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Convergence, Connections and Social Media brief notes for a brave new world Sofia Gkiousou Presenting to EBSP – 2010 – Spring Term Birkbeck, University of London

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Intro: Story of a moment in time <ul><li>An imaginary (somewhat) chain of events </li></ul><ul><li>Iraq is discussed. A lot. </li></ul><ul><li>The US wants to go to War. </li></ul><ul><li>David is concerned. </li></ul><ul><li>The UK wants to go to War. </li></ul><ul><li>The Stop the War website is created. The Community expands. </li></ul><ul><li>Debates, meetings, discussions are held within the antiwar movement. Online. Articles are linked. Films. Documentaries. Bogus evidence. Real evidence. A story is built. David reads. David participates. </li></ul><ul><li>The march is arranged. Online. </li></ul><ul><li>David takes a picture… </li></ul><ul><li>… and uploads it on Flickr. </li></ul><ul><li>∞ </li></ul>

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Intro: Story of a remix Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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Rewind: Technology & Control The new tech Smaller, faster, better? The cult of the amateur This is not a new process. Remember video cameras? Amateur vs. professional And the infinite stages in-between The time of control Amateur captured events – Professionally determined content. Editorial control. The time of freedom? Independent, local, globalised, individualised. The time of convergence? The constant feedback loops between amateurs & professionals. Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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Convergence Technology Smaller, faster, better? Ownership Concentration vs. dispersion Convergence as a process From the global to the local and vice-versa. From the determined by the ‘other’ to the appropriated and remixed. Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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Social Networks & the ‘who’ are you Durkheim’s anomie Traditional relationships are dissolved – loss of social integration Granovetter’s ties Strong and weak ties Open and closed networks Goffman’s performativity Playing out roles Roles our self-validated and self-policed. Rules emerge. Foucault’s discipline theory The Panopticon The Internalised Panopticon Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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All hail the webz Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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The Hive Levy’s collective intelligence Large-scale information gathering and processing activities that have emerged in web communities. Harnessing individual expertise towards shared goals & objectives. ‘ No one knows everything, everyone knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity’ (P. Levy, 1997) Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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Digital Culture PARTICIPATION Professional AND amateur Open source AND copyrighted Feedback loops AND passive audiences REMEDIATION Bolter and Grusin (1999): every new medium diverges from yet also reproduces older media, whereas old media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media. How do you attribute value? BRICOLAGE Borrowing, hybridity, mixture, plagiarism. The never ending draft. Baudrillard’s “second-hand truth, objectivity and authenticity” Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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All quiet on the Internet front? CONTROL Who watches who? COPYRIGHT What belongs to whom? PRIVACY Are you in charge? Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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Are you (really) in charge? via Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5470696/fck-you-google

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What does your online life say about you? Is it my profile? Is it my network? Is it the sum of my online endeavours? Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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And what do you do? You catch the flu. Viral : Spreads similarly to a virus from host to host Marketing technique which uses a pre-existing social network to increase brand awareness. The process is self- replicating, reminiscent of the spread of computer or pathological viruses. Viral marketing works well with the Long Tail model Can you really control a viral campaign? Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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How do you research connections & online life? Three models “ filter model” of CMC (Sproull & Kiesler, 1985) Technological or engineering features of e-mail and other forms of computer-based communications. “ social science” perspective of the Internet (Spears et al. 2002) Assumes instead that personal goals and needs are the sole determinant of the Internet’s effects. Interactions – goals – social context ( Bargh 2002, McKenna & Bargh 2000, Spears et al. 2002) Focusing on the interaction between features of the Internet communication setting and the particular goals and needs of the communicators, as well as the social context of the interaction setting Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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The things I want to know IDENTITY How do you construct it? How do you perform it? POWER Who has it? Who is the influential user? Who ROCKS? TRUST Vague? Or the savvier you get the more specific it becomes? CREATIVITY From viewing to sharing to creating? LEARNING Amazing games, serious learning Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org

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Suggested Bibliography <ul><li>Levy, Pierre (1997) Collective Intelligence. Cambridge: Perseus </li></ul><ul><li>Jenkins Henry (2004) The cultural logic of media convergence. International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 7(1): 33–43 </li></ul><ul><li>Deuze Mark (2006) Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture. The Information Society, 22: 63–75 </li></ul><ul><li>Featherstone, Mike (2009) Ubiquitous Media An Introduction. Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 26(2–3): 1–22 </li></ul><ul><li>Westlake, E.J. (2008) Friend Me if You Facebook Generation Y and Performative Surveillance. TDR: The Drama Review 52:4 </li></ul><ul><li>Buckingham, David; Pini, Maria; Willett, Rebekah (2007) ‘Take back the tube!’: The discursive construction of amateur film and video making. Journal of Media Practice Volume 8 Number 2 </li></ul><ul><li>Bargh, John A; McKenna, Katelyn Y. A. (2004) The Internet and Social Life. Annual Review of Psychology, 55:573–90 </li></ul><ul><li>Bolter, Jay David, and Grusin, Richard (1999) Remediation: Understanding new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press </li></ul><ul><li>Kenny, D. And Marshall, J.F. (2000) Contextual Marketing – The Real Business of the Internet, Harvard Business Review , November – December 2000 </li></ul><ul><li>Moore, R.E. (2003) From genericide to viral marketing: on ‘brand’, Language & Communication , Vol. 23, ppp. 331 – 357 </li></ul>Sofia Gkiousou www.digital-era.org