Readings for Wednesday

I've sent email to everyone in class about the readings for Wednesday; since some of them are PDFs from the library, they cannot be posted to this forum.

In addition to the reading, please come to class ready to discuss your feelings about technology in the arts, technology tools and your fear (or excitement) w/r/t programming.

See you tomorrow!

[ddg]

Readings for Monday

Here are some readings about persuasive technology and environmental psychology.

This an essay by BJ Fogg which provides some background context for what exactly persuasive technology is. The essay presents five perspectives on computers and persuasion. One of the perspectives discusses the ethicalness of persuasive technology.

http://0-delivery.acm.org.bianca.penlib.du.edu/10.1145/280000/274677/p225-fogg.pdf?key1=274677&key2=0128019821&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=112570179&CFTOKEN=54784503

This article focusses on environmental psychology by reviewing interventional programs aimed at reducing energy consumption in the home. Although these programs do not utilize computer systems many of these interventions can easily be adopted to persuasive technology.

http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6WJ8-4HJ482W-2-7&_cdi=6872&_user=1497530&_pii=S027249440500054X&_origin=search&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F2005&_sk=999749996&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtz-zSkWA&md5=1b138d553f1b647777fd26fb181801b5&ie=/sdarticle.pdf

Here are some examples of using persuasive technology to encourage pro-environmental behaviors.

http://0-portal.acm.org.bianca.penlib.du.edu/citation.cfm?id=1541948.1541968

In order to read some of these I think you will have to log into the penrose library. When you click on a link it should take you to the login page and than to the article. If anyone has any problems let me know and I can send you the articles by email.

Wabi Sabi & Software Development

Hi! Here's some reading for Monday!

What is Wabi Sabi?

This essay provides a concise description of Wabi Sabi and Japanese aesthetic.

(Unfortunately, there was not a citation)

Japanese Aesthetics, Wabi-Sabi, and the Tea Ceremony

How Wabi Sabi has been applied in software development.

WABI SABI & SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT GENERAL

O’Reilly FYI -- Why Ugly Teams Win – Scott Berkun’s essay from Beautiful Teams

WABI SABI & PRESENTATION VISUALS

Presentation Zen -- Garr Reynolds’ blog on issues related to professional presentation design.

Wabi Sabi and Presentation Visuals Part I

Wabi Sabi and Presentation Visuals Part II

WABI SABI & AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

BLOG Wabi Sabi and Agile Development by Alex Singh

WABI SABI & EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Zen and the Art of Experience Design – Wabi Sabi and Experience Design

WABI SABI & WIKI

Wabi Sabi Wiki For Dummies.PDF

Smart People Talking about Music and Technology

This video, produced as a joke to help publicize Brian Eno's newest release, is actually indicative of many musician's feelings about academic engagement in the field of current music and audio production. Why is there the need to flood the person "doing it" with information about why and how they are producing what they produce?

Taking a swipe at the semiotic overload of popular cultural studies might seem like easy targeting, but kudos to Eno for being willing to make fun of a system and process that he himself often embraces.

[ddg]

Random Acts of Culture

I found this clip where the Philadelphia Opera Chorus gathered as a flash mob to sing the Hallelujah Chorus in Macy's. It was just this past weekend, too. That's taking the music a little outside the concert hall.

Transmedia Journalism: A teaser

Readings to scan in advance of my tear-jerking and spiritually uplifting presentation Wednesday:

Henry Jenkins (the father of the term) on what transmedia is in the entertainment world. His seven principles:

Part A
Part B

Though nobody I have found directly addresses how transmedia would work in journalism, some of transmedia's most influential students -- Jenkins and consultant Christy Dena -- have stated that it is a possibility.

Sam Ford, a former MIT student of Jenkins, former journalist and a blogger for the Convergence Culture Consortium, addressed it most directly on the C3 blog. But he also goes little further than noting it is possible and hints that it happens on its own from time to time by virtue of the technology. His writing also predates some of the codification of the idea of transmedia done in the past year by Jenkins, Dena and Frank Rose.

Bring your tissues. And a vuvuzela or two.

Classical Music and Participatory Culture

Here are some readings for your enjoyment.

1. Nina Simon's The Participatory Museum. Please read the preface and chapter 1.

2. Article on the late Leonard Bernstein and his engagement with popular culture through classical music.

3. Review of Kramer's Why Classical Music Still Matters.

4. The book Rules of Play can be found on Google books. Please read the Preface and Chapter 1. Not all the pages are available via preview, but it gives enough of the sense of it.

