Monthly Archives: October 2014

Reflections

Oryx and Crake – Provocation

5 Comments

Loneliness is repressing. And claustrophobic. In our modern world, we constantly crave attention and have hundreds of friends on Facebook and Instagram. We have a need to socialize with people because loneliness is not an option. The Snowman’s loneliness is the hardest to reconcile with. He craves human interaction and physical contact with another person. He needs to hear the voices of people and animals. In desperation, he imitates the voices of animals such as the roar of a lion to reassure himself (11). It feels like he is shouting into the void because no one can hear him. We don’t have to fear that in our world. Modern technology has equipped us to be in constant contact with people all around the world. We are not alone. But in a way, Jimmy’s loneliness still feels familiar. Our technology has certainly upgraded our level of communication, but in a way has diminished our human interaction. We mainly speak through technology. Is it possible that once we realize the importance and necessity of human interaction it might be too late?

One of the most interesting scenes in Oryx and Crake was the one on pages 31-32, where Atwood describes the separation of the Compounds and the cities. “Long ago, in the days of knights and dragons, the kings and dukes had lived in castles, with high walls and drawbridges and slots on the ramparts so you could pour hot pitch on your enemies, said Jimmy’s father, and the Compounds were the same idea. Castles were for keeping you and your buddies nice and safe inside, and for keeping everybody else outside” (32). I found this passage enlightening as it resonates with the social conditions of our time. There is a class division in society as the bourgeoisie (the business owners, CEOs, bankers) are separated from the working class (factory workers and so forth). the bourgeois society shields itself from the rebuke and protests from the working class by creating laws and rules that legalize the inequality between these two classes, acting as castles that keep these people safe. Similarly, the society in the novel is very similar as the OrganInc people deem the ‘pleeblands’ as unsafe and beneath them: “there were people cruising around in those places who could forge anything and who might be anybody, not to mention the loose change – the addicts, the muggers, the paupers, the crazies” (31).

Another thought-provoking instance in the novel is when Jimmy/Snowman’s mother condemns the OrganInc as unethical and a “moral cesspool” (64). “At NooSkins’ prices it is. You hype your wares and take all their money and then they run out of cash, and it’s no more treatments for them. They can rot as far as you and your pals are concerned. Don’t you remember the way we used to talk, everything we wanted to do? Making life better for people – not just people with money. You used to be so … you had ideals, then” (64). We can observe this terrible truth in our society as well. Our culture is based on profits and money. Big corporations such as the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry promise in their advertisements and propaganda a better life for their consumers. But they only cater to those with money. What about the poorer sections of the society who cannot afford to pay exorbitant amounts of money for these services and medications that could potentially save their lives? Everyone has a right to health and development but such corporations in their goal to earn profits stray from achieving the common good.

In addition, the environmental destruction in the world of Oryx and Crake is terrifying. I am afraid to ask, but is that where are planet is heading? Jimmy’s mother discusses how beaches and many eastern coastal cities were washed away due to the rising of the sea level. “And she used to snivel about her grandfather’s Florida grapefruit orchard that had dried up like a giant raisin when the rains had stopped coming, the same year Lake Okeechobee had shrunk to a reeking mud puddle and the Everglades had burned for three weeks straight” (72). This reminds me of our situation – the increasing global warming, carbon footprints, pollution etc., but Jimmy’s world is so much worse. Margaret Atwood shows our future in a way; how are actions impact the planet we inhabit. I love that through this fictional universe, we get a glimpse of the reality of our present and perhaps act as warning of what we shouldn’t be doing.

Reflections

Re-writing the Future

5 Comments

The first five sections of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake feel like watching someone fill a canvas from two sides.  At first there is nothing but white space, just someone called Snowman and the woods around him, later a young boy named Jimmy with dysfunctional parents.  As the novel progresses, however, the reader is exposed to more and more of the art, the gap between the two ends lessening, almost warranting a re-reading of the initial chapters.  This play with time is likewise reflected in the plot itself as it takes place in the future in a world removed from our own, but with vestiges of what humanity once was.

Snowman’s character serves as the link between the current state of the world and what it was before “Crakers” and “the children of Oryx” began to roam the Earth.  As a child, the accounts of Snowman’s youth describe what humanity had become before it seemingly disappeared.   Divided into two domains, the compounds, towns sealed off from the outside world, isolated and self sufficient, and the “pleeblands” where there are comparatively few laws, and which are often referred to as a place were lesser, more savage people dwell.  The compounds all revolve around corporations, one grows specialized pigs to harvest organs, another grants newer, younger skin to the aging.  All of them revolve around money, and though it’s easy to say that our current society is no different in its money-lust, there are no artists in these high security domains.  Jimmy is one of the few who “isn’t a numbers person”.   Through discussions between Jimmy’s parents it seems that at first such developments were for the betterment of man, for “making life better for people – not just people with money”(57).  But as with art, it seems, so went morals.

Later in the section Jimmy befriends Crake, and Atwood goes into a detailed account of their online antics, describing a number of games and websites the two would frequent.  Named are sites for everything imaginable and all are, for the most part, quite elicit.  Among the most disturbing are Shortcircuit.com, Brainfrizz.com and Deathrowlive.com, three websites that feature executions, be they via electric chair or lethal injection.  In this depiction of our future such activities are fun-to-watch events for the masses, no censors, lots of production.  It reminds me of France during its revolutions, with crowds and crowds coming to watch the guillotine in action, or the United States during the early battles of the Civil War as happy citizens would lunch on a hill overlooking the battle and cheer as men blasted away at one another.  In the novel, men on the verge of being executed would “ham it up” adding extra drama to the experience.  Why not?  Why not let one’s death be memorable?

Indeed for others on “nitee-nite.com”, death was an achievement.  The website, one Crake is particularly drawn to, features assisted suicide videos with even more glitz and glamour to extoll the greatness of whoever is being euthanized.   The site fosters a culture that would not be too surprising in the not so distant future.

