Presentational Media and its effects

With increasing trend of individualism and advance in media technology, media’s position in society is becoming more presentational.  Media are no longer merely a tool of perception control, they have become an arena where ordinal people could actively present themselves and object to unjust social system surrounding them.  This blog will discuss about presentational media and its social and psychological effects on people with emphasis on social media, public sphere, participatory culture, and online persona.

image source: http://ndesign-studio.com/blog/released-a-free-vector-social-media-icon-set

Social media have effects on society.  Active participation in the internet and social media have contributed to social and political movements in the past.  For instance, Turkey has a problem with Armenia in regards to the genocide of Armenians by newly established Turkey in 1915, and the Turkey government refuses to admit recognition of the event as genocide (Akin 2011, p. 43).  However, in 2008, an online petition apologising the event of 1915 started, resulting in the public gathering in Istanbul, and also, several blogs by Turks devoted to opening up the Armenian issue which had been regarded as a taboo issue previously in Turkey (Akin 2011, p. 45).  The internet website of the petition led to creation of the public sphere in the capital, and the existence of the blogs show that people in Turkey consider that they should now face with and solve this unfinished historical issue.  A problem that was not able to be solved for about 100 years has started to move towards reconciliation by the power of technology.  The sensitive issue has entered a step to reconciliation by the citizens, not by diplomacy or international community.  Citizens were empowered by the use of media.  This event implies that citizens are the main contributor towards resolving the issue, suggesting that they are the primary political entity within the state which is an ideal condition of democratic society.  Citizens’ political opinions are reflected in the country’s political agenda. 

97th Anniversary of the Armenian genocide in Istanbul in 2012.

image source: http://www.yerevanreport.com/120921/97th-anniversary-armenian-genocide-commemorated-istanbul/

Democracy could be linked to participatory culture.  Participatory culture can be defined as one that relatively low level of obstacles to artistic expression and civic engagement, and members believe their contributions and feel a sense of social connection with one another (Jenkins 2006, no.pg).  Jenkins also explains that the new participatory culture creates many opportunities for youth to participate in community life, to be political leaders and engaged in civic debates (2006, no.pg).  The above definitions imply that participatory culture assist citizens to voluntarily get involved in and grant them to be engaged in societal problems.  Participatory culture does not seem to stem from state-centric organisations or governments.  Citizens themselves help creation of participatory culture.  Democracy, citizens and participatory culture seem to be complementary to each other in our society, and the use of media is contributing to these connections.

However, there could be possible negative implications of emergence of participatory culture.  If there is too much acceleration of civic engagement and activities and social connections among citizens that are entering many political issues, the role of governments could be decreased.  The function of governments might be disempowered and declined, and this consequently may lead to erosion of sovereignty.  Democracy is supported by law and legitimacy.  However, too much empowerment of citizens might object to law and legitimacy that are currently effectively governing a state.  Like WikiLeaks’ events show, even under democratic society, some political issues should not be touched by citizens.  Some secrets might be necessary to peacefully govern a state and maintain status quo.  Otherwise states and its citizens could be in a chaos.  Although globalisation has been promoted, states still keep strong power, still sovereignty plays an important role in international community today.  So, when the role between governments and citizens become unbalanced, governance of a state might become ineffective.  Therefore, the emergence of participatory culture could have unintended negative consequences.

WikiLeaks: How safe are whistleblowers in the digital age?

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eILp50-jmmw&feature=fvwrel

Next, social media have psychological effects on people.  Creation of online persona on social media is becoming a common phenomenon among its users.  Marshall explains that social media is making us more “conscious of how we present ourselves and how others perceive us”, and “new reconstruction of how the self is reconstituted through the screens of engagement and interactivity” (2010, p. 498-499).  A survey has shown that fifty-six per cent of British Facebook users are concerned with making themselves look as good as possible on their profile pages (News Limited Network 2012, no.pg).  Some of Facebook users might be trying to construct idealised version of self online.  People seem to have a desire to be a person that they have constructed in their minds.  People wish to live in a way of how they want to live.  However, we often feel dilemma or gaps between reality and ideal.  So, people attempt to construct idealised another version of self that is a little distinct from self in reality.  We might be becoming more comfortable with being judged as a good person by others, rather than judging ourselves by our own eyes.

