RR: Kahn, Richard and Douglas Kellner, “New Media and Internet Activism: From the ‘Battle of Seattle’ to Blogging''

Kahn, Richard and Douglas Kellner, “New Media and Internet Activism: From the ‘Battle of Seattle’ to Blogging”, New Media and Society 6.1 (2004): 87-95.
 Word Count: 424

I personally find the rise of general understanding of the Internet to be frightening. People anywhere find out how to manipulate a given structure- for good or for bad, which is just plain scary. Although this article was written in 2002, it touches on key examples to understanding the rise of Internet activism and the possible outlets for what kinds of people manipulate this structure. Kahn commences the article by introducing the world of blogging and it’s initial use in terms of activism. The main issue is the mixture between personal endeavors on the Internet, whatever they may be, or that of the endeavors of the government using the Internet as a global tool. He also refers to email as the ‘killer application’ which I found to be ironic due to the fact that now blogs are more interactive and hypertextual than ever before. He touched upon the Google Bombing that took place years back that has a significant reflection to the role of blogs have given Google in the current day and age. But then again, he always stated the initial selfishness of blogs and sharing personal opinions on given subjects, yet it has become a portal for businesses to market themselves across the globe. Political bloggers especially play strong roles in the spreading of ideals in a democratic environment, a few  recent examples that were probably unheard of when the essay was written is the current events in the middle east.

In Tunisia and Egypt’s ‘’digital revolutions’’ as some refer to it, bloggers had the ability to emphasize their points of view by the power of anonymity online. One example was an artist who posted politically incorrect images on his blog concerning the Tunisian ex-President, Ben Ali. The idea that this is possible in the online world is what makes this so particular as it is available to citizens around the world. With relation to the article and the rise of online activism during the 9/11 attacks, it is simply the idea that Internet is used for positive activism and also negative activism. Structures are set, only be hacked into from the other side and then reset.The walls constantly go up and down. With the relation to the MENA region revolutions, hopefully the Internet will serve as a benefit to rebuilding certain social and political groups, as it definitely succeeded in knocking some down.

Research Paper

Research Paper CM221

Word Count: 2,977

The Power Shift of Our Travel Relations: Blogs

Travel: A definition.

verb /ˈtravəl/
traveled, past participle; traveled, past tense; traveling, present participle; travelled, past participle; travelled, past tense; travelling, present participle; travels, 3rd person singular present

1.              Make a journey, typically of some length or abroad

o                 - the vessel had been traveling from Libya to Ireland

o                 - we traveled thousands of miles

2.              Journey along (a road) or through (a region)

o                 - he traveled the world with the army

3.             Go or be moved from place to place

o                 - a traveling exhibition

///AN INTRODUCTION

Traveling used to be solely about visiting and experiencing another culture, whether that is for business, leisure, or merely just by curiosity. Now, in addition to these factors, traveling is about digital publishing. Alongside the rapid rise of the Internet, travel has become something about sharing; involving desire, envy, and admiration. In modern society, the tools we have integrated into our daily lives subconsciously affect the way we see things, and how we move within different societies and cultures. This in turn has shifted the power from the traditional institutions that instigated and aided with organization of travel for individuals into an individual word of mouth communication via the Internet. The shift from private to public space has affected travelers worldwide and the way they see the world prior to and post vacation experiences. With this said, how can we analyze our identity with the way facets of travel have modernized over the past decade?

The main concept that has risen the triggered interest to travel blogs in general. The power shift and changing of the aura that once surrounded the ideals of travel have modernized and interconnected, creating a more complex, visual, distant view of the way people see the world through the framing of a computer screen. As Benjamin emphasizes in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, authenticity has always been able to be replicated or imitated by man with a multitude of justifications, but in our current day and age, can things be more precisely replicated digitally by any given member of society? (666). A blog is known to be a blank slate for one to produce content and what many media scholars refer to as bricolage: putting words, photographs, other random images, and creating a sense of linkage for an overall portal of a given theme (or sometimes without a theme). Taken as a work of art, as it is an intangible form of consumption, blogs are something that are not only replicated by their definition, but are trusted in terms of content in terms of the flow of ideas in their prospective reality.

