KCB206 New Media: Internet, Self and Beyond

Working with/in New Media

The post written by Walsh about working in new media as our hobby or career has risen my attention about what I am studying now and where I will be in the future. Gill (2007, 5) stated that people working in the new media have an extraordinary passion and enthusiasm for the field. This has exactly explained why I choose to study in advertising.

However, a surge of new technologies and social media innovations is altering the media landscapes. This has become a big challenge for people working in the advertising industry to really connect and engage with this increasingly fragmented audience. According to Gill (2007, 6), most people experience significant pressure related to “keeping up” with knowledge that change at rapid pace. His research indicated that most people have a keen awareness that the skills and qualities which were valuable yesterday might not be valuable tomorrow. Therefore, I agree with Dunn (2011) which an expression of ambition is required to keep ourselves updated against the shift of the environment in new media rather than the attributes of new media graduates mentioned by Leong (2011).

Further explanation about the changes in nature and modes of the work in this informational age can be found in Lee and Martins’ blog post.

References

Dunn, K. 2011. “Working in/with New Media”, dunnkate-Just another WordPress.com site. Accessed April 17,2011. http://dunnkate.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/working-inwith-new-media/ 

Gill, R. 2007. Informality is the New Black. In Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New Media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures: 24-30 & 38-43. Accessed April 13, 2010. http://www.networkcultures.org/_uploads/17.pdf 

Lee, F. 2011. “The Network Society”,  Faithchantal’s Blog- Everything and Anything. Accessed April 17, 2011. http://faithchantal.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/the-network-society/ 

Leong, S. 2011. “KCB206 New Media: Internet, Self & Beyond: Week 7 Lecture Notes”. Accessed April 17, 2011. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/

Martin, P. 2011. “The Future is Free…lancing, that is!”, Numedia, Web2.0 and You-the Society and the like…. Accessed April 17, 2011. http://pevamart.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/the-future-is-free-lancing- that-is/

Don’t let media be our health

Lewis (2006,525) describes internet as the ultimate tool for individual self-management in relation to health. The shift of health concept from public to private responsibility is increasing as consumers are the gatekeeper for their personal health information (Leong, 2011).

 “Websites have created a place that allows sufferers of disease to discuss their experiences with the disease and give advice and comfort to those who seek it” (George, 2011). It is acceptable for lay people to share their experiences on the social networks but not giving advice to the others. Wyatt, Harris and Wathen (2008,7) raise an argument on thinking those lay people roles as ‘info(r)meddling’ or are they facilitate the health information seeking process positively. Their good intention in sharing their experiences and giving advices might mislead other people with misinformation (Leong, 2011).

I agree with Lee (2011) that new media should not be regarded as a mean to an end. Moreover, we should adopt new media to improve our health rather than let the new media be our health. However, according to Lewis quoted in Mullner (2002,491), there are enormous amount of information on the internet that consumer must negotiate, as well as the blurred boundaries between medical and advertising advice. Hence, digital literacy has become important in helping everyone to evaluate the credibility of the “info(r)mediaters”.  

References

George, Jillian. St. 2011. “Dr Digital”. Not so new to Media blog, April 10. Accessed April 10, 2011. http://notsonewtomedia.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/dr- digital/

Lee, Faith. 2011, ‘DIY Health. Are we becoming our own doctors?’,Faithchantal’s Blog-Everyhing and Anything, April 9, accessed April 10, 2011, http://faithchantal.wordpress.com/

Leong, Susan. 2011, ‘KCB206 New Media, Health and Well-being’, Week 6 lecture notes, accessed April 10, 2011. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/

Lewis, T. 2006. “Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria?” Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521- 539. Accessed April 2, 2011. http://mcs.sagepub.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/content/28/4/521.full.pdf+html

Mullner, R.M. 2002 “Introduction: The Internet and Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges”, Journal of Medical Systems 26: 491–3.

Wyatt, S., Harris, R. and Wathen, N. 2008. “The Go-Betweens: Health, Technology and Info(r)mediation.” In Mediating Health Information: The Go-Betweens in a Changing Socio-Technical Landscape. Sally Wyatt, Nadine Wathen and Roma Harris (eds), pp. 1-12. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Show me who you are

“Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” (Leong, 2011)

When I read this statement, a lot of thoughts come through my mind about myself and who am I now. We are used to identify ourselves through physical interaction such as appearance, conversation, etc, with everyone around us. Despite the method change to a new dimension, we are allow to demonstrate everything about us (interests, personal information, social network, etc.) through the media surround us. Since we know about this world, we are branding ourselves to everyone unconsciously when we start approaching media around us. Media work as a form of intimate computing which are carried close to our bodies, are embedded into our daily lives, become an extension of ourselves and our personalities, our social relationship and larger cultural contexts (Bell, 2006). Social cohesion in our lives might become stronger than before due to the media convergence.

