Blog Essay Class 12- The Last Class!

Carina Seagrave

cseagrave@ufl.edu

Living in a society where individuals such as myself cannot catch the bus without checking the TransLoc app to make sure I’m on time and then referring to Facebook to see what my friends are up to followed by updating my Twitter feed to make sure I didn’t miss any important news events, it is hard to argue against the mediatization of society.

Media intertwines itself in the fabric of everyday life.  When we go to the grocery store, we purchase products we read about on the internet or heard about on the TODAY show.  According to Hjarvard, the redistribution of power is occurring through the media agenda.  In the chapter, “Future of the news industry,” Picard describes a society in which media space is largely controlled by the consumers through social media.  Consumers can now type whatever interests them into a search bar and results will come up within seconds.  No longer will the nightly news say, “And next, a baby chimpanzee burps his ABCs,” leaving us sitting on the edge of our seats to wait for what is to come.  We can simply take out our smart phones and go to the website.  For the news industry to survive, traditional media must find ways to provide better information than their competitors while also altering the way they obtain revenue.

Being a former student of the arts, I was interested when “The Mediatization of Society,” discussed the way media extends communication capabilities which, in turn, increases the impact media has on expression.  I thought of a few examples including the sharing of music and Instagram.  Before social media allowed for instant sharing of information, the type of music that was popular was whatever type of music the radio played.  My grandparents listened to Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline.  When I hear other older people discussing music from “the good old days,” no one feels left out wondering what songs they’re talking about.  I predict that our generation won’t be as united in musical tastes as the generations previously because, if we like a song, we can look it up or turn on XM radio to the particular genre we like.

And then there’s Instagram.  My brother is in middle school and, just as articles are starting to suggest, Facebook is on the decline.  Social media has turned us into such a visual society and a society that relates better to gunfire spurts of information such as comments and photo captions that Instagram is now the social media form on the rise.  It allows us all to become small-scale professional photographers with the ability to choose from different filters to enhance our images.  This rise in popularity of Instagram gives a pseudo-example of the rise of mediatization.  Media is now an independent institution that houses the public sphere.  No longer to PSAs get passed along from the government to the media but people rely on shared experiences to warn them against the good and the bad.  As Hjarvard argues, everyone now has access to the internet and to media through the internet that it is a time of “public enlightenment.”

And when we become enlightened? We have Twitter to tweet about it.

Question

Think about the term “public enlightenment.”  Although employers won’t accept an “internet education” in place of a diploma, do you believe it is possible for individuals to college educate themselves from media alone?  Why or why not?

Analyze This Class 11

Although we can compare today’s virtual public sphere to the public sphere of 18th-century England and France because both allow for members of a society to congregate and share their ideas, I don’t think it’s fair to equate them to each other.  Today, people from all over the world have the ability to connect together in a public sphere, one which doesn’t require them to travel, spend money on gasoline or present a passport.  The possibilities for a massive public sphere are so vast because there need not be language barriers on the web.  Instead of just members of one society or country to get together and share ideas, members of larger communities can communicate instantly.  For example, women’s rights platforms online can spread across national borders and reach more than just a select group here in the United States.

Another reason the public sphere of today is more powerful than that of tomorrow is a safer and more thoughtful place for debate of issues.  When we type a status into Facebook, for instance, people who disagree with the statement have just as much access to it than people that agree.  These people can post their own opinions to the page.  This more permanent visual than just word-of-mouth allows for a bigger possibility of change of opinions.  I think it is important to know both sides of an issue before making a decision about the issue and the internet gives people in the public sphere more opportunity to do so.  Although individuals may stick to their guns and maintain their beliefs, at lease they have a window into someone the point of view of someone else.  In a “coffee shop” public sphere, chances are individuals are meeting with like-minded individuals and; therefore, not opening up their life to opposing opinions.

Blog Essay Class 11

During this transitional time in journalism, the constant question on everybody’s lips is, “How will the internet age affect the way we consume media and news?”  In the review of Media Ethics Beyond Borders, the authors of the collection of essays express a need for a set of globalized media ethics because media is no longer a localized phenomenon.  As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think a globalized system seems impossible because of all the differing voices just within the book.  On one hand, there is feminist theory as applied to global media and on the other, another author discusses Ubuntism and implores for better coverage of African countries.

