Week 4 post: Do bloggers more effectively inform the public?

Russell (et al.) comapres elite media and institutions with bloggers and ponders the following question: “Do bloggers, with their editorial independence, collaborative structure and merit-based popularity, more effectively inform the public? (Reader, page 136). Do you agree? Use examples to illustrate your point of view.

While bloggers have more control over their writing style and the type of content they post about, I do not agree that they more effectively inform the public. Although new media does increase the timeliness of news reports, it can also, thus, compromise its accuracy. Doing a quick search of “news blogs” on the Web, the first page of results consists of blogs by traditional news outlets. They use the Internet as another “distribution channel” but still retain “journalistic authority and authoring conventions” (Russell et al., 2008: 68). The successful ones are just extensions of the newspapers themselves. One example of a non-traditional news blog is NewsTrust. However, even NewsTrust features articles from other online traditional news sources, just featuring ones that are deemed to be of “quality”, not “popularity.” This statement on NewsTrust is an acknowledgement that new media may allow all voices to be heard but not all are given equal attention (Russell et al., 2008: 67), and that those that are popular are not always good. But this “collaborative structure” of NewsTrust does provide readers with a wider range of content and opinions from different news sources, giving them more exposure to the information available on the Web. There are also many other news blogs that are not as reliable or just different from NewsTrust. Good and Bad News is one different example of a news blog. While it also features links to articles by online traditional news outlets, some of its posts are of informal, and amateur-looking, news. Unlike NewsTrust, which actually resembles blogs of traditional media outlets like Sky News Blog, Good and Bad News has a more amateur design and structure.

Then I would like to consider what one would consider news. Traditional news blogs easily put hard news on its agenda, since it is an extension of its newspaper or television news report. So far, I have only mentioned such “hard news” blogs as a point of information for people. But a new type of news blog has gained popularity recently – celebrity news blogs. Synonymous with this genre of news reporting, if one would like to call it that, is Perez Hilton’s blog. He openly acknowledges his non-objective reporting style and boasts about having as many as 10 millions views everyday (Hutson, 2009: 34-35). I do not agree, in this case, that bloggers more effectively inform the public, simply because it is not objective, or does not even try to be. It is evident his blog is a reflection of his views, and is even more outright in its political agenda as compared to traditional news blogs.

As shown above, bloggers like Perez Hilton have a very subjective style of writing on their blogs that aim to influence their readers. Traditional news blogs, however, are usually extensions of mainstream news outlets, and so still carry subtle political agendas. But other alternative news blogs like NewsTrust, in my opinion, is starting to provide a better option for those looking to blogs for news. This is only because it consolidates a variety of articles from an array of sources on the Internet, not only limited to popular ones, and so, exposes its readers to more information in order to make better informed decisions and form their own opinions.

References

Hutson, M. (2009) ‘Gossip Monger…Perez Hilton’, Psychology Today, 42(1): 34-35.

Russell, A., M. Ito, T. Richmond and M. Tuters (2008) ‘Culture: Media Convergence and Networked Culture’ pp. 43-76 in K. Varnelis (ed) Networked Publics. Cambridge, MIA: MIT Press.

Anti-piracy videos: The Good, the Bad and the…Weird?

In tutorial last week, we were to look for anti-piracy videos and I came across a few that I thought were worth sharing.

This one seems to be the most international example that everyone had seen in cinemas. I personally think it’s quite cool, and a good effort to reach out to youths who are the ones most likely to illegally download things online. It must’ve made some sort of impact because I recall, majority of the people in class remembered seeing it in the cinemas.

Found this one online while searching for interesting anti-piracy ads in tute. I remember seeing something similar to this when I was younger, and was watching Disney movies on videocassettes instead of DVDs.

And then comes the ads by the Japanese. The first one plays on the renowned Japanese horror genre and uses that sort of context to attempt to appeal to audiences emotionally. The second one makes use of the comedic nature of Japanese variety shows to attempt to get the anti-piracy message across by adding in a touch of comedy into the message. While it was a rather good effort, in my opinion because the guy in the videocam suit was just too funny, I wonder if this version actually does get the message across. People may be too lost in the humour and take the whole issue too lightly.

