JOUR 112

Who is henry jenkins?

Mid-term

Keys & Symbols

Blue words = sections of lecture

 = key words

 = on quizzes / exams

Ex: = Example

Comments by Professor (David Becker) in purple

Important Individuals

● Steve Jobs  

○ 1976: Co-founder of Apple Computer w/ Steve Wozniak

○ Created some of the first successful personal computers

○ 1985: removed from company, created Pixar

○ 1997: returned to Apple and led the creation of productions such as iMac, IPod,  and iPhone, etc.

○ Pioneered the product launch as blockbuster event

Steve jobs died at age 56 due to?

○ 2011: died at age 56 due to pancreatic cancer

● Henry Jenkins 

○ Promoted convergence culture: Flow of content across multiple media platforms ■ Ex: Lego is a producer of movies, mobile apps, gaming, etc.

Don't forget about the age old question of What was the jones act?

○ Cooperations between multiple media industries

○ Migratory behavior of media audiences in search of entertainment experiences ■ Audience going anywhere where there is their favorite entertainment ○ Convergence culture (CC) sets the stage for participatory culture (PC) ■ CC: looking at changes in industry

What are the ideas of marshall mcluhan?

■ PC: looking at how people relate to changes in industry

● Marshall McLuhan 

Ideas of Marshall McLuhan

○ “The Medium is the Message” 

■ The way we send and receive information is more important than the  message itself

■ Understanding technologies and tools (the medium) is critical to  

understanding the true meaning of the messages they convey

○ “The Global Village” 

■ Saw the pros and cons of being globally connected

■ Technology as an extension of the human body and senses If you want to learn more check out In biology, what is the somatic nervous system?
Don't forget about the age old question of What are the exocrine glands?

■ “Everything happens at once… it’s all now.”

■ The end of secrecy

● People’s most personal and intimate details will be on the web

● Tim Berners-Lee Don't forget about the age old question of How do you find the points on a graph?

○ inventor of the World Wide Web 

■ “The computer can do whatever you can imagine.”

○ CERN: International Physics Lab in Switzerland

○ World Wide Web

■ Had to be decentralized and not as much rules

■ Called it ”World Wide Web”: it was global and it was a web

○ Wrote a book about how the www should look like

■ My biggest fear: some company will control and take over the web We also discuss several other topics like Why is multicellularity important?

■ Takeaways

● Tim decided to give out the World Wide Web for free 

● Decisions that these web creators make changes the course of history ○ Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg made people pay

● Stewart Brand 

○ Founder of Whole Earth Catalog 

■ “Catalog” designed for the counterculture (catalog for the hippies)

■ “Back to the Earth” movement (1967)

● Self-sufficiency: not relying on traditional institutions

● Empowerment through:

○ Tools

○ Self-directed education

○ Community

● Sheryl Sanberg 

○ COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Facebook 

● Mark Zuckerberg 

○ Chairman and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Facebook

Fact and Fiction

How to Spot Fake News

● Consider the source: Investigate the site, its mission, and its contact info. ○ Where is this coming from? What are their political bias? Consider the author, too. ● Read beyond the headline: Headlines can be outrageous just to hook readers. What’s the  whole story? We also discuss several other topics like What do intelligence tests mean?

● Check the author: Do a quick research on the author. Credible? Real?

● Supporting authors?: Click the links, determine if the info actually supports the story ○ Take unnamed sources with a grain of salt

● Check the date: Reposting old news stories doesn’t mean they’re relevant to current  stories

● Is it a joke?: Too outlandish? Could be a satire. Research site and author to be sure. ● Check your biases: Consider if your own beliefs could affect your judgment ○ Check bias for AND against your beliefs

● Ask the experts: Ask librarian, consult a fact-checking site

Commentary v. News

● News

○ Fact-checking

○ Sources

○ Attribution

■ When hearing breaking news, important to look for the attribution

● Commentary

○ “Analyst”

○ “Op-ed” (Opposite the editorial page)

