A Day In The Life

DIGC101 ESSAY- ‘Go Blog Yourself: the pinnacles and pitfalls of a blogalist’s self-presentation in Web 2.0’

By Michelle Diab

‘Blogalist’ is the grammatically incorrect term generated from a combination of the words ‘blogosphere’ and ‘journalist’. Also possible is the word ‘journosphere’, which sounds like an accurate representation of what is occurring in Web 2.0. Moreover, ‘citizen journalist’ is the correct term employed and the type of persona undertaken for my 13-week-long web project this semester. Throughout this paper I will be discussing the ups and downs of pursuing an online identity via my experimental news website Newspie, along with other platforms and circumstances. The practise of blogging will be rigorously disgussed, along with folksonomy and private broadcasting of the individual via the online world, in order to examine the implications of pursuing a second life on the Internet.

The virtual world, through blogging, gives individuals the opportunity to display and communicate their ideas in a variety of forms. The possibilities available to individuals through the online world are very rarely available to them within the real world. Thus, the internet allows the manifestation of oneself to a comprehensive audience through simple, quick means. Blogging provides users with many advantages over traditional websites, including; the ability to file ones work under dates and categories, an easily sharable personal writing space, the ability to link and inter-link other web pages and the opportunity to serve as a digital portfolio for students (Duffy et. al. 2006). These benefits have been greatly felt throughout the semester; in particularly the digital portfolio of my achievements, both in my reflection blog and web project blog.

Although information is publically presented on the Internet, a somewhat private manifestation of myself was achieved through blogging. It is highly unlikely that anyone would have stumbled across my reflection posts, or even my online identity blog Newspie, because they would not scale high on the Google rank, or may not appear as a search item at all. It is great that the Internet provides free ‘space’ for users to store content that they may not necessarily want everyone to see, but may be accessed with the right HTML codes and links. Furthermore, the online world benefits students by allowing them to take a creative gamble through design and language experimentation (p.4). This was demonstrated through my web project which received numerous design makeovers, such as banner changes, alteration of previous entries, and the adding-on of a supplementary website- Newspie Music. I found the intangibility and flexibility of the user-generated content very beneficial as it allowed for a multitude of ideas to be presented.

Blogging is a form of participatory culture that provides the community with information to “strengthen the public discourse and democracy” (MacKinnon 2005, p. 5). This is important in a society where television once dominated the public sphere by deciding what ideas are newsworthy (to an extent, the mass media continue to direct the flow of news). However, many individuals such as Dana Boyd have gained a reputation as an expert through excellent blogging practices on a certain subject (p. 27). This “new evolving ecosystem” (p. 11) of “grassroots media” (p. 5) – that is, a collective intelligence of working class citizens – gives the public a significant voice so that they may direct newsworthy ideas. Andrews (2003 p. 63) makes a valuable point when he argues that bloggers can direct the mass media, because if a topic is popular in the blogosphere, the mass media through television, news websites and radio will eventually report it.

Blogging also offers a wide number of perspectives on news topics which would otherwise not be offered by the mass media. This, however, clashes with the journalism code of objectivity because news can be subjectively regurgitated by recreational bloggers (MacKinnon 2005, p.29). I strongly attempted to avoid subjectivity in my newsblog in order to maintain a professional identity. Nonetheless, when I wrote the opinion piece It’s going to be a Big Day Out (Newspie 2009)  I categorised the article under ‘In My Opinion’ to clarify that it is an opinion piece, and I spoke directly to the audience using casual language such as “hey guys”. The other items on Newspie are objective news stories and interviews, in order to adhere to the non-biased journalistic common standard. Co-founder and promoter of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, believes the Neutral Point Of View (NPOV) Wikipedia rule is very crucial, in particularly to the most recent branch off Wikipedia- Wikinews. If any entry or edit has an element of subjectivity, it is briskly abolished. This demonstrates Wikipedias’ attempt to assimilate into the world of journalism, with the twist of user-generated content that is provided by the virtual world. 