Week 10: Creative Commons License

Following week 10 tutorial’s exercise, explain why you chose the Creative Commons license that you added to your blog and discuss the relevance (or not) of adding the license.

 

I have decided to add a Creative Commons license, and the one I picked is for a non-commercial, share alike distribution. I initially did not wish to add a CC license, partly because I wanted to keep my copyrights, but also partly because I knew even if my work had been plagiarised, there is a low possibility that I would learn of it in the end. In this case, a Creative Commons license would be unnecessary since I would not even be aware of it. However, I decided to get a Creative Commons license in the end because while the license encourages the notion of a public domain and is a “counterpoint to open-ended copyright” (Garcelon, 2009: 1309), I did not wish for others to be able to benefit financially from my work. There are several other types of CC licenses available, including ones that fully accord with the notion of a public domain.

The Creative Commons is a response to the intellectual property approach to copyright, in order to provide an alternative to this tightly controlled space which restricts access to creative works (Garcelon, 2009: 1310). The idea behind this is similar to the public domain, where the Creative Commons encourages “open access to information” so as to make more informed decisions (Garcelon, 2009: 1310-1311). The benefits of having a CC license that can restrict certain aspects of distribution or modification of intellectual work is that there is no longer a need to go through tedious individual usage agreements, as well as making previously “unlawful” distribution practices lawful again (Armstrong, 2010: 366). Armstrong has also noted that open-content licenses like the Creative Commons license could bring about the creation of new works that were previously restricted due to the lack of information (2010: 368).

In my opinion, because this blog is for academic purposes, there is a need for some sort of restricted control over use of the information here. While not giving up the rights to commercially use the information here is of a personal preference, the Creative Commons license would also restrict any plagiarism, because the license I have chosen requires others who use my information to credit the original source. But I have decided to allow other users to modify the content as they deem necessary, in order to facilitate any creation of new intellectual works as described above by Armstrong. Lawrence Lessig, however, argues that software should be free because we aim to live in a free society. He states that the “emotional argument” or “economic argument” behind copyright or intellectual property rights do not outweigh the benefits of free software in a free society (Lessig, 2002). While he speaks mainly of software, the same “emotional” and “economic” argument can be used for other intellectual products, such as writing or music. In this sense, it is really the right of the owner of the intellectual property to decide what type of distribution and modification should be made to the product, and open-content licenses like the CC license is a good alternative to challenge restrictive intellectual property rights laws.

References

Armstrong, T. K. ‘Shrinking the Commons: Termination of Copyright Licenses and Transfers for the Benefit of the Public’, Harvard Journal on Legislation, 47(2): 359-423.

Garcelon, M. (2009) ‘An Information Commons? Creative Commons and Public Access to Cultural Creations’, New Media & Society, 11(8): 1307-1326.

 

Creative Commons License…or no Creative Commons License?

To start, I thought I’d just mention that today my tutor, Nate, asked me to go up in front of the class to help demonstrate something. Unfortunately, I mixed up my Twitter username with my WordPress username. I know, it’s embarrassing. But that was why my username was invalid, and I couldn’t sign in. Not cause I forgot my password (ok, maybe I might’ve, but I remembered after the first try!), or didn’t log into WordPress for too long (well…okay, maybe abit longer than I’d wanted).

Anyhow, the blog post for this week (10), is to decide if I want to have a Creative Commons License for this blog or not. Simply put, a Creative Commons License is basically, me, the person holding the current copyright for the intellectual property on this blog, voluntarily giving others the right to copy and distribute my work. The keyword here is ‘voluntary’, because the Creative Commons does not need to legally enable the licenses they are handing out, since it is the decision of the copyright owner. For a more comprehensive understanding of what the Creative Commons License is about, feel free to go here. So now, the decision is whether I want to be like large, successful media conglomerates that push for copyright extensions to keep their profits coming in, or to be a sharing and responsible contributor to the public sphere and allow for free discussion and sharing of information?