These sites may sound barbaric and distasteful, but when compared with society’s current means of such operations I find it hard to call it much worse.  Yes, a culture of assisted-suicide would be dangerous and unhealthy, but making executions more tangible to the general public is neither dangerous nor unhealthy.  Is it better to simply carry executions out unknown to the general public?  How much privacy does the individual being executed warrant?  Is the death penalty just?  Though these may be questions in our time, in Atwood’s feature they become non-issues, and violence reigns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections

Oryx and Crake

Leave a comment

Much of the story is told between Jimmy’s flashbacks and the present. From the very beginning readers begin to get a sense that Snowman is the only one who is able to reconnect the past world to the current one. When the children around him ask about the objects washed up  by sea he is easily able to identify all of them as a “hubcap, a piano key, a chunk of pale-green pop bottle smoothed by the ocean” (7). Only Jimmy is able to remember these items. The book suggests that Jimmy’s past may be our future. There are certain science fiction elements like the “sprayguns” and the genetic advancements that show a distinct technological sophistication that far exceeds our own. From this readers can conclude that there was some cataclysm that plundered Jimmy’s world into a primitive heap. Although it is still early to predict what exactly that world-changing event was, I predict it will have something to do with the genetic research that was being done by Jimmy’s father. This also explains the “green eyes” (102) that everyone has. At first I thought only the young children had green eyes and when men and women were mentioned, I believed they would have varying traits that would show that they are also survivors of the cataclysm much like Jimmy. Instead, they too possess the universal trait of green eyes which means that Jimmy must be much older than all of them. This sentiment is further supported on page 100 where Jimmy notes that all of the women, though ethnically different, all have the same kind of beauty to them. Perhaps this is to show how genetics has played a role in creating “more perfect” humans.

It would make sense that Jimmy would be the oldest. After all, he appears to be a wise shaman of sorts. The way he talks about Oryx and Crake makes them seem like gods. He even describes their path to fame as their “gradual deification” (104). It is unclear why those two specifically are the subjects of all his stories to the tribe. As with most ancient and primitive civilizations, mysticism is a recurring theme due to their inability to explain certain phenomena. Jimmy, having the knowledge of the old world, would have the answers to all of their questions but may be too tired to explain them or maybe he doesn’t want one explanation to lead to another. Having only read the first third of the book, the watch, in which Jimmy “listens” to Crake is still shrouded in mystery.

Much of the ideological conflicts can be found between Jimmy’s mother and father. Although both had worked for the same corporation, they begin to divert rapidly. Jimmy’s mother believes that science may have crossed the line. She criticizes that her husband’s work is “interfering with the building blocks of life” and that his work is “immoral”and “sacrilegious” (57). Her stance seems to be one in which she wants the world to retain its natural order. This is further demonstrated when she decides to run off with Killer, Jimmy’s pet, wanting the animal to be free to roam in the wild. Jimmy’s father has a very pro-science and big business vibe. When Jimmy’s mother says that she is depressed, he simply demands that she should “take some pills” (57). Instead of trying to console her with talking, he immediately resorts to using a drug to control her emotions. The domestic arguments taking place are not simply to outline Jimmy’s rather depressing childhood. It also serves as a way of showing what is wrong with world. The book does a good job of personifying ideological conflicts through the verbal arguments between the couple.

The most disturbing part of the reading were Crake’s and Jimmy’s time spent browsing the internet. Two young boys viewing pornography wasn’t really anything too alarming. It was their indifference towards the executions and other grotesque images that shocked me. Crake even explains that the executions “could get monotonous” (83) showing how prolonged exposure can make people indifferent about anything. Maybe this is what makes the internet so dangerous. Our voyeuristic ability to watch something so impersonally can drive us towards indifference about the most gruesome and morally-ill subjects.

Uncategorized

Sirgutz Roundtable

1 Comment

In its simplest form, the pertinence of Brian Sirgutz’ presentation and discussion is that he’s a Gallatin graduate himself. Fortunately, the roundtable was far from bland and actually tied in very closely to the media and technology studies we are embarking on in our class. Up until the floor was opened for questions, Sirgutz recounted his own story to success, rife with “cool” anecdotes about how many notable people he had worked and lived with. The most interesting part about his personal narrative was that he had not set out to be involved in social justice as he is now, but rather the business of music. He explained how volunteering in lower Manhattan post-911 had revolutionized his vision of the world, and there he had decided he needed to something more with his life (not that he wasn’t already successful).

Sirgutz is now the Senior Vice President of Social Impact at the Huffington Post, where he directs a series of articles that are aimed at improving the world. The business model for this wing of the Huffington Post works as such: a company (Johnson & Johnson was his example) donates money to Huffington to help fund research and development for an article, they are allowed to advertise their CSR (corporate social responsibility) programs on the web page, and subsequently their revenue from sales increases substantially (according to Sirgutz). This allows for companies to market their name, without directly marketing specific products, in a more ethical manner than usual. Sirgutz claims that Johnson & Johnson, for example, aren’t allowed to advertise their shampoos on the page with the article about children and mothers that they sponsored. While this may be just me being critical, I believe that there is no need for corporate sponsorship for this wing of the publication and that this sort of funding, regardless of the lack of ads that Sirgutz promotes, has an inevitable bias. This merging of corporate interest and news distribution should be avoided at all costs, especially in a relatively new, prolific, and profitable publication such as the Huffington Post. The social impact articles should be promoting companies that will do greater good without an economic incentive. However, I must say I wholeheartedly applaud Mr. Sirgutz; he’s found a way to integrate these noble concepts into the current system without upsetting it to the point where the social impact section would be shunned. And he certainly is “doing well, while doing (some, unquantifiable) good.”

Announcements

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

Leave a comment

As a follow up to our Fahrenheit 451 in class debate, check out this campaign to increase diversity in children’s books:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/we-need-diverse-books

What is We Need Diverse Books™?

Reading is the ultimate form of empathy.

Though more than half of schoolchildren are minorities–people of color, LGBTQIA, and/or people with disabilities–the fact remains that too few of these children see reflections of themselves in the books they read. Books are more than mirrors– they’re windows as well. The more kids read, the more they understand not just themselves, but the Story of Us All.We Need Diverse Books™ (WNDB) is a grassroots organization dedicated to advocating and supporting non-majority narratives.

Midterm, Uncategorized

REVISED MIDTERM – Stitching, Bitching and Making Money – Etsy’s Role in Third Wave Feminism

Leave a comment

Founded in 2005 by Robert Kaplin, Etsy has become the go-to online marketplace for all things handmade and vintage. Through Etsy, individual sellers can use the e-commerce site to sell anything and everything handmade or second hand. From art and quilts to furniture and second hand toys, if it’s cute, knitted or has a bow on it, you can find it on Etsy. However beneath the ruffled curtains and Oreo cookie shaped necklaces, Etsy has come to represent something much larger. It is a key technological tool in the third wave feminism movement, encouraging a new generation of women to start their own businesses and make their own money. Born in the 1990s third wave feminism was largely a reaction against some of the strict initiatives and movements created by second wave feminists during the 1960’s, ’70’s and ’80’s. It focused on broadening the term feminism, focusing on issues such as class, race, sexuality and femininity that previous feminist waves often ignored. Third wave feminists redefined what it meant to be a feminist, reclaiming old media crafts such as knitting and sewing that were viewed as hobbies of their mother’s generation by second wave feminists and no longer necessary to the modern woman (Offensend). With more and more young, empowered feminists turning to the creation of handmade goods to make an income, Etsy has created a space where the online selling of handmade goods is easier than ever and where women who may traditionally not have been able to work or make an income have been able to empower themselves and become successful business owners from their own homes.

