http://chezapple.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/labors_plan_for_cyber_safety1.pdf

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During argues that “identity” of individuals is based on (numerous and partial) traits (of different importance) which place them in groups of people with the same traits. Traits also carry connotations which change meaning depending on how they are used, by whom and in what context (calling someone a blonde based on their hair color could be an observation, a compliment or an insult implying that the person is unintelligent). These traits fix an identity to the person to whom they relate. As such an individual is identified socially, from the outside based on their individual traits that are shared by a group of people. As such he argues that “societies, identities and individuals do not exist independently of one another” (During, 2005, p. 145).

When an individual is intensely connected to an identity that has low cultural values, the individual may suffer psychic damage if these are negatively internalized. I add to this that psychic damage can also translate into physical damage such as the case of eating disorders (physical health) and negative body image. Identity can also be positively internalized. Identities are either inherited/ given (corporeal traits such as inter alia race or gender) or traits resulting from an individuals choices (culture, sports etc.). I state that inherited/ given traits can be altered through choice, perception and representation (e.g. gender in transvestites and transexuals). Thus I don’t feel that the differentiation between given and chosen traits are that important.

During defines “identity politics”  as “a politics engaged on behalf of those with particular identities” (2005, p.147)and specifically discusses marginalized groups relations to the historical status quo of white heterosexual men as well as power relations. He states that ”cultural studies” is the academic version of identity politics. He points out some political and conceptual  difficulties and how it can be solved by the ” hybrid theory” that focuses on the continual and dynamic processes through which identities form but he criticizes this theory for not sufficiently moving beyond identity politics. Some identities are escapable but  some people want to stay attached to particular identities and do not wish that those change. During believes “struggle” is an overlooked important aspect of identity.

I disagree with the inseparable relation between society, identity and individuals as During states. It is possible for an individual to exist and survive alone outside a society in which case the person’s identity will not be based on traits and outside perceptions but rather on internal perceptions.A society, however, cannot exist without individuals. As such I am of the opinion that individual internal identity should be emphasized beyond the external influences of society as such.

Clark investigates how women are represented in the British tabloid, The Sun, in reported crimes of sexual violence.  Specifically she explores how language is used to blame women in cases of male violence against women. Language, in this context, is used to convey a certain ideology. The Sun will do this explicitly by using words to say , directly, what their point of view is (blatantly blaming the female victims) but also, and more commonly,  implicitly by using language to “subtly [imply] with the  motivating value system only subliminally present” (Clark. 1992. p 208) that women are to blame for what was done to them.

Clark analyses how The Sun represents those involved by how they are named. “Different connotations of legitimacy and  approval are carried by these labels” (Clark. 1992. p 209). The attackers (male perpetrators) are named as either human (usually sympathetically with excuses i.e as victims of circumstance rather than active attackers) or sub-human (sentationalizing the attacks, making them less real). Female victims are named by personal  details (very limited information will be given about them in this regard) and they  are simplified to a detail about themselves ( e.g. a wife or unmarried) which becomes the scope of their identities. They are not individualized and the reader has difficulty identifying with the victim of whom they know very little.

“Transitivity is concerned with language at the level of clauses” (Clark, 1992. p 212) consisting of three components namely the process (what did the agent do?), the participants ( the agent that acts and the person whom is affected) and the circumstances.  ” [B]lame for the attack can be withheld from the attacker and transfered to the victim or someone else” (Clark. 1992. p 212) by specifically not showing the perpetrator/attacker as the acting agent in the sentence clause and also by making him ‘invisible’ by not referring to him at all or as little as possible in a way that he seems passive and  unrelated to what had happened. Euphemisms are also used as well as ommitting detailed information of what the perpetrators had done to these women.

I believe that this article demonstrates why people should read critically because the choice of words in a text can be biased or manipulative in order to promote a certain ideology which can be very negative such as The Sun’s ideology that women are to blame for acts of violence committed by men.

Hadden raises multiple questions for further research, particularly relating to why people choose a specific communication channel over another and why they use it.

Hadden focuses on four general questions that can be further explored. 

Firstly, ” how broad a vision should we have of what elements count as communication?” (Haddon, 2005, p8). Hadden suggests that the vision is very broad since there are many elements to the repertoire of communication and people’s communicating related practices are complex as result of the channels they choose to use and the factors that influence this.

Secondly, Hadden asks where these communication related practices come from i.e. what are the continuities between media? People’s practices in the past have affected current innovations which change current communications practices which will in turn affect future innovations.  A computer is a good example. The keyboard closely resembles the keys of old type writers and even the “desktop” layout on a computer screen is inspired by what an office desktop might have looked like and instead of putting files in a file cabinet, a computer user can store information in “files” on their computer. The layout of a computer and how it works and stores information is related to past practices in an office prior to the innovation of computers. 

