Are you actively involved in any online interest groups or communities? What elements do you think define engaging writing in this context?
I am actively involved in a couple of online forum communities Mess and Noise, which is mainly a music forum but also has discussions about many other topics such as sport, politics or food. I am also a part of the BigFooty forum which is an AFL forum.
Writing within the context of these two forums involves communicating in the particular genre and understanding certain specific “cultural” terms. If you don’t understand what is being written about, for example if a reader didn’t know what the word “gig” meant in the context of live music, then it would be difficult to not only understand, but also participate in, meaningful engaged discussions about live music. Whilst this does not preclude participation it would definitely make it more intimidating for outsiders trying to engage with an established community of forum members.
Are there approaches to, or styles of writing that actively encourage conversation and dialogue from an audience?
In short yes, you need to understand your audience by writing pieces which present new information and encourages an open discussion on topics raised within a written piece then it can encourage people to write about their thoughts on the article, and importantly other people’s comments on the article. It is the comments about other comments where the discussion really begins I think, the author is just the primary source of the discussion. Interaction from the author is important also as it helps to both form a personal bond between author and audience and helps them to engage their audience without losing control over the narrative they have created.
What sorts of impact can the audience have on online media texts such as blogs? What difference does this make to the media landscape in general?
I think that the audience can have a great effect on media such as blogs. The blogosphere allows people to choose a preferred source of news and opinions. They are no longer subject to the restrictions of mass media and can thus set visible trends if mass media monitor these trends. Why wouldn’t mass media outlets monitor the trending subjects on twitter for instance and then adapt their news stories to allow reports on these and generate media that become part of the conversation that has started in the twitterverse.
The loss of control over the creation of news pieces means people have access to a long tail of news sources on many more sub-cultural topics rather than just mainstream news. For example if I wanted to find news on heavy metal music I would unlikely to ever hear about it via Channel 9 news, but rather by a blog roll link on a music blog somewhere. The blog word seems to be a much larger version of the idea of spreading and idea by “word of mouth” that can occur within a community of people.
Writing Activity
I haven’t heard any announcement from the AFL about this but whilst it seems to be an excellent idea for the promotion of the game at the state league level, it may have ramifications in suburban football if it does go ahead.
The football clubs in these state competitions are subject to different salary cap levels in each league. I fear that some of the weaker clubs in this lower competition would financially stretch their resources to try and match the wealthier state league teams and actually weaken their long-term viability and also weaken suburban leagues due to a greater player drain of these suburban leagues.
In the VFL, SANFL and WAFL state leagues there are many AFL listed players that play each week so the AFL will need to decide if they are allowed to play, and if they aren’t allowed to play, then those clubs would need to look at signing extra players.
Would the stand alone AFL reserves teams in the VFL be allowed entry? If not they may also have to sign extra players from lower leagues such as the suburban leagues in Melbourne, where many ex-AFL players draw relatively large crowds to suburban football, helping the clubs in these leagues function. The Eastern Football league final in Melbourne this year drew a crowd of massive crowd people and is of high standard. I think they need to carefully consider the effects on the many leagues under the state leagues rather than just creating another promotional tool for the AFL at the expense of suburban football.
I have made commentary on an article on the following website
http://www.backpagelead.com.au/afl/2843-afl-announce-leagues-championship-cup
In order to follow any further comments made on this articles or comments in repsonse to mine i have subscribed via email to the comments on the article and supplied my websites URL as part of the comment so when a reader of my comment clicks on my name they are taken to my blog.
I have also tweeted this article to my twitter followers so that they may read it. make their decision on the topic and comment on the article if they so wish.
What is your reaction to Shirky's claim that the Web and Weblogs have made publishing a "financially worthless activity"?
I don’t completely agree with claim that publishing is becoming a "financially worthless activity", I think it is creating a more niche publishing marketplace much like Anderson described in this week’s reading where the publishing industry will develop a “longer tail”, except in this case the tail grows very long at the lower end where the cost is $0. Publishers will still publish ‘hit’ books for the public. In turn consumers should still see great “worth” in the publishing industry as they know the quality of product is almost guaranteed to be high. Without this bench mark perhaps the ability to gauge the quality of written works will become fuzzy in a fully online environment as mass media outlets begin to blur the lines by themselves using mediums such as blogs and social networks to propagate news and opinions.