5. I love Benjamin Zander. He's sort of a blend between Howard Rheingold and Victor Borge in his enthusiasm. I'm hoping that more musicians will be like him in engaging audiences. This video from a TED talk, "Why You Should Love Classical Music," is a bit long, 20 minutes, but it's very entertaining and he makes some good points.

Cory's Readings for 10.27

For Wednesday, please read/watch the following:

Max 5 Tutorial Zero

This is about a five minute intro to the Max/MSP/Jitter patching environment. Don't worry, it doesn't get really technical but will give you a sense of the environment.

http://cycling74.com/docs/max5/tutorials/max-tut/tzeropage.html

Lev Manovich

The Poetics of Augmented Space

http://www.manovich.net/TEXTS_07.HTM

The link is about halfway through the texts on the left side of page.

JAMOMA: A MODULAR STANDARD FOR

STRUCTURING PATCHES IN MAX

This is a good example (the best one I know of) of a modular high-level object library in Max and addresses many of the problem areas that I am grappling with. It gets a little technical, so just skim over it to get the idea.

http://www.jamoma.org/papers/jamoma-icmc2006.pdf

AND

TRAKHUE -

INTUITIVE GESTURAL CONTROL OF LIVE ELECTRONICS

http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~nils/papers/ICMC2007_TrakHue.pdf

Again, don't worry about total comprehension. This is more to give a sense of one possible form of physical computing or Human Computer Interface that I might work to integrate as a module.

AND IF YOU HAVE TIME:

SPACE-TIME DYNAMICS IN VIDEO FEEDBACK

Physica, 1984

James P. Crutchfield

http://www.vasulka.org/Kitchen/PDF_Eigenwelt/pdf/191-207.pdf

This is a little thick... but worth the read. Feedback is a central tenet to our (NoiseFolds) approach to simulation and live-cinema performance.

For a foundation in the history of electronic synthesis, peruse the Eigenwelt der Apparate-welt: Pioneers of Electronic Art catalogue in the Vasulka Archives. This catalogue is one of the primary documents that I am using for research.

http://www.vasulka.org/Kitchen/PDF_Eigenwelt/Eigenwelt.htm

Also look at my group NoiseFold's website, www.noisefold.com.

Andrew's Readings for 10/25

I've uploaded a series of scans from Jill Bolte Taylor's "My Stroke Of Insight" to read, which can be downloaded at http://www.aelijahe.com/files/stroke_of_insight.zip

I'd also like people to watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc

and think about this autistic landscape as opposed or as it relates to our own mental landscape of symbols and language.

As well as this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I8rnV0gN0E

in terms of thought vs awareness as it relates to left and right cortexes

and in terms of the difference between thoughts / symbols for things and the things themselves.

and as metaphysical philosophy as a balance for analytical research

Adam's Readings for 10/25

There are three readings here. Please read them in this order:

1)"YouTube's Social Network" - This is a small excerpt from Jean Burgess and Joshua Green's book "YouTube:Online Video and Participatory Culture.

2)"Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication"- This is an exhaustive survey of online ethnographies with a call for integrating online and offline data with the use of computer mediated communication.

3)"Guess Who’s Coming to Work: Generation Y. Are You Ready for Them? -A short overview of millennials in the workplace."


Things to consider while reading:

1) How does researching online Youtube content fit/not-fit/blaze trails in contrast to the parameters set in "Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication." (listed directly below)

“a. Because online ethnographers are not physically co-present with their research subjects, they cannot use their interpersonal skills to access and interpret the social worlds they are studying. Instead, ethnographers must develop skills in the analysis of textual and visual data, and in the interactional organization of text-based CMC.

b.The process of gaining access to the setting and research subjects is different in online ethnography because of the lack of physical presence and the resulting anonymity provided by the medium. Ethnographers must therefore learn how to manage their identity and presentation of self in visual and textual media and to do impression management via CMC modalities such as e-mail, chat, and instant messaging.

c.The blurring of public and private in the online world raises ethical issues around access to data and techniques for the protection of privacy and confidentiality. Ethnographers must learn how to apply standard principles of human subject protection to a research environment which differs in fundamental ways from the face-to-face research contexts for which they were conceived and designed.”

2)In Burgess and Green's article, they argue that YouTube is not inherently designed for collaboration or community. Given the mass population of millennials on YouTube, what characteristics of the millennial cohort are making it so?

3) The article I provided on millennials is a great representation of the majority of the literature on my generation. There is an inherent lack of case studies, or concrete examples implementing the suggestions offered by said literature. Think about Project for Awesome (P4A) and be prepared to discuss the benefits and possible obstacles that can arise in using this phenomena as an online ethnographic study within the framework of the readings.