■ Editorials: opinions from writers about a certain topic

■ News media may endorse a candidate on the editorial but they’ll also have a  perspective from the opposite point of view

○ Columnist: Regular “op-ed”

○ “Opinion”

■ You would rarely cite a source from the “opinion” section

Pew Report on Digital Life

Pew Report - Stories about Digital Life

● Positives 

○ Glorious connectedness - ability to freely reach out and connect directly with  friends, family, colleagues, knowledge, education, entertainment and more  anywhere and at any time

○ Invent, reinvent, innovate - digital tools enable people to invent or reinvent their  lives and careers - find the perfect job, and meet soulmates, colleagues, new  friends and fellow interest-sharers.

○ Life-saving advice and assistance - people can tap into and share medical, safety and  health resources and support at a moments’ notice

■ Some negatives are being misinformed with false symptoms when we  experience a physical condition -- take it with a grain of salt

○ Efficient transactions - revolutionized life logistics and experiences. They cite  benefits including accessing online education, researching purchases, finding best  options for anything, making quick-hit social connections, planning trips, or  coordinating activities - which allow people to be more mobile, savvy, and globally  enriched

■ Ex: Amazon, Venmo

● Negatives 

○ Connectedness overload - instant access to nearly everything is causing stress,  anxiety, sleeplessness and loss of patience.

■ Ex: Feeling the need to always be doing something

○ Trust tensions - the business model of internet platforms reward addictive products  that heighten users’ emotions and perpetuate polarization.

■ Ex: Political polarization being created through social media

○ Personal identity issues - Self-promotion, narcissism, click bait, trolling, propaganda,  and pressures to conform have become dominant in social networks, causing loss  of self-confidence and self-esteem. This encourages them to lose faith in others and adopt a negative world view.

○ Focus failures - digital life fosters shallow engagement with information while taking little time for reflection. People’s ability to concentrate well, stay on task, and do  long-term, deep-dive thinking has diminished.

● The 50-50 Experiences 

○ Many experts found that digital life had both positive and negative aspects.

Personal Branding

The Brand Called You By Tom Peters (1997)

● “It’s time for me -- and you.” - what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of  work

● Take lessons from big brands

● This is good news - Everyone has a chance to stand out. Everyone has a chance to learn,  improve, and build their skills

● No limit to the ways you can go about enhancing your profile

○ 50-50 proposition: it has consequences

● Everything you do communicates the value and character for the brand ● Brand YOU: Your Image, Mission, Values, Vision - A way to articulate who am I, what I am  doing, and where am I heading

Ideas of Marshall McLuhan (check above)

Internet History

Silicon Valley  

● Located in southern San Francisco Bay Area of California

● Home of many digital and social media companies 

● City of high-tech companies

Sears Catalog

● Brought the idea of ordering things from the comfort of your own home ○ The idea of a catalog was important in the early concept of the internet 

Whole Earth Catalog  

● “Catalog” designed for the counterculture (catalog for the hippies)

● “Back to the Earth” movement (1967)

○ Self-sufficiency: not relying on traditional institutions

○ Empowerment through:

■ Tools

■ Self-directed education 

■ Community

The WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link)  

● Founded by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant (1985)

● The WELL is the first virtual community 

● Online bulletin board

● Users were responsible and owned the content posted

● Set the template for many other virtual communities to follow 

Dot Com bubble  

● Start up: a brand new company 

■ IPO: (initial public offering) when company goes from a private company  with private individuals to get started to a public company that’s listed on a  stock exchange

■ NASDAQ: (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated  

Quotations) 

■ NYSE: private company is NOT on it, while a public company is on it

Elements of Web 2.0  

● Post internet bubble

● Starting late 90s, early 2000s

● Participatory and Social

○ Ebay created a community of people

● O’Reilly’s main takeaways of Web 2.0 

○ All about maximizing collective intelligence

○ Globalization

○ Distributed work environment

○ Shift towards a knowledge-based economy - information as the primary ● Web 2.0: more user-generated content 

