos about their favorite charities and then (as directed by one of the two brothers) rush to each video and comment, rate, and subscribe, until that video appears on the top list of all the charts on youtube. They ensure that every video has the same thumbnail, thus taking over the first couple pages of ever category on YouTube.

see Project for awesome

They also pose questions to the nerdfighters on how to reduce "world suck," and globally this committee sniffs out ways to take on a certain problem in the world whether that be world hunger, malaria, or education. This collective whole has this scouring power that when directed for good has produced some amazing results. This provides an answer to Granger's question of online activism that excludes politics as well.

reducing world suck part 1

reducing world suck part 2

Its a bit late but...

Digital Media and Democracy: Introduction

Mass media, once assumed to be a check on political action, is more appropriately viewed as a creator of reality. Mass media is used to create public opinion and to enforce public opinion as truth. Dissenting voices are drowned out through volume or limited to fields outside of official journalism such as The Daily with John Stewart and The Colbert Report. When created truths fail to deliver on expectations or are exposed as being false a new truth is created. While blame is assigned, most often to the very outlets that created the new reality, there is little or no accountability for the creation and previous reality or its consequences. In scenes surprisingly reminiscent of the novel “1984”, individuals and even the majority of the public accept the new reality as having always been the reality despite past actions supportive alternative realities. Refusal to support the new reality results in marginalization.

The rise of new media offers an outlet for alternative voices of dissent. Spurred by distrust of mass media outlets individuals are increasingly turning to blogs and other websites dominated by user created content for information on world and local events. While this has lead to some accountability in mass media outlets there are valid concerns as to whether this will lead to a public space supportive of democracy. An important concern is that individuals of lower socio economic status (SES) and individuals of color are less likely to be able to participate in this forum. Even if participation were universal there is no guarantee that the voices in this new forum will be any more accountable than those in the previous system. Many of the voices from the previous system are moving, albeit clumsily, into the new forum. While these outlets have suffered financially as a result of the new forum many of them have the resources to allow for them to absorb these losses during a transitional period. A new forum for these previous outlets does not necessitate a more thoughtful and accountable message.

Digital Media and Democracy: Chapter One
(Interview of Robert McChesney)

In 2002 the FCC changed the rules on media ownership. The new rules allowed for all forms of mass media within any given market to be owned by one entity. This change unified and motivated diverse groups in opposition to the new rules. Robert McChesney argues that while press in itself is not necessarily predictive of democracy a free and diverse press is essential for a democracy. While viewing the emerging forms of press on the internet as a necessary and positive phenomenon for free press they are not sufficient in and of themselves to support a democracy. Individuals must also have the ability to make meaningful choices between providers of mass media.

Digital Media and Democracy: Chapter Three (Communicative Capitalism)

Communicative Capitalism: The argument that through providing a forum for debate accessible to the general population the will of that population will eventual emerge not only on outcome but on significant issues.

Fantasy of Abundance: The abundance of communication does not mean that interaction is occurring. Without interaction no consensus is possible.

Fantasy of Participation: Participation in online forums does not necessarily translate into real world activism or change. Often participation in activism is projected on a technological entity without real activism on the part of the individual. (Example given is Napster. While the movement represented by Napster had support of individuals there was no marching in the streets to save the movement Napster represented when it was under threat – Napster has a Facebook page with over 13,000 fans who likely did not write their congressional representative during the lawsuit that shut Napster down or did they become fans after the fact? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism).

Fantasy of Wholeness: Messages posted on the internet are not automatically distributed to the majority of the users of the internet. With the exception of a few high volume site the majority of internet users have a very local network of web addresses that they participate in.