Thirdly, Hadden explores which factors motivate people to choose between the different methods of communication in a repertoire that is continually growing as result of new innovations. Hadden states that “it [is] clear that new innovations complement old ones rather than substituting for them” resulting in more complex communications practices that are managed by people. Hadden also points out that people shift between communications  especially where one is problematic (such as sending a text if someone fails to answer your call). I would state further that it is important to consider how convenience affects choice of communication. Struggling to use a communication that is having problems  is inconvenient (it is inconvenient to keep calling until someone answers). Convenience will always be a motivation for people to use a communication. The easier it is to use and the more effective it is, the more convenient. 

Fourthly, Hadden refers to how dynamic the media repertoire is in the long run as it evolves constantly. I think that the patterns explaining why certain communications were adopted and others were not is perhaps the most difficult to research simply because there are so many factors that influence adoption from the micro to the macro level (personal, individual, subjective preferences and wide, general changes in society) and as such these “patterns” are constantly changing.

Castells argues that we now live in a network society as opposed to a knowledge and information age since knowledge and information have always been present in societies and has always been related to productivity and power. He states that  ”a new social structure has emerged [and it consists] of electronic communication technologies” (Castells,2005, p41). He defines network society as a “social structure [that] is made up of networks powered y microelectronics-based information and communication technologies. He states that ” a network is a set of interconnected nodes.” (Castells,2005, p3). I agree with this. Many people worldwide have access to computers, mobile phones, internet etc. and these technologies are playing an increasingly important role in society allowing users to access more information, faster than ever before. 

Castells explains that a network society consists of information flows between nodes in the network via their connection channels. He also argues that networks are “the most efficient organizational form as a result of three major features of networks…:flexibility, scalability, and survivability.” (Castells, 2005, p5). 

Castells believes that ” the culture of the networked society is a culture of protocols of communication between cultures in the world, developed on the basis of a common belief in the power of networking and of synergy obtained by giving to others and receiving from others.” and ” a process of material  construction of the culture of the network society…is the process by which conscious social actors [give and receive-share] resources and beliefs and even more: sharing a diverse world , and thus ending the ancestral fear of the other.” (Catells, 2005, p40). I disagree with Castells on this.

Firstly, the digital divide excludes many third world nations, poor communities and rural areas. Many people do not have access to technologies that allow for global communication and consequently are excluded from this global society network. 

Secondly, I find Castell naive and idealistic to believe that a network society will eradicate peoples fears of each other. Though new networking technologies have many benefits, it has just as many consequences. Internet sharing has caused fear in terms of piracy, copyright, personal privacy (employers googling or gaining access to a person’s Facebook), safety and security (identity theft, scams, child abuse, cyber bullying). The anonymity that the internet affords people has been massively abused. Hate speech, discrimination and prejudices are  not absent from the network society and neither is crime. Social problems are still present in a  network society.

Nightengale argues that contemporary mediascapes are becoming more complex as the media world diversifies and expands as a result of convergence as well as digitisation. As such he argues that:

Firstly, there is uncertainty about the future of traditional media. That there is a divide between the economy of things  and the economy of information (‘physical’ and ‘informational’ value). Specifically he refers to richness of information (bandwidth, degree to which information can be customised, interactivity,reliability, security and currency) and how many people reach it. For these reasons, the internet is more competative than traditional media.

I agree with the concepts of internetization and mediation to some extent for example, academic journals in hardcopy format are slowly being phased out and are replaced by e-journals which are available faster, conveniently linked to database searches and are cheaper.  On the other hand, people still prefer reading books like novels in hardcopy and reasons for this include the feel (kinesthetic, sensory interaction) with the book (which digital e-books cannot substitute) which is central to the experience of reading a novel as well as it’s aesthetic value (displaying a book on a shelf or on a coffee table). Not all media will digitize and converge, but a lot of it will.

Secondly, new audiences have emerged and formed. More people can access more information. People choose  what media to consume and how (personalization) because they have so much variety to choose from. For this reason, branding of media has become important in relation to advertising and profitability. Branding allows the same product or idea to be expanded and marketed to multiple target markets across multiple media types. Lord of the Rings started with the Tolkien books, grew into a film franchise which expanded into product merchandise, toys and games.

Thirdly, Nightengale  expresses concern with regards to online media content, it’s accessibility, control, regulation, censorship and copy right issues.

Traditional and internet media are in competition and convergence  has caused much of the former to decrease their activities and try to internetize to stay competative  as well as resulting in deconstruction and disintermediation of media organizations. Nightengale describes this as the “push-me-pull-you process.”

Reading: Volker, Clara. “Mobile Media and Space” In Goggin, Gerard and Larissa Hjorth, Eds. Mobile Media 2007. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2007, 135-142.

Volker argues that mobile media technologies have created a mobile space where 3 places intersect namely, physical place, virtual place and informational place.  

