Enter World: exploring mediated cultures

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Most of my time lately has been taken up with labor, delivery, and care of a newborn.

But when I saw the announcement in my email for a new media psychology program at the University of Michigan, I wanted to share it. The press release is below. I love seeing new opportunities and expanding programs in the field.

University of Michigan
Department of Communication Studies PhD Program
MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY SPECIALTY

The media psychology concentration of the PhD Program in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan blends theory and research in communication studies and social, cognitive, and developmental psychology. Our goal is to train students to understand and investigate how media affect individuals? thinking, emotions, and behaviors and how these in turn shape the experiences that individuals have with the mass media.
Faculty research interests are wide-ranging with regards to media (we study TV, movies, videogames, social networking, “new” media, print, and more) and variables of interest, including aggression, health behavior, self and identity (including race, gender, sexuality), and well-being. A list of the core faculty in the sub program is below.

In addition to courses in the Department of Communication Studies, students will have the opportunity to take relevant graduate courses in other departments, including Michigan’s Psychology Department and School of Public Health. The faculty also have close ties to the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Institute for Social Research (ISR), where graduate students can contribute to research being conducted in, for example, the Aggression Research and Health and Media Research groups.

Course of Study

The PhD program in Communication Studies at Michigan is designed to take 5 years to complete, and students are generally provided with 5 years of financial support including support for the summer between their first and second years. Required courses are minimized and are completed in the first two years of graduate school in order to allow students to focus on individualized research programs as early as possible. Students generally pass their preliminary exams and reach candidacy at the end of their second year and focus on research and elective courses in their remaining years.

A typical program of study for the first 2 years for a student majoring in Media Psychology might be:

Year 1 FALL TERM
Comm 781(3hr)- Research Methods: Qualitative Emphasis
Comm 775(3hr)- Media Theory in the Humanities Tradition
Comm 698(2hr)- Planning for First Year Research Project
Psych 613(4hr)- Statistics 1
Communication Studies Weekly Colloquium (no credit)

Year 1 WINTER TERM
Comm 783(4hr)- Research Methods: Quantitative Emphasis
Comm 776(3hr)- Media Theory in the Social Science Tradition
Comm 699(2hr)- First Year Research Project Work
Comm 993(1hr)- Pedagogy Seminar (if appointed as GSI)
Communication Studies Weekly Colloquium (no credit)

Year 1 SPRING-SUMMER TER
First Year Project Research

Year 2 FALL TERM
Comm 810(3hr)- Media Psychology
Psych 682(3hr)- Advanced Social Psychology
Comm 8xx(3hr)- Special topics in communication studies
Comm 990 (2hr)- Directed pre-dissertation research
Communication Studies Weekly Colloquium (no credit)

Year 2 WINTER TERM
Comm 8xx(3hr)- Special topics in media psychology
Elective (3hr)- Special topics in comm studies or outside course
Psych 614(4hr)- Advanced Statistics II
Comm 990(2hr)- Directed research
Communication Studies Weekly Colloquium (no credit)

Questions regarding the Media Psychology program may be directed to the department’s graduate coordinator, or to any of the faculty listed below.

Faculty
Brad Bushman, Professor of Communication Studies and Psychology and Research Professor in ISR; , http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/brad.bushman/home
Sonya Dal Cin, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology, and Faculty Associate in ISR, , http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sdalcin/
Dara Greenwood, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology, and Faculty Associate in ISR, , http://sitemaker.umich.edu/dgreenwood
Rowell Huesmann, Professor of Communication Studies and Psychology, and Research Professor in ISR, , http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/aggr/personnelprofiles/huesmann.html
Russell Neuman, Professor of Communication Studies, Adjunct Professor of Sociology, and Research Professor in ISR, , http://www.wrneuman.com/

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

When I went in for my Pennsylvania driver’s license I received a temporary license and a note explaining why the actual license would arrive in the mail within 10 days.

The explanation I recall was something along the lines of running facial recognition on my photograph to make sure I didn’t have any other IDs out there in other states, or under other names in this state. It looks like the technology is going even further, with the FBI using DMV photos to scan for fugitives.

This is all good and beneficial, so long as we can call upon the Coke-Zero Facial Profiler application to point out our “digital doubles” if we are falsely identified—right?

