Death of the Journalist?

Yes, I know this is THE question of contention today but I thought that my argument was fair and perhaps worth reiterating.

The argument usually plays in an arrangement not to different from this:

News today is less reliable as people are using Blogs as an outlet of information that they have witnessed through secondary mass- mediated messages. Ex. Obama had (fill in the blank) to say on CNN.

What blogs have created is an obstacle in the conveyance of messages, as blogs are now filtering messages taken from the mass media and redefining them. True, Bloggers do not typically witness news making moments, nor do they have the funding to be able to do so. But, while they may not have direct access to journalists or the funds to capture news as it happens, they do have access to thousands of news- feeds over the internet.

Why mass- mediated news still has a place?

Bloggers have a hard time as it is moving up the ranks of internet legitimacy, let alone competing with mass- mediated news one-on-one. What they do have are the numbers; bloggers by the thousands screening the news and collaborating.

Blogging has finally provided a system of accountability of mass-media institutions, forcing them to provide accurate and truthful information, failing to do so at their own risk of being caught by bloggers who are following their every move.

Mass- mediated news will always have a place, regardless of how fragmented they may become due to citizen media. They will always have a place because journalists are still key criteria for legitimate news, with that being said, the mass- media are some of the only institutions able to pay for the labour of a journalist. What has changed are the stipulations associated with the media, institutions no longer have free reign over our media, it is the bloggers who now have the last word.

Racism- Still a very PUBLIC problem

As much as we would like to think that racism is an issue of the past, that's far from the reality of things as stories like the Jena Six and lack of response during Hurricane Katrina paint a reality that is still very racially oriented.

While these stories portray a grim reality, there seems to be some light as people are beginning to turn to various forms of citizen media as a means for combating racism.

The Internet has provided a flat landscape of information, making all realms of the world seemingly transparent as people anywhere can access information to anything and everything. So using the Jena Six as an example, we can begin to see how the universalism of the Internet may actually work towards ending racism in a public realm. I say public realm because I'm not sure that racism will ever fully end as an inherent thought process amongst some and while I feel like that's a pessimistic approach, it's somewhat of a present- day realism that I believe is tolerable as long as racially driven public injustices are eliminated.

What I mean by racially driven public injustices are situations of blatant racism that take place in the public sphere through our media, whether it be racial jokes on Mad TV or hearing about a group like the Jena 6 on the news; these are all racially inherent occurrences that effect the public as a whole.

Thanks to thousand of Internet sites and Blogs like Afrospere, public racial injustices are being recognized and criticized, while the international Anti- Racism Movement is getting stronger by the day. As long as racism is still acceptable in mainstream media and the justice system, blogging and Independent media sources will have to work harder than ever to hold institutions promoting racism accountable for their actions.

'Second Life', more like "First Life"

"Second Life", was launched in 2003 as a game that literally represents a second cyber- life for people, not only can you purchase property but you can actually make a great virtual living, there have been people who have made their first million playing the game. While I think the idea is cool I can't help but think of the detriments caused by providing a virtual environment that reflects real life.

I personally feel like Second Life promotes social ineptness as people who lack social skills may be more inclined to live out their lives through their virtual selves as oppose to making any effort to socialize in the real world. While I agree that Second Life allows people who cannot typically interact with people to live a life that they otherwise could not, I still feel like it is available as a scape-goat for people who are too scared to socially interact in the real world.

One of the main problems with Second Life taking over as the first life for so many people is the lack of accountability for their virtual avatars. People may be more encouraged to partake in dissident behaviour as their is no way of truly ruining their reputations. It's true that some people take their second life as seriously as their first but for those testing the waters, they may be more inclined to stir up some trouble, something they can get away with without ever being strongly disciplined. People playing second life are empowered with a false sense of confidence as they can be whomever they choose to be without ever being caught.

Second Life is such a perplexing revolution as it is a true representation of life through technology, as our society continues to breed a dependency on technology we find ourselves becoming more and more isolated from one another and more inclined to interact through technological communicative tools; Second Life is evidence of where technology is leading us, into a world that no longer requires human contact.

