CITIZEN JOURNALISM II

‘‘When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism’’- Jay Rosen (2008)

The importance of citizen journalism has been the centre of many a debate between the professional and amateur journalist alike. I tend to lean towards the “importance” side of this argument and suggest that citizen journalism is just the natural progression of the profession. Seth C. Lewis (2010) rightly points out that in a digital environment of 1s and 0s, information is no longer scarce, hard to produce, nor difficult to publish. Hence the setting for a citizen(s) journalism.

Lewis’ (2010) research outlines the utopian and dystopian views many professionals have regarding citizen journalism; focusing mainly on community newspapers. Participant answers discussed the practical and theoretical implications that citizen journalism could have on their industry. I couldn’t help but picture the anti-citizen journalism respondents of this research as crotchety old people; stuck in their ways and afraid of change. Conversely, the affirmative respondents seemed young, hip, and willing to work hand-in-hand with their amateur counter-parts.

Blogger journalist J.D. Lasica (2003) suggests that instead of looking at blogging and traditional journalism as rivals for readers’ eyeballs, we should recognize that we’re entering an era in which they complement each other, intersect with each other, play off one another. The transparency of blogging has contributed to news organizations becoming a bit more accessible and interactive, although newsrooms still have a long, long way to go. I feel the same way as Lasica.

On the other side, it could be argued that citizen journalism is a big contributor to the opinion the Journalism degrees have become the most useless degrees in the world (Prentice, J 2011, Alvaraz, A 2011, Sehgal, U 2011). While I don’t believe this is the case, I do believe that professional journalists have to accept their changing environment and embrace the pro-am relationships because like it or not, citizen journalism isn’t going away anytime soon.

References

Lasica, J.D. 2009, ‘Blogs and Journalism need each other’, Nieman Reports, accessed on 30/04/2012, http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=101042

Lewis, C. (2010) Thinking about citizen journalism: the philosophical and practical challenges of user-generated content for community newspapers, Journalism Practice, Vol. 4, No 2, 163-179

Prentice, J 2011, ‘Degrees are useless and other tips for aspiring Journalists’, Business Insider, June 16, accessed on 30/04/12, www.businessinsider.com/degrees-are-useless-and-other-tips-for-aspiring-journalists-2011-6

Alvaraz, A 2011, ‘Report: Journalism Degrees are probably just as useless as you expected’, MediaITE, April 28, accessed on 30/04/12, http://www.mediaite.com/online/report-journalism-degrees-are-probably-just-as-useless-as-you-expected/

Sehgal, U 2011, ‘Journalism tops list of most useless College Degrees’, Fishbowl NY, April 28, accessed on 30/04/12, http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/journalism-useless-college-degrees_b34212

Rosen, Jay 2008 ‘’A Most Useful Definition of Citizen Journalism’’, PressThink, accessed on 30/04/2012, http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2008/07/14/a_most_useful_d.html

MUSIC PIRACY

Ever since music became digitized, "a guy I know" has looked for ways to get it for free. He spent all of his money growing up on CD’s and I guess it is just his way of getting reimbursed. If you name a P2P file sharing client, he’s probably used it. When Napster was released, he thought it was the best thing in the world. Of the billion plus files shared by Feb 2001 (Whelan, A 2012), he’s probably responsible for more than most. But when Napster shut down, he had to look elsewhere to satisfy his file sharing needs. And so began the seemingly endless list of virus infested P2P software downloads; a well-known risk of file sharing. After a while he just gave up; that is until he discovered torrents.

Torrents are different from previous ways of downloading music in that the files are taken and downloaded from many (sometimes thousands) of different sources (WiseGeek N.D). This is the main reason why torrent download clients have yet to meet the fate of Napster and why it’s impossible to track the origin of any one file in order to prosecute an individual for illegally sharing music.

There has been a lot of debate surrounding the effect of digital piracy on the music industry so I have included some recent figures to help you make up your own mind.

• 30 billion songs were downloaded between 2004 and 2009
• Annually, US internet users consume $7-$20 billion worth of digitally pirated music
• It is estimated that 1.2 million jobs in Europe will be lost by 2015 across the film, music, software and TV industries

http://www.webpagefx.com/blog/internet/online-digital-piracy-infographic/

Thanks for reading. Please enjoy this vid.