As analyzed incessantly by scholars across the globe, one can discover the power the Internet has given the individual; Papacharissi commences a discussion on Internet by stating that the individual is [what is reviving] the public sphere (9). Therefore, with the shift of power and the rise of content on travel blogs and online content across the globe, the classic institutions are being threatened by the power of the individual, and his or her ability to put his or her traveling experiences in a limitless forum for Internet users to absorb at any moment, and in any given place across the globe.

///THE BLOG & IT’S AURA

The rise of the blog (blend of the word web and the word log) came about well before it was actually used excessively and ultimately at a business level. Blogs in the format we recognize were initially born in the 1990’s as a sort of an online diary, exploring the merge of private and public spaces, with the desire to share texts (oftentimes anonymously- which was initially part of it’s appeal). The affect this alone has had on personal identity grew to become an emotional and psychological attachment to privately public sharing via a computer screen linked to an online server (private matters in a private anonymous way but on an online public space). However, blog use seemed to pop up in modern popular culture after the attacks in 2001 in terms of sharing grief and accounts of events, and it is statistically noted that blog use rose from 50 or so existing blogs in 1999 to an estimated 8 million in 2004 (Kaye 28). What is most interesting about the acceleration of blog creations is that by 2005, Kaye explains that about 27% of Internet users in general were said to access blogs and 12% participate by posting to or sharing blog links (128).  General blogging or simply reading blogs is exponentially growing across the mass market and in all age groups, as citizens rapidly become more accustomed to new media and navigating the Internet.

Blog themes vary to be concerning just about anything, and can be deemed private or public depending upon the author’s choice of structure and self references. The structure of a blog majority of the time features updates in chronological order, and more importantly it features one-way in addition to two-way forms of communicating thus users are encouraged to interact whether that be by leaving comments, clicking hyperlinks to other sharing sites. Blog content can be fresh off the press and personal, or it can be reproductions and alterations and opinions based on other entries, sites, or media texts, personalized to satisfy the eye of the blogger. The interactive nature of blogs is what makes them up and coming, the power shift from the institution of travel companies to the individual or small personalized content-creators: anyone can be big in a blog world, even anonymously.

The public-ness of the web became an outlet for expression- whether that be one of personal forms of expression, experimental, or even just random. Papacharissi embeds the idea of spaces and connections between reality and the virtual world online in the essay The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a Public Sphere; the interactions, projections, and relationships with communication via a screen change the way we feel about seeing the world in our own reality. This idea can be implemented in the domain of travel as it makes modern citizens rethink the way pre-travel plans are set up, and the rhetorical communication performed in order to gain information about travel topics or destinations. The way the world is seen pre and post travel has altered and modernized, and it is because of the seemingly private-ness and public-ness that it appeals to those “who want to reinvent their private and public lives” (Papacharissi 20). The perceptual shifts because of the rise of technology and digital communications highlight the parts of the world that are indeed seen, but via the screen of a computer, and not by the physical presence, and does this affect our identity and our actual presence while traveling?

In specific relation to the domain of travel blogging, it must be compared to it’s rivaling classic institution: the travel agent, the travel guidebook, the mysterious ideology of travel that involves curiosity of comfort and adaptation in a foreign environment. Although it is notable that guidebooks will never be fully become obsolete, as their level on convenience remains high, it is clear that the relationship the traveler has with the guide book has changed through the rise of the Internet, the digital world and travel blogs. In most cases, a digital collective effort is far more relatable for one individual consumer, or even “a single book [is] fundamentally inadequate to describe a phenomenon that is defined by the premise of trans-media storytelling” (Sinnreich 46). The space available in an online domain is infinite: and can cover a plethora (and in a much more convenient manor) of tellings of the world’s treasures in comparison to the information packed in between two linear book covers. These personal, community, and political transformations emphasize the new use for online travel searching, and also the facilitated modes of gaining information thanks to these transformations (Rheingold). Now not only do we see what the pro’s say, but what the average Joe has chosen to share with viewers for the next round of go getters. A guidebook does not have a conversational method, and cannot tell you of his or her experience in a given area. However, since the arrival of Web 2.0, this phenomenon of sharing has yet to slow down.