Monday, October 05, 2009

I really like the term ruin porn that Jim Russel uses in the Burgh Diaspora post on Rustbelt Landscape and Memory. Cropping of images attached to entire cities create a "mythical landscape devoid of context."

Ruin porn also seems to include sounds bites, or repetitive-becoming-stereotypical concepts, associated with towns. But I’m at odds with the overarching concept that there is an innate conflict between art and journalism or that art can better inform people about places than journalism. I’m a fan of both when they are strong, and I’d argue that both are needed and can even work together.

It seems like the post covers media more than art, although it decries media as the problem. What art is making people think differently about these towns? A provided link out to an article about an artist in Buffalo is certainly interesting. It’s worth noting that it’s a news article we’re reading about art, we’re not seeing the actual art. The work sounds like an interpretive documentary of space, I’d love to see it and hear the oral history of one of the former workers. But where is the difference in cropping of place between this artist who came to live in Buffalo with her mother and daughter while she worked on the project and heavily integrated her ideas of motherhood and mortality into the work based on her experience? Is that really so different from a journalist’s portrayal of a community based on limited and personal experience? Russel argues that journalists don’t accurately portray communities and it’s not possible for photojournalists to fully capture a community. The difference may be that the artist in Buffalo was commissioned for a three week residency to work on her project. Could more long-term, investigative journalism compete? (That begs a whole slew of new questions about not only the future of journalism but reader interest, attention spans, agenda setting ...)

And then the clip from a journalist that Russel even describes as creating a very powerful image is likened to art rather than allowing it to be (perhaps for a change) good journalism. I have no qualms about criticizing journalism, but I also think art -like journalism- depends on the creator. There are good and bad in both. I’m also not sure how a journalist going to the location a popular photograph was taken, noticing the surroundings, and reporting on it is "unintentional art" rather than reporting. This journalist uncovered ruin porn at its finest, pointing out how others overlooked the environment around them to concentrate on shooting the expected view and leaving it at that.

Russel’s concluding paragraph really sets my mind spinning: "Art can challenge these assumptions and allow us to see the world in a new way. As for journalists, all the positive or fair stories in the world won’t do much to change our perspective. The onus is on the reader. Passive consumption of media is the problem, not the cropping of pictures."

Maybe it’s my background in media, maybe it’s my belief that people are not all as helpless and ignorant as stereotypes supporting censorship and labeling want us to believe ... but I don’t think I’m the only one who questions media portrayals. In fact, I think a lot more about the background and implications of media that I read/see/hear than I do about (most) art if only because it is so overwhelmingly present in daily life.

I know the purpose of artists in many cases is to challenge assumptions—but the art alone does not always do that. In a museum you have information cards explaining things, headsets with additional information, and a curator who set up a display of pieces that work together to feed into a concept. Is that the art Russel is talking about? We need museum exhibits about small, struggling towns to provide broad interpretations of community so that we can better understand the wholeness of the towns? Or are these insightful artists more like the ones Mayor Fetterman, also critiqued in the post, is supporting throughout Braddock while they work on public and private art projects? Does every artist have the ability to communicate their opinions to those viewing the art? Is that even the point of art, or is it more about the variety of interpretations possible? And then what about the Obscurae show ... in a way it was intentional concentration on ruin porn, abstracted pieces of Braddock highlighting the overlooked details without attempting to explore or explain the entire community. Does the intention of showing a different side of a stereotyped community through the eyes of many artists put that in the category of art or journalistic ruin porn?

As for the question of whether Fetterman, as a white Harvard grad, is a legitimate spokesperson for Braddock ... at least he lives here. He’s been here since 2001, that’s a lot longer than a three week art project. Fetterman may have his flaws and he may not be the stereotypical poster boy of the Braddock community, but shouldn’t building community be about involving everyone in a community rather than creating divisions by age, race, socioeconomic status, length of residence, or education? Speaking out for Braddock is certainly not one of Fetterman’s flaws. He insists he didn’t go looking for the press coverage that has come swarming down upon him, and he’s doing what he can from within the town rather than from an outside perspective. He’s sharing his reality and trying to include the interests and perspectives of multiple facets of community. I think that’s fair.

