Digital Culture Reflective Essay on blogs

                                                          Digital Culture Reflective Essay on blogs

INTRODUCTION

In the first term of university we were asked to pick additional subjects we would like to add to our individual timetables, one of the 3 options which were made available to me as I was an undergraduate journalism student was digital culture and as I was reading the unit abstract I knew that I would enjoy this topic very much as it was exploring many topics within the digital world which I find somewhat interesting.

Term 1 UNIT UNDERSTANDING

 The unit abstract basically highlighted some of the areas this subject will cover. Judging by the title digital culture it instantly gives you a clue as to what this unit is all about. The moment I heard digital culture I immediately thought that this subject will be specifically focusing on the digital media and its correspondence with and relation to different cultures and traditions. Little did I know that through this unit I would gain a lot of understanding and a change of view point as there are many different  formations of the word digital not only from a media prospective.

In the first 3 month of our first term we had an introduction into digital culture and its significance in the world today and how digital media and technology are related to and influence much of what we do today. One specific lecture I can remember was when we were focusing more around the digital bodies and how manufactures around the world are making more machineries and technological devices to work think and operate like a human  doing practically everything and anything. Most of which I personally find very dehumanizing and pointless. For instance Google glasses is a voice operated computerized automatic glass which does everything you tell it to do I would personally refer to it as a human navigation system. This would have to be one of the most profound creations to come out in 2013 although I don’t think it’s out in shops yet I feel that the financial market could benefit a great profit from this latest invention.

We also discussed in our blogs about the different affects and ways of media change and how the media industry and technology share a mutual bond in coming together to create devices that make it easier for people to gain access to news, notification, announcements etc direct on the go. One of the many devices include smart phone and ipads which have become more and more popular and gained recognition in recent years 

As well as focusing on the digital minds and bodies we also looked closely at the media and technology in different aspects. We also looked at laws and regulation of privacy online through popular social network sites such as myspace, bebo, twitter and the most common one which nearly over a dozen people have access to which is facebook.  Facebook is a social networking site that is used by many through facebook people share quotes , pictures , videos, as well as their personal information when setting up there account facebook allows you to inbox friends and meet new friends it helps you stay in contact with loved ones and those who you have lost contact with. In our digital culture workshops I discovered more of an understanding in to how facebook as a corporation works in terms of privacy. We also had a task set out to us by Gavin which was to revisit our old pictures and statues and see how our mentality has changed along with our appearance and the way in which we choose to pose in pictures as well as pictures and statues facebook usually take it upon themselves to try and promote and sell you things just based on your preference of music, books, style, celeb and any other interests you might of notified facebook of.

Technology whether digital or not is not only excelling in more ways than one but it is refining and changing the way we think and feel about almost everything  as it affects most of our daily lives.

Term 2 UNITS UNDERSTANDING

As we entered our second term in our digital culture lectures our focus area and topics for blogs elevated more towards the cyber warfare and information hacking side of technology. This involved research into different types of hacking and warfare. As I started my blog on cyber warfare I began to take interest in information warfare which has a lot to do with the government and the employment of a specific nation’s private information whereas cyber war fare is simply focusing mainly of the hacking through computerized technologies and devices. The word/phrase cyber basically means all matters that are considered and believed to be computer generated, and the term warfare basically means the force of an operation or act being carried out in a desperate attempt to sabotage.

In this term we also looked at other issues all that have a similar correspondence to what was discussed and communicated in term one in order for us to develop a mature understanding of digital technology in diverse traditions. I had many blogs to complete for both terms the purpose of these blogs was in actual fact to see what I have picked up on in lectures and also for me to elaborate on my personal opinion views and understanding to be shared. One of my many blogs for the second term was based around the topic of democracy not only from a political point of view but also from a media prospective. One of my favorite blogs from term 2 would have to be ‘how the media informs us about democracy’ the reason as to why it is my favorite blog of this term is simply because I thoroughly enjoyed researching about this topic as it interested me very much so.  I enjoyed writing up my blog for this question as I was very opinionated about this matter in question and my blog was my very own way in which I could express my views and thoughts about both democracy and media. Media plays huge influential role not only when it comes to democracy issues but society as a whole. There are many job roles journalism being the most common that inform and keep the public informed of political, government and current issues that are taking place around the world

CONCLUSION

All things considered I would gladly say that through my digital culture lectures I was able to get a better understanding of the various types of technology along with how it has refined and incorporate with modern day culture. I also hope that I demonstrated and elaborated on my perceptive of the digital technology/ media and culture within the world we live in today.