With the age of the Internet, travel’s aura has suffered severe alterations: the every day traveler may just as well search a city in an online search engine to gain basic or in-depth knowledge of a desired travel destination. Consumers are now hypertextually involved in their online consumption, in this case: travel. As presented in terms of culture, there has been a cultural shift in the fact that what we consume is in process: what we engage in is continuously in changing and being altered (Boyd). A blog follows the same rhythm. Thanks to travel being presented on the Internet platform, the flow of content is across multiple platforms, which enables the travel-destination-curiosity to be met and satisfied on a variety of different levels (Jenkins).

///TRAVEL BLOGGING & COLLABORATIVE JOURNALISM

The participation in blog creation is making the personal and once private public; even if it’s just an opinion or a little blurb from a post-traveler, it is highly desired by the pre-traveler.  Blog content is put on servers for people to see, read, respond, and share. The blogger behind the surface is producing something that virtually anyone could stumble upon. In terms of Bourdieu’s view on social and cultural capital, the social capital is being accumulated through the publication on a virtual interface, where as the cultural varies from not only the blogger, but what the blogger is blogging about.  The class term “the medium is the message” is emphasized in this context due to the fact that in modern culture, one is used to alterations of control, the constant evolutions in technology allow humans to adapt to the controlling powers- in this case the individual. The extension of beings that is placed in an online context is placed “on a new scale that is introduced into [their] affairs by each extension of [themself], or any new technology” (McLuhan 151).

As the popularity of blogs has grown, not only has it underlined a personalized interaction with a digital interface, but also it has proven that the value of collective intelligence. Rarely is a blog not linked to another, they are constantly bouncing back and forth between obtained information and how the blogger chooses to put it out there for the consumers in their network. The top rated travel blog according to BlogRank is currently Gadling.com. Gadling.com is a collaborative blog that features fourteen different bloggers that all post to the same portal, offering feeds of information to the travel-hungry Internet surfer. From each post you can click through the site eventually racking up quite the history having linked similar ideas or “You Might Also Like” titled hyperlinks. With a collaborative nature, the consumer can connect with any of the many bloggers, creating a stronger chance of connection for the fan. Although small, personal travel blogs are always a gem when Googled upon, as the larger news portals have also started luring in bloggers for their travel sections, with a blog-like feel.

A good example of this is larger news corporations and companies associated with travel having thus incorporated travel blogs within their interfaces, adding to the credibility of various bloggers through a larger more well-known portal (example: The Frugal Traveler of New York Times Travel, Krugel). This credibility is key to gaining a more professional outlook and gaining a fan base for the sole purpose of allowing people to see and share the blog. However, it must be noted that not all blog-seeming websites are actually general blogs. Trip Advisor travel site and National Geographic Travel site have separated posts like the structure of a blog, but do not allow the interactive nature like commenting as others do (i.e. commenting). Although this seems out of context as simply a travel website, it is indeed the same idea in a sense of chronological, organized structure; that professionals like unprofessionals can share or express an experience using social media or e-mail. At the core the ideas are still spread through the online global portal and meant to be shared as advice for travelers from the perspective of the blogger. As Rheingold emphasizes, “people and enterprises take up these tools, are changed by them, and change the way others live, work, and play”; this is what concludes the fact that the collective nature of these sets of blogs is the ultimate form of collaborative journalism whether at a professional or personal status level (19).

The ability for professionals and non-professionals who share a common passion to come together on an interface levels out the distribution across sites in their entirety. With this, the site is gaining credibility that the consumer acknowledges, while absorbing information, and ultimately these combined features emphasize a new form of media production. This new form of media production is based on the consumer in a different way than just targeting, it is including them in the travels by allowing them to respond and add on to the content originally posted by the author.