On the other hand, creation of online persona has negative influence as well.  According to a Facebook user, his parents misperceived his private life from his Facebook, they see him holding a beer cup, not working every weekend on essays (Trottier 2012, p. 324).  This could be because online persona is largely subjective, so presentation of self on social media might not being perceived by others in a way that users intended.  There is difference of establishment of identity between online and other real places.  For example, creation of identity at workplace could be supported by a sense of responsibility, suites, uniforms or name tags that identify workers’ particular positions.  Also, when parents go home, their identity at home is constructed by their children and watching over them.  People have a few identities in life and we manage those identities without mixing them, and in real-world places, people could clearly distinguish their several identities.  However, online identity does not have boundaries that can keep a person in one identity.  Social media could be expressing all of a person’s identities in some ways.  So, this might lead users to crises of identity.  They might be confused which identity should be prioritised on social media.  Undetermined identity on virtual space could make the lines of identities indefinite.  If people rely on online identity too much, they might not be able to manage their identities in real world.  Therefore, social media users’ addiction to online persona could have negative influence on their identity management. 

Mark Zuckerberg gets hot under the collar over your privacy issues and sweats.
source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3hu3iG8B2g&feature=related

In conclusion, this blog discussed and critically assessed the effects of presentational media.  Although social media can contribute to solving sensitive political issues, governments’ role could be disempowered if citizens’ political participation goes beyond politicians’ role.  Social media users wish to be seen as good as possible online, however, too much dependence on online persona might lead them to crises of identity.

References:

Akin, AI 2011, ‘Social Movements on the Internet: The Effect and Use of Cyberactivism in Turkish Armenian Reconciliation.’, Canadian Social Science, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 39-46, retrieved 3 October 2012, Academic Search Complete.

Jenkins, H 2006, ‘Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education For the 21^st Century (part one)’, retrieved 3 October 2012,

<http://henryjenkins.org/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html>.

Marshall, P.D 2008, The Specular Economy, Society. Vo. 47.

News Limited Network, 2012, ‘Like generation prefer Facebook adoration over intelligence’, retrieved 1 September 2012,

<http://www.news.com.au/news/like-generation-prefer-facebook-adoration-over-intelligence/story-fnejlrpu-1226452694346>.

Trottier, D 2012, ‘Interpersonal Surveillance on Social Media.’, Canadian Journal of Communication, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 319-322, retrieved 1 September 2012, Communication & Mass Media Complete.

Week8: Social media and Interpersonal communication

image source: http://ndesign-studio.com/blog/released-a-free-vector-social-media-icon-set

Australian government defines interpersonal communication as “the process of sending and receiving information between two or more people” (2011 no.pg).  Marshall explains that social media is making us more “conscious of how we present ourselves and how others perceive us”, and “new reconstruction of how the self is reconstituted through the screens of engagement and interactivity” (2010, p. 498-499). People seem to create another version of self in social media.  A survey has shown that fifty-six percent of British Facebook users are concerned with making themselves look as good as possible on their profile pages (News Limited Network 2012, no.pg).  So, some of Facebook users may be trying to construct idealised version of self who is a little distinct from the self in reality.  They seem try to reduce the dilemma between self in reality and its in ideal.  We might be becoming more comfortable with being judged as a good person by others, rather than judging ourselves by our own eyes.  

image source: http://replicatedtypo.com/animal-cognition-consciousness-i-mirror-self-recognition/4438.html

However, construction of self in a better way could be very subjective, so there are some problems.  For instance, about 90 percent of the participants admit that some topics should not be talked online and 70 percent are “uncomfortable about a friend’s post about them” (News Limited Network 2012, no.pg).  Also, a Facebook user responded that his parents misperceived his private life from his Facebook, they see him holding a beer cup, not working every weekend on essays (Trottier 2012 p. 324).  The former issue may bring damage to friendship and the latter may relate to exaggerated representation of self.  Social media encourages more free speech and liberal society, but it may also require legitimacy or regulation.