In November 2013 (the last time Etsy posted their monthly statistics online), $147.5 million of goods were sold via the online marketplace. In that same month 1,318,666 new members joined the Etsy community and 2.15 billion page views were recorded on the site (Traub). What makes Etsy stand out from other competitive online marketplaces is, of course, it’s focus on the homemade, however upon examining the interface of the website there are a number of features that show why Etsy is so appealing as a platform for business owners and why it has made the process of selling online so easy.

As soon as you go the Etsy homepage, users are encouraged to sign up to in order to start browsing and buying goods. The sign up process is easy and requires no financial transactions upfront. Once users are signed in, the Etsy homepage displays galleries of items that are ‘trending’ or centre around a certain theme such as ‘halloween’, ‘weddings’ or ‘gift ideas’.

Image a - The Etsy homepage interface
Image a – The Etsy homepage interface

The interface (see image a) is clean and minimalist but with a feminine edge. The handpicked items from different stores displayed in the galleries all feature beautifully handmade goods and well photographed products. The items chosen by Etsy to display are clearly aimed at a female audience, from jewellery to cupcakes the website’s white layout lets the products speak for themselves, attracting the user with the beauty and attractiveness of the items on sale.

Studies have shown that 80% of usability problems on websites come from poor navigation design (Savaji, Downe, Fahmi Mazlan, Soo and Abdullah). With millions of diverse new products listed every month (Traub) it would be easy for Etsy to become an incomprehensible mess of unrelated handmade products. Etsy combats this problem through their use of categories. One of the first options on the homepage is to either search for an item or browse items by category. The key to good navigation is good information architecture; selecting the right labels and categories and laying them out in a way that attracts the user and reflects their own mental organisation of the information (Straub). Many of Etsy’s categories are very simple, appealing to users who may not be familiar with the website and just want to browse. The ‘Men’, ‘Women’ and ‘Kids’ categories make it easy for an Etsy beginner to start looking for something they might be interested in. The other categories appeal to the kind of user Etsy is most familiar with. Categories such as ‘Wedding’, ‘Jewellery’ and ‘Craft Supplies’ are clearly aimed at Etsy’s predominately female audience and serve as markers, telling you what to expect from the content of the website as well as making it easy for users to find exactly what they want. As an avid crafter myself I can advocate for how hard it is to find craft supplies for sale online, the immediate presence of that category on the Etsy homepage let me know I was in the right place as soon as I first visited the site.

One thing that makes Etsy so attractive to sellers is the store front interface (see picture b). Once you have clicked on a  particular user or seller the site directs you to their personal Etsy page. The layout of the pages is beautiful, users are given the chance to upload their own header image, create categories displayed in the side bar detailing the types of items they are selling and each user has a box in the sidebar with information about the shop owner. What strikes you most is how professional Etsy makes everything look. Many of the people selling are extremely amateur however due to the layout, each individual sellers page could be it’s own professional e-commerce site. The layout and the design immediately provoke trust in the buyer. You do not feel as if you are buying from an amateur but from a proper online shop with beautiful handmade items.

Image b - Etsy individual seller store front
Image b – Etsy individual seller store front

Etsy operates all their transactions through PayPal. Upon buying an item the user is redirected to Paypal where they can check out in a number of seconds with nothing but their PayPal login details. The seller never has to worry about handling the money, Etsy takes care of it all. The money is simply transferred from the buyer’s PayPal into the sellers PayPal and then the seller is sent the details of the order and the delivery address. PayPal may be a large part of why Etsy is so successful. A study regarding trust and usability elements in E-Commerce websites conducted by University Teknologi in Malaysia found that the usage of PayPal immediately increased the user’s trust in the transaction security of the website (Savaji, Downe, Fahmi Mazlan, Soo and Abdullah 221-226). The study also found that web site quality, ease of navigation and professional design also played a large role in making the user trust the site and feel more confident about spending their money (Savaji, Downe, Fahmi Mazlan, Soo and Abdullah 221-226). PayPal also serves as a huge attraction for sellers. What discourages a lot of people from starting their own business is worry about how they will operate it financially; processing payments and figuring out how to handle the money once it’s been received.

Another element of new media that makes Etsy so attractive to small business owners is photography. Jewellery designer Emma Mitchell owns an Etsy shop called Silver Pebble where she sells her handmade silver jewellery.  A necklace by Emma will cost on average $180 and to make each one costs Emma herself 50% of the selling price (Mitchell). Before Etsy, were Emma to have tried to sell her products she would have needed to sell them through a shop or a craft fair. This would mean making dozens of each product in the hope that they would sell (Mitchell). For a lot of people setting up their own business it is financially impossible to make a large supply of their items before having sold them and there is also always the risk that the items won’t sell and you will make a loss. The development of photographic technology has meant most people have access to high definition photography and a way of putting it online. This means Emma has to only make one of her necklaces and can then go on to make each one individually as each new order comes in. Etsy offers customisable delivery times meaning the seller can let the user know that they will be making the product upon receiving the order. For small business owners who do not have a lot of seed money, this aspect of the online marketplace is extremely important and almost completely removes all the start up risks involved with creating a business.