We are trying to live a good media life (Deuze, 2011). Media are organizing every aspect of our lives and disappear (invisible). It starts to fear me with how much of my personal information has actually exposed to the public. Media able to record and store everything about us and we might start losing ourselves in the media.

References

Bell, G. (2006). The Age of the Thumb: a Cultural Reading of Mobile Technologies from Asia. Knowledge, Technology, & Policy, Summer 2006, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 41-57. Accessed April 2, 2011. http://cmd.qut.edu.au

Deuze, M. (2011). “Media Life.”  In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33, issue 1, 137- 148. Sage Publications. Accessed April 2, 2011. http://cmd.qut.edu.au

Leong, S. (2011) “KCB 206 New Media: Internet, Self & Beyond: Week 5 lecture notes.” Accessed April 1, 2011. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/.

Let Us SPEAK!!!

The use of new media as a tool in political propaganda becomes a common issues nowadays. Barrack Obama, president of United States, was successfully utilized the social media to deliver his campaign message and get more supporters in the election. This is one of the good examples how politician using social media in political propaganda. As the communication landscape has become broader and deeper, people able to gain more access to the information and empower themselves to engage in the public sphere and political issues. This has prompts the mass protests in many countries happen in a short time compare to the past time as people always manipulate by inaccurate and unidentified sources. That is why there are countries limited its citizen access to the internet or social media in order to control the spread of protest within their countries. Nevertheless, everyone should have the right to gain access to the internet. Our psychological empowerment through the social media can seem as one of our participation in politic in our country. We need a medium to express and voice out our opinions with the aim of creating an ideal community and society. There is no way for the government to hide or kill the voice of the public by limiting their access to extra information.

Image by Chris Caceres
(Retrieved March 26, 2011, from http://vator.tv/news/2009-12-01-vator-updates-can-now-go-to-facebook)

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You have changed!!

In this new digital era, everyone has changed without knowing themselves has been changed. All the digital devices around us have changed the way we used to express our ideas and words. People in the past using face-to-face communication to exchange information and stay connect together. However, things have changed as everyone still able to stay connects with each other but not physically anymore. Physical interaction between people is reducing everyday while technology keeps improving. Although gaps between people is increasing, but there do have some examples new media increase the relationship between people and makes collaboration happen (Nardi, 2010).

According to Levy (2006), how do we use the digital devices around us can show our personalities and characteristics to the others. One of the significant examples is the rise of portable music player which enables everyone to personalize songs they like and indirectly create their own characteristic. Compare to those people in 70s, they can only show which singers or songs they like through their appearances. Moreover, everyone can become content producer nowadays and create their own music or film with the help of technology to create their own characteristics. New media has become a new platform and provides the opportunities for everyone to share their work and ideas.

Who shall I be today? 
Retrieved from wwworphanstones.blogspot.com

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A virtual world which bring the reality

Social networking sites have been part of many people lives nowadays with the rise of Web 2.0. Social networking sites have become part of our identities which are able to show everything about us such as attitude, mind-thinking, personalities, etc. According to Leong (2011), social networking sites make people addicted to it and me myself is a good example. I used to hang around at Facebook all the time before that but now I am able to control myself with it. I agree with Leong that social networking sites do really waste much of our time if we do not use it wisely. Even though we know the negative sides of social networking, but when we are looking from different perspectives, social networking sites have become an important platform or vehicle for us to stay connect with our network.

Trustworthy can be established through everyone’s signal of network display. Appearing on a networking sites with a full network of aqquiantances is a relatively reliable signal that’s one participation on the site is within the boundaries of accpetable behaviour within that network (Donath & Boyd, 2004). Even though false information can be use to create new identities on social networking sites, but online collaboration between people able to identify those frauds. Today many companies will look at interviewer and staff social networking profile to know more about them by looking through their social lifestyle. Therefore, using the social networking sites wisely can create a positive image to the public. It has become a tool for people to promote and increase their status to the public by expanding their network.

References

 Donath, J and Boyd, D. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT technology Journal, volume 22 (4): 71 – 82.  

Hogan, B. (2010). The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online. In Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, Volume 30, issue 6. Pp. 377-386 

 Leong, S. 2011. KCB206 New Media: Internet, Self and Beyond: Week 2 Lecture.

Pearson, E. (2009). All the World Wide Web’s a stage: the Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks. First Monday, volume 14, Number 3. 

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