Twitter: 2009's "Must Have" Item... (Are you serious?)

Twittering celebrities have been all the buzz lately, rumors that John Mayer’s incessant tweeting caused his break up with Jennifer Aniston and Seth Rogen’s Twitter impersonator have been popping up all over the news.

While Twitter may be the the new "must have" item these days, I'm having a hard time jumping on board.

1. I really don’t think my life is interesting enough for me to feel like a statement is worth making on a minute- by- minute basis.

2. I don’t want people to know what I’m thinking throughout the day, providing them with a falsified façade of who they think I might be.

3. I don’t have time to update my status on a regular basis and I don’t want people interpreting me as someone with no life, the exact judgments that I place on people who update their Facebook statuses way too much. It’s true that I’m on there enough to see them changing their statuses; I just don’t want anyone to know that.

4. I’m apprehensive to start tweeting because I’m not willing to allow myself to become addicted to another program; email, Facebook and MSN waste enough of my time.

The idea of the twittering celebrities is another movement that allows people to feel that much closer to their favorite celebrities as it is based on impulsive (no publicist filtering), minute- by- minute updates assumed to be posted directly by celebrities, unlike celebrity web pages and E! Daily interviews that are all prepared by their clan of publicists and marketers.

While flipping through channels the other day, I saw Seth Rogen (Superbad) on Regis and Kelly talking about his Twitter impersonator who acts like his online Fan Club president. The first thing that came to mind after hearing him joke about it was the fragility and lack of transparency with technologies like Twitter; anyone can be who they want to be and play whatever role they choose. We as consumers, must rely on our own judgments of people, judgments that we cannot accurately formulate with celebrities.

New technologies are closing the gap between celebrities and citizens. Blogging and YouTube especially, make it simple for citizens to taste fame, while celebrities have the chance to live an anonymous life.

Caught by the Mystical Facebook Referencer

It has been mentioned in the news several times in the past year, this idea of Facebook being used as a reference by employers. While reading through the blogs of fellow students who discussed the topic, I must say that I was on the same page. How could an employer really ever access my information without being a friend?

Well, that all changed when the theory was unexpectedly tested on me last night. I will be moving to Boston for the summer and in my attempt to find housing I finally found one that sounded perfect, a group of 4 photographers from MassArt. After responding to the post, I received a message from the owner asking me to send her my Facebook page since she wanted to make sure that she knew enough about me to ensure my compatibility with her roommates. While I felt pretty confident sending her my Facebook address, I started thinking about how well my page actually represents me and whether I should start changing things that I figured a group of art students just wouldn't find very cool, untagging drunk pictures of me by the pool, or my dorky family Christmas pics.

I always shied away from including any information about myself, no relationship status, no favourite movies/music/books..., nothing about my degree, ect... I always felt like all of that information was a way of constructing an image that did not accurately portray me, rather creating a stereotype based on my likes and dislikes. Well, my rejection of a superficial me smacked me across the face last night when I thought about rushing to my page and including all of the things about me that I thought a group of art students might find appealing, favourite bands, books and artists; you know, all of that cliche art stuff. I was a victim of my own judgments.

I decided against changing anything except for a somewhat offensive name of an album, since I realized that Facebook marks your changes as part of your status. I figured that it would look worst if she saw that I had rushed to change everything because of her.

And there it was, I became everything I ever criticized about Facebook in a blink of an eye. I realized just how important it is to make sure your Facebook isn't very offensive since employers won't need to crack into your profile, they will most likely just simply ask you for your contact information.

Last night changed my Facebook outlook for life, I started un- tagging my drunk pictures and started thinking about responsible things to say about myself, while I am against the idea of detailing yourself by your likes and dislikes as people are tempted to stereotype you, I realized that sometimes people need to be able to simplify their understanding of you in order for them to give you a chance.