References:

Australian government (2011), Interpersonal Communication, retrieved September 1 2012, 

<http://jobaccess.gov.au/Advice/JobRequirement/Pages/Interpersonal_communicati.aspx>.

Marshall, P.D 2008, The Specular Economy, Society. Vol. 47.

News Limited Network (2012), Like generation prefer  Facebook adoration over intelligence, retrieved 1 September 2012, 

<http://www.news.com.au/news/like-generation-prefer-facebook-adoration-over-intelligence/story-fnejlrpu-1226452694346>.

Trottier, D 2012, 'Interpersonal Surveillance on Social Media.', Canadian Journal of Communication, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 319-322, retrieved 1 September 2012, Communication & Mass Media Complete. 

Week7: Discourse in media in the context of Occupy Wall Street 2011

Anti-capitalist demonstrators in Melbourne last year.
Source: http://www.louisemcooper.com/galleries/occupy-melbourne/

Discourse can be defined as a language activity which shows sentences and structures organised in various ways and “this organisation is called Discourse” (Deshmukh 2011, p.1).  When compared Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and The Age about Occupy Wall Street last year, they used different discourse in their articles.  The Age contends that it is "an important event that might even be seen as a turning point" and then explains that Australian banks became vulnerable after Global Financial Crises and they remain still the same now (Llewellyn, 2011, no.pg).   And ABC states that what these protestors do is “not aiming to replace or to fight it (capitalism), it is merely aiming to come into existence” (Hage & Hoffsteadter 2011, no.pg). 

Foucault (cited in Green n.d., no.pg) argues that normality is created through a process of problematisation, for example, the norms of madness and illness are defined by reference to the deviant.  So, it seems on the one hand, left-wing-The Age tries to normalise anti-capitalist movements by problematising current financial institutions' systems.  And on the other hand, state-owned-ABC provides problems of the meaningless protestors’ insistence for the sake of normalisation of neo-liberal economy. 
                                                               An image used in the article of The Age.↑

               
                                                             An image used in the article of ABC.↑

Discourse seems be able to manipulate a sense of normality in people’s minds.  It could　control what is normal and not, and what behaviour or ideas are normal and not.  In other words, it may change a person’s normal sense to abnormal, and the person’s normal idea could be regarded as a crime in a society.  These discourse indirectly indicating norms consequently seems to being reflected in law, justice and order in our society.

References:

Deshmukh, AJ 2011, ‘Discourse’, Golden Research Thoughts, vol. 1, no. 6, pp.1.-4, retrieved 27 August 2012.

Green, S n.d., How can some of Foucault’s ideas and perspectives be usefully applied to the study of the mass media in society?, Theory. org.uk. : Media/identity/resources and project, retrieved 27 August 2012,

< http://www.theory.org.uk/f-essay1.htm>.

Hage, G & Hoffsteadter, G 2011, Occupy wants what Occupy is: another reality, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, retrieved 27 August 2012,

<http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3665204.html>.

Llewellyn, DS 2011, ‘Time to occupy our financial hubs?’, The Age, 10 October, retrieved 27 August 2012,

<http://www.theage.com.au/business/time-to-occupy-our-financial-hubs-20111010-1lgq9.html>.

Week 5: How do you participate in your national identity?

image source

http://www.carters.com.au/index.cfm/item/100136-immigration-propaganda-poster-australia-land-of-tomorrow-artwork/

Diaspora refers to ‘large-scale migration or dispersion of people in general‘ (ALC215 Study guide, Topic 3, p. 1).  Immigrants have tried to seek and establish their original cultures in settled states.  Sun (2002, p. 122) explains that a website signals that diasportic Chinese groups seek their cultural identification by engaging with historical national trauma, and cyberspace plays an important role in telling national stories (p. 133).  I would agree with this, in Australia, the internet largely connects me with national identity.  I watch my country’s news, drams and films through the internet.  However, if I had a friend who has same nationality with me but was born and grown up in Australia, I would tell her/him about more spiritual aspects of Japanese culture.

