Week Six - Data and Media

Data and media - a story of unrequited love? It would seem quite a logical assumption that media and data would go hand in hand, but is this relationship as peachy as it seems? Whilst media and data can work together, both represent different entities in the global landscape. It could be argued, by some, that modern media is lacking in data. Modern media is often criticised for being 'churnalism'; a series of soft, pre-packaged stories produced by a 'McJournalism' industry of media production. Whilst data presents an audience with a complex set of facts and theories of which they need to understand. However, as The Guardian  article highlights, data journalism (the love child of media and data?) has been around for years, centuries even. The unrequited love between media and data seems to be a reflection of the changing media environment in which the data that the media is receiving is not common knowledge; it's personal data, it's our data, it's the data that makes us who we are in a data-driven world. And sometimes it's data we don't want exposed.

One of the most interesting dynamics between media and data is the amount of data we can release through media. On social networking sites, through blogs, when we comment on news articles, we divulge small pieces of our personal data through the media. The article from Science Blogs explores how we can track and manage our own actions and responses by revealing our data in the media. We can track what music we listen to, and then have a program tell us what music we will subsequently enjoy based on the data we have provided. The obvious problem with this is the growing issue of privacy. When we leak data about ourselves, what other organisations can access that data, and where does it go? If your music listening habits can create an entire tracking of albums specifically directed at you, then what else happens to your (more important) data once it is in the media? The New York Times Article interestingly explores the relationship between people, their data and the media as it looks at the lives of individuals who record all 'life events' (from ideas to how much coffee they drink) and questions the behaviours of people who lead data-driven lives. In conjunction, The Telegraph article shows how entire sections of human life (including relationships, education and even how we shop) have been dramatically altered by how we use, manipulate and share data. The major qualm with modern media and data is that to access media we have to give over some of our data. If we don't we can't access the services necessary to function in the modern world. Catch 22.

This topic links in quite closely to my proposed research topic. I want to explore the amount of data we produce and display to the world, who accesses this data, and what happens to it. This relationship between data and people is an interesting one as people want to access the data that belongs to other people, but at the same time, are desperate to keep their own data private. This creates an interesting dichotomy of responses to data which demonstrate the impact data has on our mediated world.

This video quite interestingly visualises the data in media, taken from the recorded searches and online behaviours of Google users:



References

Lehrer, Jonah (2010) ‘Self-Tracking’, May 3, The Frontal Cortex, <http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/05/self-tracking.php>


Wolf, Gary (2010) ‘The Data-Driven Life’, The New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02self-measurement-t.html>


Quilty-Harper, Conrad (2010) ’10 ways data is changing how we live’, The Telegraph, August 25, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/7963311/10-ways-data-is-changing-how-we-live.html>


Rogers, Simon (2011) ‘Data journalism at the Guardian: what is it and how do we do it?’, The Guardian, Datablog, July 28, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/28/data-journalism>

Week Five - Reality

When did the world become virtual? Was it with the invention of the Internet? Alternate worlds? Or has society always been virtual? Is the virtual in our minds, or do we need to access it through another platform? How do we know what is real?


It would seem that for most people the term 'virtual' is synonymous with the online environment and separate from "the real world". However, I don't believe the two are mutually exclusive. In the week two lecture, Andrew commented on how bizarre using a telephone was; that you would voluntarily hold a device to your ear so that someone could whisper into it. In the same vein, it would seem that the real and virtual worlds are constantly intertwined - if you are realistically texting someone whilst in bed, are you virtually in bed with them? Do you place equal value on the friends you make in 'real' and 'virtual' life? If you tweet to the friend sitting next to you in the lecture, are you both present in the real lecture world, the virtual twitter world, or do you have a foot in both?


The LA Times article demonstrates how the cross over between virtual and real worlds looks, in both the virtual and real world senses. The concept of real military machinery that is virtually controlled, rather than manually operated, by humans raises questions about the possibilities of virtual reality. The developing use of 3D printing is another example of the merging of virtual and real worlds as real 3D objects can be printed from virtual designs.


