Social Media and Fandom Communities

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Pamela

Unlike the days of the past, what it means to be a fan has taken on a whole new meaning. Social media has made it possible for groups of dedicated fans to collectively create an environment to openly and enthusiastically share their fascinations. The “fandom” phenomenon not only provides a place for fans to express themselves, but fosters creativity, engages a multitude of cultural diversities, challenges traditional behavior, and changes how ideas and passions are expressed. In Producing New and Digital Media, Cohen and Kenny explain that multimedia platforms has afforded the convergence of media content (13). Cohen and Kenny also explain that the fandom group are fantic to the point of creating a community that acts as small kingdoms of shared common interest (33).

So when the video entitled “Can Fandom Change Society?” published by Off Book, PBS Digital Studios, on September 6, 2012, posed the question; the answer seems all too obvious; fandom can change society. As highlighted in the video, fandom has brought people from all walks of life together and provides a niche where people feel they are not alone. Even if they never meet in the real world, they share a communal identity and though their online connection, the interest of a few can now easily become the interest of millions in a mere matter of seconds. Fandom has in fact, changed how we interact with the media such as tv shows, movies, and music. No longer does a show end when it is finished but it can have a infinite life span kept alive by comments and blogs. Our views and beliefs have a place to be heard and challenged and we are able to move beyond the socially acceptable behavior or what is considered the norm.

As an example, the fans of Star Trek, commonly known as Trekkies, enjoy the series like many other but unlike many, they exessively discuss continuity errors within the show, they argue passionately about the show and they are often extremely knowledgeable. Often, members of a fandom connect with each other through things like conventions and zines and fanfiction, an art form when someone takes either the story or characters (or both) of a certain piece of work, whether it be a novel, tv show, movie, etc, and create their own story based on it. Sometimes people will take characters from one movie and put them in another, which is called a crossover.

Response 6- Social Media

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Samantha

When we think of “culture” today we don’t always think of our ethnic backgrounds or upbringing we think of the fast moving tech savvy world in which we live. Social culture today is predominantly online, our news, weather, banking and even most of our interactions with others are all via a screen of some sort. While in some aspects this is highly praised for its efficiency and speed others question its reliability. Even in the texts we read about Wikipedia one of the main detriments to the site was the fact that so many hands could alter a post making it hard to tell fact from fallacy.

Aside from online accuracy what else has a social media culture done to our values and basic language skills? In chapters 8 and 10 of the Jones and Hafner text they talk about the implications that social media has on our ability to properly communicate. I think about that as i type this and try and count how many times i have had to go back and fix a post on this site because i’ve typed it short hand or in “social media” language. Terms familiar on twitter, Facebook or instagram are not real world terms, they’re not accepted on a resume, in a business email or letter yet we continue to use and incorporate them into our everyday use, even speaking them aloud.

A great example of this is the example of the presidential race in the article “How Social Media is Ruining Politics”, where it states that candidates like Clinton and Bush are having trouble “fitting in”. Social media has become such a norm in our culture not having a large social media following as a public figure head actually works against you, you loose your touch with the world. Which is totally ironic because social media is virtual you can’t actually touch anything. For instance look at Donald Trump’s Twitter Feed and see just how many retweets and favorites he has, his following is huge even if he isn’t the most liked guy on the planet. The point is though he gets an edge for having a mass following, one he maybe didn’t earn but gets because his opponents are being in the times. Even decades ago in the Nixon/ Kennedy presidential race kennedy used the “modern” form of communication to win his election, his opponent Nixon was’t savvy on the new medium of communication thus costing him the race.

The language of the world may have its roots in the same places, may share similar meaning to words and symbols but being online changes all of that. There is a whole new frontier to language with social media and though it may not be wildly professional or grammatically correct it is common place on social networks, and to be successful on these apps to gain a following to reach the people and groups you’re targeting you have to know them because the inability to do so leaves you in the dust, obsolete.

Social Media’s Effects on Writing and Language

Posted on October 4, 2015 by jstephenson

How do I even begin to define language? Dictionary.com describes language as a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition. But I believe language to be more than that. I think it can be viewed as a journey in connecting people, things and giving them an chance to co-exist. As I look to dictionary.com to define writing, I realize there is no true words that can define writing or what has been written or the act of writing. The one word that comes close to writing seems to be magic. Writing is magic because its an art of producing art, despite how mundane that may sound. It’s magic and beauty in the purest of sense.