Convergence Culture: Intro

Convergence Culture is the idea that different forms of technology increasing borrow content and purpose from other forms of technology. While it can result in the elimination of one form of technology (typewriter supplanted by the word processing program) it does not always result in this outcome (radio was not made obsolete by television). Often the older technology will adapt to a new purpose. While it is generally assumed that computers and the internet are absorbing the purpose and content of other technologies through the convergence culture this is not always true (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEGU8gijSvw) .
Convergence Culture: Chapter One

The internet provides a forum for communities of knowledge to be created. These communities use the collective skills of their members to problem solve. As with other communities these communities create their own rules for acceptance into the community, behavior in the community, and the status of community members. In the case of the Survivor Spoilers community acceptance was based on past performance. A new member of the community would not be accepted until they demonstrated knowledge that was reliable. Behavior in the community was dictated commonly excepted norms. One of these norms was that knowledge presented was the focus of intense scrutiny. Status in the community was dictated on what one could provide to the community, often based highly specialized skills or unique access not possessed by other community members. These communities of knowledge exploit and are exploited by other communities. This can be a mutually beneficial process. In the case of the Survivor Spoilers the show fed both information and misinformation in order to raise ratings while the community gained a pastime to engage in. Communities of knowledge are often temporary. They can be disbanded as the community looses interest in pursuing the knowledge of as the knowledge becomes widespread.

Questions:

Is there anything that suggests the new forms for media will be any more likely to support democracy than the old forms of media?

Why do non-traditional media outlets, such as The Daily Show, avoid being drowned out when they call for accountability in mass media?

Does meaningful activism beyond political campaigns take place online?

Did anyone else feel the Survivor Spoilers were a bit creepy?

links

Here are few links that came up in today's discussion:

Everyblock, the hyperlocal news site that draws on public data ad user generated content.

And Digital Youth Research page with a wealth of reports and summaries of a the MacArthur-funded project.

Kimberly's Paper Topic

I am interested in using the "Tea Baggers" as a case study in the conservative right's use of social media. Obama's campaign was extremely successful in engaging the public through the means of social networking, and most of the media coverage is on the left's use of technology. Recently, the "Tea Baggers" were able to effectively communicate and organize large gatherings to protest US government tax and spending policies. I will be looking into whether the conservative right is now diving in and making the most of social networking, or if this event was an anomaly.

Thanks to the help of the class, I now have some related topics to delve into: the National Association of Scholars follows the political agendas of the extreme right wing; there is a history of films being distributed to churches that combine religious and political agendas; chain emails, particularly attacking President Obama, and how rumor becomes part of the discourse (Fox News, for example).

My research idea(s)

I am split between two different research areas that intrigue me to no end. The first of which still lies within the realm of YouTube. I think that there is a lack of conversation about community. There has been plenty of conversation about the users that upload videos and amass hundreds of thousands of subscribers, but rather the community of the passive contributors, or those who subscribe and comment, and the culture they cultivate, and how that differs from the other subscriber bases that exist. This deals largely with place and culture.

The other area of interest that i have is in the world of video games. I had mentioned at the beginning of the quarter i am interested in the anxieties people experience when interfacing with technology. This can happen at two extremes: the technophobe, or the separation anxiety individuals experience when cut off from their technology. How this ties into video games is that video game addiction is starting to creep up as a viable threat for a lot of individuals, and what implications that has had on the industry, as well as the end user. (like games having to include disclaimers about responsibility to real life, and the health repercussions of the user)

Literally i have done little to no academic research on either of these subjects but i feel they can tie really well into what we are learning in class.

Shannon Tasei: Research Idea

For my research paper, I am interested in exploring the idea of collaborative art on the web. In particular, the reemergence of the concept of "The Exquisite Corpse" in digital media. "The Exquisite Corpse" was a parlor game created in the 1920's by Surrealist artists, where a group of artists would collaborate on a drawing; each contributing blindly to an allocated area of a portrait, not knowing what others had drawn. The end result is a work creating by many, consisting of varying elements and styles.

Today, the structure of the web allows this idea to resurface with innovative and interesting media projects. A few specific sites that have peaked my interest are: wetellstories.co.uk (where many authors contribute to a work of fiction, creating a non-linear narrative), massanimation.com (a project that combines the collaborative animations of over 50,00 of people) and twistori.com (an interactive, stream of consciousness narrative/poem).