This transformation in potential business opportunities for crafters has also had a huge impact in modern feminism.  For a long time feminism and crafts such as cooking, knitting and any other act seen as ‘women’s work’ were considered two opposing forces. During the second wave of feminism in conjunction with the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, feminists rejected so called ‘women’s work’ in order to try and claim equality and to balance women’s lives with their male counterparts. Women all over the world put down their needlework, put on their trouser suits and crafts became associated with stay at home mum’s and an old way of viewing women (Offensend). However this very rejection of all things ‘girly’ goes against the idea that a central element to the feminist movement is choice. Feminism is about women having the freedom and equality to live the lives they choose without feeling dominated by men and the rejection of homely activities by second wave feminists exorcises this choice (Offensend). The 1990’s saw an explosive resurgence of knitting among young women, often stated to be centred around feminist and Bust magazine editor Debbie Stoller’s book Stitch ’N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook. In this, Stoller argues that it is time to rethink the position that girls doing traditionally male activities is feminist but girls doing traditionally female activities is not. There were also similar movements dismissing cooking and baking as non liberated, oppressive activities. As a feminist knitter and baker myself I feel cooking and knitting are extremely important activities. Having the skills to create something from nothing and being able to reclaim a skill like knitting and bring it into the modern age feels very empowering. While the 90’s resurgence of all things girly was extremely popular it was also very criticised. It centred around the idea that women who were already working or had some sort of financial stability should take up knitting or cooking as a hobby and many commented that only women in some sort of privileged position have the option not to do activities like these as a necessity but for pleasure (Gilley).

This is where Etsy becomes relevant, new media has created a place where this reclamation of the handmade among feminists has stopped being simply a way to make a statement but an actual way for women to create businesses and empower themselves with their own income. In 2001 the media began to pick up on a growing trend regarding young women’s interests in knitting and crafting. The New York Times and other newspapers published profiles on young women, typically in their 20s or 30s, who support themselves by making and selling handcrafted items. A newspaper in Portland described it as a ‘craft phenomenon’, profiling 33 year old Susan Beal who supports herself by sewing, quilting and embroidering (Stryker). When this movement first began most women were using craft fairs and independent boutiques to sell their goods, but with the development of Etsy most of them have relocated online. “In another era, I would have done this as a hobby, but the fact that I can earn my living with my creativity feels very feminist to me,” Beal says. “I don’t know if I would say it’s the new bra-burning, but I definitely think it’s a radical act…” (Stryker).

What the fight for equality for women has been known to dismiss is the real life complications of working for a lot of women. In 1998, feminist writers Judy Smith and Ellen Balka proposed the development of a Sex Role Impact statement that would be used just like the Environmental Impact Statement and would attempt to assess new technology on what the effect of it’s development would have on sex roles. The study involved seven questions that would need to be asked of every new technology by many public agencies before development decisions were made (Smith and Balka). The first two questions on the list are “Would it broaden or restrict women’s traditional options (Smith and Balka 113)?” and “Would it increase or limit women’s chances for economic self sufficiency (Smith and Balka 113)?” The answers to these seems obvious. Etsy has made it easy and effective for women to sell their handmade goods all over the world, entirely broadening the options of how far they can take their business’ and how much money they can make. “Would it decrease or increase the time needed for home and family maintenance (Smith and Balka 113)?”. Once again I feel the answer to this is positive. For women looking to work and maintain a family Etsy makes online selling quick, easy and brings it into women’s homes meaning they can work and look after their families at the same time. The next question “Would it reduce or increase women’s privatisation in the home (Smith and Balka 114)?” has a slightly more complicated answer as any form of online presence immediately slightly reduces the users privatisation, but in our modern technological world that is hard to avoid and there is nothing to show Etsy is less secure or private than any other trusted website. “Would this development be dangerous to women’s health (Smith and Balka 114)?” The answer to this I feel is no. Unless of course a women decided to sell something online that was dangerous to produce however this would be less Etsy’s fault than the women’s own lack of judgement. And finally “Would it make sex roles more interchangeable so that either women or men could do what needed to be done or would it re-enforce traditional sex role stereotyping and division of labor (Smith and Balka 114)?” This question is probably the most complicated on the list and addresses the majority of the points I have been trying to make throughout this essay. In many ways, Etsy does re-enforce traditional sex role stereotyping. The scenario I have evoked during this essay has been one of a women sitting at home knitting and looking after her children. And were I to ever hear someone say that women’s jobs were mothering, cooking and knitting I would probably scream at them until I lost my voice. But the reality of the lives of many women is that they do have to stay at home to look after their children, be it because they can’t afford childcare, have a child who is ill or simply want to stay at home while their children are young. What is amazing about Etsy is that it is truly beginning to subvert any stereotypes we may have of mothers, knitters and women who stay at home. My imaginary women, the one sitting at home and knitting is no longer without an income, her interests and hobbies are no longer outdated. Instead she is able to care for her children while running her own business from home. She is able to sell and make money from the beautiful things she makes. She is able to be part of a huge community of women like her, supporting each other, talking to each other, empowering each other. Etsy has become a symbol of third wave feminism. A place where women can choose to embrace ‘women’s work’ but transform it into ‘men’s work’. In conclusion, if you thought it wasn’t possible to do needlework and be a feminist, you were most definitely wrong (see image c).

Image c - Feminist needlepoint by Scarlett Curtis
Image c – Feminist cross stitch by Scarlett Curtis

WORKS CITED

Curtis, Scarlett. Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Human Rights. 2014. Cross stitch. London, England.

“Etsy homepage”. Etsy 2014. Authors screenshot.

“Elina Creations’ Etsy shop”. Etsy, 2014. Authors screenshot.

Gilley, Jennifer. “Writings of the third wave: young feminists in conversation.” Reference & user Services Quarterly 44.3 (2005): 187-198. Print.

Luckman, Susan. “Gender, Craft and the Creative Economy.” The 3rd Global Conference on The Value of Work: Exploring Critical Issues, September 1st-3rd, 2013, Mansfield College, Oxford. Oxford, September 2013. Print.

Mitchell, Emma. Personal Interview. 10 October 2014.

Offensend, Elizabeth Gillette. Crafting a Space: A Feminist Analysis of the Relationship Between Women, Craft, Business and Technology on etsy.com. Diss. Portland State University, 2012. Web.

Sivaji, Ashok, Downe, Alan, Fahmi Mazlan, Muhammad, Soo, Shi-Tzuaan and Abdullah, Azween. “Importance of Incorporating Fundamental Usability with Social & Trust Elements for E-Commerce Websites.” Business, Engineering and Industrial Applications (ICBEIA), 2011 International Conference on 5-7 June 2011. Kuala Lumpur: IEEE, June 2011. Print.

Smith, Judy and Balka, Ellen, “Chatting on a Feminist Computer Network” Technology and Women’s Voices: Keeping in Touch. Ed. Kramarae, Cheris. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul Inc, 1988. 111-131. Print.

Stryker, Krista, “Crafty Bitches.” Willamette Weekly Newspaper. Web. 3 Oct. 2007.

Straub, Kath. “Making it Findable.” Human Factors International. Web. April, 2005.