Around the world, technologies are being built which will minimise 'real' human involvement and maximise the cross over between realistic and virtual realities, as demonstrated in the Science Daily article. One of the most prominent examples of this (as shown in the video below) is the use of virtual technologies in cars, which aim to assist the driving process by recording frequently visited locations, warning you of hazards on the road and essentially driving the car for you;



Some of these possibilities seem quite close to eventuating, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Or was it?









References


Anon. (2011) ‘Monkeys ‘Move and Feel’ Virtual Objects Using Only Their Brains’, ScienceDaily, October 5, <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111005131648.htm> 


Hennigan, W. J. (2012) ‘New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who’s accountable?’, Los Angeles Times, January 26, <http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-auto-drone-20120126,0,740306.story>


Howarth, B. (2012) '3D printing: saviour or piracy tool?', The Sydney Morning Herald, February 7, <http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/3d-printing-saviour-or-piracy-tool-20120207-1r2mm.html>

Week Four - Global Mnemotechnics

Modern media and media technologies have dramatically changed the way in which human beings interact with, and experience the world. The Internet has grown to become a database of human dialogues, experiences and memories that are constantly being archived. Modern media technologies have become an extension of human functioning, allowing people to access, record and save any information, anywhere. Woolworths have recently released an app which allows shoppers to peruse the aisles of a supermarket from their phone, letting then shop anywhere and at any time. People have almost become more virtual than real-life in their existence. Modern media has presented society with the ability to store their information in a realm beyond the reaches of human physicality. Frighteningly, this information is recorded, floating around in the Ethernet permanently. 

The Brain Blogger article explores the concept of brain washing, and whilst this is often associated with areas of espionage and political regimes, society as a whole is being progressively brain washed by the media they engage with on a daily basis. The collective media memory presents us with what we should know, experience and engage with, as it is in the global media memory. In this article, Daniel Coffeen explores how younger, technologically-dependant generations are experiencing higher levels of anxiety and demonstrate a more fragile state of mind. He argues that the reliance on media has bred a generation who feel they are constantly exposed and under scrutiny as their entire lives are embodied with the global memory of the media world. The extension of their own memory and state of being has produced a group of people who's identity, memory and sense of the world has been solely constructed, maintained and used through the online, technologically driven, media world. 

Media memory has great potential to provide people with a range of new experiences in the would that would not normally be possible in our limited human abilities. However, it has also begun to influence the way in which society functions, creating individuals who base their existence on the information fed to them from the global media memory.

References

Coffeen, D. (2012) "No wonder the kids today are so anxious", Thought Catalog, February 17 <http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/no-wonder-the-kids-today-are-so-anxious/>

Pamoukaghlian, Veronica (2011) ‘Mind Games: Science’s Attempts at Thought Control’, Brainblogger.com, December 28 <http://brainblogger.com/2011/12/28/mind-games-sciences-attempts-at-thought-control/>

Week Three - Media Ecologies

Postman explored the idea of media ecologies as the way in which technology influences and maintains control over society. The exploration of the media as a force by which society is determined demonstrates the great power media and technology has in the modern world. Modern society is very dependant upon the media, with the media now in the position of the role model in contemporary communities. It is indicative of our cultural dependence upon media technologies when anyone who is in the spotlight (including politicians, media personnel and public figures) requires a team of media minders to manipulate the message they broadcast to the general public. 

The definition of hot and cold media presents demonstrates the interesting dynamic that exists between media and audiences. The dialogue between the audience and the media has been constantly evolving with audiences originally playing the role of passive recipient, generally absorbing the hot media that was directed at them. However, with modern media and modern technologies, the landscape of the media environment has shifted, with audiences now able to engage with, and comment on, media, as well as produce their own media products. 

