Flickr And New Media Literacy

NEW MEDIA LITERACY
Flickr and communities of practice

New media literacies are bound up with the everyday practices of user-generated content.
Literacy is not a ‘thing’ … but a geographically and historically specific, socially constructed field of negotiation.
Technologies, at least to some extent, determine how they will be used, the meanings that will be attached to them, and the literacies that enable their use.

flickr
Flick r is a photo sharing website.
Users can:
Upload photos or short videos.
Organize images into sets and collections.
Tag their own and others’ images with key words.
Annotate or comment on their own and others images.
Search images by tags or titles.
Contribute images to themed groups.
Join in discussions in themed groups.
Store images for use in Blogs, discussions, and wikis.
Create new media products from their own or others images.

flickr
Users can:
Establish a screen name and buddy icon
Provide a profile of themselves.
Give ‘testimonials ‘ to other users.
Nominate other users as ‘friends’ ‘family’ or ‘contacts.’
Assign viewing rights to users in different categories.
Manage the copyright on their images and exercise some control over their use.
View statistics on viewers, referrers, and views.
Share the EXIF data on their images or read others.

The collective practices of users work to construct norms that govern the way that Flickr is used.
These norms are not ‘taught.’ Rather, they are ‘learned’ through everyday practice.
They become intuitive behaviour patterns for the community of users.

Norm: Continuous active participation in content creation.
Flickr emphasizes immediacy. ‘Most recent’ lists underscore a practice of shooting, editing and uploading without delay, and doing so continually. Users say ‘goodbye’ if they won’t be posting for a period of time.

Norm: Networked individualism as a mode of social organization
Individual photo-streams and voluntary group memberships mean that ‘community’ is based on networked individualism rather than collaborative practice. Users create and contribute in parallel, rather than in association.

Norm: Iterative, accretive media use
Flickr content building is based on repetition and accumulation. Themed group membership facilitates the repetition of particular types of images and the publication of ‘most images in the group’ statistics promotes the accumulation of more images.

Pro-active discovery, tweaking and control – hacking.
Support, information, example and advice create an environment that encourages experimentation and manipulation of images. Availability of flickr API enables the development of flickr helper applications. Flickr prides itself on being forever in Beta.

Social uses of photography
Personal development.
Inscribe memory and identity.
Reflect and sustain relationships.
Self representation.
Creative expression.

Personal development
Flickr is a learning space, enabling the development of a whole range of aesthetic and photographic literacies, and specific media production and consumption skills.
“ People become increasingly interested in ‘better photography’ as they become more deeply engaged with the various layers of possible participation” (Burgess, 2006:5)

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Many flickr groups have learning about photography as their theme:
A-Z of digital editing
Textures for layers
Photoshop elements
Critique my image
Fix my foto
Comments contain suggestions for improvement.
The ‘Explore’ feature provides constantly updated examples of interesting images for emulation.

Inscribe memory and identity
Photographs not only help us remember people and events, they become the remembered. Photographs construct tangible narratives of our lives, becoming more real than the events. Sontag (1997:163-5) criticizes the too easy generation of fabricated memories through family snapshots.
However it is through these narratives that we develop a sense of self, and a connection with our personal history.

INSCRIBE MEMORY AND IDENTITY
Groups such as:
365 days
365 baby
Project 365
encourage the taking and posting of ordinary images of everyday life.
Flickr facilitates the creation of a personal chronology, conveniently archived for the photographer, and available publicly as an identity narrative.

Reflect and sustain relationships
Both the subject matter of photographs and the way they are used to share experiences are important in reflecting and supporting relationships.

REFLECT AND SUSTAIN RELATIONSHIPS
The content of many of the images on flickr is social:
Images of friends and family posted to share
Images of social gatherings.
The use of other images is social:
Images that users want to discuss with friends
Images that users think friends would enjoy.
Users report that the primary audience for their images was people they knew (Van House, 2007:2718).
The contacts, groups and commenting functions are overtly relationship oriented.

Self representation
Photographs are a way of presenting yourself that ensures that others see you as you wish to be seen.
Self representation involves not just images of yourself and your environment , but also images that show your creativity, aesthetic sense, style , and skill.

SELF-REPRESENTATION
Flickr users manage the image they present of themselves (Van House, 2007:2720).
Many participants maintain a careful distinction between the images posted to flickr and those posted to password-protected photo sites, blogs and social networking sites. The images are carefully calibrated to the audience of each space (Van House, 2007:2720).

Creative expression
Photographic images are used for self-expression. The images provide an outlet for expression of one's own personality, feelings, or ideas, in a creative way.

SELF-EXPRESSION
For some, the major appeal of flickr is the ability to display their own aesthetic images and view others.
Their flickr interaction is largely with people they don’t know whose work they admire or who admire theirs. (Van House, 2007:2721).

What Can We Do With Flickr?
“ This cluttered desk represents just a small set of powerful ways you can use flickr. This image has been annotated with "notes", so as you move a mouse over hotspot areas, pop-up messages will appear, some of them with links that can take you elsewhere.”
Alan Levine http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/265279980/

Tutorials, web apps, scripts and other resources for enhancing your flickr experience.
http://flickrhacks.blogspot.com/

FLICKR IN EDUCATION
Why Flickr is Great
Flickr Third Party Links for Classroom Use
Developing an Academic Image Collection with Flickr
7 Things You Should Know About Flickr

PARTICIPATORY ARCHIVES
The Commons http://www.flickr.com/commons/
The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show the hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.
You're invited to help describe the photographs you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding tags or leaving comments.
Participating collections include The Library of Congress, The Australian War Memorial, and the Smithsonian.

THIRD PARTY FLICKR APPS
Flickr Services
The Great Flickr Tools Collection
Flickr bits and pieces
FD’s Flickr Toys

Image credits
1 Flickr Rocks: The Visions of Kai
2 My Flickr Fix: aknacer
4 Flickr Chick 4 Ever: Jackie Hatch
6 Flickr User Model: Soldierant
10 Orchids : Mel Gray
11 HDR : Maureen G
All other images: marj k

Bibliography
Burgess, Jean (2006) Vernacular creativity, cultural participation and new media literacy AoIR 7.0 Internet Convergences Brisbane, Australia 27-30 Sept
Van house, Nancy A. (2007) Flickr and public image-sharing: distant closeness and photo exhibition CHI2007 Work-in-Progress San Jose, CA , April 28 – May 3.
Robbie, Diane & Lynette Zeeng (2008) IT’s evolving, they’re changing, we’re listening, everybody’s learning , ASCILITE Melbourne, Australia, Nov 30 - Dec 3.

Produced by Marj Kibby Introduction to Emerging Technologies University of Manitoba

Flickr And New Media Literacy

by Marj Kibby

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Flickr And New Media Literacy Presentation Transcript