Digital space and physical place are intertwined on a temporary basis but with the potential to be intertwined with each other permanently. Many people carry mobile phones (physical object) with them everywhere they go (in physical places) but will only use this technology at temporary intervals to send and receive information (digital space) be it a phone call or a text message. Despite being mobile, a mobile phone for example, like other mobile media technologies, is “dependent on places with a fixed location as they only function within the nodes of a network… these mobile media technologies are indeed hybrids of virtual and physical place [considered as] ‘spatial nodes’.”

“Digital virtual space” is thus produced in this process in this meeting place in between “spatial nodes” (for example, a wifi hotspot in the physical place), informational space (thoughts for example) and the virtual space (in which information is exchanged via a technology connected to the wifi which can be used to write a blog on the internet to share thoughts and information) and produced by human activity (by interacting with the media technology).

I believe that physical place in the sense of “spatial nodes” will become less important as technologies continue to improve to the point where infrastructure will make it possible to connect to digital virtual networks from anywhere in the physical place. As such, the only remaining relevance of physical space would be maintenance of this infrastructure and that a person has access to a physical device which will connect to this network. I also like the previous reading’s argument of the doubling of place  which can be said to take place within this meeting place between the physical, virtual and information spaces.

Reading: Moores, Shaun. “The doubling of Place: Electronic Media, Time-Space Arrangements and Social Relationships.” In Couldry, Nick. and McCarthey, Anna., Eds. Media Space: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age. London: Routledge, 2004, 21-37.

The article aims to show that media use affects our concept of time-space arrangements and this in turn affects our social relationships.   “…radio and television can be considered alongside the Internet and telephone precisely because of the common potential that all these media have for constructing experiences of simultaneity, liveness and ‘immediacy’ in what we termed ‘non-localized’ (Thompson 1995: 246)( [Moores prefers] the term ‘trans-localised’) spaces and encounters.” (Moores 2004:22)

Electronic media use pluralizes our sense of space and social relationships.For example, it is much easier to keep contact with people on the other side of the world today by using mobile phones since you can communicate with them in real time conversation (instantaneously)  irrelevant of where they are in the physical world (even if they are spatially remote- assuming  they have reception).  Thus there is the place in which the communication takes place (via mobile phone between the communicating parties) as well as the physical space in which these technologies are being used (at opposite sides of the world, perhaps one party is at home alone and perhaps the other party is walking around in public with company (proximate others) whilst conversing on a mobile phone and thus the second party is socializing with proximate company as well as a spatially remote other simultaneously).

Moores also discusses how broadcasting is not only part of daily routine (dailiness) but that eventful happenings such as “public events…interrupt [this daily] routine” (2004: 22).  Broadcasting thus allows its consumers to experience events and “bond” with celebrities which are experiences spatially and socially which they may not otherwise have had “real life” access to. Further Moore points out that Internet use has allowed people to create ‘virtual personas’ which are different to but affected by their real life personas and experiences. He also refers to mobile phone use as a good example of doubling of place where private conversations can be taken into public spaces.

I agree with Moore but I also believe that media can occasionally marginalize personal relationships. A face-to-face conversation conveys more information (mood, emotion, body language etc) than an online messenger can and as such I believe that media use should not overwhelm or become a compromising substitute for real life proximity.

Week 3 Reading Reference:

Hartley, J. (2004). “The Frequencies of Public Writing: Tomb, Tone and Time” In Jenkins, H. And Thorburn,D. (Eds) Democracy and New Media. MIT Press, USA, pp 247-269.

Hartley argues that public writing  (journalism) is “chang[ing] from spacial (national” to temporal (network) communication.” and that ” Changes to technologies have historically tended to increase speed or frequency of communication; democracy itself may be mitigating from space-based technologies to faster, time based ones.”

Public writing is created at different speeds (for example, online celebrity gossip sites post information, whether fact or speculation, almost instantly but a biographical book on the same celebrity can take months or even years to be completed). This writing is then circulated to readers at various frequencies (for example, an online newspaper can be updated hourly and thus has a high frequency. Hartley uses inscriptions on public monuments as an example of low frequency writing which is made to last a long time). Lastly, consumers must then read these public writings.

A  “Public communication  inhabits space as well as time.” In the past, communication was more dependant on peoples’ spaciality such as geographical locations  but now time is becoming a more important factor. In the past, people would have to be in the same place at the same time but now spaciality has less importance and time is of the essence. A board meeting can include an absent member participating via skype but the meeting will still take place at the same time even if board members are on different continents and not assembled in the same space in a meeting room. ” Humanity as a whole is in fact a time-based concept, referring to a ‘we’ community of ‘everyone who is alive today’.” As such there is a shift from citizenship (people coexisting in a community in the same space e.g. nationality) to identity which is “mobile, indeterminate, and voluntary) .

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