Response to keen

so i'm just going to write out my scratch notes right now and try to fix them up later when i get a chance...

keen says:
that mediocre media is being created thanks to all these internet portals. he thinks news isn't reliable anymore since everyone is just giving their own version of it. he gives a lot of credit to big news corporation for their ability to transmit what is really going on. He observes that nowadays people are buying less music and movies, reading less newspapers and magazines. To sum up his thought, he feels that there now exists a mob rule of ignorance, egoism and narcissism with bad taste.

Well...first off, big time artists that are always the center of attention are probably more (or at least just as) egotistical then this big mob...just because people can manage to entertain themselves instead of worshiping those artists who are “better” doesn't to me sound so bad... at least they are starting to realize that they are interesting too...and its good to appreciate that...not just the movie stars are interesting but really everyone is...

he talks about having himself believed in the internet creating some greater good after giving people new tools to use...well sometimes things that we have planned as our dream to pursue don't turn out exactly the way we planned because we can't control how people will use the tools they are given. It's funny how he mentions on page 12 that those individuals have a messianic faith in the benefits of technology... Oh my science! Some people think they are getting rid of religion, I think it might just be evolving....the sun....many gods..one god...now technology. He talks about Darwinism and his survival of the strongest in this media anarchy...but isn't that the way has always been...the voiceless are voiceless and the loud are loud...

wow he's really anti Web 2.0. I do think it is good that we never stop taking a step back and analyzing what we are doing. If we blindly just said this was going to fix everything and stopped making sure it was then we'd have a problem. Skepticism can be good since it keeps one on their toes.

Wow: he says “and even disappearance of truth”....he sure has a lot of faith in the way things were before this Web 2.0 age...where is his basis for this. Clearly the world wasn't a perfect place and there was hardly truth floating around before....I would like to see some data on what he thinks was so much better before...just because he has to hear all the mediocre talk now that he couldn't hear before since there was no internet doesn't automatically mean suddenly the “truth” that was supposedly there before is now gone and everything is getting worse. Give me some numbers on poverty, on health problems, depression, suicides, education...any of that...and then maybe I will consider being scared of what's to come but really now...were things so great in the past??? I'm not saying they are great now but there have always been wars and pain ... maybe give me some numbers on people loving each other more in the past...cultures evolve all the time...clearly people aren't always happy with this. To use a religious example, Vatican II made lots of very devout Catholics very angry and many left the church. That doesn't mean it's the most terrible thing in the world because it doesn't contain the same traditions or “culture” that it had in the past. How is he measuring whether things are good or not? Just if he likes them? Who is this guy anyway? Why does culture have to have economic value???? I would imagine it's “priceless”....What is it with his use of the word “truth”...does he know the truth? What is the truth? Why is he wanting to somehow impose “the truth” on everyone.... I mean I'll be honest, I think there is one truth...but I wouldn't begin to say that I know what it is and that other people are making it become more lost....in fact, I say things very differently, I say that my interactions with people and the world I hope will help me become closer to the truth....i don't expect some big business media place to tell me the truth...

He talks about books and how they are turning liquid and digital...well we didn't always have books... why is he so scared of not having them....

I don't know that much about how the economics of the internet work, like who gets jobs because of people using it and who gets paid and whatnot but I'm pretty sure that regardless of how much people use the internet and it's free stuff they need jobs themselves because not everything is free, like food, electricity, housing, ect. So there are still plenty of jobs out there to be had and there is still a huge market because people need these things and in fact, LOTS of people don't have them. So yeah... maybe all this free stuff will just make salaries lower since nobody has to buy things so who cares... I don't understand why he thinks it's so necessary to have these super talented (in his opinion), super experienced (in his opinion again) people...instead of everyone just interacting with each other and getting to know one another and growing from one another....

Perhaps instead of trying to find ways to entertain himself with quality music, movies or books maybe he should go out into his community and make music with the children or the families and learn from them and teach them or something....He is calling everyone else egotistic but it seems like he is thinking about how he likes to be entertained and how he doesn't have time for all this nonsense.... I don't know...people didn't use to have access to what he considers valuable entertainment or news.... and they managed. I just don't see what the big deal is.

“we will have no choice but to read everything with a skeptical eye” says this guy with regards to wikipedia and such...shouldn't we be doing that now anyway?

It's interesting...according to his theory..if experts pay will go super down and there will no longer be a financial incentive for people to pursue any field to a deeper level, then probably the only experts left would be ones who were truly passionate about the subject....

