Blogging = Journalism?

Whenever I’m back home in Brunei, there’s a box I open all the time. It’s on the top of my shelf (behind the board games) and hopefully no one else has opened it. Inside, is an assortment of diaries and journals I wrote in growing up. Reading them reminds me of what life felt like as a kid and the angry venting (usually aimed at my parents) always makes me smile a little. I was very dramatic.

I bring this up because recently, in starting to write this blog, I went to an old blog of mine which lead me to the one before that, and the one before that. Like the box of journals on my top shelf, I seem to have managed to do the same… electronically. I abandoned personally writing in a book when I started to study overseas and so somewhere out there, my experiences as an international student are chronicled in a variety of Blogosphere hotspots. I’m on blogspot, wordpress and xanga, each reminding me of my many phases. Sometimes I think it’s too much personal information about me to be floating around… but like my diaries and journals, I can’t seem to bring myself to get rid of them.

Boyd (2004) categorizes four primary conceptual paradigms that frame blogging. These include journalism, diarying or journaling, note passing,  fieldbook note taking. I read a lot of blogs. Everyday goings on of life blogs, fashion blogs, celebrity news blogs, gay interest blogs and I know some parts of certain industries use blogs to further reach their market / audience but can blogging really be considered journalism?

 Boyd (2004) provides an interesting and insightful thought :

“Blogging will not replace traditional journalism, but it presents a threat to the normative press culture and an opportunity for radical reporting. Bloggers do place the issue of professionalism under attack, not by being unprofessional, but by exposing the ways in which the media operates. As blogging reaches the masses, people are introduced to information that was not reported because it did not suit the party line. Bloggers will happily document the power games that they witness in the press room and will expose future Jayson Blairs. Bloggers also capture information that the mainstream press does not yet realize is valuable, which means that ambitious and digitally minded journalists are constantly scanning the blogs for information. More and more, journalists are thanking bloggers for new slants. The competition between journalists and bloggers for readers’ attention results in more diverse and compelling coverage.” Danah Boyd (2004, July 28) “The New Blogocracy,” Salon.com.

Time for me to expand my blogroll I guess. =))

 

 

 

Cyberspace and beyond

The advancement in information technologies has played a pivotal role in the creation of the societies we live in today. In the digital age, products of the evolution in information technology such as the internet have become essential tools in the running of daily life from being the pillars of economics and commerce, to the enabler of personal communication as well as the distribution and consumption of information regardless of geographical location. The internet itself, is not only an established medium for communication, but it has also opened the doors to a whole new space for humans to exist; cyberspace. 

The infiltration of the internet into the home, and ultimately, our every day lives marked the next level in society’s move, or at least, society’s extension into cyberspace. When the computer became a household item, and a little later, was able to be connected to the telecommunication network, cyberspace was officially open for business. The increasing number of internet subscribers around the world, coupled with the easier methods of gaining access (prepaid contracts, internet cafes) and the development of new internet technology (enabling faster browsing and longer periods of internet time) has created a parallel universe coexisting and mimicking many aspects of real life. In online communities, members communicate through computer mediated communications, across geographical boundaries in virtual landscapes. Cutler (1995) argues that the resulting social space constructed in cyberspace is fertile ground for new social relationships, roles, and a sense of self. As society continues to extend itself into cyberspace, investigators of online social phenomenon have attempted to understand the dynamics of the internet as a social space. Today, the technology of cyberspace is creating the social situation for the formation of a new understanding of community (Jones 1995).  

The increasingly social function of the internet forms the foundation of online communities. Jones (1997 p9) examined emerging social formation online to determine whether they provide some of the things we desire offline such as like friendship, community, interaction and public life to determine whether moral ideals we seek among one another, in community, are realized online. As the evolution of internet technology continued to progress creating even more ‘techno savvy’ forms of internet activity, real life individuals began to utilize cyberspace for extra added interaction. Kim (2000) terms the web as a collective town square where more people turn to get their personal, social and professional needs satisfied.  

Long after it’s invention, the internet has become an essential part of our everyday life. Throughout the years, it’s pervasiveness in our real life social lives can not be ignored. When you meet someone new, it’s more then likely that they have a face book profile. I myself keep in touch with the daily life dramas of my sister (who is studying in Malaysia) through her blog. Right now, she’s just started to study overseas and is homesick. Daily posts keep me updated on her struggles, her highs and lows. Her friends leave supportive messages multiple times a day in hopes of cheering her up. Not only does this new internet ‘town square’ keep people informed and updated on our friends’ lives, they also provide the same convenience to relationships which exist across oceans and seas. I have also recently congratulated my sister on completing her studies in Aberdeen through a wall post on her face book wall. Her graduation pictures are now online and I get to see the location, people, and overall environment of the event. With cyberspace seeming to exist parallel to real life, geographical boarders no longer exist in the way humans are now communicating. Cyberspace is simply, one giant global village.