Wikis are hubs for participatory culture and user-generated content because they allow a vast and often unlimited amount of people to contribute to an online community. As stated by Duffy (et. al. 2006, p. 5), Wikis offer a “highly flexible” space where knowledge can be manifested through a collective intelligence. This contrasts significantly to a blog because they generally comprise of one person controlling the content that is published (p.6). In relation to my self-directed and maintained web project, I believe it was difficult to maintain a creative identity solely on my own, and contribution from other people would have added more credence to the website. Although I interviewed subjects for my articles, content was directly uploaded by myself and interviews were self-directed, therefore not allowing a collaboration of others final thoughts and ideas. However, a feature of blogging platforms - such as Wordpress which hosts Newspie - is the ability for other users to comment on articles within the blog. Although this is not formal, it is certainly a form of reader contribution that facilitates user-to-user conversation (Thurman 2008, p. 8). Although I anticipated more comments, when I received one comment on my web project I felt happy that people enjoyed my work. The practice of blogging has increased on par with people’s digital media literacy, in particularly in Western societies (Paulussen et. al. 2007, p. 133). The simplicity of publishing content on the Internet via popular hosting sites such as YouTube, Flikr, Wikipedia and Wordpress allow users to showcase their work across more than one domain. In relation to my web project, I found that it was crucial to host a Youtube channel along with my blog, and I attempted to download a plug-in to permit a direct RRS feed via a Newspie Twitter account, which proved unsuccessful for the time being. RSS, short for ‘Rich Site Summary’ or ‘Real Simple Syndication’ allows users to subscribe to a website’s content via newsreaders or aggregators (Duffy et. al. 2006, p. 7). This enhances the user experience as they can modify their information-feed based on personal interest.

An important feature of the online world which adds a further dimension of user control is the practice of folksonomy- a form of taxonomy that involves user-created tags of certain objects. Once an object is tagged, unique meta-data is created in the form of a HTML code for the purpose of locating the object via search tools. MacKinnon (2005, p. 28) makes a valid point in saying that libraries act as real-life taxonomies, through their organisation of content using the Dewey decimal system. However, this system is out-dated and restrictive in relation to tagging- because content can be allotted with an limitless amount of tags by anybody. Tagging is a practice available to anyone who wishes to participate, regardless of whether they created the content (Voss 2007, p. 7). This ties in with the notion of a collective intelligence, because everyone has different ideas of what to name tags in accordance with the subject. Within my web project, articles were tagged with words- both broad and specific- that I believed related to the article. It was difficult to compile tags because I did not want to be too broad or specific in my terminology. Thus, due to the subjective, user-generated nature of tags, several limitations are inherent. Moore (2009) describes folksonomy as a “horseless carriage”, because the bottom-up structure may result in user bias & sabotage, ambiguity and multi-meanings of words which creates confusion. A practice that is slightly similar to tagging is the use of hypertext – adding hyperlinks to terms within blogs to link to another web site of relevance to that specific term. Blood (2003 p. 61) affirms that hypertexting is a crucial practice in weblogging due to its nature of collaborative-knowledge. Blood further highlights the fact that it is impossible to achieve a link through traditional methods of writing, such as on paper; thus, affirming the pinnacles available to blogalists on Web 2.0.

The nature of one’s online presence is somewhat determined by the type of identity they wish to foster; whether it be factual, fictional or anonymous. Bargh (et. al. 2002, p. 35) argues that when a person chooses to remain anonymous online, they are able to express themselves more accurately and freely, without fear of judgement. My brief encounter with Second Life (SL) taught me that appearances do not matter on the web, when you are partaking in a realm of fictional personas. Although I was dressed hideously, I did not feel self-conscience about my appearance. Similarly, I am not embarrassed by my web project, although some articles are not of the highest standard. Perhaps this is because; it is highly unlikely people will view my web page due to the multitude of existing blogs exhibiting similar characteristics. On a wider scale, this content-clutter can lead to the “overselling of blogs” (Thurman 2008, p. 11) which in principle means too many blogs doing the same thing. This is possibly the most detrimental aspect of the Internet; users have the chance to present themselves to the world, but they must not forget that they are a goldfish in the sea of virtual-reality.

In contrast to anonymity via SL, YouTube is an online platform that allows users to broadcast their private-selves to the world. Lange (2008) draws upon an important point when she says that people do not necessarily participate in YouTube for its technical nature (n.b. YouTube video quality is inherently poor), rather it acts as an important “social function” that allows users to present footage of themselves to the world, or a select few people, by changing privacy settings or creating cryptic tags. Lange further states that video-sharing websites are powerful tools in developing and supporting social networks, because my YouTube Channel for Newspie has facilitated audio and visual interaction to viewers. However, drawbacks are inherent in what Whelan (2009) describes as “the looking glass self”, in that when one presents themself via YouTube, they open themselves up to judgement and criticism by voyeurs. This is why I chose not to publish a video of myself on YouTube; I did not feel confident enough to put myself out there for judgement, especially in a fictional web project that no one, other than DIGC101 students and teachers would understand.