In the video, “The Internet, Globalization and the Media Future,” Tom Patterson, a professor of government, worries that the internet without collaboration of different global perspectives leads to a degradation of information.  By this he means the quality of journalism is lower because of the massive amount of internet users lacking in credibility.  Information is now easier to access than ever before and is so large in content that it becomes a daunting task, not only for journalists to sort through, but for average recipients.  Before we aim to globalize the ethics of journalism, I think we should try to educate citizens of the internet sphere to intelligently sort through information and determine whether it is worth a read or not.  If anything, students in grade schools should have a class that teaches them to be smarter recipients of media by helping them to identify framing bias that is often not as obvious as other types.

Another interesting point that Patterson brought to my attention was the idea that the media system on the internet is beginning to look like a “group system” in which there are binaries for every issue.  On one platform we have going green while industrialization is on another.  A black and white system is formed because everyone is supposed to pick a side in the new, personalized media system in which the public sphere hosts debates in every area.  Interests can be filtered which allows for media recipients to choose their content while avoiding opposing points-of-view.

Democracy, now interpreted more often as a type of government due to the United States and others efforts to “democratize” societies suffering from oppression, is the central concept on which journalism is founded.  The ideal of democracy suggests a “free speech” media arena in which journalists are obligated to not only be “watchdogs” of the democratic state but to uphold equally the sides of each story but, unfortunately, “stability, religion and social order take precedence over free press” (577).  It is because of social issues like this that the “professional” model of journalism is a subject of debate depending on what country recipients might find themselves in.  The three models introduced in this essay represent current journalism systems that are adopted countries ruled by different systems of government.  Despite the claim that the United States is a liberal model, I felt that it follows a little bit of democratic corporatist mentality in which messages are controlled by commercial groups (just without the neutral take).

In chapter 19, I felt that the author’s description of the change recently occurring in Korea reflected a change happening simultaneously in the United States.  Newspapers are on the decline while internet is on the rise.  Between 1995 and 2005, internet use skyrocketed from 730,000 to 33 million.  The consequence of this rise in internet media influence would be the appearance of ‘discursive publics’ found online.  These publics form because they have three attributes in common: a need to be better represented, demand for fair and balanced coverage, and their own diversities.  The internet, although it can be monitored, represents a public sphere in Korea in which collective subjects can share their own experiences which lead to political polarization as opposed to the failing party system.  For example, author June Woong Rhee identifies a “public self” that media recipients in Korea are experiencing which “contributes to having more conversations with others, more political knowledge, higher discussion efficacy and higher tolerance” (361).

Question

Is it plausible to speculate that this rise in the “public self” could lead to a global society that rejects government agency?

Analyze This Class 10

When it all comes down to it, the issue of whether or not I would obey a propaganda ministry and filter out certain terms in the case that I was the head of Google is one that is morals versus money.  On one hand, as the head of a corporation, I would want to stick to my guns and beliefs and do what I believe is right by choosing to pull out of a country that does not give its citizens the freedom that I believe all human beings deserve.  Not only is this model benefiting my conscience but it would portray to my employees a commitment to a capitalist and moralistic ideal.  Being a leader calls for someone that stands by what they believe is right and those who follow you tend to admire such traits.  That being said, every country has a right to their own government and if that government is one that demands information to be censored then it would not be in my power to prevent them from doing so.  On the other hand, opening up my corporation to the international realm where even more money is to be made requires me to adhere to the laws and customs of other places.  Ultimately, I would decide to remain in the country asking censorship of me.  I agree with Google and what the organization chose to do in China; however, because it is not right to demand censorship without proper guidelines as to what should be censored.  Also, in the case that the information I needed to withhold was crucial to the safety of the citizens of the country I was in, I would pull out.  I would not release the information out of respect for the leadership of the country but it would not be something that I would allow to weight heavily on my shoulders.

Blog Essay Class 10

Carina Seagrave

cseagrave@ufl.edu

“Small government, large society,” is a slogan reminiscent of Mao’s post-reform made political campaign in China.  Although the saying encourage self-empowerment while also supporting Chinese hegemony, it is ironic in that the issue of regulating social media and maintaining a hegemonic state has to do with such a large society now having access to information systems that unite the Chinese people.