Monday, September 21, 2009

I’ve touched on crowdsourcing funding for journalism and investigative blogging being a promising avenue for the future of media. But what about those millions of other projects that sneak up on us in the night begging to be done?

Similar to spot.us and sellaband, comes Kickstarter. Rather than limiting projects to a niche, however, Kickstarter lets members imagine any project they can and propose it to the world. Everything from writing books or clearing out storage space to starting a wedding chapel have been successfully funded through their platform. Browsing through the open projects you’ll see lots of novels, collaborative projects, and music recordings.

My own passions tend to lean toward photography, and there are plenty of those to flip through as well. Right now there is even a Pittsburgh photographer raising funds to develop an unmanned aerial vehicle able to capture photos of some local historic abandoned sites from above.

Long story short, I am a big fan of the crowdsource funding movement and even more excited that a friend of mine is trying it out as a way to support his already planned, 3-month photographic journey around Thailand and Southeast Asia.

He’s an amazing photographer exploring the interaction of sacred places with modern urban settings. Kickstarter offers a way to support his work and benefit by receiving prints of his photographs.

It’s also fun to browse through all of the other unique and creative ideas out there that are finding a voice through Kickstarter.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Do we really want to be psychologically analyzed by our tweets?

Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count text analysis and the Regressive Imagery Dictionary Dan Zarrella designed TweetPsych to do just that. His blog post introducing the concept, and the beta site itself, explain that users who participate in Twitter conversationally rather than using it for content distribution will receive more insightful results. Despite my account being somewhat information oriented and in the 500-tweet range (1,000 or more tweets also return better results), I ran the posts through to see what I’d get.

The summary showed my highest score in Cognitive Content / Time followed by Primordial, Conceptual and Emotional Content / Temporal References and Abstract thought. My tweets also highlight the past tense and cognitive processes like learning, thinking, knowing, etc.

Furthering the applicability of TweetPsych, Zarrella’s post today introduces characteristic rankings showing a list of the top 20 users in categories including anxiety, oral fixation, and social processes.

Despite the disclaimer that it’s for entertainment purposes only, there is something about this concept that feels off to me. I can’t tell yet if it has more to do with sectioning off aspects of identity when using different social media tools (as in revealing a different component of yourself to Twitter than, say, to MySapce, and different still from Flickr) ... or if it’s because the analysis was approached from a social media marketing standpoint.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

An article I wrote on the Obscurae Gallery project is up at JPGmag. Below is the introduction, but head on over there to see more photos and read it all.

Braddock, Pennsylvania, has a haunting beauty that draws in photographers. From those who live in nearby Pittsburgh to travelers from around the world, something about this town grabs their attention and reveals itself in their visions.

Within these photographs there is a bridge between how the small town appears to daily commuters and what lies beneath. Beneath the abandoned buildings we find brilliant colors seeping into rough, rusted metal. Green vines, weeds, and moss overtake broken remnants of what was left behind.

This divide between the view of Braddock from a distance and the beautiful details captured by photographers sparked inspiration for me and two friends: We decided to bring the enthusiasm full circle by displaying the photographs of 28 artists featuring obscure, intriguing details of Braddock in a fundraising photo lottery to support community and artistic projects in the town that has inspired so much creative vision.

Read more...

I’ve been stuck in a technology/applications posting rut. Although that stuff does fascinate me to an extent, I just don’t have the passion for it to write about it more than once a month (apparently).

So I’m going back to my roots on this blog and figuring out where that takes me. Interviews and social media will probably spring up more often.

I’ve been exploring community, not as in place or neighborhood but in regard to interpersonal bonds that form around interaction in groups leading to shared experiences and drives. There’s an academic side to it all that I’ve been burying my head in as I suss out my dissertation—but there’s also a practical side that involves some of the most vivid people I’ve ever met. It’s those people and those groups that I want to refocus on.

Why do I have that silly photo of Emilita Bambina in this entry? Because I want to look like that when I’m updating this site ... she’s my inspiration.

Monday, August 24, 2009

I’ve gotten it into my head that there are certain skills I need to have. Making pudding is one of them. Pudding from scratch that is, not the box mix with high fructose corn syrup and dye to make it look like chocolate.

So I began my search for pudding recipes as I do all my cooking experiments: online. Pulling up about 20 different versions and getting a feel for ingredients and method.

