Author Archives: Pamela

Response Blog #4 – Digital Journalism

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Journalism has seen a dramatic change in the way news is captured and reported.  Gone are the days when we would anxiously rush home to see the evening’s news broadcast, read the newspaper, or listen to 1010 Wins.  Not to say that people no longer do those things, but there are so many other mediums that are quicker to access.  Traditional news mediums are seeing a decline in ratings as today, more and more people are going online to get their news.  As a result, news organizations are having to find new ways of providing information.  I agree with Brian Carroll in “Writing and Editing for Digital Media”, that social media is an integral and integrated source and channel of and for the news, yet it is also a floodgate to potential problems.

Remembering a time when there was no smart phones or online access seems virtually impossible.  The tools of journalism were typewriters and newspaper clippings. Today, digital technology and wireless connectivity has caused a shift in society and therefore, a shift in news gathering.  In this “always on” society, we have mediums such as YouTube, Google, Facebook, and Twitter, where viewers not only read and view the news but participate in its content.  Never before have we had so many civilians photographers who immediately send in their snapshots after an event has just happened and instantly, it’s available for airing.

As said best by Nilay Patel, Verge’s editor, “Every story is a technology story; every technology story is a culture story.”  That is to say, our culture has saturated our stories and has shaped our perception. Therefore, different cultures perceive things differently and that affects how we translate and transmit what we see and hear.  Now for the journalist, that creates a credibility issue and often leads to poor writing and biased reporting.  In addition, anonymity is accepted more readily online than in mainstream news media.

That leads to the question: How should professional journalist use this new media to research and publish stories that holds up to the integrity of the story?  Traditionally, we put our trust in news organizations to bring us the facts, but digital technology has transformed the way news is told and has made it harder to verify accuracy.  While Photoshop and other imaging programs have made it easy to modify and enhance photos, information received from regular citizens may not be factually correct. Yet, journalist are still expected to be professional and are beholden to ethical and moral rules of practice.

These challenges pose serious problems in a society that expects instant news and analysis.  In order to help in this area, crowd sourcing is used as a way to extend the reporter’s eyes and ears into the community and beyond.  Sharing sources enables news organizations to cover more stories in depth and develops more accuracy in reporting.  By using mediums such as Twitter as a way to verify information, reporters can use a collective knowledge to get to the truth.  For example, it is much safer for a reporter to get tweets from Iran or Syria than to be there in person. 

Ultimately, journalist still need to know how to write, take photos, use blogs, podcast, and expertly analyze stories. What’s different is that they now share a space no longer exclusive to them. They are now part of a large collaboration of people operating on a social communications platform and we, who as citizens, without any formal training in journalism, are engaged in the writing, editing, publishing, and reading stories, and must critically view them.

Response Blog #3 – Wikipedia

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Wikipedia seems like it’s been around for ever but in fact, it has only been around since 2001.  As an example of collaboration, Wikipedia is perfect.  It functions as an encyclopaedia with content provided and is edited by countless people.  You can basically find any topic and it supersedes any classical book we have today.  The concept of Wikipedia is that if the information is wrong, then someone will correct it and eventually it will reach a level of accuracy.  Even though there is oversight and governing rules, you can literally post without looking at them.  And why is this a problem? It’s a problem because people or organizations with personal agendas, not committed to the truth, can easily corrupt and influence others who are naive to the facts.  To be fair, companies and other organizations also use Wikipedia to update content in a number of technical and scientific fields and their knowledge is unquestionable, but its weaknesses is that anyone can add or edit the content of a listing and that allows for errors.

However, if I am to evaluate Wikipedia, I would say it needs to be critically viewed and used.  Although I have never posted on Wikipedia, I use it continuously as an overview to all my papers. Yet, I would never use it as a single source.  In fact, I like many others, was told not to use it as a works cited source in my projects.  But now days, it is common practice to do so.  I agree with James P. Purdy, Writing Spaces, that Wikipedia is perfectly fine to use as a gateway to other sources.  Yet Wikipedia represents our society where there is a one-to-many relationship.  There is no longer one author but many authors and many entries.  Therefore, a single posting can become a collaborative content.  

While collaboration may appear to be a good thing, the context isn’t alway true.  Maybe that means that the larger it gets, it loses it’s integrity.  Yet our ability to think logically and reason is crucial in this world of participatory culture that fosters creativity and innovation. Wikipedia is a platform that brings contents and creating context together and given the abundance of information, there is no wonder that we cannot do without it. There are those who say Wikipedia is dying, but even with its inconsistant quality of information, it is still the best encyclopedia we have ever had.