You know reading this makes me thing of the well known situation where there is a ruler or large group of upper class individuals that control an even larger group of unskilled, uneducated individuals (like slaves)....the arguments they had to justify their keeping the unskilled, untrained voiceless was that they knew better ,,,and then of course there are revolutions and uproars and whatnot when those who are kept voiceless find a way to break free from that....

del.icio.us slideshow

Actually i can't figure out how to make this a slide show but here's my del.icio.us page....

PUSH HERE

enjoy! :)

3 part project

For the project i want to try and tell the story of an important issue...i have chosen global poverty since it is what i want to dedicate my life to working on. my plan is to research and piece together all the discourse i can find online about this issue and make it either into a short film or audio podcast. for the first part i would like to gather any facts about what is going on just to give an understanding to the viewer what is happening. Then i want to find both articles and films by professionals and experts on poverty like jeffrey sachs and vandana shiva and somehow break it all apart and put it back together to show the different opinions that are out there. last i want to discover the opinions or discourse that is out there amongst rpi students about this issue by interviews or surveys or something of that sort.
i think this is an important piece to add to the poverty discourse because it will try to sum up what is going on and help people to think about where they stand on these issues. There is so much information out there and so many opinions maybe seeing them all together will make it seem less chaotic ....hopefully not more! :P

Response to Jenkins

Wow….I had no idea…I mean I guess I had some idea, I’m not completely surprised but really wow that’s a lot of Star Wars stuff… I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised though. There are quite a few fans of big commercial products. The general trend seems to me to be that people are very much entertained by these things....

I mean, the celebrity obsessions for one…its funny seeing all those magazines about what this or that celebrity is doing or who they are dating now while standing in line at the grocery store. The market, or large corporations, or whatever, seem to know what people will buy into without having to be too creative. And they definitely have their propaganda tools mastered to get them to keep coming for more….

But this article offered an interesting perspective. That is, the phenomenon of “participatory culture.” I don’t think I’ve thought of all these sorts of fan based movements as participatory culture. I don’t know what I’ve thought of them really. In my life, I have managed to never be a part of these types of grand movements and haven’t sat down and really analyzed what is going on or tried to appreciate it. Ben mentioned something about Lucas' plan to rule his life.…really I guess these corporations are trying to profit maximize or something and whatever they can do to catch someone’s attention for as long as possible, they will do it. Personally, I feel like Wal Mart is trying to take over mine :P

But in many of the cases Jenkins pointed out, it was not only the huge profit making industries who were hyping up this particular story/product but also the viewers themselves…the fans…Not only were they consuming many different kinds of products that came along but they were creating their own products as well for the sake of enjoying and enriching their experience, and I suppose… enhancing their cultural experience….

Our prof said in a comment on igor's blog that sums this up nicely: "fan culture goes mainstream = participatory culture" and that he wants to find out what this means... is this a good thing? It's hard to say...

I guess its better than everyone sitting and being entertained by these huge corporations.... since using ones creativity to make something a little different is a form of participating. But do we still end up being limited in our creativity?

Ok I have a story...I don't know why I always tell this story, but i really like it...anyhow, a friend told me once that he was talking to his advisor about life and his prof said that (and i'm probably completely misquoting this but you get the idea) he said research, or I would say ideas, is like a big rickety wagon...you have this idea (wagon) and it goes along and is kinda falling apart so what an "average" person does (which he considered himself to be) is just try and fix little parts of the wagon to keep it together. Like nail down a loose board or cover up a hole with something. And then he said every once in awhile you get a different kind of person, a person, he said, that doesn't follow the conveyer belt lifestyle of being born, going to school, getting a job, getting married, having kids, and dying...someone who is passionate and really wants to do something different...he says these kinds of people instead of just putting patches on the wagon, end up building a new wagon.

I don't know if that made sense...but i was thinking how this might relate...since there are these big ideas floating around (star wars) and people kinda put their patches on this idea to help it live on and also to get learning experience from it of course...and every once in awhile a person will break away and start another big idea. Now in my wildest fantasies, it would be great if the system worked in such a way that there weren't just a few big movers and shakers (that in some cases become strong corporate bodies) but rather many many movers and shakers..... perhaps participatory culture will inspire "normal" people to be more passionate and have big dreams and goals that go beyond the normal life pattern... though i wouldn't know how to begin to show that it would...

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