///THE TRAVELER &/OR CONSUMER

Ultimately affected and perhaps more so benefited by the upbringing of travel blogs is the everyday traveler: the one who searches and stumbles upon and absorbs the blog’s content. The audience is a key part in the production of content on blogs, and the audience is generally always in the bloggers minds. If this were not the case, there would not be a share button or comment box at the bottom of every article. The structure of blogs allow for readers to relate to the blog and communicate with the blog. In the specifics of traveling, readers generate feeling while viewing the accumulated travels of others; and emotions such as envy, admiration and desire arise.  These sentiments that are felt towards the author is what keeps the blog world constantly rolling, the wheel of emotions and expression of those emotions, even if simply commenting on a photo or suggesting another task on the list of things to do in a various city. As an example, the crafty urban blog Design*Sponge has a travel section, that is titled “City Guides”. Within this section, different freelancers have contributed their experiences on a variety of vacation experiences for the overall output in the blog’s network. The cities vary from small United States cities to humble towns in Eastern Europe and Asia and each city has anywhere from ten to forty comments. But most interestingly these comments are not just pat-on-the-backs or compliments, they are further suggestions and hyperlinks for additions to the published online article: the comments are also a part of the article for later readers to view as well. In main conjunction with the overall features of blogs, the readers that are also participants tend to be one of the most important parts of creation and density in a blog’s content. Sharing and conversing with other bloggers, readers, and professionals is key.

Travel blogging is particular as it references an experience that one individual replicates into an online template. The feeling may be there when the author writes and describes it but cannot be replicated through intangible forms of media and words. The reader takes these experiences of others and attempts to make it their own- if they indeed take the advice to do the things suggested. The phenomenon is pertinent to the understanding of the relationship between the author and blogger and can very depending on the purpose for reading a particular blog. The connectedness in a virtual world has replaced what used to be known as for simply preparing for a trip. A traveler now connects with others online with numerous tabs to see what others have done, and thus shapes oftentimes their own reality out of this. With a watch and learn template, travel blogs have facilitated and simplified the way human beings prepare and feel about traveling. It is not longer complex, strenuous and as mysterious in a simple text; it is open, suggestive, and especially available. The ultimate form of bricolage and the idea that everything has been done before is important to understand travel blogging, as everyone creates their own experience doing the same thing as millions of other citizens across the globe. This prime sense of replication especially with a topic as common as travel implies the fact that anything has probably been done before, so what then can humans do that is new? Or is a new experience for an individual in his or her own reality enough for satisfaction in the interconnected society in which we live?

///CONCLUSION

As technology advances, our facets of experiencing reality modernize as well. The way humans see the world and the way that one individual experiences any part of the world has altered in terms of preparation, expectations, and relationship to a space while visiting another. Technology has become a part of human nature, and current society tends to depend on what is on the other side of screens in preparation for the next step, and this could affect mankind’s ability to live in the present. With the plethora of experiences that exist in the content of travel blogs, expectations are set high and experiences are constantly compared in a global forum.

The ideologies associated with traveling are slowly changing with the coming generations and their relationship to the online world. Although it may or may not ever replace the actual practice of being physically present in a foreign place (at least not completely yet…), it is changing the way people relate to being temporarily in a foreign environment, and also emphasizes the level of sharing that people participate it, almost to a point of missing out on present identities. The online portals which consumers use to prepare for travels are slowly replacing the original institutions that was thought to be unique and helpful, and these portals also give human beings the opportunity to see things they may never have or never will see actually in their own reality. Can the world of virtual travel and actual travel exist in modern society separately, or is this analyzation of a leisure activity too embedded in the continuously modernizing functioning of human lifestyle?

Bibliography

"About Gadling" Gadling | Travel Blog | News, Stories, Deals, and Tips. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. <http://www.gadling.com/about>.

"A List of Top 150 General Travel Blogs by Blog Rank." A List of Top 150 General Travel Blogs by BlogRank. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/General_Travel>.

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. 665-81. Print.

Boyd, Danah. “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life”, Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Ed. David Buckingham. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008, 119-142.

Design*Sponge City Guides. Web. 13 Apr. 2011. <http://www.designspongeonline.com/category/city>.

Kaye, Barbara K. "Blog Use Motivations: An Exploratory Study." Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of Media. New York: Routledge, 2007. 127-48. Print.

Kugel, Seth. "About the Frugal Traveler." Budget Travel - Frugal Traveler Blog - NYTimes.com. 08 June 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. <http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/>.

McLuhan, Herbert M. "Understanding Media." Essential McLuhan. Ed. Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone. New York, NY: Basic, 1995. 149-61. Print.

Papacharissi, Zizi. “The virtual sphere: the Internet as a public sphere”, New Media and Society 4.1 (2002): 9-27.

Reviews of Hotels, Flights and Vacation Rentals - TripAdvisor. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. <http://www.tripadvisor.com/>.

