Interesting Readings/Concepts

After reviewing some of the readings we were assigned this semester I think that I especially enjoyed/appreciated the readings on facebook and creating your own identities online. So with that said, I found the concepts like uses and gratification, process gratification, and content gratification. These readings stood out from the rest, for me, simply because I use facebook all of the time and consider myself to be Internet savy. I think at the back of my mind, I always knew that I posted certain pictures and comments for particular reasons but to have the reading really point what I was doing out to me and define it was very interesting (I hope that made sense). I guess, it was interesting to see that there was even a communication concept for what I was doing, because I had no idea that it was that big of a deal. These readings also made me become more aware of how I was representing myself on and off line and how others were portraying themselves as well.

What I have learned/Favorite/Least Favorite/Improvement

Like Professor Perez, I am actually a bit sad that this class is coming to an end. Comm 131 New Media/You Media was my first ever online class and I have to say that it has also been one of my favorites. What I like about this class was how easy it was to follow and I really appreciated the interactivity between both the students and classmates and students and professor that was achieved through blogging. Having blogging as your weekly assignment was great! It was actually really fun and easy to use. I also really enjoyed going onto the class blogspot and reading over Professor Perez’s overviews and summaries of each of our readings. Not only were they insightful and straight to the point but they sure beat being stuck in a classroom listening to a lecture for an hour and a 15 minutes. One last thing that I definitely appreciated about the class and about our instructor was how easy to reach Professor Perez was and how quick she was to respond to our questions, concerns, emails, etc. I think my least favorite thing about the class (and I think this could go for any online class or pretty much any class in general) was how it could be so easy for a student to forget a due date or to turn in something on time. I think with online classes you really have to read posts and directions thoroughly or you could potentially miss a very important note or detail. This is something I learned early on this semester. And it was a mistake I definitely tried not to make again. I think one way to improve this, would be to have more reminders posted, but then again what was done in class should have been enough and it really is on the student. Lastly, I really really enjoyed the content of the class. New Media/You Media is something I really enjoyed learning about and a topic that I have found that I am actually pretty interested in. I loved learning about different ways to communicate and interact on line and the affects and results that come along with it. I also found the evolution of media to be interesting and the whole creating/finding your identity online interesting as well. Overall, awesome class! And I would definitely take another online class with Professor Perez again!

The World Wide Web

“The World Wide Web” was basically a break down of just that, the World Wide Web. Some may have found this article not too interesting as a majority of it was spent defining Web lingo (making it come off more as a science book than anything else), but it’s break down of the lingo is what I appreciated most about the article and I found myself really trying to understand the in’s and out’s of the online world.

Before this article, I always wondered what HTTP and HTML did, but always just brushed it off and just generalized them as just being somethine that makes the World Wide Web work. And I’m glad that I am now able to identify each part as it’s own entity. From what I understand the Web is basically a pool of human knowledge (something I found to be quite obvious). The Universal Resource Identifiers (URL) is plain and simple: the address for informations, webpages, blogs, etc. The HTTP indicates the address space, and defines the interpretation of the rest of the URL. And the HTML is used for the transmission of basic things like text, menus, and other online information.

Now, aside from all the terminology one other point from the article that I found interesting was how it stated that emails are the most used internet service. It then went on to state that such technologies like the television and video game consoles are giving the email a run for it’s money. This is something that I completely agree with as now you can do so much more with the television and video games.. you can search the net, call someone, video chat… all our technologies can be compiled in one console. Very interesting.

Will and Kate take over the Internet

I’m sure many of you have heard, read tweets/statuses, and seen on the news talk about the Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton. It was an event for the decades. And according to CNN Tech it was the sixth-biggest Web event ever.

According to John D. Sutter’s article entitled “Will + Kate = sixth-biggest Web event ever” the global Internet traffic generated by the royal wedding peaked at 5.3 million page views per minute at about 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, beating out President Obama’s election on November 2008 which only received about 4.3 million page views per minute.

Millions tuned in both on and offline to catch a glimpse of the spectacular wedding. The royal family themselves even live-streamed the event from their own personal youtube account. So many were able to watch the event in real time and if not they were able to watch video clippings of the event online as well. The wedding was even a trending topic on sites like twitter, “#royalwedding”, where people were able to comment and keep track of Will and Kate’s every move.