Helpful links:
projectforawesome.com
youtube.com/vlogbrothers
(just search project for awesome 08 or 09 in youtube and look at some of the responses)

Online collaborative glitch exhibition

http://inf3xxx10n.tumblr.com/

Sound Unbound (Review)

The back cover of Sound Unbound features a quote by David Byrne that attempts a concise definition of this collection of essays; it describes the material as being “about the remix – how music, art and literature have blurred the lines between what an artist can do and what a composer can create”. While the influence of the remix can be readily observed, it might be more useful to refer to material from editor Paul Miller’s previous book, Rhythm Science, where he contemplated the role of the DJ as a cultural filter. Rather than create a refined remix of familiar material, Miller chose to create a mash-up of diverse subjects to create an unexpectedly cohesive collection.

On the surface, Sound Unbound would seem to be about use and reuse; there are several essays that focus on sampling, artistic borrowing and copyright issues. However, this compilation also seems to hold a deeper purpose: to uncover the ways that sound is a powerful carrier for new ideas, and how ideas become platforms for the creation and adoption of new sounds.

While Miller’s background as a musician/composer might imply a focus on music as the “sound” under discussion, it is important to consider the wide range of media that are covered. Music (from classical to hip-hop) is an important part of the discussion, but so are language, visual arts, performance art, books and television. While some cases are given of overt activism – such as the “Renegade Academia” chapter by Simon Reynolds, describing the Deleuze-inspired production of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit – even the most mundane descriptions of sound creators and implementers are rife with memetic carriage.

Essays that might seem, on the surface, to be historical pieces still resonate with deeper messages. Jeff E. Winner’s “The World of Sound: A Division of Raymond Scott Enterprises” allows us to peer into a creator’s world; not only helping us to see the technical work that he did, but also to understand this band leader’s desire to make musicians more efficient and less tied to the constraints that he found so taxing. Carlo McCormick’s interview with Alex Steinweiss, the first art director for a record label, pointed out not only the influence he received from the music, but how his artwork influenced popular culture’s embrace of that music – and even on how the music itself was influenced.

Brian Eno’s piece describing the history of bell creation (and the decisions made in the creation of bells for the Clock of the Long Now) is perhaps the perfect example of sound’s cultural impact. Starting with a simple history of the bellmaker’s craft, we are quickly introduced to an entirely new world with its own language of bell sounds (each with their implicit meaning), new communities of bell makers and bell composers, and an insider’s view of the development of meaning during a clock chime’s creation. After reading this essay, it is difficult to hear a distant clock’s peel without imagining the tale being told.

The compliment to the above is the use of new ideas to generate new sounds. Miller himself discusses the concept of sampling as a mechanism to create entirely new genres of art; by manipulating captured material, he is able to formulate novel results out of the existing narrative. While digital sampling keyboards were initially created to allow more realistic emulations of standard instruments, it was through the misuse of this device – along with the brash (and controversial) idea of recontextualizing existing media – that was the foundation of many modern musical forms.

Another area where ideas were at the heart of a new sound was the Islamic influence on hip-hop. While many people might not see the parallel between urban Islam (the Five Percenters, the Nation Of Islam) and the provocative commercial presentation of hip-hop stars, “Fear Of A Muslim Planet: Hip-Hop’s Hidden History” by Naeem Mohalemen offers a glimpse at the deep ties between the bleeding-edge sonic inventors (vs. the MTV-hyped pop stars) and hardcore Islamic belief. This is followed by a rapid-fire rap/sermon delivered by Chuck D in the next segment, “Three Pieces”, that provides an insight (although not an Islamic on) on the deep emotional river that begets hip-hop.

One is left feeling like there is a much more to be explored in this area; the notes following Mohalemen’s essay can provide some useful pointers to interesting material. In addition, though, it would be useful to follow “Fear Of A Muslim Planet” with the writings of Wu-Tang Clan member The RZA (particularly “The Tao of Wu”) to see both the personal nature of and artist’s Islamic influence as well as the difficulties of balancing ones life within a drug- and violence-ravaged culture.

Another fascinating tale in which ideas were the genesis of the sound creation process is the interview of Steve Reich and Beryl Korot on the creation of Three Tales. Starting with a commission for a piece on the Twentieth Century, we are given a tour of the creative process, and the means by which various memories and influences were used to create the musical. This ends up revealing one of the subtexts that run throughout the book – that media has become such a powerful influence that it stimulates new media. Thus, moviola images of the Hindenburg disaster become inspiration for a theater piece at the turn of the century, which may yet inspire a viewer (or perhaps a reader of this book) to create again.