In order to contain the uprising of classes in a Marxist form of government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must attempt to keep control by allowing certain freedoms such as freedom of expression while, at the same time, suppressing collective action.  The article, “How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression,” describes how Chinese power holders have come to understand that being criticized as individuals does not make them any less powerful if only the discussions indicate collective action such as an organized uprising against the government like in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.  According to Dimitrov (2008), who is referred to in the article, “regimes collapse when its people stop bringing grievances to the state which indicates it is no longer legitimate,” thus indicating that a negative comment is not necessarily a threat but an action is.

With more and more access to social media and internet, the Chinese government struggles to limit its large population’s access to information system, a population that makes up 5 percent of the entire world’s population.  The task of the CCP is to “balance media openness with regime censorship to minimize local corruption while maintaining regime stability.”  I can’t help but wonder when the next societal collapse will happen in China.  As powerful as the ruling hegemony may be, how can a single “small government” manage to censor an entire “large society” quick enough to prevent connections from being made which could, in the future, lead to future rebellion.  Studies show social media in China has allowed for an “associational revolution” in which formal and informal organizations persist in spite of government action.  From farmers unions to reading circles, the collective is started to emerge.

According to Zhao and economist Karl Polanyi, a market left to its citizens will lead to the end of society if we know it, but in my eyes, society doesn’t merely end when its government does.  It’s just a matter of time until China will once again be in need of a revolution whether it is governmental instated or not.  This change that they have made by “promoting social harmony” will not work if China continues to push information systems away by making what should be censored unclear as described in “China’s Internet Crackdown.”  According to “China’s Black PR,” even non-governmental elites pay billions of dollars to have information released about them censored despite it being illegal.  Black operations such as these would not happen in a country that agrees with their governmental policies.  A country living in fear of what it can and cannot say will either become a state of dissatisfaction or will rise above and fight for a more fair way of life even if it requires violence or disobeying their ruling state.

Questions:

In regards to the “China’s Black PR” article, the author frames the issue of the underground internet industry’s post deletion services as a negative issue.  So why is it that people are so upset when leaks happen people are upset that information was revealed?

Will it always be a polarized, two-sided debate? So I guess the real question is: to be censored or to be informed of all?  Does government do us (or in China’s case, does its government do the citizens of the country) a service by withholding certain information?

Analyze This Class 9

In the 18^th century, the rights to freedom of speech were more limited than they are today; however, just as it is today, communication systems help to shape the history of events within every time period.  Newspapers, a common form of news communication in the 21^st century followed by televised news, were not allowed in the 18^th century when governments lacked democracy and oozed political power.  According to Robert Darnton, “information about the inner workings of the power system was not supposed to circulate under the Old Regime in France.” Politics were “le secret du roi” or the “business of the king,” which was considered a secret between only the king and his advisors.  Because of this limitation and the need for a society to understand their own government’s ideas for rule, communication happened in person through word-of-mouth.  In order to disguise news that governments would find unpleasant, news and gossip was turned into poetry or song.  Today, we enjoy the luxury in the United States to post whatever blurb we may have, whether it is offensive to the state or not, onto our social media sites.  Before news was provided by the government or freedom to write of government affairs was allowed, coffee shop gossip was the daily news.  In a way, the poetry and songs which were repeated by laypeople as long as they could memorize them are much like “re-tweeting” or “liking” a person social media post.  The information is regenerated and spread throughout a society or a group either way.

Blog Essay Class 9

According to the article “Citizen Journalism: Foreign correspondence,”“every journalist needs help shoveling for dirt” even when the sources that dirt comes from may be of the amateur variety.

In an era in which digital media has “helped to turn individualized, localized, and community-specific dissent into structured movements with a collective consciousness about both shared grievances and opportunities for action,” citizens and journalists alike have an obligation to uphold the values of democracy while also engaging their rights to freedom of speech according to “The Arab Spring and the Internet: Research Roundup.”  Citizens must be informed if they are to be engaged in a democratic society in which they can voice their opinions via social media in all its forms but journalists must dedicate themselves to the trustworthy and efficient transfer of that information.  According to Chapter 15 “Media Regimes and Democracy,” this “information environment” is central to the practice of democracy (290).