Blog #2 – 9/11 Digital Archive

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*******************Warning – for the strong hearted***************************

I thought it only fitting to start with this video and I would like to say how sorry I am to those who suffered a personal loss on 9/11.  My heart goes out to those who are still struggling with the pain even after all this time.  But the fact is that we all suffered a loss.  As a nation on a whole, we were robbed of our security and our right to live our lives. There is no way to completely sum up the affects that 9/11 had on our nation but to say that it has truly reshaped our lives would not be an understatement.  That’s why we will never forget.  But, if we are to remember it, then the September 11 Digital Archive is honoring this tragedy in the best possible way.  As an archive that collects, preserves, and presents the history of the September 11 attacks, it has become one of the largest digital repositories of historical materials.

Image result for September 11 Digital Archive  Image result for September 11 Digital Archive

But the unique thing about the September 11 Digital Archive is its ability to conflate such a devastating strategy into the framework of digital media.  With digital items, emails, and first-hand stories, the archive is an amazing resource of media.  From an array of pictures that features first-had responders, to voices of 9/11: a collection of personal video testimonies featuring participants talking about their memory of 9/11 in their own words and language, it captures the very essence of the destruction and tragedy.  Making the content of the website user generated, provides a means to connect with others.  In a world of participatory culture, its success is that viewers can become partakers in the collaboration of its content.

“Where were you on September 11, 2001 when you heard the news? This is the question presented on the Anniversary Collection digital archive.  Well, if you were alive and old enough, chances are you know exactly where you were.  Reading some of the personal accounts in the archive really touched me as I too remember that day so well.  My son was just six months old and that morning, the first thing I did was turn on the tv and played a video for him to watch (Barney-the purple dinosaur).  I had no idea what was happening until a friend called and told me to switched to the news.  That was the day that I realized just how important it was to know what was happening in the world. Before then, I didn’t care much if it didn’t affect me.  I have always felt bad that I missed the actual moment of impact (at least with the second tower).  From then I vowed the news will always be the first thing I watch every morning.

But news media back in 2001 was very different from the news today.  It use to be that the only interaction we had as viewers was to watch the television.  Unless you were around and called over for an interview, there was no real interaction.  The news was broadcasted and we received it.  But a change in platforms resulted in a shift in power.  Digital and social media platforms have dramatically changed the way we interact.  Now, we live in a world where everything is instant.  Sharing and collaboration has made the news more accurate and factual and mainstream media coverage has given relevance to what we have to say.  So we, as the former audience, have now become the anchors and editors. Instead of being controlled by the media, we now have control of the media.

This new phenomenon has ushered in a society where we subscribe to constantly updated content and function as part of a larger collaborative social movement.  For 9/11, that means visitors own stories become part the exibitions and builds a framework for ongoing communication.  So whether it’s experiences like the one World Trade Center where visitors to the observatory experience the digital screen in the elevator or the National September 11 Memorial & Museum where guests are invited to handwrite notes in a digital guest book that projects their messages onto a large projection screen,

what’s clear is that technology is being used to memorialize those lost in 9/11 and their memory will live on through generations.

 

Class Notes – 9/3/15

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Technology Determinism = A theory that society’s technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values (technology determines who we are)

Two theories derived from technology determinism

Technology utopia = the perfect society (the more technology is increased, the better things are)

Technology dystopia = unpleasant society, typically a totalitarian or one ruling party (the more technology we have, the less clever we become.

Both concepts give too much to power to technology and not enough to other factors

Discussion points:

How can we really be ourselves if technology has so much influence on us?

Technology creates social identity

Code switching = switching from one state of being (persona) to another

Code meshing = bringing all states together

We can be who we want to be and technology can either help us to advance ourselves or hold us back

Take away = things are created because we have a need and as new things are created the need for more increase.  It’s what we do with the technology that matters.

Telos – (n): a predetermined endpoint.

Instant gratification:

Future things to be discussed:

How much impact does technology have on the economy?

Ideology – The idea of capitalism

Page 13: 1.2 The characteristics of new media

Quantified self – conceptual idea

Digital – data in the form of numerical digits/values of physical quantity

Analog – Involves a transfer of things

Algorithms – they structure the way information is given and are affected by setup and history of choices

Home Study

Page 21 (3 questions)

Study page 23 (4th paragraph)

Try to think about how these possibilities affect us.  

Class on Tuesday at 2 pm.

 

The Affects of New Media

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The Affects of New Media

If asked how I feel about new media, the simple answer is that I cannot do without it.  But while I have come to accept and embrace it, I wonder whether I have lost something more important along the way.  So, what exactly is new media?  There are so many definitions that it can become quite confusing.  In Chapter 1, “Mediated Me” refers to new media as the digital technologies and explain how they affect our lives.  

Enhancements in technology has brought about so many fascinating and surprising inventions from the television and the internet to social media, the Cloud, Facebook, Twitter, and many others.  However, growing up in the pre-computer age, my ability to use technology is limited and I often rely on others, including my children, to guide me through the matrix of networking.  For me, this is a totally new way of communicating and interacting and I believe that these channels of communication not only affect what we do but how we think.