 

I (heart) Friendster!

     My favourite online social networking community is Friendster.com. To date possibly the most prominent researchers involved in the study of online communities is Danah Boyd. Conducting research specifically on Friendster.com, Boyd (2004) discusses how a members profile respresents they way members decide to present their identity with a particular understanding of the audience, the other community members. Boyd (2006), saw profiles as constituting a digital body, a social creation, an initiator of conversation and a medium for ongoing conversation in multiple modalities. She maintains that Friendster.com in particular, motivated people to grapple with explicit presentations of self, creatively build playful networks, and engage in their competitive tendencies. In the relation to real life social networks, Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe (2006) argue that members off these communities may use the communication tools for the purpose of interacting with other members they know from real life such as school, family and work as well as meeting new people.

     The notion of the ‘friend list’ plays an important role in the function of online social networking communities in that they enable the categorization and linkage of individuals to their social networks. Networking is the ostensible purpose of these sites; using one’s chain of connections to make new friends, dates and acquaintances. Boyd & Donath (2004) investigated the social implications of publicly displaying social connections finding that understanding a member within the context of their connections provides other community members with information about them and is useful in verifying one’s identity the community. With almost everyone in our social networks owning and represented in a profile, groups are now more informed on each other.

     Although current research has delved into the emerging culture of Friendster.com, there is still much to be learnt. The functions of Friendster.com which facilitate the opportunity for interaction as well as the possible affects of the community on real life has yet to be further probed.

     Investigation in to this field of research is essential because today, more people are using the internet then ever before. It is safe to say that the population online is one that is growing rapidly. Hence, it is vital that we learn and understand the dynamics of communication and ‘human’ interaction through computer mediated technologies, in the vast unknown of the virtual landscape.

 

Happy Birthday Nadiah!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connection established…

It is almost beginning to be difficult these days to meet someone who isn’t on facebook or myspace, someone who doesn’t write, or at the very least, read a blog or people who haven’t received invites in their email to the possibilities of WAYN, tagged or zebo.com. As much as the internet is part of our lives, we too, are part of the internet. Cyberspace is now a more social landscape holding wondrous destinations for those who simply have to seek. As it’s citizens, we leave a trail of footsteps in the things we do online creating an extension of our social lives. 

The vast number of social activities available online allow us to carry on our real daily lives from the comfort of our own homes. Applications such as facebook, myspace, friendster, MSN, yahoo, hotmail and a variety of blogging hosts are part of our everyday rituals all of which, somehow aid our social lives and relationships. This notion plays an important role in my research interests. The impact on our lives is obvious and needs more investigation but it is very much the next step in the move to cyberspace, the extension to real lives.

A New World, A New People

As soon as the internet infiltrated the home, increasingly, like a really bad virus, the world became a different place. I remember my early experiences with a computer, a black screen and a neon green line. Atleast that what I can recall. A few years later, I remember being entertained for hours by the parrot in the computer who would ’speak’ the words I would type. We were banned from using it for a while when my aunt heard the parrot squak some really naughty words. The culprit… me of course but I wasn’t going to, and didn’t dare admit it then.

I am from Brunei and I have lived in Melbourne since I was 20 (I am now 27). About two years ago, I went home for holidays and was reintroduced to my new little cousins. Clearly a generation more advanced than my own. As a 9 year old, the computer was a magical box to me. How on earth can that parrot be able to sound out my typed words? It was technology at it’s best and it hadn’t even been plugged into the phone socket yet!

Today, my 9 year old cousin has a friendster profile, an msn account and googles information about his favourite TV shows. I am no longer active on Friendster as I was previously. Why? Firstly, I’ve moved on to facebook but really, it’s because over the past few years, I’ve been surprised by friend invites from quite a few of my younger family members. Almost 50% of my relatives on my friend list are under 12 (disguised as 16 year olds) and to be honest, I don’t quite like them knowing what I get up to and discuss on friendster. On the upside, I feel much closer to them from closely monitoring their profiles and finding out what they do and what their lives entail from the many pictures they’ve posted from their cell phones (another thing I didn’t have at 9 years old).

My oh my, how the world has changed.