Another change that has emerged recently and has not been discussed is the technologies by which people will read. The emergence of devices such as the kindle for instance which will allow readers to keep their entire libraries with them wherever they go, to share books as they would with friends via Amazon accounts will change the way publishers can increase financial worth by following the same model as music did though in apples iTunes model discussed in Anderson reading. If more people can access more books though a similar recommendation system then publishing houses will again become financially powerful but it is important that they move quickly to be first into the new era. If the publishing industry can make quality publications easily accessible on a global scale like the music industry has then they have a real opportunity to flourish.
How might the ideas Kelly proposes be relevant to your chosen topic/field? Can you think of examples of people working in this field who have used some of these ideas?
Looking at the eight points highlighted by Kelly of:
Immediacy
Personalization
Interpretation
Authenticity
Accessibility
Embodiment
Patronage
Findability
These are all useful in my topic to various degrees, as I am discussing how media reports on AFL football it is important to keep up to date with topics as readers don’t want to hear about a topic or articles from 6 weeks ago.
Accessibility is important and related to immediacy in my case where making my blog where i have tried to ensure by the use of wordpress plugins that the site is easily usable on portable devices. This aids in the immediacy if there is breaking news, or topics that are to be discussed and also helps entwine social media into my topics web presence as it becomes easily sharable from multiple mediums,
Patronage is another one I deem important as it is important to find a solid base of readers who enjoy reading the content who will in turn share the articles with friends families colleagues though various mediums. It also helps to ensure that high quality standards are maintained as if you don’t care about what is you're writing because nobody is reading it standards of writing could obviously drop rapidly.
Findability is another important issue for my site as there is so much media coverage of the AFL it is important to be easily sourced online amongst a pile of mass media news sources.
In what other ways do you think it might be possible to add value to information for your readers?
I guess I want to add value to my readers by highlighting “junk” journalism in the sport of AFL. Where articles are written just to fill column space rather than for any journalistic or news purpose. Perhaps if there is a stigma associated publicly with this then a high quality of reporting may develop. It’s a long shot but I am willing to try.
I want to give the readers an alternative view point and mode of analysis. This will hopefully develop further as I develop my writing which has a long way to go still and the readers become used to my online personality and thoughts presented through the blog where some will agree and some will love to argue against.
Do you agree with the suggestion in Walker's article (last week's readings) that the blogosphere can be seen as a revitalising influence on the public sphere?
I do agree as I think it has directed mass media more towards the public sphere in certain areas. Most news services seem to have twitter feeds, polls, public forum programs (ie Insight on SBS). The blogosphere gives people the opportunity for everyone to voice there opinion free of restrictions of budgets, time and space. However it is up to the reader to filter for quality what is written which is where the mass media still stands tall. If the public apply the same standards to the blogosphere which they apply to mass media then I think that a rich tapestry of ideas can be woven to build a new public sphere where everyone can have a say on a topic and the audience can evaluate its worth and either discard it or use it.
Setting aside the Internet, in what other areas of your life do you contribute to the public sphere?
Outside of voting and discussing personal issues in small groups within my social network I feel I contribute very little outside of the internet. It seem difficult to get involved in the public sphere in any meaningful without the use of the internet as topics being discussed within the public sphere moves so fast that seemingly because of the internet. It’s hard to keep up with all the news and issues being reported.
In a small way I guess I am contributing through my voting, buying and listening/watching habits. However these are completely anonymous contributions as they are all part of a collective rather than me as an individual standing up and saying “Hi, I’m Karl and I think …..”. This seems much easier to do on the internet, I can have my say on an issue I read about from today or from a month ago, and it will be persistent rather than a fading memory of what someone heard on a meeting or forum, or on a talk back radio station.
What blogs do you read for informational purposes? Why?
I don’t know if I would call a lot of the sites I read regularly for information purposes blogs but I enjoy reading crikey.com as the articles on the site tend to give alternate view points to those that have been presented in mass media outlets and are generally well researched, concise arguments against those which have been previously presented and is also a generally well respected website.