Online digital communication is slowly transforming the Western world into a bottom-up, user-generated system whereby citizens exhibit some power in delivering ‘their version’ of the news to the world. It is questionable as to whether the objective role of the journalist is diminishing and being overridden by subjective, passionate, educated or illiterate individuals. The virtual world is an illuminated extension of the real world and provides a realm of extensive possibilities. Once users present themselves online, they may then choose how other participants locate their content through folksonomy and hyperlinks. Blogging offers a wide number of perspectives on the world; both subjective and objective, although the chances of your blog receiving many hits are not very high. Wikis are another element of the online world that allow a highly-flexible onset of participatory culture to create a collective intelligence. Creating and maintaining an online persona is a simple process; however, the overwhelming nature of ‘blogolists’ on the World Wide Web may lead to the demise of its exclusivity in the future.

 Endnote: Due to constraints on this essay, I was not able to discuss topics that I found linked in very well with my other research. I highly recommend you research academic articles concerning the debate of whether a blogger can be classified as a journalist - two sources referenced in this essay that draw upon this debate quite nicely are:

Blood, R 2003, ‘Weblogs and Journalism: Do They Connect?’ Nieman Reports, Fall issue, pp. 61-63, accessed 19/10/2009, available http://socialmediaclub.pbworks.com/f/weblog+and+journalism.pdf

MacKinnon, R 2005, ‘Blogging, Journalism and Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground’ a conference, Harvard University, January 21-22, accessed 29/10/2009, available http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/webcredfinalpdf_01.pdf

-  and the digital divide which puts forward a negative aspect of having part of the world so technologically literate and dependant, when many other nations cannot experience the digital revolution.

Bibliography

Andrews, P 2003, ‘Is Blogging Journalism?’, Nieman Reports, Fall issue, p. 63, accessed 19/10/2009, available http://socialmediaclub.pbworks.com/f/weblog+and+journalism.pdf

Bargh, J. A, McKenna, K. Y. A & Fitzsimons, G. M 2002, ‘Can You See the Real Me? Activation and Expression of the “True Self” on the Internet’, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 58, No. 1, accessed 19/10/2009, available http://smg.media.mit.edu/personals/chi2004/private/papers/bargh.pdf

Blood, R 2003, ‘Weblogs and Journalism: Do They Connect?’ Nieman Reports, Fall issue, pp. 61-63, accessed 19/10/2009, available http://socialmediaclub.pbworks.com/f/weblog+and+journalism.pdf

Deuze, M 2006, ‘Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture The Information Society’, An International Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 63 – 75, accessed 29/10/2009, available http://www.andredeak.com.br/pdf/Digital+Culture+06.pdf

Duffy, P & Bruns, A 2006, ‘The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities’, in Proceedings Online Learning and Teaching Conference, pp. 31-38, Brisbane, 2006, accessed 19/10/2009, available http://eprints.qut.edu.au/5398/1/5398.pdf

Lange, P 2007, ‘Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube’, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Vol. 13. No. 1, pp. 361-380.

MacKinnon, R 2005, ‘Blogging, Journalism and Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground’ a conference, Harvard University, January 21-22, accessed 29/10/2009, available http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/webcredfinalpdf_01.pdf

Moore, C 2009, DIGC101 ‘Blogs‘, lecture notes, accessed 15/10/2009, available http://www.scribd.com/doc/21243100/DIGC101-Week-4-Blogs-Aug-19-Fin

Moore, C 2009, DIGC101 ‘Folksonomy‘, lecture notes, accessed 25/10/2009, available http://www.scribd.com/doc/20092175/DIGC101-Week-9-my-September-23

Moore, C 2009, DIGC101 ‘Social Networks ‘, lecture notes, accessed 18/10/2009, available http://www.scribd.com/doc/19091227/DIGC101-Week-5-Slides

Munster, A 2008, ‘Welcome to Google Earth’, Critical Digital Studies A Reader, edited by Kroker, A & Kroker, M, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.

Paulussen, S, Heinonen, A & Domingo, D 2007, ‘Doing It Together: Citizen Participation In The Professional News Making Process’, Observatorio Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 131-154, accessed 19/10/2009, available http://www.obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/article/view/148/107

Thurman, N 2008, ‘Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media’, New Media & Society, Vol. 10, No.1, Sage Publications Ltd.

