Social Media - Week Reading 5

The Internet U.S. Election Campaign 


The reading explores the reason of popularisation of the internet within politics in the U.S. by the use of blogs, internet websites and YouTube in order to reach out the voters. The article explores the influence on voters and how the Internet has integrated within them. Chadwick (2009 ) states:“The internet had changed the way candidates conduct campaigns. Congressional candidates were using the internet for fundraising, blogging, creating online communities, making video and audio clips available and much more. Pg.13”The article explains that campaign use the internet as a tool which offers voters more choices. This will help the candidate to get their message across in the most effective way. Between 1992 and 1999 over the years the internet developed and was experimented by candidates, parties and groups in order to explore its electoral use. By 2000 the internet campaigns had reached a level where candidates would maintain a website through the campaign. George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton were the first ever candidates to use the internet in their 1992 campaigns. They emailed speeches and position papers in order to distribute them to the commercial bulletin board. By 2004 majority of congressional, gubernatorial and presidential candidate maintained websites. This was called the maturation phase, where websites included features such online chat. During that year Bush allowed visitors to ask question to his campaign staff in real time. The internet allowed the candidates to give a bit more information about their family and their selves. Date of events was also posted on the sites. This was been seen as a form of advertisement designed to achieve a wider goal of the campaigns. Spanish version of the websites was also technologically developed in order to reach out a wider audience of voters. Also columns where introduced where the opponents would say why they should vote for them and not the other candidates. An example of the Bush-Cheney: “Wrong for America Section” by John Kerry.Mobilization was seen as a special form of communication where it encourages voters to participate by using blogs which allowed supporters to voice their opinions and connect with the candidates. The blogs were updated daily with journal, videos, and photos. As Myers (2010) states:“Blogs and Wikis are genres of text define not so much by their form of content as by the kinds of uses to which they are put and the ways these uses construct social identities and communities”This relates to election campaign as it was important how the practice of internet was used by candidates to run a successful campaign in order to win. These are some of the tools used but there are many more and the costs are different

.References:
Chadwick, A. (2009). Internet Politics, New York: Routledge. P13-25

Myers, G. (2010). Discourse of Blogs and Wikis. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. P15Word Count:486

Social Media - Week Reading 4

Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project

The reading demonstrates how social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones have become part of youth culture. The reading demonstrates how social network sites give youth a new platform for communication and extension of friendship and interest. Dunkels (2011) States:

"Social network sites are websites that allows users to create personal profiles to represent themselves and connect with other users-most typically, users who are part of their offline social network. Social network sites members can chat, share media, post blogs, and expand their social networks by connecting with new people. (pg.128.)"

The popularity of participation of social network sites allows youth to take part in constant on-line contact with their fiends via on-line chats and instant messaging. This option gives the chance youth to share their interest which creates a bond between suers and makes meeting new people more exciting and easy. The globalisation of the new media can also act as tool ofexpression within youth. The likes of YouTube and MySpace lets youth express their talent, skills, interest and freedom of speech to a wider audience who may share the same features. Ito (2008) comments: "the more ambitious musicians would use a MySpace music template as away to develop profiles that situated them as musicians rather than a stand teen personal profile. (pg.33)". This shows how social networks have integrated within young people in a way that are able to express who they really.

The reading also looks at how New Media can act as a form of educator. As Ito (2008) States: “the growing availability of information in online spaces has started to transform young people’s attitudes toward the availability and accessibility of information” pg.3. An example the University Of Winchester encourages student to write blogs of each week readings as part of the assessment criteria for the given modules. This is just one of the ways how the internet is introduced to society and submitted as a tool or form of educator. Also by accessing the internet you are able to find a wider set of information from online resources at all time. The internet in a way exploits new opportunities of learning.

The article also states that the New Media is becoming part of youth's culture because of itsintegration and globalisation within them. The fast and growing participation of youth using digital media show how it has become part of youth's everyday living.

