Favorite Reading - Video Response

YouTube link if embed doesn't work: http://youtu.be/iHyU4dAt-yk

Class Thoughts

This class has brought to light many elements of our new technology-oriented media world that I had taken for granted or was used to seeing but never fully grasping. The explorations of blogs, social networking dynamics and the way new media worked kept my involvement in those activities interesting. I particularly liked reading about current events in technology as necessary for responding, as I already read articles online about technology trends, media, games and gadget developments. It was a natural fit of sorts for me to read about the next Facebook privacy concern or talk about the iPhone or what have you, so it was easy to write up responses to those articles without having it feel like an assignment. I did vote on the class poll for “work weeks” to begin on Monday morning and end on Sunday nights, simply so that the coursework fell in line for when weekend assignments for other classes were due. Besides, I am always working on homework on Sunday nights (typical college procrastination).

This class could see improvement if there were general discussion topics available on something like a forum, rather than just simply blog posts. The wiki entries were a nice change from the norm, but there are more “new media” mediums available online that this course could take advantage of. However, I am also glad that the video blogs were few and far between since that sort of static video interaction was not something I considered a strong suit. Overall, this communications course has helped me to better understand how the Internet has changed the way society communicates, and I would not mind taking a class similar to this one again in the future.

Most Interesting Concepts/Readings Discussion - Response

This course has brought forth many communication topics in new media to my attention, and I found the articles on identity and the development of online-only relationships to be the most interesting. Relationships developed online, like the one for the fictional girl suffering from leukemia, were relatable for me to read because of how much trust and truth we put into the statements people make online. It is far too easy to believe what’s read on the Internet if the source seems legitimate and genuine in their responses. Sarcasm and lies are sometimes the hardest things to read from people when you are not communicating with a physical presence, and in the case of Kaycee Swenson, a whole community of supports had formed around it. The establishment of understanding and personal disclosure for online-only partners in social networks and online games is another example covered in this class that I enjoyed reading, and it was because of the inherent levels of communication we create in these online worlds and communities that differ from our real-life counterparts.

The collective behavior article from this week, “Collective Behavior in YouTube” by Donna Chu (2009), also falls into this because of the public perception and opinion formed only through online recognition and communication. In general, the ideas behind self-presentation and identity were some of the more intriguing articles of this semester and it certainly gave me newfound thoughts about how I conduct myself online.

Adobe Had It Coming (New Media Websites) - Video Response

Issac, Mike. "Adobe Had It Coming: The Long, Slow Goodbye of Mobile Flash." Wired (2011): 11 Nov 2011. <http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/adobe-mobile-flash-dead/all/1>.

The World Wide Web - Response

The article “The World Wide Web” (1994) by Tim Berners-Lee et al. looked into the early days of the World Wide Web (or W3) that we use so easily today. A W3 client on your computer would be able to connect to servers and display text and images (792) using URIs (universal resource identifiers), HTTP and HTML to bring you the content and render it. In particular, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) was used for requests and responses for transferring document objects (794), and HTML (HyperText Markup Language) was the language that web pages and documents would be written under for universal producing and understanding (795).

Seeing that this article was written in 1994, the statement that “the Web does not yet meet its design goal as being a pool of knowledge that is easy to update as it is to read” (797) showed me how in today’s Web, there is so much information constantly being updated. It made me wonder if the “design goal” had finally been met with the era of social media, blogs and wikis, with millions of people posting and updating the Web with new stories and personal things to share. I tend to read through various blogs online with RSS (really simple syndication) feeds because of how they get constantly updated, and it is easier to read specific stories and blog posts this way. The article went through some of the foundations of what everything is built on for online content, and the design of the Web will continue to evolve as the Internet becomes more ubiquitous.

Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma - Response

The article “Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma: Identity, Trust, and Community in Cyberspace” (2005) by John W. Jordan discussed the online “betrayal” of fictional Kaycee Nicole Swenson’s battle with leukemia, which was documented, discussed and shared online with others before her non-existence was unveiled. The author looks into what it means as a community to respond to crises and how “the idea of ‘virtual community’ is reconceived and enacted by community members” (202). Deception is very easy online because of the nature of Internet communication itself, where being anonymous and creating any kind of persona can create an audience as it has for Kaycee.

I thought it was interesting to see such a huge amount of followers and support from a community that could not physically see the person they were supporting. Movements like these that grow online in the blogging community and elsewhere will always carry a little skepticism, and in the case of the Kaycee hoax as admitted by Debbie Swenson, community debates can continue even when the centerpiece surrounding it is no longer there (206). There is a level of distrust and suspicion in any online presence, but good communal elements come together for a positive effect when the intentions are seen as good and worthwhile. People that join campaigns started on places like Facebook for things like protests, fundraisers or advocating/awareness are under the impression that they are not being manipulated or deceived, and virtual communities stand behind a cause this way. One can only hope that it a particular situation, identity and trust can be understood so that people are not taken aback or misled, and it is always worthwhile to be careful on the Internet.

Cable Is Holding TV at Bay (New Media Websites) - Response

I read an article off of the New York Times website, titled “Cable Is Holding Web TV at Bay, Earnings Show", written by Brian Stelter. Watching TV over the Internet is becoming more and more important to the television industry, and the wealth of television content available online is growing by the month at places like Amazon Instant Video, Blockbuster On Demand and Hulu Plus, as well as on set-top boxes like Apple TV and Roku. However, despite this growth and attractiveness to new technology and the flexibility of being able to watch what you want when you want with limited or no commercials, the vast majority of consumers out there are still tying themselves down to a cable or satellite subscription package with many channels, robust pricing and multi-year contracts. The article finds that people are using sites like Netflix as supplements to cable and not replacements, and it will still take some time for these online services to mature enough (as well as for broadband Internet to be more accessible and affordable) before people completely turn away from Comcast and DirectTV en masse. The choice quote from this article was what helped me understand how the cable and satellite industry was feeling: “’When Netflix loses 800,000 subscribers, …the fear of cord-cutting goes away a little.’” Certainly, in my view, companies like Time Warner, AT&T U-Verse and Dish Network can still stay optimistic that people will come to them for television rather than the Internet for tradition’s and convenience’s sake.

Stelter, Brian. "Cable Is Holding Web TV at Bay, Earnings Show." The New York TImes (2011): 30 Oct 2011. < http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/business/media/cable-tv-holding-web-rivals-at-bay-earnings-show.html>.