This is a great example of just how far the Internet has come in terms of live streaming video and being able to receive your news online through websites and blogs. The interest in the royal wedding online does show how the Internet is changing the way people look for and consume information.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/04/29/royal.wedding.internet.traffic/index.html

Virtual Death

When I first began reading the article I thought that this was a great way to utilize the Internet. I thought, “Thanks to community media like blogging this ill little girl and her family are able to reach out and inspire thousands across the world while at the same time receive support in return”. And then I came to find out that it was a hoax. I wasn’t just surprised, I was disturbed. I mean we all know about liars, but this?

One quote that stood at for me came at the beginning of the article: “The Internet did not create grifters… If anything, the net has just changed the dynamics of the game” (p.200). After reading that I thought about the final paper I did for this class. My topic was community media (specifically blogging) and how community media allows any individual to basically create, share, or follow whatever content they so choose on the Internet without the constraints of web publishing. The Internet really has changed the game, we now face the job of deciphering what to believe not only off line but over the web as well.

This article also reminded me of our first few reading for this class on how SNS and new media allows us to create our own identities. One idea that the article touched on that I found especially interesting is how people are able to “authenticate” these false identities and realities online through web links, pictures, and other web-friendly signals. The article stated, “A conventional signal can be given the appearance of an assessment signal by faking the appropriate signifiers and the malleablility of signifiers in a digital environment like the web makes it difficult to establish one signifier as more authentic”.

The Internet makes it easier to lie, doesn’t it?

Would You Sign My Kindle?

“Would You Sign My Kindle” by Stephanie Rosenbloom is an article from the New York Times- Tech World link that I found relevant to the “The End of Books” reading that was assigned this week. In the article Stephanie Rosenbloom asks her readers a question many fans may or may not have wondered with recent advancements in technology: Why isn’t there a way to have autographs done through technology?

Rosenbloom then goes on to reveal that there is in fact a new program called “Autography” that will allow it’s users to do just that. Autography is an online app for both the Ipad and EReader created by T.J. Waters and Robert Barrett. Autography ebook “signing” works by having a reader pose with the author for a photograph, which will be taken by an iPad camera or any external camera. The image will then be sent to any EReader, like Kindle, and then the author uses a stylus to scrawl a digital message below the photo.

I thought that this article was relevant to “The End of Books” because with this new app there really will be no reason (well, besides support) for a fan to carry or buy an actual physical book of from their favorite author because now they can have their Ebooks signed. Ebooks not only work as a compact and more efficient library but can now double as a autograph book. Interesting.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/fashion/14NOTICED.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy

Karen McCullagh’s “Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy” basically discusses the new media concept of blog sites and the privacy issues that go along with blogging. While writing the article McCullagh conducted a survey from a pool of bloggers. The survey touched on such topics as how open bloggers are online, how comfortable they are online, and what they do to maintain privacy.

In the article “privacy” is defined in three different ways: 1) The right to be left alone, 2) The claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others, and lastly 3) privacy protects against conduct that is demeaning to individuality.

McCallagh also writes on DeCew’s thoughts on privacy and how he believes privacy is a complex of 3 related clusters of claims that concern information about oneself, physical access to oneself and decision making and activity that provide one with the independence to create their self-identity through self expression and interpersonal relationships. The three clusters are: 1) informational privacy which centers on the notion of control over ones personal information, 2) accessibility privacy which protects against traditional privacy violations, and lastly 3) expressive privacy which concerns an individuals ability to freely choose, act, self-express and socially interact.

I, myself, am a blogger. I own and use a blog that is more like a personal journal. And I thought it was interesting when McCullagh listed the information that she considered needs to be kept private on blogs: information regarding others, emotions, sex/relationships, arguments, financial information, work, healthcare information, and other information like illegal activity, and political and religious beliefs.

When I first started blogging I actually touched on many of the subjects listed above.. but only because I knew who was following me (friends and family) and did not mind if they knew these particular things, but as my following broadened to people I do not know I am now very conscious of what I share and post.