References

Dunkels. E & Franber, G.M. & Hallgren C. (2011) Youth Culture and Net Culture: Online Social Practices. Hershey: IGI Global. p.128

Ito, M. & Horst, H. (2008) Living and Learning with New Media; Summary of Finding From DIgital Youth Project. Available: http://learn.winchester.ac.uk/file.php/3205/digitalyouth-WhitePaper.pdf Last Accessed: 27th February 2012

Word Count 470

Week 7 & 8

Week 5 & 6 & Lecture & Seminar 3

Seminar Paper

Russell's Work In Logic

Russell could be seen as one of the giants of modern logic. His work attempts to clarify the underpinning of mathematics was unprecedented and comprehensive. Rusell was interested in mathematics and systems of logic. According to him math was the one thing that had the answers in life. At the time he believed he was only person drive to recreate math, but soon found like minded contemporaries and even few mentors. The Three most important to understand were Georg Cantor, David Hilber and Gottlob Frege. Cantor created Set Theory, and Russell Hoped these were unrelated. Grege created the Begriffsschrift, a language for logical operation as daunting as its crazy German name that was designed to examine and underpin the mathematics and build them on a solid foundation. That work was based on Canto's Set Theory. Hilbert challenges mathematicians at the International Congress of Mathematics that Arithmetic, is a underpins of all other maths. Hilbert, like Russell, shared the dream of mathematics where any problem stated rigorously could be absolutely and with complete clarity solved.

Russell set to achieve his dream by the use of Set Theory and a logical logical language not unlike that developed by Frege. Russell accidentally undid Frege and Cantor work and gave Hilbert a shock. It was to do with Set Theory where a set is a collection of objects define by a common property. For instance, "the set of all green things" would inlcude a blade of grass, a leaf and the Incredible Hulk. Similarly, the number 3 could be defined as " set of all sets with three elements". Three hats, three cars, three dogs all of these can be grouped together to be defined by the number 3. Set theory was the the heart of logic and it was a method that was used by Russell and Frege and many others that were hoping to create a unassailable underpinning for mathematics. But Russell killed that dream with his thought. He stated what about a " Set of all Sets that do not contain themselves"? In which case it doesn't. Its like saying " I am now lying". If you are, you aren't and if your aren't you are. Its a simple paradox that ate away the very heard of modern logic. The set of Set Theory was itself no longer completely consistent. Russells work had destroyed what little work was already complete. Russell proved beyond that Arithmetic was inherently and inextricable incomplete. Any system based on it was also necessarily incomplete. The work of decades by Frege, Hilbert, Cantor, and Russell was in on stroke proven to an impossible quest.

This didn't despair Russell, however it merely clarified things for him, He had found, at last, irrefutable evidence that there was no perfect path to absolute truth, and in fact such a path could never exist. With grace, he acknowledged that perhaps some problems exist that cannot be solved with a simple logical calculus. And in fact, there was no reason to despair. His work in logic built the foundation for Godel’s work, who built the foundation for Turing, who invented computing, which paved the way for much of the modern world. Russell spent much of his life in a quest for truth that ultimately failed, but his passions enriched the world along the way.

Week 4 Seminar 2

The Outsider - Albert Campus

The Outsider is novel written in 1942 by Albert Campus. The novels theme and views are based on existentialism. Existentialism looks understanding human existence and experiences based on philosophical approach. In other words the assumption that individuals are free and responsible for their own choices and action. As Hence stated: " we are not victims of circumstances because we are what we have chosen to be. Campus never considered him self as a existentialist as he took different approaches of thoughts which the novel included such as absurd-ism, determinism, nihilism, naturalism and stoicism. The novel tells the story of an emotionally detached,amoral young man named Meursault who lives in Algeria. He does not cry at his mother's funeral, does not believe in God, and kills a man he barely knows without any discernible motive. For the crime, Meursaults is seen as a threat to society and sentenced to death. When he comes to accept the "gentle indifference of the world" he finds peace with himself and with the society that persecuted him. Camus's absurdist philosophy implies that moral orders have no rational or natural basis. Yet Camus did not approach the world with moral indifference and he believed that life's lack of a "higher" meaning should necessarily lead on to despair. On the contrary, Camus was persistent humanist. He is noted for his faith in man's dignity in the face of what he saw as a cold, indifferent universe.

