Extra Blog: Harold and Kumar (Wasn't graded before)

This blog post is a rant and rave about the upcoming release of yet another movie based on the adventures of Harold and Kumar in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. Watching an interview of John Cho, who stars as Harold, reminded me of what is so great about the Harold and Kumar films.  If anyone has seen these movies they would be aware of the absolutely ridiculous situations the duo get into, which usually involves drugs, sex, and sometimes a cheetah.  While these storylines are ridiculous the plots sometimes bring attention to issues within our culture in hilarious and offensive ways, which may even help get the point across.

            While the movie clearly puts the two protagonists into crazy and beyond believe situations, it not only adds a tremendous amount of hilarity, but the films also show the absurdity of our own country.  For instance in the second movie, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, there are scenes which in a very hilarious and not exactly a politically correct, but the filmmakers were striving to bring to attention the mistreatment of prisoners within Guantanamo Bay.  I think that one of the strong points for these movies is that they bring to light some of the political issues within the country.  For instance in the next film there are scenes filled with Occupy Wallstreet protesters.  I only imagine what hilarity the filmmakers can bring into the sad state of our current economy. 

            The Films don’t only focus on political issues within the country, but they also illustrate the ethnic diversity of our nation.  This is sometimes done in very racist and prejudiced ways, but it serves as a reminder to audiences to not take stereotypes about ethnic groups seriously.  Multiple times throughout these movies the audience is reminded of the greatness of our nation. Even though like, Harold and Kumar, we may get lost at times America will always eventually find its way to its destination.  However, the trip there may not be smooth sailing or necessarily the correct way of going about solving the issues at hand. 

            I look forward to the absurd plotline that the third installment is sure to boast.  I hope to have a great time laughing at Neil Patrick Harris being crazy, Kumar’s wild plans, Harold attempting to resolve the situation, and the backwards and hysterical views of the world surrounding them, when the movie is released this Friday.

 

Smart Mobs, more than just Political Movements

            In this weeks reading we took a look at the beginning of a phenomenon called “smart mobs” coined by Howard Rheingold. These mobs are able to coordinate quickly to participate in anything from political protests to meeting new people on the street.  The increased availability of mobile phones and the power of the technology allows for new ways for people to interact with each other.  While some of these smart mobs result in harmful situations, many of the mobs now are being coordinated for enjoyable activities. 

            When examining smart mobs Rheingold saw that some of the technology was being used for violence but he also noted that, “any observer who focuses exclusively on the potential for violence would miss evidence of perhaps an even more profoundly disruptive potential— for beneficial as well as malign purposes—of smart mob technologies and techniques.”  Rheingold realized that the technology used by the military when he was writing the book would become more accessible to the public and we are currently seeing these ideas becoming a reality. Techniques such as “swarming” arose from the ability for people to instantly communicate through social media and text messaging which allows for people to organize and cooperate more quickly than ever before.

            For instance the organization Improv Everywhere sets up missions on their Facebook and Twitter pages.  These events , which are being called flash mobs, are usually pranks of silly nature such as riding the New York Subway without pants.  However, others are just fun ideas.  One of these smart mobs was coordinated through Facebook and text messaging telling people to download an mp3 file, and where to meet in New York City.  This message was spread through the networks and eventually the gathering grew to thousands of people.  At 8:30p.m. people were told to start listening to the downloaded mp3, this lead to an awesome spectacle of group participation. The video shows the “swarming” technique as people move quickly and converge on a single area once the idea is spread to the group.  This organization of people was caused by using cell phones and social networks to spread the word showing how Rheingold was right in his ideas. Smart mob technologies and techniques are being used to benefit the group rather than cause violence or protests. The ability for massive amounts of strangers to coordinate such an effort points to the power of smart mob technologies. It will be interesting to see how the ability for large amounts of people to seamlessly connect with one and other will further impact our world.

Cyberbullying, when does bullying become discrimination

            In this weeks reading we examined some unfortunate stories that took place-involving cyberbullying.  Unfortunately, many of these cases take place with kids in their tweens who have not developed the self-esteem to handle ridicule broadcasted on social networks.  Danah Boyd’s research claims that it is difficult for teenagers, “To recognize oneself as a victim — or perpetrator — requires serious emotional, psychological and social support.” However, while this research may work well in the ages of middle and high school, how does it translate into an adult world?  Cyberbullying can evolve from teenage “drama” and at a later age become an invasion of private life and lead to discrimination.