Activism will prevail...in one form or another

The days of the physical movements may be slowly coming to an end as entities like the World Trade Organization are making more intelligent choices with regards to locations for their large summits (for example, the 2003 WTO Summit in Cancun Mexico) which has made it increasingly more difficult for activists from around the world to attend as protesters. Aside from their rigid access points, policing efforts have become more violent and oppressive towards peaceful movements, perpetuating unnecessary violence and abusing human rights while governments turn blind eyes.

While physical actions seem to be suffering, Internet activism has since become stronger and more imminent- allowing activism to shift ranks and take on a more connected global presence, therefore making activism especially anti- corporate globalization more relevant than ever before as groups of people from Canada to Africa, France to Brazil are able to unite through networks and increase their political weight. Not only has the World Wide Web allowed people to find others who share like-minded ideas, but it has destroyed the hierarchy within activist communities by leveling off the space of activists to speak, whether it be the 80 year- old anti- war grandmother or 26 year- old anti- corporate Globalizer, they both have the same amount of power when introduced through the Internet as image, persona and to a certain degree reputation are stripped away, leaving only the bare message that fulfills a grassroots cause.

Not only has the Internet provided a forum to people from around the world but it has also helped coalitions find one another to unite, as witnessed in the 2003 international the anti-war protests grew into millions of people as sub-groups of activists were able to find one another and fight for a single inclusive cause.

Actions will always exist, it is their message that may continue to lose momentum as media coverage is rarely forgiving of them, determined to portray them in the worst possible light. But with the Internet, actions will start to move forward by promoting independent media organizations like Indymedia, who are able to offer unbiased coverage of actions and by promoting an indiscriminate environment to anyone interested in the issues at hand . While actions are usually held with the right ideals in mind, not everyone feels comfortable partaking in public spectacles, the Internet provides everyone with a right to as much anonymity as they feel necessary.

Hacktivism= Future of ACTIVISM

Reading through hackbloc.org, it donned on me that hacktivism is the most powerful form of activism and possibly the most realistic approach to anarchy in the 21st century.

Our progress towards a more networked landscape, a world quite literally built around a network seems like an extremely ironic movement in terms of the type of environment our governments are tempted to construct.

Our dependency on the Internet is an ironic progression as it is the most difficult medium for governments and authorities to successfully police. With every security development and regulation put in place by authorities, a handful of hacktivist successes are quick to follow.

Hacktivism has quite literally given anyone who is willing to learn a chance to question and challenge the authoritative constructs of Western society; as our network dependency grows so does our power as citizens. While most of us may not use hacktivism as a form of free speech, many of us are able to use the web to network ourselves based on similar interests and ideologies, whether it be organizing a movement or challenging the words of a corporation, at the end of the day everyone on the Internet is held accountable.

Hackbloc.org is an interesting blog as it is able to appeal to everyone who may be interested in activism. My initial assumptions regarding the website were that the material would be ultimately directed to those already involved with hacktivism, therefore, lexicon and ideas only familiar to those who have already taken an initiative to learn about the movement. I was surprised to see that the website actually caters to an entire spectrum of people, everyone from those interested in getting started to those who are fully educated on the culture. Hackbloc does a great a job of attracting and holding interest regardless of the viewer’s background. I am an individual who is extremely interested in activism yet fairly new to the world of hactivism, I therefore found their content to be appealing and easy to digest as they covered everything from the current political landscape as it relates to a democratic Internet- scape to material very specific to hacktivism. It is clear that the community attracted to this website is likely interested in the specific hacktivism culture, but as activists I believe that everyone should be following the website.

I like that Hackbloc uses exerts directly from the news to legitimize their cause. Not only does this referencing empower the opinions expressed on the website but they kept me interested in the current affairs of our Internet.

Hacktivism is vital to activism. I believe that activists of all kind must take the time to educate themselves in hacktivism as I truly believe that it will be the last surviving form of activism. While aggressive policing efforts may lead to the end of physical movements, Internet movements are here to stay as the strength of hacktivists resides in their ability to stay one step ahead of government controls.