Ari Paper Proposal

For my paper I would like to examine how Children are using digital media and technology as a socializing network tool to meet and communicate with fellow peers. I would like to find out what are the implications of children spending so much time using these tools and what effect this is having on the development of their social skills. With so much time spent in front of a computer it will be interesting to see if children are developing social anxiety issues when interacting with peers in a face to face real world environment. In contrast these tools may be helping children to further their social skills by creating an online community where they can meet new people and feel comfortable being themselves. In order to conduct my research I will be drawing upon published articles/research and may conduct a survey using myspace or facebook.

Granger's Paper Proposal

In my paper I will be exploring whether or not there is an attempt to pathologize social interaction via electronic medium with a focus on the internet. I will focus on the ongoing discussion by professionals in the mental health field as to whether or not Internet Addiction should be included in the American Psychiatric Association’s publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V, currently intended for publication in 2013. Not only is there a lack of consensus as to whether this diagnosis is valid there is disagreement amongst those who support inclusion of the diagnosis as to the criterion for diagnosing an individual with Internet Addiction. Some have suggested diagnostic criterion focus on behavior of the individual while others are focused on the outcomes associated with social interaction through electronic medium. The past suggests that the outcome of this debate will have serious policy and legal implications for many people. While not responsible for their creation, the pathologizing of homosexual activity in the third version of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual was used to validate laws that fined and/or incarcerated many individuals. Even if not used to support legislation the most recent version of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual is the legally the standard for diagnosis of mental health disorders. Being diagnosed with a mental illness can result in an individual’s rights being revoked until they can demonstrate remission or lack of illness. I will explore whether or not the varying criterion for diagnosis are consistent with criterion for other forms of addiction. I will also the historical association, if any exists, between emerging forms of technology and pathology of behavior.

Thesis: As I have not explored this topic in the past I am unsure of what I will find. I suspect that the professionals who define mental health are not immune identifying new and emerging technologies as “other” and associating excessive use with deviant behavior.

Darwin's Paper: Where The Dream Never Dies

I am going to dive into an extreme niche community: the community of electronic music fans that follow and attempt to recreate the music of Berlin School electronic music of the early- to mid-70's (as exemplified by Tangerine Dream's Phaedra album from 1974). This community, maintained via email lists and Yahoo groups, features individuals that have dissected the existing recordings and are active in creating new music to continue the tradition of this otherwise-dead musical genre. I will discuss issues of community creation, community rules, originality and authenticity of new works and areas of specific community interest. In addition to using available published material, I will be gathering new information from the archives of the mailing lists and conducting interviews with leaders of the community.

While I know some of the people in this community, I am not a participant. Thus, some of the above will probably be modified as I find out more about their particulars.

[ddg]

Jessica's Paper Proposal - Social Media and Nonprofits

I will be exploring the use of social and digital media in reaching intended audiences and expanding audience reach. Specifically, I want to examine this under the context of nonprofits, which have used social media tools a great deal in recent years. I will also examine attitudes regarding online giving and social media as a conduit for fundraising. I will attempt to discern, through interviews and surveys with a sample of Denver-based nonprofits, three aspects: a) how the organizations use social and digital media, and what, if any, strategy exists in those efforts; b) how effective those efforts have been in reaching audiences; and c) if any attributable effect on fundraising exists. To do this, I will compare the activities of my sample group to those of nonprofits with effective social media efforts (American Red Cross, Epic Change.) My current thought is that most nonprofits do not employ, or even know how to construct, a social media strategy, and that current efforts are not reaching new audiences but rather “preaching to the choir.” I do think that in limited examples, social media has had a profound effect on fundraising, and as a case study I will be examining Epic Change’s Tweetsgiving campaign.