            The tragic story of Tyler Clementi shows the worst that cyberbullying has to offer. Instead of being some meaningless teenage “drama” Clementi’s privacy and freedom were stolen from him, when his roommate streamed online a sexual encounter of Clementi and another male student.  Because the Internet connects information to so many people the stream would have been able to be seen by multiple people.  This may have played into Clementi’s decision to jump to his death.  If Clementi had chosen to be labeled as a victim in the situation it varies greatly in a college situation as compared to high school.  Instead of just being harassed and called names Clementi’s personal life was brought to the forefront on the digital realm.  Had he sought help Clementi may have had a hard time to admit that he was being bullied as an adult, it would have required support that few universities in the nation are well equipped to provide.

            Much like Clementi, Chris Armstrong, president of Michigan Student Assembly, was being harassed online due to his sexual orientation, however the bully wasn’t another student, but an adult.  That adult was assistant Michigan Attorney General Andrew Shrivell who had been releasing blog posts claiming that Armstrong was a gay Nazi and was participating in gay orgy parties in his dorm room.  Armstrong was fortunate and never had to seek support to getting the bullying to stop, had he have had to search for support it may have lead to a mental toll on the student.  Armstrong had many defendants without even asking for it as angry citizens posted frustrated messages about the discrimination of the student on Shirvell’s blog. Shirvell partakes in an interview shown on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, to make claims that he is the one that is being cyberbullied due to the harassment from the public, and that he is in the clear to say what he wants about Armstrong.  What ensues is a classic scene of someone in over their heads.  While this story may be ridiculous it does bring to attention the issues with cyberbullying, and how acceptance of being a bully, is as difficult for a 30-year-old man as it is for a teenager.  If he were able to accept how he is acting as being discriminatory to another individual perhaps he would be able to change his actions and possibly develop respect toward another human being.

           

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Extra Blog: Another Harold and Kumar Adventure

This blog post is a rant and rave about the upcoming release of yet another movie based on the adventures of Harold and Kumar in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. Watching an interview of John Cho, who stars as Harold, reminded me of what is so great about the Harold and Kumar films.  If anyone has seen these movies they would be aware of the absolutely ridiculous situations the duo get into, which usually involves drugs, sex, and sometimes a cheetah.  While these storylines are ridiculous the plots sometimes bring attention to issues within our culture in hilarious and offensive ways, which may even help get the point across.

            While the movie clearly puts the two protagonists into crazy and beyond believe situations, it not only adds a tremendous amount of hilarity, but the films also show the absurdity of our own country.  For instance in the second movie, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, there are scenes which in a very hilarious and not exactly a politically correct, but the filmmakers were striving to bring to attention the mistreatment of prisoners within Guantanamo Bay.  I think that one of the strong points for these movies is that they bring to light some of the political issues within the country.  For instance in the next film there are scenes filled with Occupy Wallstreet protesters.  I only imagine what hilarity the filmmakers can bring into the sad state of our current economy. 

            The Films don’t only focus on political issues within the country, but they also illustrate the ethnic diversity of our nation.  This is sometimes done in very racist and prejudiced ways, but it serves as a reminder to audiences to not take stereotypes about ethnic groups seriously.  Multiple times throughout these movies the audience is reminded of the greatness of our nation. Even though like, Harold and Kumar, we may get lost at times America will always eventually find its way to its destination.  However, the trip there may not be smooth sailing or necessarily the correct way of going about solving the issues at hand. 

            I look forward to the absurd plotline that the third installment is sure to boast.  I hope to have a great time laughing at Neil Patrick Harris being crazy, Kumar’s wild plans, Harold attempting to resolve the situation, and the backwards and hysterical views of the world surrounding them, when the movie is released this Friday.

Extra Blog 1: Avatar Franchise

This extra blog post is based on what we have learned about convergence culture.  In particular how films look to create not only a great movie, but also an entire world that can be fleshed out into a Franchise.  Films can expand into other forms of media including books, games, comics, and even theme parks.  A great example in an article that I stumbled upon the other day is James Cameron and the expanding Avatar franchise and the possibilities of the changing media of 3D television.

            In the article Cameron argues that eventually 3D will be as commonplace across every media platform as color television is today.  He sees the industry as resisting the new technology and equates it to the fear of changing from black and white to color tv in the past.  I think that this is going to be an awesome advancement once the technology really allows games, movies, and television to become more immersive for the viewers. 