Cookbooks are great. In fact I love flipping through cookbooks. But they all suffer the same crucial flaw: only one recipe per dish. (Maybe not all, I did recently see a cookbook that promised 50 grilled cheese recipes. But then it suffers having only one dish.)

When I’m searching for online recipes I’m looking for something I can make now with ingredients (and kitchen equipment) already in my cupboards. Combining the local and the universal creates the option of immediacy. I don’t need to go shopping for ingredients, because there are always substitutions to be found. Another benefit to having the world at my fingertips: malleability of ingredients.

This convergence of local and universal access hits home weekly when I dig into my CSA (community supported agriculture) box. This year I am fairly familiar with the local produce, but last year there were some surprises in there. For instance, I had no idea what to do with kohlrabi. After researching what it is and how it can be eaten, I discovered that I like it. Now I grow it in my garden.

The 2009 Digital Future Project report showed that 80% of Americans are now online, and of those 15% participate in online communities. The most popular communities are related to hobbies and social causes. I have yet to join a cooking community, maybe because it’s not one of my more active or social hobbies, but I definitely benefit from the social networking of others who enjoy cooking. From blog posts detailing cooking successes and failures to comments and ratings below recipes with suggestions to improve the dishes, my seat as a lurker is panning out well.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Countries where a low percentage of the population use banking systems have been pioneering the use of mobile phones as payment devices with great success. And now similar, though smaller scale, options are beginning to appear in the U.S.

While Afric Xpress, and other similar services throughout Africa, offers seemingly limitless ability to pay bills, shop, send funds to individuals, and more ... The emerging option here is still centered on having a bank account. Exciting no less…

PayPal opening its platform up to developers is a big step in this development. Twitpay, formerly powered by Amazon Payments, has moved to using PayPal Adaptive Payments. Twitpay lets you buy or sell items through the simplicity of text messaging. At the Twitpay site you can text funds directly to someone, but at RT2buy the options expand from personal payments to include delivering content, promotions, and fund raising.

What does this mean?

It means small-scale transactions are now more mobile ... no pun intended, though it’s fitting.

Selling something on Etsy, but have a large following on Twitter? Sell directly on Twitter too, skipping that required step of moving to another site.

The beauty of Twitter has always been its malleability of form. While you may be sitting at your computer updating your status, I can be out and about with my mobile phone and still receive your messages, respond to them, forward them ... and now buy the media content you’ve posted, the tickets to your event, or support your cause. All from my phone. Or vice versa, it can happen in any combination. Maybe while I’m out I find a great wave of inspiration to promote Obscurae tickets and run a special on them using Twitter—I can post that with my mobile and you can respond from the web, an application, or your mobile.

It’s a great computer-optional social connection that now allows for commerce connections within the social network and beyond. 

Friday, July 10, 2009

A back-and-forth legal case surrounding social networking access between Power.com and Faebook covered in Mashable (Power.com Sues Facebook: Data Ownership War Breaks Out) introduced me to Power.com as a new option for accessing social networks.

It’s curious that the Power.com logo still has a Facebook petal (or fan blade?) even though it is notably missing from the login options.

Could be a sign that they are hopeful to regain access, useful to their case, or just an oversight.

All that aside, it seems like Power.com is yet another improvement in applications to network the networks. From one page you can read messages, updates, profiles, and look at albums plus access all of your contacts from across social networks.

They’ve also added chat and a radio. I’m a huge fan of online radio. When I’m working is about the only time I sit and listen for an extended time and being exposed to Pandora‘s selection has introduced me to some great musicians over the years. I also love being able to listen to KXLL in Juneau for all their great shows. It’s an alluring concept to integrate an international radio show with a social network hub. It could lead to longer time spent logged into the network hub on top of providing background music while catching up on social news.

The main limitation I see in Power.com right now is the concentration on specific big name sites. You can only integrate Twitter, LinkedIn, Orkut, MySpace, Hi5, Flogão and VoteMe. Of these options I have two accounts and regularly use one, so there isn’t much incentive to consolidate at this point. While it’s understandable that integrating each network requires coding (that can apparently cause lawsuits), my ideal social aggregator would function more like NetNewsWire does for information feeds.