     Digital Media Systems

As part of my digital culture blogs for term 2 I have been discussing how digital media have impacted upon our concepts of the media text. This blog that I am doing now will be somewhat linked to my previous ones in this particular blog I will be making points about and elaborating on how the ways in which digital convergence facilitates a media ecology of connected, threshold elements.

First off I would like to start by explaining exactly what digital convergence refers to and what it means. Digital convergence is the preparation of essential digital technology mechanisms and qualities such as voice, texts, video, pictures, broadcasts, presentation, streaming media, global connectivity and personalized services; the mixture of all of these characteristics and abilities from numerous electronic systems into a easy, converge and computer-mediated communication system to enable individuals interact, play, communicate, collaborate and share information in many new and diverse ways.

Through digital culture you have the ability to connect and put together much narrative text beside images which might be viewed upon as part of the media systems. We are also able to take real life situations and place them in electronic games to make the game seem more humanized and realistic

Reference

http://www.globrocks.com/globrockssitearticles/digitalconvergence.html

 From Open Source to an Open Movement

The 21^st century saw the rise of the  computer industry in terms of hardware and software sales in both the UK and the us financial market as well as how Microsoft windows has matured and progressed in recent years  from 1992 to 2012 the colors scheme of Microsoft windows has changed dramatically along with the logo. Another approaching subject matter is that between socialism and capitalism and what makes them alike with what separates the two.   Both capitalism and socialism are more alike than we think as both parties are contrasting institutes of reflection in economics the fundamental cause  of most of the arguments regarding the socialism and capitalism debates are mostly about the economic equality and the role in which the government plays in all of this. Socialist are quiet expressive when articulating there belief which is that the economic inequality is bad for society and the government is held responsible  for  this deduction by means of programs that the poor can benefit from e.g. free public education, free or subsidized healthcare, social security for the elderly, higher taxes on the rich.

However in contrast to the socialist, capitalist believe that  the government does not take advantage of the economic possessions efficiently as part of a private enterprise so therefore society is better off with the free market determining economic winners and losers. The U.S is one of the most broadly measured strongholds of capitalism and great components of Scandinavia and Western Europe are socialist democracies. Nevertheless, in all honesty the majority of urbanized nations have a number of programs that are seen to be socialist.
Wikinomics

Wikinomics is a term that describes the effects of extensive collaboration and user-participation on the marketplace and corporate world. Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams popularized the term in their book, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes everything, published in December 2006. The word itself is constructed from wiki (a server program that allows users to collaborate on a Web site) and economics.

References

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/wikinomics

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Capitalism_vs_Socialism

                          

 Internet & Tagging

We live in a theoretical world where we can enhance our knowledge and gain more understanding about practically anything and furthermore challenge our minds as well as reshape our mindsets and the way we think , feel about certain things that are happening in and around the world. This is all thanks to modern technical devices and new media being exposed to us for instance the internet/worldwide web would have to be one of the most fastest search engines to ever be created, this formation has helped us greatly as now humans have excelled there natural capability to search , research and find things. It has made life and many things including education a whole lot easier to accomplish.

In my earlier blogs I was discussing the offense of hacking together with cyber warfare which leads me to linking these two blogs together as they both communicate well with each other. The reason why I think this is because both share a close bond with internet safety regulations. As many of us use many networks through the internet one of the popular ones being social network you begin to wonder and ask ‘how safe is it?’ I mean a vast amount of the public share lots of information about themselves such as age, name, hometown, address, university/schools, course etc, this allows facebook database to create their own personal profile of you as an individual by just using the information you have shared along with music, photos and pictures that you have either liked or are tagged in.

Folksonomy

"Folksonomy is the result of personal free tagging of information for one's own retrieval. The tagging is done in a social environment (usually shared and open to others) by the person consuming the information."

Metadata

Metadata summarizes basic information about data, which can make finding and working with particular instances of data easier. For example, author, date created and date modified and file size are examples of very basic document metadata.  Having the ability to filter through that metadata makes it much easier for someone to locate a specific document. 

Tagging

A tag is a keyword used to describe an article or website. Tags are often used in social bookmarking, social news and blog entries to help users search for relevant content.