Incidentally, I'm having kind of a hard time finding articles regarding social media and nonprofits, so if anyone has any articles to share, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

Kevin's paper: Wiki News in the Media Landscape

Questions: Can wiki-style editing of information lead to less perceived bias in the media? Will the wiki ultimately influence the path of modern journalism? What are the successes and failures of the Wikimedia Foundation's or other players' efforts? What has been the path of social and academic acceptance of wiki information? Has some form of a community editing style ever appeared before in the 200-year history of modern journalism, even on a small scale? What became of that? Can a wiki structure evolve to better suit the speed of the news?

Proto-thesis: Though the wiki format by definition has the possibility of producing a better-rounded and more complete edit on a story, it raises similar questions of reliability and possibility of intentional or unintentional spin as traditional journalism. In addition, in wiki media the time required to arrive at complete coverage and a high ethical standard continues to be too slow a process with which to cover a breaking news story thoroughly.

A wiki-styled approach: I propose to write and edit the paper in wiki form. Due to the larger efforts involved in finding and encouraging outsider input, organizing their work, and learning wiki software and building the project site, I propose to write a fairly complete but shorter article as a starting seed. The article would then be wiki-edited by volunteers. I'll invite as many sources as can be reached, as well as academics, professional journalists (from both the ink-stained and online worlds), wiki-contributors and the general public to edit the work. I'll turn in both the original article and final wiki edition in whatever form or length that becomes.

Google threatening to pull out of China

Thought this was an interesting video that related to censorship and the internet. Apparently Google is threatening to pull out of China because they are tired of the Government filtering their search engines. This could be a pretty big deal for Google considering how much business is generated in China.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPSZ604_OPI

Berlusconi fears the Internet

Italy proposes mandatory licenses for people who upload video Boing Boing
http://bit.ly/8VL9Vx

leader and respondent schedule

Note: Kevin, Granger, Ariel, I moved your respondent dates to make it so we have a leader and respondent on each day. Let me know if the change doesn't work for you.

21 Jan
Leader: Granger
Respondent: Adam
26 Jan
Leader: Kevin
Respondent: Darwin and Areil
2 Feb
Leader Kimberly
Respondent Jessica
4 Feb
Leader Shannon
Respondent Granger
16 Feb
Leader Ariel
Respondent Kevin
23 Feb
Leader Darwin
Respondent Kimberly
2 Mar
Leader Adam
Respondent Shannon

Pants on the Ground - A Recent Web Phenomenon

A recent example of how quickly pop culture spreads via the web . . . this aired on Wednesday night on American Idol . . . everyone on Facebook was talking about Pants on the Ground, so I had to find out what this was all about.

Pants on the Ground Audition

And less than two days later, there are already remixes of the song to be found on YouTube

Pants on the Ground Cover

. . . and, of course, a ring tone as well . . .

Pants on the Ground Ring Tone

and one more, can you believe it - Neil Young's rendition!

Neil Young sings Pants on the Ground

Election Videos

Eminem's pre-youtube Mosh video released just before the 2004 elections


And Wil.I.Am's (much rosier) 2008 viral hit Yes We Can

Very relevant to today's conversation

NPR story on text message donations to Haiti.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122580347

“It’s The Network, Stupid.”

The Internet has had remarkable impacts upon the American political landscape. No longer are political parties relying upon church lists and associates’ Rolodexes to reach potential voters – now campaigns are recruiting and connecting with the public through YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The role of the Internet in political campaigning first emerged most visibly with the Dean campaign in 2004, which used the social networking site Meetup.com to organize house parties and coalitions across the country, and reached maturity with the new media juggernaut that was the Obama campaign in 2008. The following readings examine just how profound the influence of the Internet has been in politics, and whether we are attributing too much to technology.


+Lim & Kann, “Politics: Deliberation Mobilization, and Networked Practices of Agitation”

Themes: the Internet as a democratizing force; the network as an equalizer of the public sphere; and the Internet as a method for engagement. The authors raise questions about whether or not the Internet has “structurally alter[ed] the political process” or if it is just another manifestation of traditional political activities. They argue that the network is rather a “convivial medium” that “favors freedom, autonomy, equality, and creative collaboration”, which lends itself to democracy but is not inherently a democratizing force. After all, terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda also use the Internet for message dissemination, public engagement, and organization.

