Cyber bully

Amanda Todd,

Tyler Clementi,

Ryan Halligan,

Megan Meier, J

Amey Rodemeyer...

...are only some of the names that made it to mainstream media. These are all kids, mostly under the age of 15 and what they all have in common is that, their suicide is attributed to cyber bullying. So we have a problem and we need to talk about it. We have spend most of this course talking about the benefits of Social Media as we should do so. However, how do we deal with the dark side of Social Media. There is no doubt that the technology is rapidly growing, the benefits are limitless and there is no going back. Bullying is a real problem and always has been. It is more common in teenager because they are still looking for a place for themselves. They are just wanting to fit in and be liked. When things go wrong and one is subjected to bullying, the social media becomes a very powerful tool to hurt that person even more. However, I still think that we should not yet the hit the panic button. There are now over 1 Billion Users Of Social Media Worldwide, mostly on mobile. Teenagers of today in most modern societies now own a smart phone and access social media on the go. Yet we have a small number of suicides that we can link with cyber-bullying. Please don't think that I, in any way undermine the importance or sadness of the issue but I just think that we should put things in perspective. Bullying persists in Social media platform or everyday life and this is what we should be dealing with. Maybe even use Social Media as a tool to target bullies because they leave a trail of evidence behind themselves when using the internet. Most importantly let's talk about it at schools and educate children. Make them realize that there are ways to deal with it and there is support out there for who may need.

We need to better legislation and we need better awareness! We need teachers, parents and students to work together for a solution. We need support groups for victims. We just need to get creative at protecting young people and most importantly teaching them to protect themselves. On top of that it helps that Cyber bullying is making its way into law books and the incidents are treated with great seriousness by the police. 

What a real subject to finish the course with! Thanks to all who has followed my posts over the last few months.It has been great pleasure to be a part of this online group despite all the personal difficulties that came my way. Best of luck to all of you....

Seda 

Produsage

I admit I never heard this term before until recent. You are more than welcome to call me ignorant for my crime. What a cleverly put together word which serves a great purpose! It was Axel Bruns who recognized the blurring of the role of producers and the consumers in his paper named, Produsage: towards a broader framework for user-led content creation.So he put together the term produsage.

This is how produsage makes sense to me... We were asked to write blogs and comment on other students' blogs as part of our course work with Swinburne. So we started creating with in the network and engaging with other creators. This is produsage. Right now while you are reading my blog and hopefully thinking about commenting on it, I became a produser. I might reply on your comment and this way officially we are taking part in produsage activity.

Why is it matter whether we become produsers? Perhaps because it makes people like me and you more active in media. It is a very positive concept because it has the capacity to offer consumers a chance to have a say. It also allows everyday people to interconnect and exchange information. Perhaps more importantly, it gives us a chance to materialize what is important to us.

Produsage also becomes crucial for its use in education. I as a 'mum' and and 'passionate digital media user' care about rippling effects of the produsage activity. I recognize there will be traditional approaches in some parts of the educational system but I would like to think that most schools will recognize the potential of produsage and use it to their advantage. Axel Burns sums this up really well.

... the need to provide people with the ability to make active, productive contributions to produsage projects to move from user to produser. This is the “leap to authorship” that Rushkoff describes; it ensures that people are able not only to benefit from hearing the voices of others, but also to add their own voices to the discussion.

So the 'people' we are talking about here are our children! We can not expect to do a good job by putting parental control on the use of internet or TV. On the contrary, we need to raise a generation of people who know their way around the internet and understand where and when to trust the information they may come across. The digital age astounds me with its rapid change and opportunities and I can only imagine how hard it will be for me to keep up with all that is happening even in the near future so it is paramount that schools take an active role and recognize the potential.

I strongly suggest you all have a read of this interesting interview by Axel Bruns.

http://henryjenkins.org/2008/05/from_production_to_produsage_i.html

second life

I think there is something rather exciting about the fact that people are nowadays able to create an avatar for themselves and live a life of pure imagination. Personally, it is not something that I am interested in doing but looking at the number of people who part take in similar games I can see why it is important that we all pay attention to them. Perhaps the most interesting question is examining “ how, and if, our experience of virtual spaces allows us to rethink the experience of the mind and body relationship.” (Ensslin, A & Muse, E 2011)

Brian Massumi makes a very reasonable point that the imagination and virtual world make a great match! Looking at the length that people go with their creations, I really hope that it is just their imagination :)

Lets consider Second Life and its unlimited opportunities. For instance, there is probably no other platform where people can experience the life in Medieval Times with a group of people who are truly interested in the same subject. There is no harm in dressing the part, role playing and conversing with similar minded people, is there? But how do we feel when they start to get intimate or even have sex (which is very common!)

Axel Bruns points out:

'Collaborative spaces removes 'the real-world limitations placed on social and/ or collaborative behaviour by factors such as language, geography, background, financial status, etc.' by providing the tools for widespread ,equitable collaboration across large communities of users. It also compensates for human inadequacies in processing, maintaining or developing social and/ or collaborative mechanisms.' (Bruns 2006)

Maybe it is just too weird or we do not get it how people can spend so much time role playing a life that does not exist but I don't think it really matters. What second life does is that it adds another dimension of experience to people's lives. It really harms no one and it won't be long lasting. It'll take its place in history and will give birth to some other genius idea!