            While 3D will take some time to catch hold Cameron looks to expand Avatar into other forms of media.  Currently he is writing an Avatar book, modeling a theme park, and hoping to expand Avatar games into the MMO realm.  Cameron expresses his approval of such a game, but it would make more sense after the next two movie releases.  His reasoning is that Avatar was just a jumping point into a new world with multiple alien races living on the planet and within the planetary system. Cameron’s scope of what he is hoping to deliver allows for a potentially massive Avatar franchise, which in turn will lead to fan participation in the MMO and potentially fan fiction.  Being a fan of the first film I look forward to an expanded story with its own mythology. This can improve on the clichéd storyline of the first film, which relied heavily on some fantastic eye candy for its appeal. Instead the expansion of the Avatar Universe can lead to a more compelling and layered story for fans of the franchise and can incorporate fans that use other media such as games into the fold. 

Googlization Self Control Delete

            In this weeks reading of Googlization of Everything, author Siva Vaidhynathan explores the issues surrounding the amount of control Google has on the Internet.  Vaidhynathan shows that Google’s settings allow for a massive collection and documentation of data throughout the Internet.  This can lead to an issue of people’s privacy in the digital realm.  Google can store harmful information of people allowing strangers to access it at any time.  As Vaidhynathan argues, “Google always gives the victim of exposure the opportunity to remove troubling information from Google’s collection.  But the system is designed to favor maximum collection, maximum exposure, and the permanent availability of everything.”

            The dangers with Google arise from our desire to share and create material on the Internet.  Google makes copies and files this information away in its database for anyone on the Internet to interact with.   Google claims that these databases are collected to help spread information, but in reality all of our activities that we enjoy are being stored each time we search, leading to an invasion of our privacy without our consent.   The extent of the information available is compounded due to how many features Google offers, but Google doesn’t keep a close filter on the content being displayed.  Their privacy policy is very weak with the majority of the privacy efforts being placed on the users to manage what is put online.

The Colbert Report
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            Stephen Colbert took a stab at the invasion of privacy that flourishes on Google.  In his witty take on the matter Stephen brings about many points that are eye opening to the general public.  He shows that the information placed on Google is invasive and costly for people looking to enter the workplace since there may be inappropriate pictures posted online.  Imagine Googling your name only to find drunken Facebook pictures.  This is one of the concerns, that Stephen points out, because Google now uses a feature to scan unlabeled online photos and match them based on facial recognition. This allows for any type of photo to be loaded into the search engine for anyone to see.  On top of this Stephen shows how Gmail tracks our friends and family as well making it even easier for companies to do some digging to find information out about us.  Clearly this upholds Vaidhynathan’s argument of the invasion of our privacy and shows how Google is looking to gather and collect information for its own financial gain.  Unfortunately, inappropriate images can easily be placed online with essentially no protection from the company. As CEO Eric Schmidt states, “ If you have something that you don’t want someone to know maybe you shouldn’t do it in the first place.”  This is a lazy approach of protecting the users who are essentially the product of the company. Since some of the content may be posted without our own permission, Google’s blind eye approach leads to a surveillance of nearly everything in our lives.  This will only increase with time and technology as things become more and more advanced our protection of our rights may become weaker and weaker. 

The Absurdity of Piracy

            This weeks reading involved the issue of piracy in the digital age.  In Lawrence Lessig’s book Free Culture he delves into the issue of culture is formed by commercial and noncommercial means. Lessig points out that noncommercial culture has an impact on how the culture is formed and progresses.  He states that, “the ordinary ways in which ordinary individuals shared and transformed their culture—telling stories, reenacting scenes from plays or TV, participating in fan clubs, sharing music, making tapes—were left alone by the law.” Lessig sees that our very culture may be threatened due to, “This rough divide between the free and the controlled has now been erased.”

            Lessig fears that the newly established permission culture threatens to undermine “the right to build freely upon their past.”  This as a result threatens to take away the creativity of our culture, and the past times that the people enjoy. The inability to separate the commercial from the noncommercial acts of piracy has lead to problems within our culture.  According to Lessig, “The consequence is that we are less and less of a free culture, more and more of a permission culture.”  This effect threatens novice creators as they spread ideas that affect our culture.

            For instance the Colbert Report covered a story on the “Underground Piracy of Warren Michigan” headed by the pirating “kingpin” Fred-Merle.  Stephen’s hilarious satire of the events shows the problems that Lessig has worried about.  Here is a man who is in charge of running the “Polka Party” which is a public access program in Warren.  He decided to make some DVDs for the people who enjoyed the music and charged them 15 dollars per DVD.  This resulted in him being arrested and forced to pay $450 dollars to the court.  This is a driving point behind Lessig’s argument, as the lines between the commercial and noncommercial thin, the ability to charge someone for spreading a pastime such has polka has increased.  Before the age of the Internet people spread content fairly easily by recording a movie on vhs and giving it to a friend to enjoy.   Now due to the developing permission culture law enforcement is stepping in on the free culture and its ability to spread enjoyment, such as polka music.  This enforcement of the spread of culture with nearly zero financial implications are absurd and shows how irrationally the laws are now written.  If people are charged for spreading ideas then creativity will take a backseat to big corporation financial gains. According to Lessig, this “will also rid our culture of values that have been integral to our tradition from the start,” and no one in America wants to see that. 