Preface To Frants Fanon's "Wretched of The Earth"

The Wretched of the Earth is Frants Fanon's most famous work. The book was written during the Algerian struggle for independence from colonial rule. Fanon was a psychiatrist explored the psychological effect of colonization on a nation as well a broader implications for building a movement for decolonization. Decolonization is the action of changing a status from colonial to independence. The book relates to the novel The Outsider in a way that they both advocate a racial definition of indigenous national identity of multiculturalism. Nationalist philosophies look at the principles of all african nationalist ideologies are unity, and self determination or independence from European Society.

Week 3 Lecture 2

Frantz Fanon born 1925 in Martinique (France) - died 1961. He was a radical existential humanist whose practice focused on human values and concerns over divine and supernatural matters. Fanon had become a spokesman for the Algerian revolution against French colonialism. His work on The Wretched of The Earth was seen as the handbook for the black revolution according to its publisher but it was certainly seen as a soursebook of revolutionary slogans. Opening summary of the text presents h a discussion of how colonisers from Europe carried out their civilising mission.It also Describes what the outcomes were and how the 'civilized' native, who had learnt to echo his masters voice, finally led to the independent individual who disregarded the European civilisation and wouldn't mind taking up arms, when necessary, against his oppressor". Frantz Fanon compares the difference between natives and men. Sante states: "In the colonies the truth stood naked, but the citizens of the mother country preferred it with clothes on" - he explains as Men living a lie, not being their true self. Western culture as an entity that is hiding the truth. Western culture shapes values, the natives create their own. Satre describes the Western culture - "They stuffed their mouths full of high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck in their teeth". He believed those that have been exposed by Western culture are 'walking lies' Satre explains how the colonisers made an effort to wipe out native culture and traditions, to substitute them with their own. "Attempts were made to create a rootless native who belonged to nowhere in particular". "In those countries where Colonialism has deliberately held up development, the peasantry, when it rises, quickly stands out as the revolutionary class". "In order to triumph, the national revolution must be socialist" - Points out that revolution is constantly in the making. The key theme of the preface is oppression. In terms of Existentialism, the themes of the true self and culture moulding individuals has links with the natives as they come into contact with the colonisers. Satre admires Fanon, explaining how Fanon is the first since Engel "to bring the processes of history into the clear light of day".

Week 1 & Seminar 1

Consumerism

Consumerism is a part of a society and economics where the desire to purchase goods and services is in a greater amount. So in order the media to be successive and running over the years it has developed and created new forms of media. The first ever form of media was Printing Press. The first printed text on paper was the Bible which was very popular with the religions and people who believed in it. This later developed to the creation of newspaper which was popular with the society as high populations had interest in reading the latest News around the world or the country. In San Francisco, America and the " Wild West " the latest news of gold and the war was being published. (Citizen Kane) Reporters were sent to the war front line to deliver news on what is happening and the information was telegraph as a new form of technology. 1920s to now the technology continued to develop and the invention of radio and the arrival of cinema started to wipe out the newspapers out of the scene. As newspapers only being popular in huge cities so their income came only from there. In America every town had a radio so it meant that they were very profitable as where in Britain it was nationalised and so. In the UK the BBC controlled the radio it was more educational, classy and all about the good quality. This meant that BBC Radio in the UK did not have much competition so newspapers were still going on. But in America it was the other way around the form of new technology raised above newspapers. This lead to a lot more advertising being introduced in order the media to run and produce.