The New Media Institute posed the question: “Where is new media really going, and are we, as users, constructing the destination or are we blindingly falling into its clutches through necessities and paradigms?”  Simply looking at Facebook launched by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates is a perfect example of Facebook has taken on a world on its own.  From its initial limitation to Harvard students to now being available all over the world, and has become the the premiere site for social networking.  It has more than 800 million users and has joined together the world of work and play.  While it is true that technology is valuable and has improved our lives, it has also imposed on our lives. With too many contacts, and the rate at which Facebook is growing, it seems that the quality of our relationships has diminished.  Instead of face to face, we talk through our screens.

I believe that we have to be careful not to lose the essential human element; our personality. But I have to admit that my number one complaint about social media is what it is doing to our very sense of common courtesy and common sense.  Just go out side and in no time at all you will see people crossing busy streets while looking down at the phones or children who don’t know how to shake hands with adults and make eye contact.  It feels that our heads are permanently gazing down so much that the basic oral skills we once had are gone.  So we walk along bumping into each other or not even seeing each other.

Then there is the recent killings of the two journalist in Virginia, as reported in the New York Times article, “Virginia Shooting Gone Viral, in a Well-Planned Rollout on Social Media”, by Farhad Manjoo.  The killer’s use of social media was quite disturbing but even more troubling was how we have become so desensitized.  It should not be okay to watch it but so many people rushed to get a look.  Although I myself did not watch the video nor wish to, I have jumped on the bandwagon and have become much more immersed in social media and all that it entails.  But that makes me fear whether screen culture is detrimental to my social skills and ability to think on my own.  Am I relying too much on spell check and not really learning how to spell?  It seems that technology has taken over my thoughts and I have allowed it to do so.  I see it when I begin to construct a text and my phone tells me what I am attempting to say before I say it.  Yes, I gladly accept the suggestion and stop thinking immediately how to spell the word but I wonder if I am giving up a part of me and what might be the cost.

Similarly, it has become our culture to interact over the phone and text as the normal way of communicating.   It could be said that our real life is fading and we are losing the ability to look each other in the eye.  Social media has made us think that a “friend” is the hundreds of people we don’t “know” on social media but who we “like” or who “like us” or even who we “follow.”  If we really want to communicate with our friends, we would put down our phones and really converse.

Yes, I have lost something in exchange for all the technology I have gained.  But the truth is that I would not give up the technology with all its drawbacks because the positive certainly outweighs the negatives.  It is a brilliant tool for networking and sharing and provides entertainment and insight.  We really don’t know the long-term effects and can only imagine what the new innovations will be, but more than anything, our development of technology is what makes us human.  Ultimately, it is what sets us apart from all other forms of life and we are forever striving to optimize it.

Introduction

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My name is Pamela Drake and I was born and grew up in London, England.  I come from a big family all whom live in England.  Of my 7 siblings, I am the only one who lives abroad and I really miss them.  That’s why I try to visit as much as possible. However, I have my three children to keep me busy and believe me they truly do.

Over the summer, I went to the beach and amusement parks (see pics below) but for the most part, I spent my summer reading. I also acquired a cat (Leo) who is so sweet and super smart.  He will be on Youtube someday (Lol).

 

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Other than that, I worked all summer. I work at Citytech and have worked at the college for the past 12 years. That includes working on the 3rd floor for a VP no longer at the college. I also worked for Student Life & Development  and Entertainment  Technology. My current position is in the business office working part-time as an administrative  assistant.  My goal is continue working for Citytech as I the educational atmosphere but to obtain a director position.

I chose Professional and Technical Writing because I genuinely love to write and incorporating STEM is so highly in demand.  I was also an Entertainment Technology student was able to transfer  my courses to the major.  Writing allows me to express my thoughts and creativity through critical thinking.  I believe that in order to succeed, reading and writing is essential.  My weakness is that I sometimes try to perfect my piece the first time I write instead of just writing what comes to mind and then revising later. I find that often slows me down.  My objective is not to do that this semester.

I was introduced to Open Lab last semester so I am still learning how to use it.  In fact, I only recently started using social media and just becoming familiar with it.  When thinking about “new media”, I think about the ever changing innovations that allow information to be digitally processed and transfered over space and time. New media allows us to have electronic interaction and become not just the audience but also the authors.

Upon thinking about Science fiction, I often wonder who comes up with this type of fiction. I wonder what is going on in their mind and how crazy or realistic it can be.  Of all the genres, I like to watch sifi movies becasue of the depths that they can go and becasue of the innovations and technological ideas they present.

My most important expectation for this course/semester is to learn from every course that I take.  I want to learn practical lessons that I can immediately apply to my job and my life and pass on to others.  Already, in this clas and this first homework assignment, I have started to learn about concepts and structure and I can’t wait to learn more.