Watch this video on VideoSurf or see more Trey Parker Videos or Matt Stone Videos

References

WiseGeek N.D ‘What are Torrents?’ accessed: 24/04/2012, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-torrents.htm  

Whelan, A 2012, Convergent Media Pratices, lecture, BCM112, University of Wollongong, delivered 23 April

Video sourced from: http://www.videosurf.com/video/south-park-not-a-big-deal-10791435


Image sourced from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/music%20pirate/eliteskater08/Music_Pirate9jhDetail.png?o=17

GEEK CHIC

Geeks are cool now which really seems to annoy my sister who has been a self-professed geek for years now. Everyone is dressing like her and becoming interested in the things that she was into "before they were cool". The old clothes she brought from op shops for a dollar are now being sold for hundreds in designer stores.

This social development fascinates me and Lev Grossman (2005) outlines this in his well-written article ‘The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth’. I found myself agreeing with nearly everything he said and realised I’m probably one of the people my sister is hating on. I only started watching the x-men and other super-hero movies when they became mainstream I guess I am guilty of being “geek chic” as Henry Jenkins (2010) puts it. 

Jenkins (2010) interviews Ethan Gilsdorf, the author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks and they discuss the geek stereotype as well as the ‘cooling of the geek’ mentioned by Grossman (2005). Gilsdorf explains how hard it’s becoming to the nerds apart from the jocks and I have to say I agree. The pale, over-weight, acne-covered stereotypes we all imagine when the word geek comes to mind no longer applies.

Dmitri Williams (2008) explores this phenomenon in his study 'Who plays, how much and why? Debunking the stereotypical gamer profile'. One of the most fascinating and surprising findings from that research was that gamers are apparently healthier and in better shape that non-gamers (Williams, D 2008) whereas all pre-conceptions would usually point to the contrary.

The universe is turning upside down; geeks are looking and fit and non-geeks are over-weight and out-of-touch with what’s cool. Who saw that coming?

References

Jenkins, Henry (2010) "A Kind of Vast Game": An Interview with Ethan Gilsdorf (Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks)

Grossman, Lev (2005) "The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth", Time Magazine

Williams, Dmitri, Yee, Nick, and Caplan, Scott (2008), 'Who plays, how much and why? Debunking the stereotypical gamer profile', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication vol. 13 pp.993-1018.

TRANSMEDIA STORY-TELLING

Henry Jenkins (2007) explores the idea of spreading a narrative across numerous platforms in his blog post, ‘transmedia story-telling 101’. Straight off the bat I had no idea what transmedia story-telling was but Jenkins managed to make it very clear by using examples like the Matrix, DC comics and Star Wars in order to give an easily understood definition. I must admit I have never explored a story further than the one text; I have read a couple of the Harry Potter books as well as seen the movies but that’s about it. Comics made into movies are a great example of how one can delve further into the characters and storylines of a particular narrative.  Especially with the recent barrage of Marvel super-hero movies being released at the moment, those who have read the comics have far greater insight into the story-line than those who haven’t. The biggest display of transmedia story-telling I can think of is the Star Wars phenomenon. Jenkins (2007) mentions the ‘Attack of the Clones’ cartoon series which fills the gap between episode II and III but that is just the tip of the ice-berg; books, comics, websites, and merchandise all contribute to the densely layered storyline and give insight into even the smallest aspect of the narrative. Video games give background information on lesser known characters and let you explore jedi missions not shown in the films. A particular board game takes you through every step needed to become a Jedi; steps that cannot be fully understood through watching the films. I myself have not taken part in this extra Star Wars research but I have seen first-hand the extent of someone’s Star Wars textual library and it is mind blowing.

My only question about transmedia story-telling relates to consumer made texts. Are fan made comics included in the transmedia space?  If it isn’t approved by the original creators, are they to be disregarded when putting together the pieces of a transmedia narrative? If so, how do we know what to ignore? I think that for a fluid, un-fractured and un-contradictory narrative, all ideas have to come from the same source. If all texts (producer and consumer) are included, the story is likely to become too confusing and the consumer will lose interest. I know I would. Thanks for reading.

References

Jenkins, H. (2007) 'Transmedia Storytelling 101' http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html

Image sourced from: bdcomics.bdgamers.net