This is gonna be tough.

Favourite YouTube Channels

Just thought I’d introduce a few of my favourite YouTube channels here, since there has been much talk about online celebrities and YouTube and video quality. In one of our Net Communications readings by Eggo Muller, he mentions how we are willing to settle for poor quality videos online. I couldn’t agree more. I am personally a sucker for good quality videos, and even though I refuse to illegally stream television shows online like apparently a large segment of the population do, I still put up with other short videos of terrible quality. It was also difficult for me to engage with the Remix culture week, simply because I am also a sucker for official videos. Although I found the Snow White Remix very interesting, it is one of the few talents that I have come across. And in all honesty, I would never have gone trolling on YouTube to find him if not for it being a requirement for this module.

What I do troll YouTube for, however, are beauty tutorials and song covers. So of course, the next few channels I’ll be introducing are related to these.

The first makeup tutorial YouTube channel I found, and have been addicted to ever since is Lauren Luke, better known as panacea81 on YouTube. Her thick accent and her honest personality adds to her appeal, along with the skill she displays in her videos of course.

Another makeup tutorial YouTube channel I love, was recommended by Lauren in a video sponsored by YouTube asking her to introduce to viewers who some of her other favourite makeup artists on YouTube were. Kandee Johnson was featured in that video, and her bubbly personality and other life tips made her very popular online. Her credentials as a professional makeup artist also boosted her popularity on YouTube.

I found this next channel from click-through links on YouTube, and her popular “Fashion of the Day” videos have made her an emerging celebrity on YouTube. I first looked at her “Looks for a lot Less” videos, and also mentioned ilyjessicaomg in another blog post.

Now, I’ll introduce the music-related YouTube channels I frequently visit. Having a band of my own, I visit these channels for reference on how to cover songs.

Alyssa Bernal is trying to crossover to mainstream music success, and has officially released a single. She still mainly does covers on YouTube though, and I thought her version of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep was better than the original. Well, to each his own huh.

The next two similar music channels I like on YouTube are krissysings and jayesslee. Both channels feature two girls, one pair of Filipino sisters and the other, Australian-born Korean twin sisters.

Some people prefer looking at remixes or comical videos like the extremely popular Annoying Orange YouTube channel, but these are my personal preferences because I have the worst sense of humour in this world.

 

Week 9: YouTube celebrities = Mainstream success?

A) Burgess and Green argue that: ordinary people who become celebrities through their own creative efforts “remain within the system of celebrity native to, and controlled by, the mass media” (Reader, page 269). Discuss ONE of these arguments giving an example of a YouTube video (embed it into post). Specify chosen argument in your answer.

 

YouTube has proven to be a good platform to go from ordinary, to extraordinary. Although there are many types of celebrities, the most common types on YouTube would be musicians and bands, who get discovered online. I agree that even though ordinary people that become celebrities were discovered on YouTube, they ultimately are judged on how successful they are according to how well mainstream mass media takes to them. When talking about YouTube superstars crossing over into mainstream success, how can one not mention the now largely popular Justin Bieber? Presently, he would have to be the most successful YouTube-to-mainstream crossover artiste in the industry.

The 17-year-old teen sensation was first discovered on his old YouTube channel, kidrauhl, where his talents got noticed by a big mainstream industry name, Usher. According to Burgess and Green, the “marker of success” for these newfound celebrities are not only measured by their online popularity, but also by their “ability to pass through the gate-keeping mechanisms of old media” (Burgess and Green, 2009: 24), in Justin Bieber’s case, was the recording contract. His appeal to young teenage girls shot him to mainstream superstardom, but brought about much criticism from a lot of the mainstream audiences for being nothing more than a pretty face. His old channel has over 1.2million subscribers and is ranked 19 on the ‘Most Subscribed of All Time’ on YouTube. Now that he has achieved mainstream success, he has an official YouTube channel for promoting his official music. That is ranked 46 on the same list as his old channel, but his most viewed video is on the official channel – the song, ‘Baby’, with more than 558million views and almost 5million comments.