Convergence Culture (above under ‘Henry Jenkins’)

Definition

● Flow of content across multiple media platforms

● Convergence culture (CC) sets the stage for participatory culture (PC) ○ CC: looking at changes in industry

○ PC: looking at how people relate to changes in industry

Participatory Culture

Definition

● Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement

● Strong support for creating and sharing one’s creation

● Informal mentorship: new people can easily join the community, there’s no rulebook and  just taught the way things work organically

● Members have to believe their contributions matter

● Social connection with one another: they care about what other people think about what  they have to create

Forms of Participatory culture  

● Affiliation: membership, formal and informal, in online communities centered around  various forms of media

○ Ex: Facebook, message boards, online (gaming)

● Expressions: producing new creative forms

○ Ex: sampling, fan videos, fan fiction writing

● Collaborative Problem-solving: working together in teams, formal and informal, to  complete tasks and develop new knowledge

● Circulations: shaping the flow of media

○ Becoming a journalist in your own way - podcasting, blogging, YouTube

Challenges Raised by Participatory Culture:

● The Participation Gap: unequal access to the opportunities, experiences, skills, and  knowledge that will youth for full participation in the culture and politics

● The Transparency Problem: challenges young people face in learning to see clearly the  ways that media shape perceptions of the world

● The Ethics Challenge: breakdown of traditional forms of professional training and  socialization that might prepare young people for their increasingly public roles as media  makers and community participants

○ Ex: Though adults and children should be seen as equals, there can be problems  when adults disguise themselves as children online

● Readings 

○ “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (Part One)” and Superfans: A  Love Story

Rise of Social Media

● Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act 

○ “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the  publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content  provider.” 

■ No platform is held responsible for the content that is published on there  from an individual

○ “The most important law protecting internet speech.”

○ Video: What is Section 230? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQm8Zf6arhw ● SNS: Social Networking Service

● IPO: Initial Public Offering

○ When a company goes from a private-held company to a public-held company  through stock market 

● Algorithm: A set of rules a computer follows to achieve a particular goal ○ Ex: Instagram used to displayed its feed in chronological order, but now it is  computed in a way to display what the user would be most interested in

● Third Party Apps: Software that is created by a vendor to be compatible with the products  of another vendor 

● Facebook makes most of their money through self-serving advertisements 1) Self-Serve Advertising

2) Targeted Advertisements

3) Facebook Messenger Ads

4) Video Ads

5) Facebook Mobile

6) Data Generation

○ #1 & #2 makes the bulk of the money through advertising for Facebook ● Facebook and the Imperative of Sharing

○ We have this need to “share” in a way that it was different prior to social media ○ Two types of sharing occurs:

■ Users distributing personal information to each other

● This shows how Facebook works for everybody

■ Spreading of that information to third parties

● Connectedness v.s. Connectivity

○ Connectedness: way individuals connect with other individuals through social  media

■ Posts, Tagging, People You May Know, Messaging

○ Connectivity: the way individuals connect to third parties

■ Sharing user data with third parties

● The Like button 

○ Facebook used this as a gateway to enter themselves into other websites while they

collected data 

● Facebook’s Evolution: From Database to Narrative 

○ There was a time when social media was more of a database but now it’s in more of  a narrative form 

● Reading 

○ “The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History (Chapter 3) 

Memes and their Significance

● Coined by Richard Dawkins as a ‘unit of cultural transmission’, a self-perpetuating cultural  phenomenon. 

● Combination of mimesis (representation or imitation of the real world in art and literature)  and gene (characteristic transferred from a parent to offspring)

● In context of web 2.0, meme identifies digital objects that riff on a given visual, textual, or  auditory form and are appropriated, re-coded, and slotted back into the internet/social  media

● The flow of a meme is more important than its origin 

● Meme is conveying a cultural message, takes on a life of its own. You can deduce  something about the culture through the meme.