I also use some blogs to read about some of my more casual interests which I mainly sourced from documentaries I have watched on the subjects. For instance I read http://www.theblackvault.com/ as I have a certain fascination with the topic of UFOs and Extra terrestrial life which grew from my love of sci-fi as a kid and re-enforced later by conspiracy TV shows such as the x-files. The black vault is highlighted by several UFO documentaries which I enjoyed and is more a portal of information where you can decide on information yourself rather than being biased by any article relating directly to it.
I read a few other blogs which relate to other hobbies and interests I have but I prefer to read specific regional news services rather than relying on any central news sources. So I find and read news sources from south America, India for example to get a more direct news feed rather than missing out on certain news, or getting it relayed via a third party news source. I like the directness of such news sources as the content seems to have a stronger connection to the communities they are reporting upon.
The function of mass media is to disseminate media ‘to’ a population generally in a way which is a one-way style of communication with little public feedback being seen or heard and which focuses attention on certain topics, whilst personal media has a function of engaging and creating a dialogue between members of a population and generating two-way discussion on topics, although there seems a general lack of focus on specific topics.
In what way do you see the form of traditional mass-media and so-called personal media as being different?
The form of traditional mass media is that of broadcast mediums such as Television, Film, Music and Radio, and publications mediums such as Books, Newspapers and Magazines. Whilst the internet is a form of mass media I do not count it as a traditional form of mass media do to its relatively new adoption into modern culture but could also easily be included as a form of mass media.
Personal media takes place in forms such as blogs, websites, podcasts which can more easily manage a two-way flow of communication. Personal media is more accessible through mobile and electronic devices. Although in recent times some forms of traditional mass media are becoming more Interactive with the audience it is still seems a relatively small percentage of the total broadcasts.
In what way do you see the reliability of traditional mass-media and so-called personal media as being different?
As per the chart in the Luders reading mass media is institutional/ professional whilst personal media is de-institutionalized/de-professionalized. Thus it is important for the audience to more highly scrutinized personal media for validity and quality, as this scrutiny was previously taken care of by publishers and producers in the traditional forms of mass media due to the costs incurred with creation in these mediums. In the personal media found on the internet however the cost of production is removed and thus anyone can publish information into the medium with little or no scrutiny.
This activity demonstrated to me how many times this definition was used across many websites, some attributed to a source and some did not and in doing so presented the definition as their own work. It was interesting to see how many times this line of text has been exactly reproduced on the web. I guess my greatest question is who is the originator of the work? Is it Wikipedia? Or did someone copy to Wikipedia and then because of the sites popularity as an information source it becomes identified as the original source when people are referring to it as the source. Seem difficult to figure out.
Well I’ve done it! I’ve broken the law I’ve copied this copyrighted image to my word document that my browser had already copied to my computer within my browser. Interesting Idea how technology has suppassed laws surrounding copyright. I hadn’t thought about it in such a way before. I guess that the laws need to be adjusted to allow the use of material in circumstances such as web browsing? Not sure.
I have already researched through the Australian copyright council and purchased documents regarding copyright and the internet as I wanted to understand what I could and couldn’t use. Under section 4.3b of the “fair dealing in the digital age document” I found that I can use articles written by journalists for criticism or review purposes as long as “sufficient acknowledgement” of the original work is made. I am aloud to quote from an original work for the purposes of a critique and that this is recognized by the law. http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/books
Activity - Discussion Questions (Creativity and Copyright)
Within the appropriate Blackboard forum, consider the following questions:
- In the light of the information here and the readings you have done, what license do you anticipate using in your non-academic work? Why?
I have already researched through the Australian copyright council and purchased documents regarding copyright and the internet as I wanted to understand what I could and couldn’t use. Under section 4.3b of the “fair dealing in the digital age document” I found that I can use articles written by journalists for criticism or review purposes as long as “sufficient acknowledgement” of the original work is made. I am aloud to quote from an original work for the purposes of a critique and that this is recognized by the law. http://www.copyright.org.au/publications/books
- Do you agree with the assertions made by advocates of Creative Commons that copyright is restricting culture?
So Creative Commons is indeed a step towards a more unrestricted creative culture that allows creators a greater choice, the only way that there will be a non-restrictive culture is to rid our culture of copyright all together, which would in turn probably mean that there has been a major economic paradigm shift that has allowed this to happen as companies like Disney as displayed in the Lessig reading will try to maintain copyright for as long as possible thus slowly diluting the value of the public domain as ideas and creation become stale as the creative pool won’t be growing as quickly if some of their work was available for use .