Van Damme, C,  Hepp, M & Siorpaes, K 2007, ‘FolksOntology: An Integrated Approach for Turning Folksonomies into Ontologies’, accessed 19/10/2009, available http://members.deri.at/~katharinas/files/publications/VanDammeHeppSiorpaes_final.pdf

Voss, J 2007, ‘Tagging, Folksonomy & Co – Renaissance of Manual Indexing’, Cornell University Library, accessed 25/10/2009, available http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/cs/pdf/0701/0701072v2.pdf

Whelan, A 2009, DIGC101 ‘Pirates of the InterWebs ‘, lecture notes, accessed 28/10/2009, available http://www.scribd.com/doc/21016636/DIGC101-Week-11-Pirates-of-the-Interwebs-Dr-Andrew-Whelan

What is amazing about a digital culture… is that it fosters community while at the same time can be fueled by isolation. In other words, we can be (or feel) connected to everyone else within the system…while at the same time being isolated as individuals sitting at a desk in front of a screen-based medium

— Deuze, M 2006, ‘Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture The Information Society’, An International Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 63 – 75, accessed 29/10/2009, available http://www.andredeak.com.br/pdf/Digital+Culture+06.pdf

Google: For anything and everything

DIGC101 SL

When I created my Second Life account my main aim was to make this persona very different from my real life persona. I did this for privacy reasons, as well as creativity, because you can create a totally different person to yourself and that is interesting. I am going to be a female with plain coloured hair, although I think I might experiment with my looks. My clothing is going to be mismatched and ugly; basically something I wouldn’t wear in real life. I chose the name ‘Ciaran Zeplin’ because it is completely random. I think the name Ciaran for a girl is unique and Zeplin is very quirky. I ended up experimenting with my characters looks and because I could not be bothered perfecting her looks, I ended up making her look really weird. Parts of her were short, parts were thin, some were fat, and she was clotheless at one stage. In my first-life tab I will include information about my education, country of location and interests. I will say this Second Life profile is an experiment because I don’t think I could create a real-life version of myself as I have a real-life to live! It’s an amazing world though.

QUESTION ONE

tommarks:

COMPANY CHOSEN - DREAM WORLD

As a promotion for Dream World, we believe it would be a good idea to create an identical replication of the theme park in SL. The users would be able to do everything that would be able to do at the theme park, including going on rides and buying fairy floss. It could be a meeting place where people who are collectively interested can organise to meet up in real life and attend the theme park. We would also make it possible to buy real life passes for the theme park and offer discounts to SL uses.

DIGC101 wk 11 Andrew Whelan lecture

• Piracy- the cost of storing content/broadband is going down, but the cost of entertainment (e.g. dvd) is remaining constant.
• So, these two effects facilitate piracy.
• Technology is moving faster than the law can keep track of it.
• Fandom & sub-culture can also facilitate this, as well as digitalisation of content.
• AFACT- Anti-copyright agency.
• In the 80s you would have to pay a tax for home taping.
• Horsless tattoo- Retrospectively, it seems normal that it evolved, but back then people who made horse carriages were angry.
• Napster is ground zero for mass-file sharing.
• P2P & MP3 are examples of disruptive technologies - innovations that overcome proprietary models built into their design
• Mp3 is perfectly designed for illegal file sharing.
• P2p moves away from centralised systems (DC++).
• Superabundance - never enough time to listen/watch/read/see to it all.
• DDL direct downloads - rapidshare, megaupload.
• Nothing illegal about torrents.
• Is the rationale choice NOT to share?
• Time shifting- working TV around your life.
• The restriction of a variety of content available is leading to illegal downloads. E.g. the music industry flogs off Lady Gaga but you want to own other music that isn’t available everywhere.
• The digital copy allows you not to lose things- A RIVALRIST RESOURCE.
• Piraters seem to download all of the music, but then buy the t shirts.
• Is the attention economy a result of the non-rivalrous properties of digital copies?
• Super-niche targeting relies on geographies of local subcultural practices.
• Disenchantment- alienation- applied to music- the commodity system is making music non-sacred and non-magical, so fandom and sub cultures are saying ‘it belongs to us’- so piracy is good.
• It is a gift economy- sharing is caring.
• Gift economies are reciprocal webs of exchange.
• We can see it as theft, or a radical leftist gesture.
• Capitalism- seen as disruptive. Everything seems to be in flux now.
• Communication, culture and copying are closely linked. Most people don’t know when they are breaking the law.
• What is copyright? It is hard to understand and define.