The recent rise in popularity of social media forms such as Facebook and Twitter in addition to their assistance in recent political rebellions in the Middle East and Egypt has triggered questions regarding the impact on politics.  Questions have come to light regarding the freedom of speech and the rights to believe in whatever one wants to believe in terms of social media plague researchers as they scramble to detect effects on political movements.  It is agreed that social media allows for documentation and sharing of information; however, it is difficult to prove any immediate influence that it has had on recent rebellions in both Egypt and Tunisia.  The arrival of social media announces a new “media regime,” or “historically specific set of institutions, norms, processes and actors that shape the expectations… of media producers and consumers,” in which the previous “gates” of information are now challenged.  For example, the “usual array of party elites” is now swept to the side as anyone can make an account on Twitter and let their feelings and opinions loose.

Although research has discovered that “highly partisan and politically engaged citizens appear to dominate the social media outlet,” it is more typical for Twitter reactions to lean to the more liberal side of the political spectrum.  Because of this slight bias, the majority of reactions via Twitter do not reflect the public opinion since Twitter users do not represent an acceptable random sample of citizens.  This observation; however, is a result of a survey asking voters if they are politically-opinionated on their Twitter account which could be a weakness in the research due to the fact that only those interested in publically announcing their political opinions answered the poll.

When I read that “politically active voices, particularly younger voters who use the Internet to express their opinions, are moving away from neutral news sites in favor of those that match their own political views,” I felt concerned that our news media contributes to a bi-partisan nation that cannot meet in the middle.  I believe George Washington warned the Founding Fathers against a party system and I can’t help but agree with him and, because I agree, I worry that the media just feeds a system that is no longer working.  It was also disconcerting to find that 45 percent of youth are obtaining their news from the newsfeed of their social media sites via friends and family.  Pair this with the fact that people believe Twitter accounts to be more credible because the name seems scientific or legitimate and we have a terribly delusional and confused media audience.  Despite the other 49 percent that are still informed by traditional news sources, my concern is still growing alongside the increase in usage of Twitter which grew from 13 to 15 percent from May 2011 to February 2012.

Lastly, the seemingly relieving news from “Citizen Journalism: Foreign Correspondence” that viewer submissions of videos, photographs and tweets from ordinary people will improve news coverage is great until you realize the possibility of a demand for compensation by these submitters.  I can’t help but be skeptical when the source of the article is a journalist that seems too hopeful to be true.  Sure, we know how to “curate, authenticate and analyze” material given to us by amateur journalists, but who says they will just hand over their media without recognition at the very least. CNN’s iReport seemed like a cool concept until CNN ran false headlines about the Boston marathon bombing simply founded on speculation via Twitter and Reddit.

Embarrassing.  Fact-checking is professional but speculation is spectacle.

Question:

Does Twitter reinforce a party system? How?

Analyze This Class 8

In the center of the Palais-Royal in Paris, France, grew the Tree of Cracow.  The ancient chestnut became the focal point for rumors and conversations regarding the king and court during a time of unrest under Louis XV for disallowing information to be transmitted by newspapers about public affairs.  It is said that the tree obtained its odd name due to the War of Polish Succession which was fought under its leafy branches, or somewhere nearby.  Ironically, although the tree’s name is Cracow of Polish descent, the French word “cracovie,” a pun on craquer, means “to tell dubious stories,” according to John Palattella, author of the article “Shelf Life” on The Nation’s website.  It is under this tree that citizens of France would go to hear and exchange rumors while also enjoying an entertaining, yet politically significant parade of poets and singers who would put the nation’s unease to lyrics.  In 1749 when Louis XV heard the Parisians were ridiculing him for doing poorly in his political affairs as well as for his sleeping with a mistress of non-royal blood, he was angry and he ordered police to target poets that appeared under the Tree of Crackow to be arrested.  The poems were considered offensive news to the king.  This gives testimony for an argument presented by Darnton that “poetry was an information network long before networks were news” (Palattella).