However I was not familiar with the advanced search options section of Google or that the cache link brings up specific pages relating to a search query. I will use this functionality to better search for information when writing for my blog as I will need to research subjects outside of AFL football at times – for example drug addiction and depression which were sadly highlighted recently in AFL circles but not seemingly understood or researched and I feel poorly reported on by ill-informed sports writers. As sport id such a large part of Australian culture it is important it is reported well. There are also a lot of research articles on Google scholar, mostly scientific injury studies.
Subject Directories I will use in future when research topics also – I have always used about.com for this purpose but was not aware of the others listed in the tutorial notes. And the use of “database” in my searches is something I will use when researching also in future.
The use of social media in researching is one I have done quite a bit when researching for materials and sites for my AFL football site as it is a non-academic subject. I have started created a blog roll linking to some of these sites which I selected from those which were being constantly updated as many AFL blogs have died a horrible death and a left in limbo from many years ago. If I see a blog on my roll has become inactive I will remove it immediately. For the purposes of following fellow student blogs in Web206 I will add there blogs to my blog roll at my other blog site http://18songs.weebly.com/ . I have done this as I don’t think any content will be related to my subject matter but would still like to follow their blogs.
Evaluating web sources for my topic is relatively easy as I will be reviewing how news about AFL is reported. So I have the AFL and its main media partners, both print and broadcast, as my primary sources as these are the most credible up-to-date sources of information on AFL football. I will need to investigate and note any bias’s in the AFL media if they continual push a certain point of view without considering other viewpoints.
Evaluating other AFL blogs is difficult because outside of the official blogs which are part of the news sources mentioned above almost all of them are from amateur sources as too will be mine. Looking at blog rolls for quality and updated links, the quality of writing (i.e. some AFL blogs I have read have swear words in some posts so I automatically disregard these blogs a that is unprofessional behavior), how often they are updates, and review the quality of comments made about posts within a blog I am reviewing.
Question to self: Is it permissible to add a website to a blog for example afl.com.au in my case?
I am looking forward to reviewing my delicious links to add my 12 sources/articles to my bibliography and it will be a good way to make a final review of the information I have sourced thus far.
Discussion – Preferred methods of finding and receiving news on the web.
My preferred methods are to firstly add to my favourites bars my top 5 or 6 websites that I visit daily. Underneath those I subscribe to RSS feeds, twitter feeds and facebook feeds so that I can review these through my preferred social network tools and readers. I have subscribed to major news services from each continent around the globe as most news services I find are strongly regionalized and there is little global news of any value from most news services outside of BBC World News but that’s just my personal preference.
If I am looking for information on a new topic which I know nothing about I will firstly do a search on that topic with “wiki” in my search string and go straight to the Wikipedia site. There are usually good reference links at the bottom which help to further investigate a topic. If it is for academic purposes I will look through Google scholar or now as learnt this week put “database” in my search string.
In regards to the discussion topic relating to table 1 in the Warnick reading I tend to use four of the 6 points listed
1. Being able to trust the information on the site - there is no point on wasting time on a website if everything you get from it is false or has a strong unseen bias thus rendering the information valueless. I would generally try and stick to primary sources as information sources where possible and then move to secondary sources as a review process of the information put forward by the primary source.
2. Being able to easily navigate to what I want - If i cant use a site to find information I wont use it. Today there are plenty of sources of information competeing for webspace so if there are two similar information sets on the web the easiest to use will always will for me.
3. Knowing the site is updated frequently with new information - I use this as a guide as it let me know that someone at the other end is passionate about what there doing. Some people might say that money can be an imposter for passion at times but generally the quality of the work can be seen online to sort that out.
4. Knowing important facts about the site - I like to know this as it relates to being able to sort primary and secondary sources of information which can be an important point of difference when sourcing information.
5. Knowing who owns the site - this will clarifiy the context of information on the site so ant appareent biases can be identified.