Perhaps another example would be panacea81, or Lauren Luke, a makeup guru from the UK. On her channel, she has more credentials on YouTube, ranked 5th on ‘Most Subscribed of All Time – United Kingdom’ and 3rd ‘Most Viewed of All Time – Gurus’, amongst several others listed. While she only has almost 470,000 subscribers, she has been given more credit than the mainstream success, Justin Bieber, on YouTube. Yet, she is a far cry from his level of fame and fortune. However, she is slowly on her way to clinching advertising deals: creating her own makeup line, becoming the spokeswoman for hair dye brand, Nice ‘n Easy, and freelance writing for Glamour UK magazine.

Mainstream media plays a big part in creating that ‘celebrity status’, and this is driven by the economic aspect of what makes a celebrity (Hellmueller and Aeschbacher, 2010). Ultimately, it is what makes money that gets promoted by the mainstream media, and is not any different online. This comparative example exemplifies my point that even though ordinary people get fame online, there is still a need for success governed by the standards or mainstream media, in order to be fully successful. While the disparity between Justin Bieber and Lauren Luke online and offline is huge, it just shows how being a celebrity actually has to transcend the Web and into the real-world, where mass media still determines that success.

 

References

Burgess, J. and J. Green (2009) ‘YouTube and The Mainstream Media’ pp. 15-37 in YouTube: Online and Participatory Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Hellmueller, L. C. and N. Aeschbacher (2010) ‘Media and Celebrity: Production and Consumption of “Well-Knownness”‘, Communications Research Trends, 29(4): 3-34.

Politics and Social Networks

The Singapore General Elections 2011 are going on right now, and I thought while waiting for them to  announce the results of my constituency, I’d do a quick blog post here. I think this GE was different from those in the past, mainly due to the influence of the Web, specifically social networking sites (SNS). Maybe it’s because I’m overseas and the Web is the only way I can engage with what’s happening back home.

But Twitter is currently bursting with updates almost every minute about the General Elections, and I’m kept updated even if my video streaming is lagging terribly. Plus, I get a rough sense of the consensus on who is for the current government, People’s Action Party (PAP), and who is for the opposition parties. This election was said to be a full-on backlash against the PAP, and people made use of Facebook to dig up dirt on candidates, especially the new, younger ones. That was what happened with a young PAP candidate, which led to the whole Kate Spade fiasco. Read about it here.

With this elections, I’ve realised how much politics has been changed by the growth of new media. Politicians now have to include SNSes like Facebook into the public relations strategy, and deal with the amount of inaccurate information that could spread rapidly on the Internet. It must’ve been a difficult change for the older politicians. Here’s the link to the Facebook page of the Singapore General Elections 2011.

I now see the importance of new media, and how it really allows us to keep in touch with issues back home. It still amazes me how information can transcend such geographic boundaries, and connect people so far away.

Don’t hate on Comic Sans

Since young, I’d always loved Comic Sans. Whenever I had to type on a Word document, I’d search first for Comic Sans. Who knew there was so much debate going on behind one innocent font! Sometimes I wonder if people just have a tendency to complicate things. I wonder if they do it on purpose, just to make the world seem sophisticated, when some things are as easily explained as just being ‘nice’. In the world of academics and graphic design, I guess there is no such thing as just liking a font for the sake of liking a font. One has to consider its readability, how it fits into the design, and all that implication it has on society. Too much to think about, if you ask me.

In my world, there’s no such thing as amateur or professional fonts. I would use the Walt Disney font in every document if I could, just because I like it. I don’t insist on changing this Times New Roman font here, even though I wouldn’t think of using it in a Word document, just because it doesn’t look as bad here. If I could, I’d use Comic Sans in my essays and hand it in proudly.

After some thought though, would I really want the Walt Disney font as the typeface for the London Subway Map?