Rheingold, Howard. "Rethinking Virtual Communities." Whole Earth Review Winter (1987): 2-69. Rheingold. Web. 6 Apr. 2011. <http://www.rheingold.com/VCnewchapter.pdf>.

Sinnreich, Aram. "Come Together, Right Now: We Know Something's Happening, But We Don't Know What It Is." Rev. of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. International Journal of Communication 1 (2007): 44-47. Print.

If Social Media Were a High School

Fun image.... :) via Flowtown: 

RR: Mp3s are Killing Home Taping: The Rise of Internet Distribution and its Challenge to the Major Label Music Monopoly by McLeod

RR: McLeod, Kembrew. “Mp3s are Killing Home Taping: The Rise of Internet Distribution and its Challenge to the Major Label Music Monopoly”, Popular Music and Society 28.4 (2005): 521-531.


Word Count: 553


The reading by McLeod touches upon the basics of relations between the musician, the industry, and the consumer in a world where it only takes your natural senses to be able to reproduce digital media.


McLeod starts off by clarifying the reality of what musicians really get in terms of revenue when signed with a big label, and why this could be a reason for “illegal” discourse and downloading online for spreading digital media files across a multitude of networks. McLeod quoted that musicians according to a 3rd party simply want their music to be heard in as many places as possible by as many people as possible.


One of my favourite statements made by McLeod is in the first part, “the RIAA has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against downloading music fans, that same industry has never treated those musicians fairly or equitably”. This statement sums up the sad truth about the affect of the industry on musicians worldwide.


Particularly concerning downloading, it has to be accepted because it isn’t going anywhere. We live in a society where we are not talking about tangible products- we are talking about data files that can thus be reproduced. These files only take our eyes and our ears to consume- which makes them possible to reproduce and then of course- redistribute.
In the part titled “File Sharing”, McLeod starts with a quote by Brian Zisk of the Future of Music Coalition: “… the folks who do best are those who embrace the new technologies”. Musicians that expose their music online are adapting to the waves that technology are providing us with. As stated in the previous paragraphs, what musicians earn from music publication is so little compared to what the labels and (not even really) iTunes earn. Therefore, what they can do for free to get their music buzzing and into the fan’s iPods and MP3 players is where the real need is.


I found it very interesting starting on page 525, when McLeod mentions that the ‘dark days of downloading’ were originally ushered by the music labels. Continuing to jump back into history, it is evident that CDs are a pastime, they came and went. As much as it was ideal for music labels and a clear difference in revenues, the Internet technology has added a twist on the need for tangible music products, like the CD or the Cassette. Instead, where companies make money is the player of digital files: the MP3 player.


Over all I ultimately agree with the idea of going with the flow. All parts of the problem need to go with the same waves, whether that be of the consumer obtaining music and sharing it, or the desire for economic revenues on the side of the labels. However, this act of downloading is not going to go anywhere anytime soon until another solution or way to regulate it comes about. Regulation is needed, and would perhaps add some organization and penalties to excessive downloading (pirating, for example). But for small groups or artists, the act of downloading is getting their music out there and farther out there to more people.


Perhaps a new platform of regulation and testing is needed, although iTunes already provides a lot with individual song selling. This is only the start to a very big movement.


I found this online article to be particularly pertinent to our last course, and to the idea of the musician and his or her relationship to the music industry and also to the fanbase:


Here is a link from Mashable, about Why you should like bands and follow them on Facebook. 

RR: Gaming Documentary

Word Count: 570

After the series of courses in which we discussed gaming, it really got me thinking. I always thought of gaming as we analyzed as the typical stereotype: immature, anti-social, silly, waste-of-time. But after discussing the different levels of involvement in gaming my opinion definitely changed- as I have never met someone who is an extreme gamer: undertaking a lifestyle or identity within a game that takes minutes and hours from reality in front of screen in order to gain importance within the virtual world.

In class we watched a documentary going into detail about examples of companies such as ES Sports, and the overall differentiation between work and play, and if these terms were becoming increasingly blended together. In the documentary, they went into detail concerning two main topics: ES Sports and America’s Army.

First of all I must express my opinion in terms of the example with ES Sports. In the documentary, there was footage showing the offices of the creators of the games, and some of which have to “play” for work. However, more of them were actually creating the games, which requires enormous talent- despite the action of playing commonly viewed as immature. I find this to be a completely different perspective than America’s Army example or even that of the couple who were frequent gamers (Chilled bubbly?).