Traub, Michelle. “Etsy Statistics: November 2013 Weather Report.” Etsy News Blog. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.

Midterm, Uncategorized

Final Draft Midterm: International Politics, Democracy and Social Media

Leave a comment

“The belief that ‘revolutions’ in communication technologies will lead to radical social and political change predates the Internet, of course.” 

– Albrecht Hofheinz

Albrecht Hofheinz is an associate professor at the University of Oslo at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages. In his article Nextopia? Beyond Revolution 2.0 for the International Journal for Communication (2011), he explains that new media is consistently thought of as revolutionary technology, as was the telegraph, telephone and television. The main difference between the Internet and its various platforms is that it allows for more communication between peers, strengthens more critical attitudes towards established authorities and is less limited by space and time. Clay Shirky, a prominent writer in residence at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, further distinguishes the Internet from other technologies since “members of the former audience […] can now also be producers and not consumers” in his TedTalk “How Social Media Can Make History” (Shirky). Shirky advocates that the virtue of the Internet is that everyone is a producer, introducing the concept of makerism. Social media effectively democratizes our society by allowing everyone to be involved in ‘makerism,’ lessening the gaps between those in and under power.

Twitter has become a way for the online community to share instantaneous updates of protests, most prominently the Arab Spring. Members of media and political science academia have been questioning whether the use of social media was the true reason for the success of Arab Spring movements. Former United States Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for example, argues that the Internet enhances democracy and countries that ban websites have “opportunity costs for trying to be open for business but closed for free expression” (Clinton). On the other hand, Kentaro Toyama, a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, points out “we have free speech online because we have free speech offline, not the other way around” (Toyama). Toyama’s comment poses a pressing question: can and should everyone have access to social media if this access doesn’t reflect their political structure? Should people be given the freedom to create, where power is controlled and not meant for everyone to have? Toyama’s statement reflects a skill called heresthetics, a world structured in favor of someone’s victory, where even social media has been constructed to perpetuate the success of democracy. Therefore, in places where speech is already free and diverse, social media keeps it going. Yet, social media isn’t necessarily the tool that transforms a system, it is merely a venue for expression not the cause of democracy.

Politicians and scholars that advocate for the open use of social media suggest it could be a tool to fight against oppressive regimes, allowing people to build democracy within their countries. The concrete effect of social media is linked to how people are informed of news, since understanding one’s surroundings is the first step to advocating for change. Walter Lippmann, author of Public Opinion published in 1922, argued that democracy does not work because humans are driven by self-interest and therefore the elite should govern and citizens should be mere spectators. John Dewey responded to Lippmann’s claims with his book The New Republic, where he proposes that human interaction through communication makes democracy flourish (Rosenstiel). Most of the journalism and information distribution in popular media outlets throughout the 20th century worked within Lippman’s democracy theory, where citizens were mere spectators of news. Although these theories of democracy were mostly outdated, media scholars have re-appropriated it to today’s information sharing. As a result of social media, people are able to actively participate in journalism instead of stepping back and watching events happen, which in turn results in a more democratic process in the creation and the consumption of information. Having a news source is personal and public makes both the reader and writer sympathize in a human level, even if they come from different cultures, and therefore holds a stronger effect than having journalists objectively report on events. If individual stories are told poignantly and genuinely enough, others will want to help their cause. Twitter materializes an abstract concept of an issue with relatable faces leading to support. This phenomenon could be compared to how people know that there is famine in the world but numbers don’t convince them to donate or help, instead an anecdote of a famished child has the right amount of pathos to affect the viewer. Having the interaction between users happen immediately is much more powerful, which in turn results in a more unified movement for democracy.

This conceptual debate leads into the conversation scholars have on the power of Twitter as a micro blog used for micro-journalism, during demonstrations and political movements. Rune Saugman Andersen notes that citizens have the opportunity to document their own situation instead of relying on an authoritative voice of credibility from the press. The power of citizens to control their own information and disseminate information at a faster rate than daily newspapers gives them an advantage over traditional popular journalism, which is well depicted in Seismic Waves. However, micro-journalism requires no peer editing or verification and can therefore be an unreliable news source. A lack of accuracy can greatly diminish the relationship between social media and democracy because the foundation of information is flawed. If people within a national or international issue don’t perceive it objectively they may sign on to something that doesn’t align with their views, and may be swept up by sensationalism and groupthink. The danger in using social media, as a news source, is that the information may just be the immediate assumption.

Fact checking is rare within social media, even if there are comments questioning accuracy, thus sensationalism and hysteria can be profuse on Twitter. It can be disputed, however, that popular media’s journalism and newspapers are too slow and may not even be privy to the information that must be reported. If people have the opportunity to live feed imperative events, why not take advantage of it? What is more beneficial to society can be argued both ways, uncontrolled panic can be detrimental to plans of action in various political movements yet false information can mislead the public. Having a few people understand events deeply and confirm all the facts puts those people on a pedestal, unnecessarily. The validation of events can be done through the multiple perspectives coming from various Twitter users. Journalists should seize to be ‘gatekeepers’ of information and should merely provide an interpretation of the whole picture to help make sense of implications of these events, as the Twitter interface can become quite confusing to reconcile the entire story. Ultimately, social media should be simultaneously utilized with popular media, so that there is a balance of opinion and an interpretation of the facts. (O’Connor, 124).

Through social media, particularly Twitter, online masses become the source for news outlets. This phenomenon occurred most notably in Iran during the 2009 Green Movement, a protest against the corruption of the elections that led to Mir-Hossein Moussavi’s loss and consequently a demand for more participatory democracy in Iran. International reporters had little to no entry into the country as Wolf Blitzer, a head CNN anchor, recalls that he used Twitter to “complete a view of what was unfolding in Iran,” (Ems, 723) as shown in Octavia Nasr’s multimedia article for CNN “Tear Gas and Twitter: Iranians take their protest online” . Andrew Sullivan from the Atlantic Monthly described tweets as the “raw data of history, as it happen… respected journalistic medium” (Ems, 723) Overall, social media’s influence comes from having the information and disseminating it when one is present in the events. This led the international community to start calling the Iranian upheaval and those that followed, including Tunisia and Egypt’s revolution, the ‘Twitter Revolution’. But, what was the real impact of social media on the success of these movements?

