Enter World: exploring mediated cultures

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Rethinking My Question

Working on whittling down my dissertation topic, I’ve begun wondering on what topic I want to be an expert. The question I have been focusing on is close, but I’ve realized it still focuses on dis-ease despite coming to the topic from a positive angle. Although the approach is not problem-centered, the background literature and general premise hover over typical negativity toward media. I do not want to spend my time rebutting other research, I want to research strengths and continue exploring applications. By strengths, I mean those applicable to individuals or groups from a positive psychology standpoint rather than strengths of media outlets, programs, or campaigns.

My topic now is something along the lines of whether the skill of media creation alters attitudes. I am still very interested in media creation as the foundation of my research, but rather than centering on attitudes toward media I may turn to media as a creative outlet. Self expression, self efficacy, creativity. Positive psychology studies those who are well to determine what makes them well. Do I study those who already use media in a positive way and benefit from it, or do I study whether learning to use media positively influences self efficacy or creativity. Playing with too many undefinable terms could make things messy ... media, creativity, healthy.

In any case, I am going to move into reading about creativity and art now, and away from media literacy and attitudes.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Summer Reading

Ever since there was a call for researchers for a documentary about Philip Pullman‘s The Golden Compass, I’ve been reading YA/mid-level books. Right now I’m hooked on a German author, Cornelia Funke. I’m reading the English translation of Inkheart and would love to find an original German version.

Although I will not stop reading, substituting fun books this month seems like an excellent use of my leave from Fielding.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Passenger Bill of Rights

New York passed the first passenger bill of rights.

I am disappointed that they only require water after three hours ... but any future travel plans I make will surely take this law into consideration. When presented with the option of a layover there or anywhere else ... it will be New York.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Independent v. Corporate Media Agendas

Tonight I presented research comparing independent media agendas and corporate media agendas to a group at Fielding’s Summer Session.

Based on research comparing the media agendas in online independent and corporate news sources, I discussed social and ethical implications of media agendas. I was specifically interested in discovering whether the independent media source provided an alternative agenda to that of corporate media. Following the first phase of agenda setting research, the research was based on public issues to categorize headlines and compared three sources from Portland, OR.

Abstract:
The following paper presents an analysis of research conducted in early 2007 comparing the media agendas in online independent and corporate news sources. Following the first phase of agenda setting research, the author uses public issues to categorize headlines from the sources. Comparison of the issues covered by each source revealed statistically significant differences between the two corporate media agendas but no statistically significant difference between the independent source and either corporate source’s media agenda. The nature of and potential for independent media are discussed in relation to these findings.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

moving notes

No one seems to like people without addresses. The ultimate experience was trying to rent a storage unit (to store all of our homeless belongings) and being required to provide an address of residence to do so. And if I had an address of residence .... why would I need a storage unit for my belongings?

Friday, July 06, 2007

craziness!

Just Letters

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

The sorry state of Juneau

Even though I knew we were getting ripped off in Juneau, I wasn’t aware of the scale until I started pricing internet options in Oregon. Here’s a shocker ... I read recently that Korea does not even offer Internet service as slow as Verizon’s lowest DSL option. That plans is $14.99/month for 768kbps/128kbps. ACS Alaska’s basic DSL option for the home is $49.99/month for 320kbps/240kbps. Less than half of the download speed that’s too slow to even be considered in Korea.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

More corporate changes

MySpace is deleting sex offender accounts too, 7000 so far, but even when MySpace makes an error it isn’t admitting it. Interestingly, there does not seem to be a backlash. One of the banned users is actually so desperate to have a MySpace account that he’s tried lying about who he is to create a new one and settled on borrowing his girlfriend’s account to access the site.

There are so many other options out there. My first assumption is that his dependency on the service must be due to lack of exploration/understanding of the web. Sure MySpace is a place to find music, people, etc but you can find MySpace pages through search engines in the same way you could find a Virb.com page (which not only also has music, videos, photos, and blogs but also LOOKS NICE and FUNCTIONS), facebook (which I hear looks nicer than MySpace and functions better), or even a personal web site that is not dependent upon conglomerate media dictating whether you are allowed access.

My MySpace response [update: account closed]—which includes the quote below:

In 1976, Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Friday, June 01, 2007

First Friday

Enough SL First Friday art walk and online research. I’m off to explore Juneau’s RL First Friday.

brief list of current corporate screw ups re online communities

It seems online communities bought out by companies are messing up severely these days. I would chalk it up to the companies operating them not really understanding the existing community and having different sensibilities. That doesn’t mean they can’t learn, on the contrary they seem willing to learn albeit only after mistakes.

• LiveJournal deletes accounts in an attempt to rid the site of child pornography but goes way overboard and lands in the news.
• The flickr debacle where the person who had photographs stolen for commercial use and was posting about it had the post deleted by Flickr, which later apologized.
• And, though there is no sign of learning here, the JPG Mag take over that led to a member response of account deletions. This is truly a shame, because the approach to publishing is brilliant.

Corporate screw ups are probably to be expected, though still disheartening. Community action against it is not only a positive side, but perhaps needed to iron out the way corporations interact with the communities that grew up around social networking tools before the tools were purchased.