On the other hand, I find it really hard to forget the Korean couple who had spend so much time on second life raising a child that they had neglected their real life child! This we can not fully blame on the game, although it does raise concerns.

Still, Second Life was innovative and it probably deserved all the attention it received. Let's see what is next?

References

Bruns, A 2006, ' Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond', Peter Lang Publishing, New York

Ensslin, A & Muse, E 2011,'Creating second lives: community, identity and spatiality as constructions of virtual”, Routledge

OBAMA GIRL!

                                                               

There is no denying that the campaign video by John Edwards was a great indicator for what is to come in terms of the bond between Internet and Politics. However, he underestimated the importance of using Social Media such as you tube. Obama or McCain did not make the same mistake! They took internet more seriously and utilized it effectively for their campaign for fund-raising, persuasion and get out the vote mobilization. It was McCain campaign in late 2008 that captured the attention of observers by adding a entertaining twist to the Campaign and making fun of Obama. These certainly proved to be very successful for grabbing the attention of media and and hence the general public. McCain campaigner got even more creative when they launched the game called 'Pork Invaders' on Facebook! ( Dennis 2009, p.154) However, this was not all about grabbing attention. It was more about creating a large platform to raise money. Does it surprise you if I told you that Obama campaign raised 650 million and McCain campaign raised a comfortable 360 million. ( Dennis 2009, p.156)

The internet was not only used to collect votes and fund-raising by politicians. Also everyday people took it upon themselves to expose the weakness of politicians on sites like Accountability Project. This is one of my favorite concepts actually. It is not all pink for politicians any more, if they slip they get caught and they are responsible for it! I can not imagine how hard that would have made the job of politicians. There is no escaping this sort of public scrutiny. When I checked out the website first, I was astonished to find out how easy the process was to upload videos from public.

The study conducted by the Pew Research Centre gave interesting insights to the use of the internet in US midterm elections. Here are the summary of the some of the findings:

• 54% of adults used the internet for political purposes in the last cycle. They hold mixed views about the impact of the internet: It enables extremism, while helping the like-minded find each other. It provides diverse sources, but makes it harder to find truthful sources.
• 22% of online American adults used social network sites or Twitter for politics in the 2010 campaign, and that 22% of online American adults used their cell phones to learn about or participate in the campaign.
• One in five online adults (22%) used Twitter or a social networking site for political purposes in 2010.
• One quarter of all US adults (24%) got most of their news about the 2010 elections from the internet, and the proportion of Americans who get most of their midterm election campaign news from the internet has grown more than three-fold since the 2002 campaign.

So let me recap, Nowadays a political campaign can not ignore the use of internet. There are so many little tricks to success. Politicians can tidy up their image as much as they want but may still end up being scrutinized by the same Internet that helps them. The voters probably get the best of the deal. Politics  is not a boring subject anymore (according to me and some). Politics can be entertaining and cameras are out there to catch every single slip a politician may make. As a result. Politician's PR's jobs got million times more stressful!

REFERENCES

Johnson, D. W. 2009, Campaigning for president 2008, viewed 13 january, 2013, http://reader.eblib.com.au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au

Smith, A 2011, The Internet and Campaign 2010, viewed 13 January 2013,http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/The-Internet-and-Campaign-2010/Summary.aspx

Digitally involved or not?

As I was preparing to write this weeks blog, it was the news of the Primary School shootings in America that has changed everything. Nor did I hear it on the news or from papers. I heard it on Facebook. It was most of the statuses on my wall where the majority of my friends were expressing their sadness. It was them uniting as digital activists. I had a sudden urge to say something about it! When my little boy was sitting right next to me and I was so overwhelmed with sadness, I wanted to say something. I really did but what is the point? Did that mean I was being pessimistic about the value of digital activism? (Sivitanides&Shah, 2011). I recognized that living in a country where I had easy/relatively fast access to internet had meant that I was aware of horrific news like this in no time! (Joyce, 2010) At that moment, I almost wished I had no internet connection and no TV! On the other hand I realised that internet offered a platform for people in America to express their emotions and unite and more importantly become active at changing the gun laws that may prevent more incidents like that. I am only saying that 'may 'prevent because I do think this goes deeper that the ownership of guns... Leaving all my pessimistic points of view aside, I recognize that digital world is the modern platform for gathering and exchanging information between masses of people which otherwise physically would have been impossible! Thus the capacity to unite and collaborate for what ever reason creates a huge potential for real change. (Sivitanides&Shah, 2011)

Let me now move on to the idea of culture jamming which is a relatively new term for me. I,of course was aware of such resistance against media culture and corporate advertising but did not know the term for it until recently. I think culture jamming is intriguing and it is a great way to give voice to the consumers in the world of brands. Culture jamming manages to put a new perspective by using messages that can be humorous or provocative. Does it do anything more than putting a smile on our faces? It is debatable but I take culture jamming as a reminder of the fact that brands choose a n image for themselves through massive marketing campaigns and advertisements but it is not all that it seem What better way to finish the blog with some images and examples of Culture Jamming. I am hoping these will put a smile on your face and you never know, you might even become a digital activist;)

 

 

Thanks for reading my blog! Have a great Christmas and remember.......

 REFERENCES

Joyce, M. C. 2011,Complex and contradictory:a new way to think of digital activism.

Sivitanides, M & Shah, V 2011, The era of digital activism.