America’s Army is a whole different ballgame, and despite the opinions people may have – it is interesting enough that the US army did indeed achieve their recruiting goals of that year with (mostly) the help of the game as an advertising tool. It seems like an odd tool to use, but also is logical, as they stated in the documentary that it is a volunteer army, and they are simply reaching out to an audience that is more likely to be interested in joining the army.

The actions of working and playing are mixed around and blended in these examples, as one may argue that if it is what the person loves doing, it can be for the better, just as an actor in Hollywood or a director of a film: where does passion step in? These backdoor views are the creators and purposes for the initiation of these particular games. As we saw with the director of Sims, it is a large project, not a game on that part- as large sums of money are involved and in America’s Army’s case- young males and females joining the US army for something as serious as fighting for their country. Perhaps working that is viewed as play is just a stereotype as gaming is considered a leisure activity, but the behind the scenes obviously isn’t the same discussion as picking up a game console remote or a computer mouse to complete tasks in an alternate virtual context.

These examples put a new perspective on the examples of people and gaming habits, and how work and play are blended and often confused depending on the  person’s personal opinion and/or passion for their career. I do feel that this documentary was interesting and brings up a lot of points, but that it doesn't connect the idease by showing more examples of different types of gaming exaggerations out there in uses that may confuse work and play. At any rate, it was very interesting to learn of the example with the US Army as I find it quite interesting from a Marketing perspective.  

Attachments & Findings:

1)Video from YouTube about the America's Army Game. 

2)Secondly, here is a link to an essay I found online that is very interesting in terms of Branding and Marketing that the Game does for the US Army, emphasizing the changes in Media Communications over the decades: Together We Brand: America’s Army by Shenja Van Der Graaf and David B. Nieborg

http://www.shenja.org/Site/playlist_files/TogetherWeBrand_2003.pdf

---

RR: Why Youth Hearts Social Network Sites (Boyd)

Boyd, Danah. “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life”, Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Ed. David Buckingham. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008, 119-142.

Word Count: 530

     Although as surprising as it is is- even though Boyd’s essay written in 2008 is rather out of date. The history still remains the same with the start of sites like Friendster and MySpace, but the recent history that Facebook has developed took place after the publishing of this article- which is fine, just a side note.

     
     Boyd started the essay with a quote from an 18-year-old girl, “If you’re not on Myspace, you don’t exist”, which obviously saying to this girl’s mother (the beauty of generation gaps). Our generation experienced the development of these sites in our prime (teen years)- our mindset and was altered as we started to put ourselves online, which was our existence in that context. The timeline, although it is short, starts out with the launch of Friendster in 2002, then the launch of Myspace in 2003, leading to the launch of Facebook in 2005 (which at first was indeed limited to students attending the same University, so at the time the article was written, Facebook didn’t really reach it’s peak). The whole idea of teenagers learning to participate in online profiles is the main idea of this essay, and the reasons of why and how this could have developed into the subconscious obsession it is now.   

     I can say that I understand the whole identity-thing on Myspace- as you could go in and alter your profile by figuring out coding, which makes it different than Facebook on an aesthetic level. I had no idea what coding even was when I was 13 or 14, but I succeeded in figuring out to make my profile how I wanted it to look with images and fonts to go with what I considered to match up to be my “online identity”. One thing I find ironic is how there was a time when Myspace was just music, then a bit of everything, but now with Facebook, Myspace is currently winding back down to it’s original purpose: music. The ability to browse through links to different profiles remains a unique phenomenon, as it portrays an endless feed of information and more so a linked community (especially for music pages/fans in Myspaces’s case).

     The participatory world of the Internet is one that requires a lot of time and devotion, to make it become what it is through the people that contribute. Internet can be fixed, erased and modified, unlike a printed newspaper, or even being in a public space with a group of friends: “the audience is restricted to those present in a limited geographical radius at a given moment in time” (125).