Within academia, there is an enthusiastic campaign to associate social media with the success of the Arab Spring, the ‘Magic Bullet Theory’. This theory “asserts that messages delivered through the mass media powerfully and directly influence the public,” (Berenger, 51) while really the connection between political changes and Twitter should be taken with some skepticism and analysis. For instance, there are 231 million people in the Middle East and North Africa, but only 23.8 million actually use Facebook and other social media outlets as shown in Middle Eastern Internet Statistics (Miniwatts). A minimal amount (about 10%) of citizens are using social media, and therefore are probably not involved in changing their country’s political status quo. It is possible that they don’t even want a more democratized system and perhaps social media is a false representation of people’s desires. Is democracy always for the better, if it is not what people want?

Consideration should be taken of whether social media is a beneficial platform for citizens. The theory of technological democratization is a cyber-optimistic lens that says that citizens’ access to the Internet will make the public sphere thrive. However, it is contested by the theory of critical political economy proposing that the Internet just “mimics the status quo and perpetuates the socio-economic machine that divides societies” (Berenger, 47). The use of social media and the devices to record these incidents in the Middle East are limited to the elite and therefore exacerbate the point that social media does not necessarily represent everyone in a population equally, making it less democratic. Only a few voices are being heard and may be skewing the odds in favor of already powerful elite. Social media isn’t that good at representing all viewpoints and as a result may not empower everyone. Even though, it empowers some, it may not be enough for social media to be identified as a promoter of fair and democratic values.

There is little to no research done about the correlation between social media and democracy. Although it can be argued that democracy is not something that can be qualitatively measured, Christopher Kedzie, a researcher at RAND Corporation that conducts research for public policy, has done empirical research on how democracy is associated with information access and not economic development, which is shown below. Although the research looks into email and the Internet’s operations have surpassed electronic mail through social media, so the research is not as valid. Kedzie’s results and analysis proved his hypothesis that democracy has a linear relationship to interconnectivity, yet whether it can be translated to today’s social media is still an unanswered question.

Screen Shot 2014-10-17 at 4.12.30 PM Screen Shot 2014-10-17 at 4.12.16 PM

The false representation of political interests is a recurring theme within the employment of social media for the broadcast of events. The Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian Sunni Islamist religious, social and political group, tweeted different messages in Arabic and English during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution as shown below:

IMG_0531

Even though, the U.S. government discerned the incongruity between the messages, this incident still shows how the communication tool can be used to manipulate the image of events when seen from the outside.The conflicting translations in this example may appear to be quite arbitrary, but it shows how social media may just be used as a means to keep up appearances. The status of ‘reality’ of social media can be taken advantage of instead of actually represent the course of events. Therefore, those that are astute enough can deliver and further their interests without being questioned, because Twitter is meant to be a feed of the current truth.

The argument that proliferation of messages can mold views can be supported by the role of media in the recent Israel-Palestine conflict. Celebrities started supporting Palestine and Gaza’s cause was elevated because the massacre of children was tweeted through photographs. On October 14, 2014, the United Kingdom recognized Palestine diplomatically, although symbolically, mainly due to the popular opinion that was amplified by Twitter’s #RecognizePalestine (Castle). Social media in this case and other conflicts create misconceptions of the situation and can affect the diplomatic climate in international relations. Foreigners following from the outside, if only looking at Twitter, do not grasp the entire issue at hand and may just follow one perspective, and therefore have a biased notion of events. This is dangerous because social media can create pressure from the public on government, as it did on the British administration, and may deter negotiations worldwide because of popular opinion. Although, popular opinion is directly related to democracy it may not express all of the viewpoints and the desires of the ones actually involved in the issue. Social media, therefore, can coerce unwanted results. So, what should be the role of Twitter in civil movements?

The ultimate goal of the Arab Spring was to diminish the control that their government regimes had over their rights, to democratize. The use of Twitter to lead to this goal is not simple and entails a complex relationship. The “Twitter conversation about the Iranian protests occurred mostly among those in the West, and most likely was not used by Iranians to organize,” (Etling, 10) thus it is less of a tool for rallying and more of a tool for deliberation. Sometimes the information is put out of context and a large campaign emerges without the people understanding what is really happening on the ground, as seen in Iran and Israel-Palestine. It is not democratizing because it is giving a purpose to those that are external figures in the issue.

Nevertheless, Twitter may also allow for more investigation from the international community and possibly strip stereotypes of a system’s perfection. For instance, Brazil’s recent social protests highlighted some issues that were not apparent to the general public about the country’s political system. Tagging popular media outlets, such as CNN, instead of reporting in loco information may be a another positive way to accentuate the importance of certain issues:

Screen Shot 2014-10-24 at 9.10.30 PM

Yet, this effort may also be futile as nothing really changed for the better in Brazil after the protests in the beginning of 2014. The attention given by the international media and Twitter to political movements doesn’t have positive results if there isn’t a structured group of leaders to take them t to the next level. Movements, like in Brazil, can remain in a superficial level of rage towards the system and die down.  Although, people present in political movements are involved through Twitter and the social medium gives them a voice it may not be interpreted correctly and may not benefit them, as it may not result in more democracy.

 Government can take advantage of the following, literally and figuratively, that is created through Twitter for international political gain. The international community started supporting the Green Movement; they did this by making their profile pictures a green tint. The Iranian government continued to filter and censor the information being diffused through Twitter, in order to hinder the force of the protests. The United States government reacted by having Jared Cohen, a state department official, directly contact Twitter to allow for the #IranRevolution feed to continue and undermine the strength of the Iranian administration’s censorship. This strategic move by the U.S. government demonstrates how social media affects geopolitical affairs, as the United States helped provide information to the international public through Twitter, and consequently people were exposed to the movement and got on board. It demonstrates how the U.S. government “[uses] new media tools to exert power over their adversaries” (Ems, 724). More than that, it was the first time that a social media outlet was directly contacted to further a political strategy, showing how social media can affect international relations.

The introduction of social media into the political sphere is relatively new and that is also why there is a lack of policy of how to deal with it in different circumstances, in order to favor the government’s interests. Ultimately, the politicians seem to still be in power by having control over information and the use of social media because they can open or close the flow of information as they wish, as if it were a faucet. Coming back to the concept of heresthetics, governments may be manipulating the availability of information by having conflicting policies on the use of social media, and consequently containing their power. Social media is just a more volatile information outlet and although ideally it would act in accordance with democratic values, having contradicting opinions does not always benefit the interest of countries. A control of the freedom that social media provides is definitely a challenge for democratic countries, as they cannot censor its use and therefore may lose their ability to have heresthetics.