DIGC101 web proj essay ideas

I have begun to critically think about my web project in terms of the reflection essay. I posted my essay question in my last Tumblr blog post; however, I did not clarify the three main points I wish to make. Because my question is about the possibilities of the virtual world in terms of self-expression, the theme I will focus on is user-generated content (mainly wk 10s topic ‘Be the media’). The three main points I want to make are:

-    The virtual world, via blogging (I will focus on Word Press, the platform I used), gives individuals the opportunity to communicate their newsworthy ideas. Within this point I will discuss the opportunities available on Word Press, as well as other sites I used such as Youtube.

-    Although the virtual world, via blogging, is a rich news-reporting tool, it exhibits some limitations in terms of communicating and sharing ideas. I will talk about the congestion of the blogosphere which may lead to unoriginality and unnoticability (i.e. There are so many blogs but only a small percentage are accessed regularly); the limitations of WordPress, the ambiguity of folksonomy; and basically how the internet cannot be used to its full potential if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. I know I’ve been finding it hard to improve my web project because I don’t know where to start! I want to make it look sophisticated like other news sites (although with an edge), but it’s hard to do it without power and monily investment.

-    The online domain allows a virtual persona to be created and pursued. This point will focus on the theme of my blog, and how I have produced and presented my identity of a news reporter. I will make comparisons between other news sites and newspapers.

DIGC102 wk 10 class work- forum questions

movieforums.com —> Movie Reviews Michelle Diab, Emily Dodd, Kate Nealon and Arianne Puckeridge

1. To what extent are your movie choices influenced by other user reviews on Movie Forums?

2. What types of emotions are evoked when you find many agreeing with your responses? Could you compare these feelings to those experienced in person-to-person interaction?

3. How do you feel when people refute your review on a movie? Do you take it to heart?

4. Within what context do you navigate around Movie Forums? Do you follow particular users/genre or do you float around? Why?

5. Do you feel as if your forum participation is secretive and do you feel the need to review every movie you have seen?

6. What provokes you to use movie forums and share your thoughts with other users?

7. Do you feel as if it is easier to express yourself via Movie Forums than in real life conversation? Why?

8. Why did you chose that profile image to represent you and why not use a real image of yourself?

9. How do you structure your movie reviews? Is there a specific way you go about writing them, or do you write whatever spontaneously?

10. How has the use of movie forums shaped your daily/weekly activities?

11. What makes you feel like a significant part of this community?

12. In what ways is the forum lacking? In terms of engagement, interactivity, creativity, manifestation of information and so forth?

13. Movie forums are popular over the internet, why did you choose movieforums.com?

14. When reviewing movies, have you somehow developed a relationship with fellow users who you are constantly talking to on the web site, and where have these lead? (constantly arguing on boards,or civilized converstions throughout forums etc)?

15. Through past conversations, have you felt compelled to use inappropriate language to get your point across, and what lead you to this?

16. Is there anything else you would like to add about Movie Forums?

DIGC101 reflection.

As we are approaching the end of semester, I feel as if I have reached a plateau with my web project. I am very happy with the changes I made, in terms of creating a fictional town for more opportunities, and altering the logo to reflect my theme. However, my web project feels lifeless without interaction from mobile forms of technology, such as video. Using my mobile phone and camera to take pictures has been very beneficial as images are important when telling a story. Another thing I have learnt about producing a highly interactive and engaging web identity is to tell the story across various web pages, such as having a Twitter account with my Word Press account.

I have also realised that exhibiting an online identity via a news blog allows expression of oneself, along with the voicing of news and ideas which would not be possible otherwise. Writing is a powerful tool; however, my blog feels empty without links to other sources on the online world. I need to utilise other websites through hyperlinks in order to make my blog more interesting and diverse.  

DIGC101 Wk 10 Reflection Essay Notes

For my online identity I chose to create a news website for a fictional town. My news blog is a mixture of news stories, feature articles and interviews. This is the research question I have come up with for my reflection essay:

The online domain allows a considerable amount of self expression, presentation of thoughts and ideas. To what extent has my online presence allowed manifestation that would otherwise not be achieved outside the virtual world?

Within my essay I wish to talk about both the opportunities and limitations available within the virtual world, in particularly within the journalism domain. I will also be analysing other news blogs and news websites to see how they have utilised the internet to broadcast their information to the world. I will be incorporating all of the ideas and skills we have learnt to construct my argument, such as folksonomy, Youtube, social networking and blogging platforms, gender and mobile technology.  

I’m also going to talk about the changes I have made to my project- it has transformed from a factual to a fictional place and this has both been positive and negative. Difficulties and failures will also be discussed (this ties in with limitations).