The community that social networks provide creates an alternate form of expression. Whatever the trend may be, MySpace, Facebook, or Tumblr, it is a facet for people to not only create an online “identity” and profile, but to facilitate communication with no borders. Although the limitless can obviously lead to some odd things you find on the Internet. Will we gain privacy? Or do things become optionally more protected as we become conscious of that service? We throw ourselves into the public, so will teens in the future be even more publicized as the internet develops?

(somehow I figured out coding to choose my own fonts and such at a very young age....My myspace page, a clipping, with my favorite color yellow, oh my)

(music example, how MySpace connects small artists with the ability to market themselves online and ultimately create events and make money from song sales- it's gone back to more of a music sense- nowadays bands use their MySpace as their public group "website")

RR: "The Electronic Eye: The Rise of the Surveillance Society" (Lyon)

Lyon, David. The Electronic Eye: The Rise of the Surveillance Society. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994, 57-80.


Word Count: 772




Lyon starts off his chapter referencing the famous Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. By doing so, I can make a direct link with the title and perhaps what he may be getting into- surveillance. He starts off by questioning if we are indeed arriving at this point of complete surveillance that Orwell refers to bluntly in his novel as “Big Brother”. Our current identities online are being more and more watched- not only in a sense of statistics and gather information for disciplines such as advertising or even politics, but also by other users. He states that today “surveillance is both a globalizing phenomenon and one that has a much to do with consumers as with citizens”, which I interpret as the ability to be ‘surveilled’ no longer solely as a being in a given city or bordered atmosphere, but in an online domain where exchange is key. And I keep thinking back to the fact that Lyon wrote this chapter in 1994- just into the beginning of the life of the Internet, and I firmly stand by the fact that this case of surveillance if eve more relevant then he can possibly express in 1994 in today’s online world.


He then jumps into the description of the two relevant models that could possible relate to this online phenomenon of constant watching: Orwell’s Dystopia, and from Bentham’s Panopticon to Foucault. Within these segments, he outlines the basic factors that depict these models.


Orwell’s dysopia underlines the role of the media in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, as the prime tool for “manipulating the masses” was indeed electronic media- regardless of what Orwell really knew about it when the novel was written in 1948. He points out the factors in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four that represent the idea generally of electronic surveillance; including the rise of the power of the nation state, and the growing centrality of information in the nation state, as well as the electronic trail that continues to becoming increasingly unnoticeable- as Lyon emphasizes through the representation of the Panopticon model. I would agree with this statement because in today’s mentality of online users, accounts are not weird- almost in a sense as we know are being watched but do not really take much offense to it anymore. We realize our rights online, and realize that we can even be another identity online, but somehow it has been engraved into our daily thoughts as we communicate via wires and networks ceaselessly.


Perhaps the “privacy” we “have” through our online accounts is private enough for the modern global citizen- as now even banking is done online. One thing that fascinates me and reminds me of the expontential development of the online world is that as more “private” things are put online (banking, bills, paychecks, employment resumés, etc…) more programs are developed to more or less secure the safety (as cards do when you order online, they link you to a page in which you must enter a code that is sent to your mobile phone via SMS, for example). So with this plethora of information of a being that is available online- more safety programs come to play- like they come together as a pair. Our current conception of privacy is a set of numbers and letters with one capital and one symbol that no one else knows- but in the IT world, all of this can be solved through even more extreme coding practices. So why do we think these passwords are enough to ensure our privacy? The first thing I though of while reading the article was the number of e-mail accounts I have for different purposes, with different passwords, with many facets of information in each with different levels of privacy. Are these things actually surveilled or just able to be surveilled if needed?


Continuing off of this idea, in the section Lyon titles as “The Panapticon from Bentham to Foucault” he mentions the question of where the “centered self” is located today if indeed our personal information is floating through various remote databases.
And as Lyon concludes, “No single metaphor or model is adequate to the task of summing up what is central to contemporary surveillance, but important clues are available in Nineteen Eighty-Four and in Bentham's Panopticon”, it is accurate: things are changing at a fast pace, faster than anyone could have expected in models. One thing leads to another, and surveillance is a part of that exponential development.


I feel that Lyon makes valid points, and at times seems to carry on, but in the end his final point is that these are indeed examples, nut no model is descriptive enough to describe the surveillance that has been developed up until today, and even our sense of privacy has changed. Even though it was written in 1994, I feel as though he leaves his argument open for discussion and development- as the future provided that change.