The Colbert Report
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Flickr Blog

           Our Flickr story was called The Attack of the Purple Dragon.  The first scene depicted a peaceful evening on campus as the group is dropping a friend off at the grill.  On the way back, the peaceful evening is changed as the second scene revealed a tipped over bicycle, followed with a dragon shadow against the moon.  This leads to a panic of our group, which is depicted by the scared expressions on their faces when confronted by the beast.  Unfortunately, in the next scene the first of the three deaths are shown.  Luckily for Lawrence University, a courageous student fights off the dragon. The student then makes the front page of the Lawrentian the following day.   

            While preparing for the project we brainstormed ideas eventually deciding on a dragon attack.  We thought that it would be interesting and would provide some cool action shots.  From here we met and began to write out a template of how the story would go and what type of shots would be included for each frame.  We found Flickr to be a really easy tool to use and had the photos uploaded, described, and tagged in less than 15 minutes.  The tags we chose to use were usually a word that described the scene or what was in the scene.  We used these tags so that if people searched for those keywords our photoshoot would show up.

             I could see where Flickr could be a great tool to get ideas and images across the web for other people to see. Photos are randomly cycled through each time the page is refreshed, and by searching for a phrase allowing users to find tagged images.   Since it is a free website people can easily upload images, arrange them in any order, and then share them via Facebook, email, or Twitter. The tool allows for people to set shots, and get the right feeling or emotions for what they would like to convey to the audience.  It also allows for many shots to be uploaded from more than one user, the uploaders can pick and choose which shot worked best. For instance our group could have separated into two teams and taken shots at different locations, the same can be done with any two people, anywhere, who share the same account. Flickr offers a way of self-expression, collaborative photography, and even practice for aspiring photographers. Like Youtube, Flickr provides people a way to go from a no name to a professional photographer. Overall Flickr was an effective, fun, and easy to use for our project.

Everyone is a Media Outlet: Twitter's impact on news

            The readings of Clay Shirky’s Everyone’s a Media Outlet, was a very interesting topic.  Shirky states that, “control over the media is less completely in the hands of the professionals.”  Shirky sees that the mass movement of news online through social media such as blogs, Twitter, and Facebook on the  “web created a new ecosystem.”  Shirky argues that due to the information on the web that; “news can break into public consciousness without the traditional press weighing in. Indeed, the news media can end up covering the story because something has broken into public consciousness via other means.” 

            Shirky provides us with the example of Trent Lott, who received negative press coverage following comments regarding hiss support of Strom Thurmond.  While this may not seem unusual the fact was that the story was first spread online, if not for this the corporate media may have never picked the story up.  This clearly shows the impact of amateur journalists in creating and spreading news.  In fact, not only do they spread news, but sometimes web users can capture images of news stories before the press.  Social media outlets provide anyone who witnesses an event with a smartphone to capture images and tweet, upload to facebook, or blog about them. 

            Such is the case of the Hudson River crash in 2009. This happened when the plane struck a flock of geese, lost power in both engines, and was forced to make a crash landing in the Hudson River. This became known as the Miracle on the Hudson, and thrust Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger into the national spotlight for his safe landing.  When the plane crashed within four minutes someone had tweeted about how they had witnessed the crash.  This was done fifteen minutes before the mainstream media had even heard of the story.  This upholds Shiry’s argument showing that everyone has the possibility to become a news outlet even beating the traditional press to the story.  Although it doesn’t stop with just breaking the story, soon after the first tweet many photos were uploaded to twitter showing the miraculous landing.  These images were circulated through blogs and played on national news media that used both photos and videos of the crash when covering the story. This upholds Shirky's ideas of mainstream media covering topics that have originated in other places than traditional media.  Shirky claim of the web creating a new ecosystem is also proven in this example.  The ability to quickly capture events as they unfold has placed more power in the hands of the amateurs and also has allowed for a new way for stories to be brought to the attention of the world. 

Noble Amateur revised edition

In the reading of the Cult of the Amateur, by Andrew Keen, he makes the argument against what he calls the “noble amateur.”  Keen argues that the noble amateur posses the threat of “killing our culture” by increasing democratic participation of hobbyists with no formal education on the subject they are covering. Keen argues that this would lead to a decline in beneficial information.  Keen is concerned that amateurs undermine the professionals and the institutions that educate them. 

