Enter World: exploring mediated cultures

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Congratulations to BlogHer

I met Erin Ketecki Vest at the SNCR forum in April when she presented about mommy bloggers and politics. I was surprised to learn about the controversy surrounding, or being thrown at, women who are mothers and also blog. Apparently the act of sharing draws criticism from certain elements.

This week I ran across Erin’s interview with Senator Obama. A huge congratulations is in order. The women at BlogHer were persistent and worked for this interview with Obama, and they made it. It’s fantastic to see bloggers being taken seriously by a presidential candidate. 

Monday, May 26, 2008

Developing Relationships With Media Characters

I’ve been exploring the emotional interactions we feel with media, specifically stories and characters. Feeling connected to the players in a story, from identifying with a novel’s characters to laughing with local DJs, taps many of the same mental processes as forming a physical relationship.

These relationships have been compared to cultivating an imaginary friend as a child—not because the media players are necessarily imaginary (though many are, and attributing fictional roles to the actors who play them is a topic for later discussion), but because the relationships are one way. This frames our connections with media characters not as pathologies, but instead as ways of learning about social issues and interactions. Rather than disconnecting with reality, these bonds with people we most likely will never meet allow us to experience new situations with emotional connections that encourage empathy and a desire to understand the situations and characters involved.

Known as parasocial relationships, the connections mainly are explored in communications research. I’m happy to see the new article in Perspectives on Psychological Science this month bringing the topic into modern psychological theory.

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Further Reading:
Giles, David C. (2002). Parasocial interaction: A review of the literature and a model for future research. Media Psychology, 4(3), 279-304. Retrieved May 17, 2008, from informaworld.
Mar, Raymond & Oatley, Keith A. (May 2008). The function of fiction is the abstraction and simulation of social experience. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(3), 173-192.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Braddock on Jim Lehrer

PBS did an excellent piece on Braddock that is available to view online: Green Industry Hub Rises From Rust Belt Ruins. There are streaming video, audio, and text options available on the site.

Text Message Saviors

A friend of mine lives near Windsor, CO, and she told me today that the only way she knew where the tornadoes were was through text messages sent from CSU to her husband. The radio wasn’t covering it, and she was driving so she didn’t have access to other media. The text alerts were able to guide her in making the right choices about where to go and when.

I heard about Twitter being a good resource during California wild fires, so I looked for weather alerts using Twitter. There are 19 pages listing sources for many major cities. In addition there is a hurricane watch. Combining some of these alerts with the quick connection to friends, Twitter provides is an invaluable resource in times of disconnection or disaster.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Google Alerts and Networking

Diane Cipa, of The Closing Company in Pennsylvania, keeps up a blog about title insurance issues called Title Insurance Talk. I know this because about a month ago I was looking for recommendations on local title insurance companies so I posted to a Pittsburgh community blog. Diane got my question through Google Alerts, created an account on the community blog, and responded to me. She also included a link to her blog.

It may be a bit rash to jump to the conclusion that you want to work with someone because of a blog, but I fully support business transparency and her blog was definitely a good sign in my eyes. We had a good conversation via email about Braddock, and since then I have sent at least two more jobs her way plus recommended her to the mayor for anyone else new to town.

The Closing Company’s service was top notch, but it was really the personal connection with Diane during that first day that made all of the difference.

Using Google Alerts to watch for business leads is smart, especially when followed up properly. Unlike the situation with Comcast following Tweets, this interaction with a stranger left me very pleased.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Risk of Loss: A Series of Folly

"Cycling was so popular that in 1896 The New York Journal of Commerce estimated bicycling was costing theaters, restaurants and other businesses over 100 million dollars per year.”—Mental Floss How the Bicycle Emancipated Women

This line made me laugh. The Journal of Commerce‘s logic summarizes so beautifully the way dominant businesses would treat emerging entertainment and information technology in the next century and beyond. If it’s not loss of profits, it’s cultural collapse. In fact, this fear of loss and publicity about how new ideas are killing the old ways was a popular method of dealing with inventions such as the Gutenberg press back in the mid-1400s as well.