For me, spiritual things create my stable　
 cultural identity which is linked to animism.  Animism means breath, life and sprite in Latin and is a religion of sprites which insists that every object in the nature in this planet carries sprites (Bak n.d., p.1).  Animism is historically prevailed in Japan.  Also, it is represented in some of Japanese animations.  Probably some of you guys have watched ‘Spirited Away’ (2002), and Bak points out that it presents ideology of water and the Nature (n.d., p. 1).  I think culture associated with something we could not see may bring more stable cultural identity and sense of belongings  Because it seems be able to expand immigrants’ imagination towards the culture and the imagined world may not be easily deprived by environmental changes.   In this case as well, media, animations and films, help me to be adherent to my cultural identity.

image source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nature-brain/469009068/

Spirited Away Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6az9wGfeSgM

References:

Bak, M n.d., Animism inside Japanese animations : focused on animations by Hayao Miyazaki, M.A. Visual Communication Design, retrieved 26 August 2012,

<http://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/cumulus/e_programs/posterpdf/s2_4.pdf>.

Deakin University 2012, ALC 215 Study guide, Topic 3, School of Communication and Creative Arts, Faculty of Arts and Education, Burwood.

Sun, W 2002, Leaving China: media, migration, and transnational imagination, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Md., pp. 113-36.

Week6: Topic 3 Making Cultures.

Is Al-Jazeera a counter to Western media imperialism or a mirror version of Fox News Style propaganda?

image source:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/321062

I think it could be both, but I will explain that Al-Jazeera is a mirror version of Fox News style propaganda here.

There was a difference in the news coverage of Iraq war between Al-Jazeera and Fox News.  According to Wicks and Wicks (2004, p.8-9), when a bombing happened in a restaurant in Baghdad in 2003 Spring, Fox News persistently kept reporting about whether Saddam Hussein was inside and was killed or not, while Al-Jazeera focused on mainly civilian casualties caused by the bombing.   It seems that Fox News wanted to justify the bombing by insisting that it targeted Saddam.  And Al-Jazeera might want to represent the war as abuses of human rights by showing victims of innocent civilians. 

image source:
http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/news/iraq_war.html

image source:
http://curezone.com/ig/i.asp?i=47262

El-Nawawy points out that an importance of Al-Jazeera is “to let people talk” (2003, p. 50).  Al-Jazeera is facilitating people to express their opinions clearly and honestly.  So one of the reasons why Al-Jazeera focused on casualties might be because Al-Jazeera wanted to stimulate viewers’ minds by showing bloody dead bodies and lead them to public sphere to discuss and exchange how they felt towards the coverage.  Probably the coverage of casualties could make the viewers symphathise with the victims and suspect that US was not actually assisting Iraq to be liberal.

So, both of media try to enhance nationalism among people in US and Arab states and to justify their foreign policy.  Also, Al-Jazeera tries to get international community and human rights groups support Arab cultures. Therefore, Al-Jazeera is a mirror version of Fox News style propaganda.

Iraq War Media Propaganda: Al-Jazeera Perspective part1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k1i500b4T8

If you would like to watch part 2, here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi92IZICfeM

References:

El-Nawawy, M 2003, 'The battle for the Arab mind', Al-Jazeera, the history of the network that is rattling the governments and redefining modern journalism 2003, Westview press, Boulder CO, pp. 45-69.

Wicks, R & Wicks, J 2004, 'Televised Coverage of the War in Iraq on Al-Jazeera, CNN and Fox News.', Conference Papers - International Communication Annual Meeting, pp.1-28, retrieved 20 August 2012.

WEEK4: REGULATION and OWNERSHIP

Intellectual Property can be seen with ease around us.  Intellectual Property refers to “non-physical property that is the product of original thought” and protects ideas “by protecting rights to produce and control physical instantiations of those ideas" (Moore 2011, no.pg).  With acceleration of innovation of technology and its competition between companies, issues of Intellectual Property are occurring.  For instance, Apple has sued Samsung Electronics, claiming of infringement of patent, in 2007, the latter created a phone with several elements of iPhone’s design (Rebeiro 2012, no.pg).  