These themes suggest, and the authors argue, that technology is not in and of itself a causal agent of social change. It can facilitate change, and be used as a tool by activists, but the change itself must originate elsewhere. The authors discuss three ways in which the Internet is involved in politics: online deliberation, online mobilization, and blogging and remix. Online deliberation needs rules in order to facilitate discussion, and these rules translate into barriers to entry, which inevitably restrict the freedom of access granted by the Internet in the first place. These forums also tend to mimic offline deliberation forums, which suggest that the Internet is not in fact creating new spheres for deliberation; indeed, the authors point out that online deliberation forums cannot contest the ruling elites, which is further evidence that the same forces restricting offline deliberation also restrict the power of the Internet. Online mobilization has been more successful, with the examples of the Zapatistas in Mexico and the “Free Burma” movement. The Internet allows activists to mobilize and frame the message according to their own terms, rather than those cast upon them by traditional media. The low cost and high impact of online mobilization, such as the ability to send out a million emails, further facilitates mobilization in a way not seen by more traditional forms of organizing. Regardless, these activities are still imitations of offline methods of engagement, such as petitions.

Blogging and remix, the authors argue, fall into another category. They are neither deliberative nor mobilizing, and straddle the area between private and public. Blogs may not be a good indicator of democratizing influence, though, because they have an unequal distribution of readers and tend to be ideologically polarized. Additionally, blogs tend to resemble the “old media” – for example, the top blogs include traditional media giants such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Associated Press. Remix is also something of a fuzzy area in regard to democratization. It is not a new form of expression, but there is some evidence that remix suggests active engagement: authors of remix are not just passive consumers of information, but rather producers and distributors of it.


+Megan Boler, interview with Geert Lovink in Digital Media and Democracy

Themes: Technology is not a driver of social change; scalability of issues through networks; networks as a way for people to be a part of a rising movement; structure of networks dictate functionality

This interview focused a lot on the causes of social change; namely, that these causes are rooted somewhere deeper in our collective consciousness, regardless of the presence or use of technology. The network allows for paradoxes and loose affiliations that are more consistent with human thinking and behavior, but are not generally supported by traditional political and media structures. Activists should concern themselves with the structure of technology and build connections with the IT professionals that develop it, because applications of technology are limited by its design. To that end, Lovink encourages the development of new networks and structures, possibly through open-source architecture, that will allow a more full range of applications.

+Talbot, “How Obama REALLY Did It”

Themes: Effective use of social organizing tools; integration of traditional political activities with Internet applications; new media as a strategy

Talbot outlined how Obama’s approach to new media differed from his competitors in that he fully integrated it into his overall political strategy – in fact, Obama was the only campaign to have a new media director and office with a dedicated place at the strategy table. Additionally, the Obama campaign successfully linked online activism, through such tools as MyBO, to more traditional political activities that people could do from home, such as phone banking and get-out-the-vote efforts. Obama’s approach differed from Clinton’s top-down strategy in that the campaign gave more power to the grassroots to organize, but yet maintained a central office for collaboration and organization. The campaign did not limit itself to just the Internet, but utilized functions such as SMS texting to maximize the impact on the public. The word used repeatedly in the article was “relationships”, emphasizing that for the Obama campaign, the social media applications were not just about one-to-many message dissemination, but a true collaboration between the campaign and supporters.

+Questions:

+Has the Internet changed the time-worn political axiom, “All politics is local?” For example, the out-of-state involvement in Proposition 8 in California, foreigners changing their Twitter and Facebook locations to Tehran in support of Iranian protestors

+To what extent is Lovink right, that structure dictates functionality? May this explain why online political activism looks like offline political activism? Or is that a function of human behavior sticking with what’s familiar?

+Talbot’s article made the point that Obama’s campaign had set up certain expectations with its use of social media. This is suggestive of the “permanent campaign” – do these new media applications increase the public's expectations, thereby making permanent campaign harder to achieve without losing credibility, or just more visible?