In Chapter 8 of the Carroll textbook (pg. 253) he says “Both Twitter and the telegraph have been blamed for erosion of language. Email, texting, Facebooking, and chat, too, are likely having a corrosive effect on language.” I was surprised by the bold claim Carroll made about the effects social media has had on writing. When I look further into it, Carroll does have a point. Most of us are participating in emailing, texting, facebooking, tweeting, sharing, instagraming, snapchatting, blogging, and the other mediums and each require the user to be knowledgeable in that space. In addition to the users being knowledgable on how to communicate in these spaces, the way in which they communicate in the space is extremely important. The way in which a composer speaks on a blog or sends a tweet or a Facebook post is entirely different. Sites like Twitter, limit the user to 140 characters to convey his or her thoughts. For this purpose the user must use language that pertains to that audience and the space. By using these many medium they all play a role in our language. Our communication styles on these platforms significantly affect how we write. Some of these habits make their way into our professional careers or school work. Social media is giving new meaning to writing whether or not we see it as a affordance or a constraint. Even the dictionary has changed. Words like seflie, bruh, fleek, awesomesauce, manspreading, etc. has someway made it into the dictionary. It is absolutely no doubt the impact of social media and generating new words will have on the way in which we digest information.

Like all things, discourse as we know it, language as we know it, is being redefined by social media. This new development in social media has given new meaning to words such as friend, like, tweet, hashtag. These words are more actionable than before which creates new meaning and new communities. This impressive online community and the way in which they communicate in a short 140 character can have a detrimental effect on language. Many of the our short/crafted responses are limited to characters which leaves many of room for grammatical error for example:

JB Tweet

http://cdn2.mommyish.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Screen-Shot-2013-07-07-at-10.44.12-AM.png

You’re

https://unionmetrics.s3.amazonaws.com/tr_blog/2012/11/Your-in-America-Bot1.png

http://giveitlove.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-Twitter-Grammar.png

The beautiful art of writing and language is suffering due to social media and it’s up to us to be the guardians of our art.

The Trend of Digital Journalism

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Folayemi

When I think of a journalist, I think of a person who stops at nothing to acquire as much information as possible to tell the facts about a story, without falsified information. When reading Photojournalism in the Age of New Media by Jared Keller, what he said that stood out to me was, “a whole universe of photojournalists, both amateur and professional, is made available to the public through social networks. ” Without social media, what would become of journalism itself today?

Journalism has sure made its advancements over the years but not without questioning its validity. Because anyone is allowed to report news coverage on their social accounts, doesn’t necessarily mean they are getting at the truth but maybe getting at the likes, retweets, and ultimately gaining an increasing base of followers. Without social media, society wouldn’t be able to keep up with live reports, we’d still be waiting on the 6 o’clock news. As Keller states, “social media, like so many other tools, isn’t inherently good or bad; it simply needs to be deployed in the appropriate manner to accurately tell a story. ” I completely agree with him in that sometimes, society loses sight of the truth behind a story in that people seek to carry on “the buzz” of a story long enough until it fizzles out and the next one comes along.

The speed and immediacy to share content on social media is great, but how great is it if you put into question accuracy over time, the source that put it out there, and video/picture content? As fast as it is to put content out on social media is as fast as falsifying the content or manipulating it to heighten the reaction of folks that could possibly feed into it. I’ll admit I get most of my news coverage/information from Facebook however, I tend not to immediately believe what I see and wait to see it on television and that’s just me. But others are very quick to read and spread the word without blinking an eye and I think that’s the downside to all this. I think social media is such a fad that’ll never go away that at this day and age, anyone is considered a journalist or photojournalist.

A picture is worth a thousand words but what does it say when it’s being misread? As Keller mentioned before, we have both amateur and professional photojournalists through social media and I believe Instagram is the number one social network for withholding them. You don’t need to own a Nixon or Sony professional camera because a simple camera phone, much like an iPhone can do the exact same job. Keller points out in saying in his article that, “new media is very significant in immediacy, but not totally in long term. It doesn’t matter if there are a thousand cameras, its the storytelling that’s important. A photojournalist with an artistic vision that transcends superficial coverage. It’s a different media space.” That media space is known as Instagram. Not that I’m saying everyone who owns an account is superficial but it isn’t difficult to find yourself putting up a front for your followers about how you live your life through pictures posted and 15 second videos. This is precisely why I don’t have one. If anyone wanted to know who I am they can speak to me directly instead of formulating their own ideas through pictures and videos. People like to post #foodart, #Godart, and #ootd (none other than meaning outfit of the day) but how much thought goes into those posts other than how many likes you’ll get for it and how many followers will follow you on that particular day. It’s all superficial storytelling really. But who am I to judge? Social media is an ever growing movement and at this rate, journalism can only get better or worse.

Blog #2 – 9/11 Digital Archive

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Pamela

*******************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.

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.

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