Blog Essay Class 8

Although the idea behind “Toward a New World Media Order” seems to be hegemonic because, after all, who wouldn’t want a media society that focuses on the values of equality and responsibility, I find myself a skeptic among believers.  As much as I agree with author Li Congjun, I read the article with the experiences I have as a student of journalism and had trouble jumping right on board with his idea of standardizing the way we communicate on a global scale because I know it is much easier said than done.  According to Stuart in his article, “Encoding, Decoding,” cultural codes called semantic codes will cause discrepancies in reading a particular article because the reader comes in with their own codes as opposed to the ones that the author offers throughout the reading.  For example, I agree that media coverage goes from “West to East, North to South, and from developed to developing countries” (Li); however, I interpreted that to mean that we attempt to cover a wide range by simply covering what isn’t our own society.  Just because we do this doesn’t mean we are providing fair and equal coverage between societies closer to our own.

When Li mentions a few factors that need to be improved upon, they sound great in theory: inclusions, all-win so that we can share new developments with everyone.  But he doesn’t discuss the limitations such as the fact that some countries are still using static-y radio as their main form of media reception while radio is less utilized than television and, even more so, social media.  Stuart says that “coding controls the perception of a reading but not its transparency” and that it “stages its own limits and possibilities,” which is what is happening here.  I have a negotiated view of this article because I recognize the perception that is expected while I have also sought out the limitations it presents because of my background knowledge in the general limitations of media across cultures.  Throughout this article as I was agreeing with the need for a new way for international media to function, I thought the author lives in his own sort of Disneyland where all dreams come true as they are written on paper or shared with others until he finally acknowledges a power struggle with a sports analogy involving his own country, China, and ping pong.  He uses the example to explain that some countries may not hop on board with his plan but fails to acknowledge that some countries are more ready than others to contribute to change.

Li’s analysis of other countries and his reasoning that they would be less inclined to join the world media order because some countries could be more outspoken than others in addition to the chapter’s criticism of the polarized pluralist model (Hallin and Mancini, 108) made me wonder how media relations are in less developed regions like Africa.  I stumbled upon this Pennsylvania State article entitled “Africa in the Western World:” http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Workshop/chavis98.html It commented on the fact that Africa is constructed by Western media in a way that marginalizes them just as Li described, making African countries less inclined to join a new world media order: inclusion and fairness is lacking now so what difference would a revamping make?  The article says, “Because media conditioning shapes, molds, and monopolizes those images, references to Africa are received sometimes with disdain and contempt,” an image they would rather not have themselves perceived as.  This sort of elitism mixed with the increased social media use in “developed” nations in Europe and Western culture makes me criticize the good intentions of Li’s idea (Hallin and Mancini, 109).

Question:

How could this potential group with the intent of regulating international media bridge the gap between first and third-world countries when the technology spectrum is so vast?

Analyze This Class 7

When Malcolm Gladwell released his theory that “revolutions will not be tweeted,” there was an uproar within the Twitter community expressing their disagreement.  “What about Egypt?!” they said.  “Wasn’t print news and TV new social media at one point?” they countered.  Gladwell, who had enjoyed his popularity and success in the world of mass media, realized his blunder in announcing a theory that I, along with millions of other Americans, completely disagree with.  Kirk Cheyfitz adamantly states that social media matters and that, it had in fact, always matter: from cave paintings to the American Revolution.  I understand; however, that Gladwell was pointing out that Twitter will die with the ebb and flow of newer, brighter inventions but that doesn’t make it any less crucial to this point in time.  The printing press allowed Luther to opposed the Catholic Church just as Twitter indubitably sparked a revolution.

Because of the “everywhereness” and omnipresence of media, from newspapers to TV news outlets that everyone watches, the government of the United States has been able to use it to more or less control the democratic ideas that run through it.  By maintaining the power to dictate what can and cannot be said by liberal media outlets, the government has controlled the public sphere in the past more or less.  However, now with the “internet freedom” that is promised to a democratic state where freedom of speech is highly prized, the public sphere has grown to be a place in which ideas are formed and secrets are left un-kept.  Although this may seem to get easily out of hand, anti-censorship helps to maintain a more peaceful system of communication within a nation because of the support of the public sphere.