One World, One Web [Day]

Today is OneWebDay, a day of internet awareness. This year's theme is "Online Participation in Democracy" which fits in very well with what is going on in the world today.

Essentially, anyone with a computer is part of the Global Village. A few mouse clicks and you're scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef, a few more and you're window shopping in Paris, another and you're walking the streets of New York City. The whole world is at your fingertips.
For me, a Canadian who dreams of Broadway stardom, the internet has connected me with that theatrical community the way a yearly Tony Awards telecast never could. I can quickly and easily gain access to information about all of the shows currently running, shows scheduled to open/close, auditions, workshops, actors and actresses and their projects, their biographies - all of which I can use to map my way onto the Great White Way.

I've also planned an entire trip to NYC using just the internet. Flights, hotels, show tickets, special events, etc. all the information is online. Millie, from the musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie" tells about studying magazines and books, memorizing the subway map in 1922 to prepare herself for the big city. In 2008, all I had to do was search NYC through Google Maps and I was walking step by step down Broadway via satellite imaging. I felt like a native New Yorker when I got there! I never once had to ask for directions. In fact, a clearly lost tourist-type asked my mom and I where Times Square was...we were on 7th Ave and 52nd. No joke. You can smell (let alone see & hear) Times Square from there!

Besides world-wide browsing ability, the internet has changed the way we keep in touch with each other. E-mail, voice mail, instant and text messaging, cellular and camera phones; altogether Information Communications Technologies (ICT's) have sped up transfer of information from person to person, officially taking us out of the past and into the 21st Century.

The most significant application (I think) of ICT's is in the area of citizen journalism. I've already mentioned the idea of Me-Media in the first blog post, but i've just come across something very fascinating; iReport. CNN has invited people all over to send in video or photo footage of news as it happens using their cell phones, all of which is put on a website. The website's slogan is "Unedited. Unflitered. News." The site features various news topics all uploaded and anchored by every-day people.

For a piece of technology originally thought up to make our lives easier and more mobile, such as a cell phone, to eventually lead to a greater media democracy, through it's use of the internet, is simply remarkable.

I wonder what's next.

Peanut Butter and [Culture] Jam

The best example of Culture Jamming has got to be ADBUSTERS.
Their website, is home to the Culture Jammers Network :

"We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students,
educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist
movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power
structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century. "

Adbusters Media Foundation was founded in 1989 in Vancouver, BC Canada and a product of that formation is the Adbusters Magazine, which has been published all over North America, featuring counter ads such as these:



Spoof of an advertisement for Calvil Klien underwear & cologne "Obsession for Men."
The original ad features the middle section of a male model in CK underwear. The name of the cologne, "Obsession," is placed onto the ads as a label, without explanation. Adbusters has interpreted the ad as meaning men must be obsessed with their their male anatomical parts. Who can argue with that? The original add doesn't show any other part of the model! If CK wont spell it out, Adbusters surely will.
URL for Original CK Ad: http://z.about.com/d/mensfashion/1/5/b/9/CK365brief.jpg

And to be fair;

Again, another obvious spoof of the Calvin Klein "Obsession" perfume. The original ad features a super slender and nude Kate Moss with only the name of the perfume as explanation. Adbusters re-interpreted the ad to mean eating disorder, thus featuring a toilet into the perspective of the re-enactment photo. Honestly, how else does an adult woman manage to weigh 90 pounds?
URL for Original Photo (Before it was Turned into An Ad): http://www.channel4.com/news/media/2006/11/week_2/09_moss_by_sorrenti_gl.jpg

By creating spoof-ads like this, Adbusters drags out the hidden messages behind the ads we see. This promotes awareness and makes us question what we are being exposed to in advertisement media. In effect, they are 'jamming' the flow of information from corporations to civilians, just as their mission statement said they would. They don't just use Calvin Klein either, here is the URL to the Spoof Ads section of their website (Enjoy!):
http://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads

The Beginning of the Beginning is... Blogging?

After a fantastically rousing Language of Media lecture, here I am; Green as they come. In all honesty, I have had a blog before. Once upon a time I would write vague verses and so-so short stories. I stopped writing in it ages ago and only go back to giggle at my girly-ness. I would link to it, as support for the argument to be made that when I was between the ages of 15 and 16 I was somewhat boy crazy and emotional, but that action calls upon bravery I don't readily posses. By all means, feel free to use your imagination in its place.

The idea of participatory journalism or "we media" as some people call it is a defining characteristic of the world we are living in. Before citizen journalism, we were all fed news and current events through word of mouth, then newspapers took over the role, followed by radio, then television. Those forms of media were created for the original purpose of keeping people informed about the world around them. After a while of course (or should I say, "in no time"), those mediums evolved and the information relayed through them became more and more biased. Depending on where you life, what channels you watch/listen to, you can be sure that you are getting one side of the story. Only one.

In today's world, there are many new mediums that have been created (as well as old ones that have been taken over) to reflect that the every-day-person-next-door thinks. The world wide web acts as a foundation to virtually all forms of "We Media." As soon as people were able to synthesize their own fibers on that web, they have used it to communicate. The creation of websites, such as YouTube, have allowed uploaded home-made videos to reach millions of viewers. Creation of Podcasts have allowed every-day people to broadcast their own radio-free shows over the net. As well, web logs have allowed for people to post their own written ideas for networks of other people to read.

From all of this, I have gathered that not only do regular-every-day people have ideas but a lot of them want to share them. As a result, there are now a wide variety of ways those people can share their ideas. Newspapers are often distributed within one community. Radio band-widths limit their transmissions too. Even some television channels can only broadcast to people within a certain radius. The internet on the other hand is a global vessel, through which anyone can reach anyone else on the planet (granted they, too, have access to the internet). The possibilities are endless!

Whether or not this global access is a good or bad thing - only time will tell.