Media ecologies have played a very significant role in the development and understanding of human relationships. People are almost more virtual than real-life in their existence. Nystrom argues that media Ecologies have the "potential for violent effects on the fabric of civilisation" as it assigns our roles to us, tells us what we can and can't do and structures the society around us. The complex relationships between the media, the audience, advertisers, third parties and the contemporary global environment can be seen in this video which explores how media ideas are assembled to provide a set of views and cultural attitudes to which the audience is subjected, and encouraged to follow. 

References

Media Ecology Association ‘What is Media Ecology’ <http://www.media-ecology.org/media_ecology/>

Week Two - Foundations - Thinkers, Ideas

As the landscape of the media arena constantly changes, it seems quite difficult to develop concrete ideas about how media functions. The foundations of media have grown and evolved, and have shaped society, just as society has shaped media. From what has been explored in the videos, especially by Michel Bauwens and Saskia Sassen, technology has become a tool for modern entrepreneurs. However, as a tool, media and technology has been exploited by large corporations in an attempt to mould society around speed and consumption. Society is now dictated by technology and media. Media tells you what to wear, where to eat and what to throw your money at. The future of media is not one of free speech and accessibility. Rather, it would seem that media is becoming more narrow in it's approach to society as it has grown. The foundations of media have shifted greatly as the spheres of finance and consumerism have begun taking larger and larger portions of media interest. In the recent feminist seminar, The F Word: A Day of Global Feminist Debate, Naomi Wolf argued that the government's hold on the media was going to undermine the original foundations of media -  those of integrity, objectivity and accuracy. Whilst there may be concern about the government interference with the media, I think the greater threat to the ideas and foundations of media comes from financially powerful third parties, like Gina Rineheart. With someone from the business sector with ulterior motives in charge of the media, the traditional foundations of media will be shattered. The media will become an agent with an agenda, a puppet of the elite that will lose it's ability to stand against it's master. 

Whilst the implications of media can at times appear to have inherent political bias, the flow of media and the flow of media technologies is always changing. Grassroots organisations such as Adbusters are using media as a tool for social reform and as a medium between the people, rather than a medium between third party institutions. This article, from the Adbusters website, about Horizontalism captures the way in society can be drawn together through a cultural medium.

References

Bauwens, Michel (2009) ‘The Internet as Playground and Factory’ <http://vimeo.com/7919113>

Sassen, Saskia (2009) ‘The Internet as Playground and Factory’ <http://vimeo.com/6789940>

Sitrin, Marina (2012) 'Horizontalism', Adbusters, February 21, <http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/100/horizontalism.html>

Wolf, Naomi (2012) 'The F Word: A Day of Global Feminist Debate'

Week One - What is a Media Event?

A media event can take so many different forms. The definition of a media event has grown as the capabilities of media have grown. Traditionally, media events would have centered around large-scale publicly broadcasted incidents, such as a radio broadcasts or a television production. With the advent of media technology, social network sites and mobile communications, any form of publication (including this one) is a media event. Media is constantly in a state of transformation, and this transformation has altered the way in which information can become a media event.

I feel that what essentially creates a media event is the ability to publish. As was outlined in the lecture, ‘global events’ are created because people can remotely link to an event that is occurring anywhere in the world. An event was also described as “the sense of singular irruptions” and these irruptions (and the access to them) are what define the terms of a media event. In the past, these irruptions involved the physical stopping of the daily routine to present an event (such as the arrival of a VIP or the announcement of global political decision) in which publicity was the main driving force. Whilst this notion hasn’t fundamentally changed in today’s world, publicity is still a primary factor, the manner in which an event can be considered a ‘media’ event has transformed. With the ability to upload, share and publish, any event that receive some form of publicity (a ‘like’ on Facebook, a ret-tweet or a general readership of 10, 000 people) can become a media event. What someone had for breakfast can be published online, appear as an irruption in someone’s newsfeed, and receive publicity when people remotely access it.

Fundamentally, a media event is something someone has published, with the intent to receive publicity, from an audience who can access it from any location after the said event has interrupted their routine and caught their attention.