Sauce: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WVQI9fOAg0

Problems happen not only among developed states, but also between developed and developing states.  For example, Trade-Related Aspects ofIntellectual Property (TRIPS) was criticised over limited access to HIV/AIDS medication in South Africa due to the medication’s patent (Halbert 2005, no.pg).  

Image sauce: http://www.themedicalguru.com/medicine/a-basic-guide-for-using-medicine/

The problem of the former example could be that Intellectual Property is not effectively working to motivate corporations to make products that contain originality and creativity.  The latter example may be contributing to make underdeveloped countries in disadvantaged positions.  In other words, it may seem that Intellectual Property and TRITS were established in agenda of protection of strong positions of powerful states in the world. 

Rights to ideas sound every individual’s equal rights in the world regardless of their nationality, ethnicity and political systems.  However, Intellectual Property seems to be involved in North-South conflict and contributing to escalation of difference between developed and developing countries.  

References:

Halbert, D 2005, ‘Globalized Resistance to Intellectual Property’, retrieved 5 August, 2012,

<http://globalization.icaap.org/content/v5.2/halbert.html>.

Moore, A 2011, ‘Intellectual Property’, retrieved 5 August 2012,

<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intellectual-property/>.

Ribeiro, J 2012, ‘Apple asks court to sanction Samsung by ordering in its favor’, retrieved 5 August 2012,

<http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/432486/apple_asks_court_sanction_samsung_by_ordering_its_favor/>.

WEEK3 MY GLOBAL EMPIRE:NON-PROFIT PHILANTHROPIC MEDIA

Global empire refers to "the extension of a state's sovereignty over territories all around the world" (Studygroup 2008, no.pg).

My global media empire would be media that are complete non-profit organisation.  The media exist only for facilitation of and raising awareness of goodwill activity in the world, and consequently could contribute to resolving global issues such as poverty, disease and environmental degradation.  

A survey has determined that foundations and non-profit technology service providers have high interests in supporting the use of new digital media tools and strategies for philanthropy (Perlstein 2011, p. 45).  The paper suggests engaging youth with the issues via mobile as an example (Perlstein 2011, p.48).  There can be many rooms to engage people with global issues by utilising digital technology.  In fact, Microsoft’s funder, Bill Gates has established a philanthropic foundation. 


Image sauce: http://www.ikeepsafe.org/digital-citizenship-2/philanthropy-be-good-for-goodness-sake/

Bill Gates : How to fix capitalism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA1ioym5OYA&feature=related

Mass media are able to “control and shape the direction of society” (Steven 2003, p. 38).  When dominant powerful groups in society appear natural through media, their position is maintained and AntonioGramsci called this hegemony (Steven 2003, p. 52).  On the other hand, now the way we receive media information is changing.  Today, people have more media choices than ever before thanks to “the proliferation of new information sources through the internet” (Steven 2003, p. 51). 

Ability to choose media messages means that people are seeing an event from a variety of views.  This could deconstruct established dominant massages among viewers and give more attention to marginalised, excluded and vulnerable people in society and the world.  The idea of ‘media as complete non-profit organisation’ might be a little pessimistic, however, goodwill activity could be more expanded and penetrated among people by cooperating with media technology in the future.  This is my global media empire.

Microsoft Success Driven by 'Constant learning'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EupzN_3IqK8

References:

Perlstein, J 2011, ‘Amplifying social impact in a connected age: A survey of technology-related philanthropy for social benefit.’, National Civic Review, vol. 100, no. 3, pp. 45-49, retrieved 29 July 2012, Academic Search Complete.

Steven, P 2003, The no-nonsense guide to the global media, New Internationalist, Oxford, pp. 37–59.

Studygroup, 2008, 'Global empire', retrieved 29 July 2012,
<http://www.studygroup-bd.org/global-empire.html>.