So for instance with my blog on AFL i will use afl.com.au as a primary news source but as they are a corporate brand conscious of image thay may not discuss topics thourghly. This could be seen in the recent issue of drug use and depression which whilst reported was not widely discussed on there own website, thus it was left to the news services to cover this issue (which they did albeit very superficially)
Do you agree with Warnick's suggestion that the emphasis on the author might be replaced by one based upon "skillful design, image quality, usability, information structure, comprehensiveness, absence of self-interest, [and] usefulness"?
I do agree to an extent as the quality of design of a website will to a certain extent deternine its credibility, but with the advent and development of web 2.0 tools it is becoming easier for high quality usuable website to be constructed by almost anyone.
But the I still think th equality of the content will need to equal the quality of the design for ultimate credibility. Having only one or the other will be of detriment to the information trying to be communicated.
The weeks’ readings and activities look at the multiple selves an internet user has online and how the internet is used in developing and communicating different aspects of one’s self. I had already investigated this on a small scale through my studies in SSK12 where Turkle was one of the readings as with this week’s readings. It confirmed the postmodern aspects of the self proliferated by the internet where a user can be multiple selves all at once in different windows on a PC and in doing so investigate themselves in different contexts that would not be otherwise possible in real life. The self becomes fluid, decentred and is under continual development.
This weeks activity discussion asked the following:
To what degree - if at all - do you see yourself playing different 'roles' on the Internet?
On the internet I play the role of:
Committed University Student - in this role I am studying for BA in Internet Communications online through OUA. As a prt of this i discuss topics with other students through this forum but also through other mediums such as twitter, chatrooms and facebook.
Lazy University Student - this part of myself is the part which is trying to study but instead lookes through youtube and generally just scours the internet for music, videos and articles of interest when I should be studying.
Website Content Manager - i manage the content of a website, issue press releases and e-newsletters which the client base reads.
The son and brother - i interact with family members through email and facebook as my parents are from germany i have several relatives in europe and I keep in contact with them via the interent.
The friend - I have friends scattered all over australia and also all over the globe so the internet is my main method of communication with them. I have also made new friends through university whom i contact using the internet.
Music lover - I have a blog on music playlists which i made in web101 which i occasionally post to.
AFL Nerd - my blog for web206 is an AFL based crtique site.
What is your own motivation for participating in a course on Web Publishing?
I want to be able to more effectively communicate on the net depending upon the context i am writing from and understand how this is important. By developing writing online for different genres I hope to develop as a person and investigate other styles and methods of communication and in doing so open myself up to new topics and points of view.
Why (and what) do you want to publish on the Net?
I want to develop myself as person and investigate what makes me, with a view to gaining a profession in a area of expertise i am passionate about.
I have over the last week continued scouring the internet for information sources for my blog and have added them to my delicious account. I think im almost done and will now start analysing them after completing the week 3 studies.
I have also been reviewing the design of my blog as I think it’s a bit stark and have found some new wordpress templates that will assist me to make my blog more usable and readable.
Anyway that’s its – another week down the hatch
See y’all next week! Karlos
Was really tossing up which topic to do for a couple of days
AFL Media Watch - I love footy - go Tiges!
or
Movie/Music Reviews - My other love - i love searching for an listening to new music.
I went with the AFL media topic as it has alot more scope to discuss and investigate reporting of social issues that affect everybody that arise within the AFL.
I have the domain www.footymediawatch.com.au which i will use to host my wordpress blog which is now up with a black and white theme. I may use this theme if the blog develops further http://demo.colorlabsproject.com/arthemia/ . Its a small investment, about $70USD but might be worth it i think longer term if the blog becomes more complex and perhaps has other contributors.
Looking through all the wordpress plugins now to make my blog as accessible and easy to use as possible.
These are its social links at the moment
Delicious: http://www.delicious.com/knemsow
Twitter: http://twitter.com/footymediawatch
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Footy-Media-Watch/91557414405
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/footymediawatch
I have put together a good set of resources in me delicious account. the is one which I would like to add to this which is a hardcopy print magazine named inside footy which isnt available online which i will need to check out if i can use with helen, ted and sky.
Anyway that is week 1 of Web206 in a nutshell. Lots of interesting people and familiar faces from what I have read in the introductions so should be some good sharing of ideas and concepts which will open up paticipants to a few different world views I think. Excellent!
Til next week - Karlos