References

http://webtrends.about.com/od/glossary/g/tag_def.htm

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/metadata

http://www.socialtagging.org/

The Death of Democracy

In my pervious blogs I was talking about the different ways in which the digital media world has helped inform us about democracy and also how it has shaped our concept of democracy. In this blog I will also be focusing on democracy but not on how we are informed about it through the media but more about democracy as a whole and the ways in which it is represented to us.  I will also be discussing abit about habermases theory and its influence towards democracy.

Direct democracy - One category of democratic system is direct democracy; direct democracy is basically when the right of every citizen who is over the age limit is allowed to attend political gatherings/congregations and  is also allowed to partake and vote on important issues being raised and discussed at political meetings. One major section of direct democracy is that everyone involved has the right to hold political responsibility if they wish to do so. This type of democracy also accepts that everyone who has the power to should with great force take part in the organization so that the representation of the people can have a serious impact on any law that is passed on as it will have many votes from the majority.

Representative Democracy - An additional type of democracy is representative democracy; before I go on to explain exactly what representative democracy is it is made apparent and clearly obvious to us from the first word which is ‘representative’ often when this word is mentioned it can mean one of two things which can either be seen in a positive and negative light. One which is when you are representing a country or a group of individuals for example prime minister, president, mayor, council etc, all of these are considered as representatives for the general public. However on the other hand every so often through the media and politics false representations are given out about a political party or Mp which influence and help mould people’s opinions and views about them, this is a fine example of a negative representation and outlook.

a good example of representative democracy would have to be great Britain as it is one of the few countries where citizens which are 18 and over gather to vote and elect a representative for their country this chosen representative will be held responsible for making important decisions about various topics such as travel fares/ school fees/ and other economic issues and changes. These elections take place every 5 years and the winning Mp becomes a representative for the general public in parliament. All the Mp’s assemble together in the House of Commons with the main intention to discuss important matters and pass on laws.

As part of my other assignments for journalism I was assigned to do an essay about Jurgen Habermas and his theory about the well speculated public sphere when doing my research I found that the public sphere and democracy slightly correspond in a way, because in the public sphere people would gather in various locations of coffee shops to discuss important and political issues and vote amongst themselves. This can be seen as a form of direct and representative democracy.

References http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/direct_democracy.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/representative_democracy.htm

      The commercialization of The Internet

We live in a generation where most of us use the internet and are influenced  by the web on a daily basis  we all use the internet for various purposes for education, work , social networking etc   within this blog I will be looking at and analyzing the commercialization  of the internet along with its development.

The internet alone has reformed the digital and interaction world tremendously.  As many inventions such as that of the telegraph telephone, radio and computer prepare for this exceptional combination of ability. As the internet is becoming more up to date and modern  we are all beginning to notice the internet as a mechanism for information dissemination, and a common place for  association and intercommunication between social groups and their computers without the need for any geographic location.

The internet/ the worldwide web is often seen as a widespread information base, the primary example of what is often referred to as the National Information foundation.  It has a complex history which includes a variety of features these many aspects could be either one of the following examples technological, organizational, and community

The Internet was commercialized in 1995 when NSFNET was decommissioned, removing the last restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic. Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a revolutionary impact on culture and commerce, including the rise of near-instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) "phone calls", two-way interactive video calls, and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking, and online shopping sites

Reference

http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

GAMES CULTURE ‘2

In my previous blog I was looking at and discussing about how the formation of various types of games have started to play a serious part in our culture. I was also paying close attention to the art of video gaming and its history also looking at how it has been reshaped throughout the years, as more and more video games are becoming more modernized not only in the way in which it is played but also considering all aspects of the games and what it includes.

Whilst analyzing gaming in its different forms you begin to ask various question such as ‘what makes games fun?’ most games that are played on online sites or at home on a consel often involve interaction between 2 players as they communicate with each other using control pads and headphone this can excitement and be considered as fun by both the players also characters and narratives within the game can also make them more enthusiastic to play. They will also be able to pick up a few skills and techniques along the way on how to play. There are also different strategies of playing games along with actions, methods, etc.

 Game Theory

Set of concepts aimed at decision making in situations of competition and conflict (as well as of cooperation and interdependence) under specified rules. Game theory employs games of strategy (such as chess) but not of chance (such as rolling a dice). A strategic game represents a situation where two or more participants are faced with choices of action, by which each may gain or lose, depending on what others choose to do or not to do. The final outcome of a game, therefore, is determined jointly by the strategies chosen by all participants.

Reference

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/game-theory.html