Since this entertains me so much, I am going to begin collecting quotes, statistics, and opinions from other industries that cried out to the public that the new toys were destroying the old and post them here in this Risk of Loss series.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

No Time To Read

Mail arrived today from my old address in Portland, carrying with it three journals, two psychology magazines, and one art magazine. On top of this, five books I had requested at the library came in yesterday. An intimidating amount of reading that I just can’t get to right now. Tonight is the community potluck, 40 minutes and counting. Our house is closing this week, we should be signing and paying tomorrow! So much excitement, there’s no time to curl up and read ...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Journal of e-Media Studies

Found the Journal of e-Media Studies today and have been perusing the contents. Looks like an interesting new journal out of Dartmouth.

Also have been reading a research paper on how much people trust libraries and museums. Turns out they are more trusted than news sources. This begs for a post of its own that is still brewing. 

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Personal Space on Twitter

Today a friend of mine had a problem with Comcast and posted about it on Twitter. They responded, and her internet is working again.

I had heard that the company is monitoring tweets with its name in it when I was at the New Comm Forum, so I replied to her about it. I added in a little criticism of Comcast too, as much as my 140 characters would allow. Even though following Twitter is a smart move for a company to put out the small fires before they become something more, it isn’t a substitute for improving their overall support.

Some background: I have never been a direct subscriber to Comcast, but I was forced into servitude while renting in Portland, OR. We rented two different places from the same property manager and had vastly different experiences with Comcast service in each. It was enough of a difference to make me question if the address on the bill shaped the quality of service available to customers.

Before heading back to Juneau for a month in December, we were staying at apartments on NE Prescott & NE 20th. During that time we shared an internet connection through a quadraplex and not once did we have a problem with Comcast. When we returned in January we moved into a house on NE Rosa Parks Way. We did not have consistent internet service for longer than a week during the three months we were there. In fact, when we arrived both the cable tv and internet were down even though the owner had been paying Comcast when the house was empty. It was a non-stop battle with the worst customer service I’ve experienced the entire time we were there, and enough to make us swear off Comcast at the expense of potentially slower internet service in the future.

So when wscottw3 and comcastcares responded to my response to my friend, rather than feeling all warm and fuzzy from the attention I got a case of the creeps. It turns out I’m not alone, there are other tweets about this type of invasion of personal space by Comcast on Twitter.

Can a tweet really go that far? Twitter isn’t private—it’s very public. Watching tweets is not so much eavesdropping on conversations, it’s more like perusing blogs. We all know our Twitter messages are all over the web for anyone to see, unless we chose to lock it down.

There is a definite need to explore the concept of personal space online. Is it different when a representative of a corporation contacts you than when a person finds you because of similar interests?

Perhaps our spaces on the internet can be understood in a similar way to how anthropologist Edward T. Hall looks at interpersonal spaces. It becomes more acceptable to be (physically and digitally?) close to someone the more you like that individual.

My friend can certainly respond to my tweet, others that I know or who have similar experiences can as well. And Comcast helped her, as a customer, fix a problem so their interaction was not invasive. But when it extends beyond the social realm, and turns into brand management, that does feel like an invasion of personal space despite the public nature of the conversation.

Sites to use to search Twitter posts:

• TerraMinds
• TweetScan
• Google Beta Twitter Search

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Tangible Gifts Through Blogs

Back in January Jan Cartier had a birthday drawing offering to paint a dessert of the winner’s choice. I came across her painting a day blog in one of my art feeds and was drawn especially to her chaos paintings from New Orleans. What luck that the day I first came across her site she was offering this prize, because I tossed my name in the hat and won!

In an effort to pay it forward, the April issue of MetaPaint’s newsletter offered tickets to Juneau Jazz & Classics in a similar raffle.

Right around my birthday she posted the finished painting of my wedding cake for Naughty Friday. I’m excited to get the original in the mail and see the detail.

She also placed one of her Chaos paintings, Water Lily Chaos, up on eBay for Zoo-To-Do. The entire purchase price goes to restore the New Orleans zoo Audubon’s bird house.

Her site is an excellent example of connecting people, causes, and art through blogging.