+Has the Internet altered the way politics is carried out, or is it just a new medium for the same activities? Has it changed how we think of credibility, visibility, accountability?

+How can campaigns translate online support into offline action? Is there a limit to the power of the Internet if the momentum never leaves the Web?

+Is the Internet a force for democratization?


Links:
Permanent Campaign

Iran’s Twitter Revolution:
The Nation
CS Monitor

“Cyberwar” Guide for helping Iranian protestors

Out-of-state Money and Prop 8

George Allen failing to understand the Internet


Ted Stevens “Series of Tubes” remix

A little clarity on fair use, Cliff Evans and Kevin Moloney as a producer of copyrighted material

I just wanted to make a few notes about my thinking on the issue of fair use and on Cliff Evans. Darwin had a lovely post here about him, and his work is fascinating. None of that was lost on me. But in class I did say his use of copyrighted material pisses me off. It does still.

My legal thinking about it is different, and what I didn't probably note was that pissed off or not I agree with the fact that his should also be considered a fair use.

In journalism we consider a selection of a work for a review as a fair use of copyrighted material, and that having to request or license the use would have a big chill on a literary review, for if the author suspected a bad review they wouldn't grant permission. We claim this because we are ostensibly providing a public service even though we tend to be for-profit businesses.

I am a believer in a blind law, and if journalism serves the public good then art certainly does as well. And one cannot fairly judge if art is or isn't serving the public in a legal sense.

So, should Evans be able to sample portions of work and remix it? Yes. My annoyance is not with the legal possibility. It is with personal responsibility. Evans CAN afford to request permission and license images from the little guy like me. I just feel that his use may be a bit of opportunism or narcissism masked as a rebellion against copyright law he argues is for the public good.

Generally — there are always scofflaws — the only place a reputable publication will excerpt or reproduce a work without licensing it is for sake of review or investigation. These are places where the owner of the work can chill the public service by refusing use. All the other work you see within the pages of major papers, magazines, TV broadcasts and documentaries is licensed, even though there is merit to fair use arguments there. I doubt an occasional refusal would truly harm Evans' work, and at the prices they fetch he could afford to negotiate the occasional license of critical images.

All this blasted out here with full disclosure that I did not hear him speak. If you think my opinion might be different had I been there, I welcome the correction.

K

Ch 4
1. What is the public sphere?
2. What does Benedict Anderson mean by the term "imagined communities" and how is news a kind of "performance art that enacts nationhood and national consciousness"? (68)
2. What is objectivity and when and why was it first adopted as a central tenant of journalism?
3. What are the costs and benefits of commercialization?
4. How did new technology influence the news in the early 1800s? (77)
Ch 5
1. What are two central criticism of journalism?
2. How does "Monicagate" exemplify the changes that have taken place in the news environment?
3. Do you agree that news media today are too critical?
Chapter 6-8
1. What are some of the constraints the marketplace imposes on journalism?
2. What can be some of the benefits of commercialization of news media?
3. What is pack journalism?
4. What's the problem with journalists and politicians belonging to the same "microcosm"?
5. What does Kernell mean by "going public"--why did it happen and how did it change the presidency?

Posting about Cliff Evans roundtable.

Well, you said that this could be a place for graffiti...

Last Friday, I attended the Cliff Evans roundtable. Cliff is showing work at the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, and his work is quite striking. He has taken a lot of the structure of classic photo montage and applied it to digital video creation. These works are large-scale, and are often broken into unexpected shapes and sub-sections.

If you want to virtually view some of his work, you can check it out here.

One of the interesting things about his work is that it is all sourced from the Net - specifically from the Google Images search engine. He does painstaking searches for images that will be melded together into a single video work, then manually cuts and sequences them into massive Adobe After Effects creations. While the videos are not terribly long (the one shown in the Myhren is only 6 minutes long), there is so much to view that it takes a while before you notice that it is a simple loop.