            Keen provides many examples to elaborate on his argument such as the problems with citizen journalism and Wikipedia.  While Keen sees any form of amateurism as being detrimental to the culture, that is not always the case.  The Ushahidi application is a great example of how amateurism can benefit the culture.  The application originally was started as a blog of citizen journalism, and evolved into a system that greatly enriched the culture.  The application was originally a blog called the Kenyan Pundit, which was crafted by Ory Okolloh, a citizen journalist, to provide information on the violence occurring in Kenya during political unrest that had shut down the printed press. 

            The Ushahidi system is a mapping application that allows fellow amateurs to upload points on a map where civil unrest is taking place.  Two programmers who read Okolloh’s blog and wanted to help developed the mapping technology.  This shows that Keen’s ideas on amateurs being a threat to undermining the culture, when in reality these amateurs are providing the culture with a new and influential program.  This citizen journalism in this situation doesn’t pose a threat to professional institutions but instead developed a now worldwide system of mapping crisis.  In fact, Ushahidi actually works together with professionals such as media organization and international humanitarian bodies. By providing the areas of violence, news organizations can get there faster and report on the story.  This program wasn’t just confounded to Kenya and instead provides areas throughout the world with crisis information and locations on google maps, for instance places with severe droughts use Ushahidi to coordinate relief efforts.  This goes against Keen’s concern on amateur’s posting false or poor information, in reality amateurs actually seem to enjoy benefiting the community, rather than attempting to harm it. 

Convergence Culture

During this weeks reading of the Worship at the Altar of Convergence, by Henry Jenkins, he describes the idea of a rising convergence culture.  Jenkins proposes that the forms of media are not only flowing across multiple platforms through collaborative efforts between consumers and producers.  However, Jenkins argues that not only is entertainment being converged through multiple media technologies, but “Our lives, relationships, memories, fantasies, desires also flow across media channels.” 

            He states that convergence is a change in the way media is both produced and consumed.  The pull and tug from the consumer and producers forces companies to innovate in how they produce advertisement to the consumers. He argues that companies are developing ways to accelerate the flow of media content across channels to expand revenue and broaden markets.  As the users begin to become more involved in the new media technologies companies are forced to rethink old assumptions and create news ways to collect and retain consumers. 

            One such way companies are adapting to the evolving convergence culture is through collaboration with the social network giant Facebook.  The article, (http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/29/technology/facebook_ticker_privacy/index.htm) I have chosen shows how Facebook is now using multiple platforms of media that the user “likes” to advertise for other companies.  This idea relates to Jenkin’s argument because the media companies have found a way to advertise through a person’s likes a dislikes thereby broadening their brand through the user.   It also furthers his point because users are actively participating, and as a result are becoming personal billboards. For instance some apps downloaded on a smartphone require the user to log into Facebook in order to use it. Whatever that user does on the app, such as listening to a song on Spotify, will be displayed on Facebook.  People on Facebook can comment on why they liked the game, movie, or song as a result further fueling interests for their friends who are considering using the content.  The flow of our personal information across the social media landscape is allowing companies to create cheap ways of advertising their products, which exemplifies Jenkin’s argument.

AIM Blog

I thought that the readings of the last two weeks have been very interesting.  In particular the article Introduction: Identity in the Age of the Internet, Sherry Turkle was thought provoking.  One of her main points is that due to the anonymity of the   MUDs gives “people the chance to express multiple and often unexplored aspects of the self, to play with their identity and try out new ones.” I believe that this point translates well into our AIM project.  The extent to which someone creates an alternate persona online is influenced by anonymity and the creativity of their own self. 

During the week I have had the chance to talk with two classmates made up personas.  Both classmates were acting as elderly men.  One was a Special Forces mentor who was called back into the forces to train the cadets, and the other was a depressing, earless, cat fearing old man.  These personas were both filled with fun quirks or views on the world that may or may not be the same as the author.  The change from real life to the Internet allowed the authors to act as someone completely different or as close to their true self as they wanted. 

I believe that Turkle’s point is upheld in the AIM project because the authors had the ability to use and include as much or as little of their normal personality as they had wanted.  The project also allowed the authors to explore a different life, one that may have more authoritative perspective or a very different view of the world, that the authors might not have shared without the anonymity of the Internet.  I also think that her argument shows that people who make up a different persona on the Internet have the ability to think from a different perspective to stay in character.  These multiple aspects of the self can be taken to whatever extent of creativity that the authors chose to use.  This idea further reflects the implication of playing with the identity.  Overall I thought of this project as an interesting mini case study of how easily people can develop a false identity in the virtual realm.