Freedom of press and speech should be applied, as a means of democracy, but social media is so free that it could perhaps get society into a state of anarchy. Since social media is starting to bridge with policy and therefore it must be defined, through laws, how is should be used in order to fall under people’s rights. Social media can progress democracy to some extent, it allows for more participation but may not allow for everyone to be involved with no intervention. The future challenge is defining the role of social media, so that it is not abused and it fosters democracy.

Works Cited

Berenger, Ralph D. Social Media Go to War: Rage, Rebellion and Revolution in the Age of Twitter. Spokane, WA: Marquette, 2013. Print. Used the following chapters: Introduction by Ralph Berenger Citizen ‘Micro-journalism’: How #IranElection was exploited in Politics and Newspaper stories by Rune Saugman Andersen The Role of Contemporary Media in Political Transitions: Searching for a New Paradigm by Katharine R. Allen Conclusion

Castle, Stephen, and Jodi Rudoren. “A Symbolic Vote in Britain Recognizes a Palestinian State.” The New York Times 14 Oct. 2014: 1+. Print.

Clinton, Hillary. “Conference on Internet Freedom.” Conference on Internet Freedom. The Netherlands, Hague. 8 Dec. 2011. Humanrights.gov. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.humanrights.gov/2011/12/09/secretary-clinton-on-internet-freedom-transcript/>.

Ems, Lindsay. “Twitter’s Place in the Tussle: How Old Power Struggles Play out on a New Stage.” Sage Publication (2014): 720-31. Sagepub.com. 4 June 2014. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/36/5/720.full.pdf>.

Etling, Bruce, Robert Faris, and John Palfrey. “Political Change in the Digital Age: The Fragility and Promise of Online Organizing.” Digital Access to Scholarship Harvard (2010): n. pag. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4609956/SAIS%20online%20organizing%20paper%20final.pdf?sequence=1>.

Hofheinz, Albrecht. “Nextopia? Beyond Revolution 2.0.” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 1418-434. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <file:///Users/karenkandelman/Downloads/1186-5349-1-PB%20(2).pdf>.

Kedzie, Christopher. “Site-wide Navigation.” Communication and Democracy: Coincident Revolutions and the Emergent Dictators. Rand Corporation, 1997. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.rand.org/pubs/rgs_dissertations/RGSD127.html>.

Landler, Mark, and Brian Stetler. The Washington Post. N.p., 16 June 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/world/middleeast/17media.html?scp=1&sq=%20Mark%20Landler%20and%20Brian%20Stelter%206/17/09%20twitter%20%20&st=cse>.

Miniwatts Marketing Group. “Middle East Internet Usage Statistics, Population, Facebook and Telecommunications Reports.” Middle East Internet Usage Statistics, Population, Facebook and Telecommunications Reports. Miniwatts Marketing Group, 31 Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats5.htm>.

Nasr, Octavia. “Tear Gas and Twitter: Iranians Take Their Protests Online.” CNN. Cable News Network, 15 June 2009. Web. 17 Oct. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/14/iran.protests.twitter/index.html?iref=topnews#cnnSTCVideo>.

O’Connor, Rory. Friends, Followers, and the Future: How Social Media Are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional Media. San Francisco: City Lights, 2012. Print.

Rosenstiel, Tom, and Bill Kovach. Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect. 3rd ed. New York: Three Rivers, 2014. Print.

Shirky, Clay. “How Social Media Can Make History.” Ted@State. 14 Oct. 2014. Ted.com. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history/transcript?language=en>.

Toyama, Kentaro. “Twitter Isn’t Spreading Democracy- Democracy Is Spreading Twitter.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/twitter-isnt-spreading-democracy-democracy-is-spreading-twitter/281368/>.

Xkcd. “Seismic Waves.” Xkcd.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2014. <http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/seismic_waves.png>.

Reflections

Oryx and Crake

Leave a comment

I thought it was interesting how Jimmy longs so much for human contact that he is willing to upset his mother with probing questions just to be able to “[stretch] out his hand” and touch his mother (33). As his mother retreats into her own world, Jimmy becomes so desperate for a connection to humanity he is willing to act out in order to get a reaction. Jimmy’s frustration with the stoic world he lives in is shown through his audacity to pester his mother in order to get a reaction. Snowman’s broken relationship with his parents prevent him from forming future relationships with others. When he interacts with the Crake children he has trouble connecting with them and sometimes snaps at them. Snowman’s deconstructed narrative of his life, jumping from the past to the present, is an extension of the decaying world that he lives in.

Snowman retreats a lot to the past as seen through his memories of his childhood with his family and playing games with Crake. Additionally, the novel reverts a lot to past notions such as when Snowman says, “any reader [I] can possibly imagine is in the past” (41). With this withdrawal from the present into the past, Snowman demonstrates his unhappiness with the present situation in society and desires to return to simpler times when he didn’t understand all of the complexities of life. Snowman believes that ignorance is bliss, which leads me, as the reader to believe, that the present is full of confusion and difficult times. In the present, Snowman has no one to interact with except the Crake children. Therefore, in an attempt to feel his need for a social interaction, he relives his past memories. In the present, Snowman has nothing to do and “has to find more and better ways of occupying his time” (40). With the lack of interaction in his current world, Snowman retreats further and further into his mind.

Snowman longs to get out of the prison-like world he is trapped within. “Get me out! he hears himself thinking,” but then realizes that “he isn’t locked up, he’s not in prison” (45). Although Snowman is physically free, his mind is trapped within society’s cave. With the opposition between his mind and his body, Snowman exhibits a dichotomy within himself. Trapped within an in-between world, or a purgatory of sorts, Snowman’s mind is in one place, while is body is in another. Although his body is in the present, his mind is in the past to escape the hardships of everyday life. Snowman is not happy with his current life, so he retreats into a purgatory between the past and the present in his mind. Stuck in his own cave, fostered by society, Snowman is unable to get out. Additionally, there is a dichotomy within his own mind as he experiences both scientific views thrust upon him by society, as well as his own thoughts about the world. When the “book in his head” tells him to “ignore minor irritants,” Snowman “feels he has a listener” who is “watching him slyly” (46). The paranoia that Snowman feels within his own head, demonstrates his fractured relationship with the world around him as well as the distrust he has for society. Snowman did not grow up in a typical loving family, so he was never able to create long-lasting relationships. He feels as if the true world is “hidden behind the screen of leaves,” and if he searches deep enough inside his head he can find the world and live happily within it (46). The idea of the world being hidden, exhibits Snowman’s duality within himself in that he is confused about what the world should be like.