Complicated London Underground map in clean san serif font

For something as complex and confined as this, it was probably for the best that they used a clean-cut san serif font instead the Walt Disney one.

So maybe, I’m just being too simple-minded and not putting enough effort into the complications of using a good font. But then again, Comic Sans isn’t difficult to read. Neither does it look messy. So why exactly do people hate on Comic Sans? If it’s just because it’s supposedly an amateur font, then I think, it’s time to let go of the grudge and let it join the ranks of the professionals. It is, after all, made for a whole genre on its own!

Week 7: Blogs are primarily used as a tool to manage the self?

B) Lovink (Reader, page 222) also argues that: “No matter how much talk there is of community and mobs, the fact remains that blogs are primarily used as a tool to manage the self”. Discuss ONE of these arguments giving an example of a blog. Specify chosen argument in your answer.

Blogs are primarily used as a tool to manage the self. The example I will be using is ilyjessicaomg‘s blog. The blog’s sub-heading reads, “I’m going to use this account to document my life.” The blog is picture-heavy, and links to the user’s YouTube, Twitter and other social networking sites. Unlike most other blogs, there are hardly any wordy posts but mostly photos with simple captions. Now, look to ilyjessicaomg‘s Tumblr. While there is hardly any interaction on her Blogspot, her Tumblr account is slightly more interactive, since other users can ask her questions and those she answers will be posted on the blog itself. Most of these questions are about her – her hair, her exercise regime, her fashion style.

Some academics have termed blogs as ‘anti-establishment’, a response and uprising to mainstream media outlets and their political agendas (Lovink, 2007: 1-2; Couldry, 2003). As shown by the above example, this is hardly the case. Most blogs, despite having “democratizing potential”, are “motivated by personal fulfillment” (Papacharissi, 2009: 15). ilyjessicaomg‘s blog, or blogs rather, all fit into the latter definition of what blogs are. Blogs are said to “reflect the broader cultural atmosphere of our time” (Lovink, 2007: 2). The content on the blogs are to enhance the status of the blogger on the cyber hierarchy. As Clay Shirky theorises how some blogs get more attention than others because of this freedom readers have to pick which blogs they want to read, bloggers with high readership become more “narcissistic”, as Papacharissi analyses.

Blogging is also seen as part of a “technology of the self”as theorized by Michel Foucault, blurring the lines between the public and private self (Lovink, 2007: 6). But it is interesting that many users do not include blogs and social networking sites as part of their public lives (Lovink, 2007: 7). Yet, users are aware that they have followers or friends that see what is posted on these sites. In my opinion, blogs are online sites where people promote themselves. Whether it results in any financial return is very subjective, and depends on the user and the content on these sites. Although some like ilyjessicaomg has entered mini-celebrity status online by specifying on her YouTube channel that all business enquiries be directed to a specific email address and boasting over 30,000 subscribers on her channel, most others are hardly noticed public diaries. ilyjessicaomg has 616 followers on her Blogspot, and while may not be an A-list blogger yet, is surely one of the more interconnected ones. The essence of a blog, according to Lovink, is not how interactive it is, but the “sharing of the thoughts and opinions of the blogger” (2007: 28). Blogging sites give the option for bloggers to disable comments, and I agree with Lovink that it therefore silences the Other and is no longer a conversation (2007: 28). Blogs still remain largely a promotional tool for the self, that occasionally allows another voice, but only if it is in agreement with the blogger.

References

Lovink, G. (2007) ‘Blogging: The Nihilist Impulse’ pp. 1-38 in Zero Comments: Blogging and Criticial Internet Culture. London: Routledge.

The Social Network movie trailer

Just thought this movie was worth a mention, since this blog is about new media after all.

If you’re currently using Facebook (which is highly probable, unless you’re one of those who resent social networking sites), I recommend watching this movie. Well, even if you’re not using Facebook, I say, watch it for the eye candy. The movie shows the humble (or not) roots of this uber popular social networking site, and all that controversy that went on behind-the-scenes that we, users, wouldn’t know about.