During the roundtable, there was a lot of discussion about how Cliff's work pushes the boundaries of modern copyright law, fair-use law and Creative Commons licensing. Dr. Derigan Silver (from the Mass Comm department) was on-hand to give a detailed review of these issues, and was helpful in getting the details on how the courts are currently viewing this sort of unlicensed use, the facts of fair use and other people that are also pushing these envelopes. It was informative without being stuffy, and pointed to the many issues that current copyright law is facing.

I don't thing the roundtable was taped, so I don't thing there is any way to see it in action. But I thought I'd mention it as much to thank Chris Coleman and Laleh Mehran for their efforts in bringing Cliff in, and to point out the tremendous opportunities that occasionally land in our du.edu email boxes!

[ddg]

Wesch Library of Congress Talk

Here is the video I was going to show in class today. Sorry about the technological problems. Great to meet you all.

syllabus

DMST 4200: Critical Approaches to Digital Media
Winter 2009
Professor: Adrienne Russell
Tuesdays+Thursdays 12:00-1:50
Sturm Hall Room 311
Office Hours: Tuesday 11:00-12:00 or by apt.
Office: Sturm Hall 212 Contact: adrienne.russell@du.edu
Course Blog: http://2010dmst4200.blogspot.com/

This course introduces graduate students some of the major historical, cultural, sociopolitical, philosophical, and other critical trends in this field of Digital Media Studies. The rapid growth of participatory culture online through, for example, interactive news sites, community boards, bookmarking, tagging, virtual worlds, gaming, IM, social networking, and blogging has significant social implications and brings up issues of privacy, intellectual property, and the nature of community and public engagement. This class will explore these issues as they manifest in various cases including politics, intellectual property, youth culture, activism, journalism and art. Particular emphasis will be placed on the question of how new media differs from mass media across various fields of cultural production (music, news, advertising, for example) and on what influence new digital products and practices might have on these industries and on cultures and societies more generally.

The objectives of this course are two-fold: 1) to become familiar with the various cultural, economic, and political forces that help shape the digital technologies and practices and that vie to determine its future; 2) develop analytical and theoretical tools to examine a specific Internet space, issue, topic, or phenomenon. The aim of this course is not simply to accumulate facts, but to develop analytical and theoretical tools to examine digital media products and practices. We will use two methods in our research. The first centers on our own observations. Students are encouraged to bring up in class digital media artifacts that relate to the issues and ideas being covered. The second method is based on close reading of the assigned texts. Students are expected to have read the assigned chapters and articles before the class period for which they are scheduled to be discussed.

Classes will combine lectures, student presentations, and discussion. We'll conduct discussions both within the traditional classroom setting and on a course blog. Please remember that discussion is a way of helping you to see different sides of issues and to evaluate different arguments. It is essential in the development of your thinking that you participate in discussions and that you work to express your thoughts effectively.

REQUIRED BOOKS
Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins
Remix by Lawrence Lessig
Digital Media and Democracy (ed) Megan Boler
Networked Publics (ed) Kazys Varnelis

COURSE BLOG
You will receive an invitation via email to join our blog group. Please follow the directions in the email. This will be used both as an extended discussion format, a graffiti wall, and an ongoing exercise in collaborative linking.

ORGANIZATION OF COURSE AND ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment #1: Discussion Group Leader

Due date varies (but always 24 hours before assigned session).

Each student will serve as discussion group leader for one session. As discussion group leader, you will be expected to read ahead, and read thoroughly, for your assigned session. At least 24 hours prior to your assigned class, blog a three-page (800-900 word) response that identifies overarching themes and questions that emerge in relation to each of the readings, and that we need to be sure to discuss in our seminar. This can be in the form of a narrative or an outline with a list of thought-provoking questions. Include between one and three links to news stories, reviews, art, advertisements, youtube entries, or other materials that are relevant to and/or expressive of ideas and themes in the readings.

Assignment #2: Respondent

Due date varies (but always 6 hours before assigned session).