In a world where “nothing [Jimmy] could achieve would ever be the right idea, or enough,” Snowman’s personality becomes splintered, as seen through the narrative which switches from the past and the present and from Jimmy to Snowman (50). The past and the present within Jimmy have become so splintered that “Snowman has forgotten everything else about Jimmy’s tenth birthday except the rakunk” (51). Attempting to disassociate himself from the past, Snowman’s memories become splintered, reflecting the destructing world around him. As Jimmy’s father takes on a new job at HelthWyzer, his parents start fighting. As Jimmy is stuck between his parent’s opposing views, his world is further split in two. With a warring world, Jimmy is forced to maintain his only connection to his pet rakunk, Killer. Unable to fit in with the human world, Jimmy forms a bond with animals. Additionally, in order to try to form a human connection, Jimmy acts out in school and uses his hands as puppets to put on a show that is an unsettling mirror image of his life. Jimmy cannot connect to his parents, who are supposed to teach him the basis of how to interact with the world, so he acts out to gain attention and “applause” from other kids (60).

Crake asks “what is reality?” which brings up an important point about society’s blurred lines between the truth and the fabricated (83). Crake uses these blurred lines to bridge his own reality within society. With the sex show on HottTotts, Jimmy observes “three layers of contradictory make believe, one on top of the other” (90). When what we are surrounded by is fabricated, our own lines become obscured. Therefore, Jimmy has trouble recounting the years in between discovering HottTotts and meeting Oryx because during that time he was undergoing the reestablishment and questioning of his reality.  Crake probes Jimmy to question his own reality, and once Jimmy begins to do this, he reverts to Snowman, who saves the picture of Oryx for years. Stretching across time, Oryx blurs Jimmy’s reality and bridges the past and the present.

Snowman goes on to explain to the Crakes what pictures are. When the “not real can tell us about real,” we are enabled to create new technologies that can further explain the current world (102). Within Atwood’s fictional novel about the future, the so-called “not real” world of the book can foreshadow the real that our world might become. With this, Atwood warns us about a post-apocalyptic future. One example that comes to mind within our current world is the Bible. Many people rely on the Bible to dictate their life, but we as a society are not sure that all of the stories are true. However, for the believers, the Bible is true insofar as it is their reality. Therefore, the objective “not real” can dictate a person’s reality. Just as the Children of Crake praise the “fabrication” of Crake created by Snowman, their belief in their past is dictated by Snowman’s “not real,” or made up stories (104). In order to maintain some form of human connection, Jimmy is forced to repeat this “dogma” about Crake so that the Children of Crake do not get disinterested and leave. Just as the television show may have put on fake executions to gain viewership, Snowman lies about Crake so that the Children of Crake remain interested. Therefore, the fabrication of reality is intertwined within a relationship to people.

Snowman turns to alcohol to escape his blurred reality. In a world where the reality is so bad that people will use cocaine to escape, Snowman does not deviate from this pattern with his alcohol abuse. With the line “out, out, brief candle,” Atwood draws a parallel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth and demonstrates Snowman’s internal schism, just as Lady Macbeth’s declaration of “out,out, damned spot,” demonstrates her psychological decline.

Reflections, Uncategorized

Brian Sirgutz

Leave a comment

A lot can be said about Sirgutz’s experiences as a band manager and his struggle to find himself in Gallatin, but what is the most interesting, especially for this class, is his role as a driver of social impact through media. Even before his role as Senior Vice President of Social Impact at the Huffington Post, he was a founding member of the company called Causecast. This company enables other businesses to manage their donations, community offerings, and other philanthropic practices through Causecast. In essence, Causecast acts as a hub, mainly for nonprofit organizations, to organize the way they give back to the world. This demonstrates a direct way in which technology can help social impact. Through technology, companies are able to streamline their efforts to build on their philanthropy.

This lead to his talk on the Huffington Post. Sirgutz managed many different groups within Huffington Post in order to create the social impact columns. Sirgutz explains that his particular columns are the ones that readers will often bring up in conversations to discuss and debate rather than the top news stories that seemingly overshadow them. Although it is still hard to quantify the effects of these columns, the Huffington Post is still able to see the impact, to some extent, of the social impact column by seeing if the column gets tweeted or spreads through other means. In the middle of his explanation of what he does, Sirgutz brought up his most powerful point. He raised his iphone and said that “with this, any civilian can be a journalist”. In an age where people can readily record videos, take pictures, and tweet about events around them, bystanders are able to become part of the machine that drives social impact awareness. Much of what he said during his visit relates to our class’s study of the media, but those words stuck out to me the most. With tools like the internet, cell phones and social media at our disposal, we can all become writers, photographers, and commentators.

Announcements, Assignments

Oryx and Crake Assignment

Leave a comment

Since Margaret Atwood is a prolific tweeter (https://twitter.com/MargaretAtwood), and many people tweet about this text using #OrxyandCrake, I would like to use the opportunity to experiment with communicating our ideas through social media. The goal of this assignment is to chronicle your thoughts as you read,  and share them with your peers and a public audience. You must live tweet your reading by using #OryxandCrake and #nyufyws so we can capture and follow the conversation.

If you tweet direct quotes, or specific questions for the author, you should include her handle @MargaretAtwood. Tweet whatever you find interesting and provocative. Standard grammar rules are not the objective here – use the language of social media – including abbreviations, emoticons, etc. However, your message must be readable to a wide audience, so think carefully about how you compose each tweet. You may also tweet me direct questions @amandalicastro.

Here is an example:

Screen Shot 2014-10-23 at 1.27.33 PM

If you do not have a twitter account, you may set up a temporary account for this course and then delete it after this assignment. If you are not comfortable with this, please email me as soon as possible, and we will discuss alternative assignments.

On Monday, we will have a fishbowl just like we did for Kelly’s book. The first group will post their short provocations by Sunday night. Post your provocations under “Reflections” and use the tag “Atwood.”

Group 1  (provocations by 10/26, fishbowl 10/27):

Choi,Ryan D
Agarwal,Sakshi
Posner,Marissa
Sanchez,Nicolas
Stine,James

 

Group 2 (provocations by 10/28, fishbowl 10/29):

Valentine,Carly
Melnick,Joshua B
Prem,Varsha
O’Brien,Francesco H
Hanson,Alexandria D

 

Group 3 (provocations by 11/2, fishbowl 11/3):

Curtis,Scarlett
Ghobadi,Kasrah Shane
Kandelman,Karen
Schulz,Adam
Baruch,Mikaela Sarah

 

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions please let me know.