Each student will serve as respondent for one session. As respondent, you are expected to select one of the readings for the day and to also read the discussion group leader’s blogged responses to the readings. Then, you will write your own one-page (300 word) response/question to the reading(s) and the posted links. Add one of your own links to the blog.

Assignment #3: Final Critical Paper and Presentation

This is your opportunity to produce a critical essay on digital media in the form of an 15-20 page double spaced paper, or can provide the equivalent amount of text (or 5 minutes audio/video) in an online format (Check out Michael Wesch’s “A Vision of Students Today” for an idea of what an online interpretive essay could look like). If you opt for an alternative format, you will need to turn in a critical script or some form of documentation that demonstrates background research that is the equivalent of a 15-20 page essay.

The aim of this final paper/project is: 1) to relate historical and/or contemporary developments in the theoretical study of digital media to a specific current use, application, and/or creative practice; 2) to situate a main topic of exploration within a larger set of theoretical, social, and cultural issues; and 3) to accurately describe relevant technical issues and to set these issues within a larger context of theories of technology and social change.

To support your discussion, draw upon and cite at least 2 of the required readings from this course and at least 10 other scholarly books, articles, or essays (these can include general theoretical sources or academic studies of specific empirical cases that are somehow similar to yours). This is a total of at least 12 academic references.

This final assignment will be broken into four parts: topic selection, preliminary annotated bibliography, literature review, and final paper. You must turn in each part by the deadline to receive full credit for this assignment.

For the final project, please plan to cite references using endnotes in Harvard or Chicago style.

EVALUATION
Class participation 20 %
Discussion leader 30 %
Discussion respondent 10 %
Paper 30 %
Paper presentation 10 %

Schedule

Week 1

Jan. 5 Introduction: The Social Web—what is it and where did it come from?

Jan. 7 Place
Reading: Networked Publics Intro and Chapter 1

Please find at least 3 blogs you like and 3 blogs you don’t like and be
prepared to discuss why.

Week 2

Jan 12 Culture
Reading: Networked Publics Chapter 2

Jan 15 Politics
Reading: Networked Publics Chapter 3
Digital Media and Democracy Chapter 4
How Obama REALLY did it, by David Talbot, MIT tech review, to be posted on the blog.

Week 3

Jan 19 Infrastructure: open networks and their constraints
Reading: Networked Publics Chapter 4 and Conclusion; Digital Media and Democracy Chapter 5

Paper Topic Due: Please post on the blog 1 paragraph explaining the topic and thesis of your paper.

Jan 21 The revitalization of the public sphere?
Reading: Digital Media and Democracy Intro., Chapter 1, Chapter 3; Convergence Culture Intro and Chapter 1

Week 4

Jan 26 New Journalisms
Reading: Digital Media and Democracy Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9

Jan 28 New Journalisms
Reading: Digital Media and Democracy Chapter 10, 11, 12

Week 5

Feb 2 Tactical Media
Reading: Digital Media and Democracy Ch 2, Ch 13-15,17-19

Annotated bibliography due: Please hand in a list and brief description of each of the references you will be using to inform your paper.

Feb 4 Parody
Reading: Digital Media and Democracy Chapter 16

Week 6

Feb 9 NO CLASS

Feb 11 NO CLASS

Week 7

Feb 16 Convergence
Reading: Convergence Culture Chapter 2, 3, 4

Feb 18 Convergence
Reading: Convergence Culture Chapter 5, 6, 7

Week 8

Feb 23 Remix Cultures: read vs read/write and the culture of the future
Reading: Remix, intro and 1-5

Feb 25 Remix Economies and Enabling the Future
Reading: Remix Chapters 6-10 and conclusion

Lit Review Due: Please hand in your lit review that should consist of the integrated discussion of at least 12 different scholarly sources related to your paper topic.

Week 9

Mar 2 Youth culture: anxiety and hope in the digital age
Reading: Digital Youth Research Report
Please download and read the white paper “Living and Learning with digital media: summary of findings from the digital youth project.”

Mar 4 Presentations

Week 10

Mar 9 Presentations