The breadth of the book is quite impressive, but it doesn’t overwhelm because it has been deftly edited. Technical and philosophical treatise are interspersed with lighter historical fare, and just when you think you’ve had enough essays, an inspiring interview will be presented. Miller chose difficult ground by attempting to span both academic and popular cultural material, but therein lies his strength: he seems to be able to bridge that gap effortlessly, and almost any reader should be able to find an avenue into new insights.

That’s not to say that the book doesn’t have its weak notes. David Bernard Roumain provides a dash-off of random thought that does not resonate with the reset of the volume, and Jason Lanier complains about the lack of pop music (something Duke Ellington might have decried during the Bebop era). Beyond those few examples, however, the collection is almost uniformly intriguing, and pushes the context of sound and art far beyond its typical ghetto.

Miller has obviously pulled together a lot of his influences (and perhaps his friends) to create this cacophony of writing, but it never strays too far from the issue at hand: to explore the ways that media influences the modern world – and is subsequently influenced by it.

Sound Unbound Review

Andrew Elijah Edwards

Sound Unbound is collection of essays on the nature of culture. music. and the digital landscape. The book is edited by Paul D. Miller. who has collected writings by a large variety of individuals. from science fiction authors to experimental sound artists. The essays are all a well-balanced mix of personal opinion. poetics. and professionally executed research. Authors bounce between eloquent philosophies to critical discussion. embedding their citations organically within the flow of the reading. While they cite their sources. the research has been thoroughly integrated into their thought processes. feeling as at home in the essays as their own opinions and musings. I appreciate the warmth and soul to the writing. that the authors didn’t feel obligated to stay in the realm of dry academia.
One of my lasting feelings from this book is the creation of a visceral connection with emerging digital landscapes. It successfully transforms the view of digital media transmission and internet data space from a cold electronic net to an emergent juicy hearth of physicality. cultural aesthetic riches and complexity. It relates relationships with technology that are based on an intelligent and physical embodiment through the machine as an interplay and union between mind and technical intelligence. While the authors help us to bring life to the data and integrate it physically on a deep level. the book itself mirrors this concept. or help push it further. coming with a with a disc of musical tracks that allows us to tie the data of the book’s text to the lush visceral experience of sonic landscapes.
A large theme in Sound Unbound is the discussion of emerging issues of copyright and remix media in a system that is becoming continually less suitable for our current structures of self-interested legality towards content rights. Authors reference the combinate nature of the act of cultural creation throughout history and how these processes are only sped up through our intense connectivity. They point out. from different angles. how the strength of the web comes from the emergent phenomena of collective addition and transfer. That we would do ourselves a favor by allowing data or media to flow easily around the network and allow for the arising of new complexities rather than walling off our creative outputs within our own rights.
In this context. I find the nature of the book’s research extremely interesting. The authors are aware of the inherent remix nature of any creative act. and while the state of internet culture increasingly hides links to creative origin. or makes the interplay too complex to easily grasp. they are writing about it in the most concretely linked medium. Authors are citing all of their research and creative inspirations even referencing where the lines become blurred. Many are overly rigorous in citing their influences. more so than a classic research essay. I really enjoy this emergent trend from these writers. where in writing about the complexities of remix culture they feel a need to try and tie down all of their own sources. The structural nature of their own research medium also mirrors the strength that arises from the interplay between creative sources. The research essay itself is a proof the power of combining sources into one stronger work.
I often think of myself as someone who works with media and space visually. I feel myself influenced by sound. and utilizing sound. but as a hidden counterpart to the visual. With moving image I felt that I could grab it. I could hold it still and look at a frame. whereas audio exists only temporally. and cannot be held. It can only be experienced in passing. Sound always felt amorphous and nonphysical. Yet in reading this text. the authors helped to flesh out sound as an entirely spatial and visceral medium. It has helped me to understand how to navigate a sonic landscape and feel comfortable gripping and riding those worlds. I was extremely excited by Eric Davis’ essay Roots and Wires. where he describes the hyper dimensionality of a sonic landscape. How sounds can coexist in the same spot without fusing. as compared to visual space where objects cannot coexist at the same place and time. To my delight. the book was a lot more spatial than I had expected.
I was intrigued by the writing choices in the Saul Williams essay. The Future of Language. He puts forward a short investigation into the sacredness and power of words and sounds as they relates to historical culture and the sounds of digital media. He writes the piece entirely in lower case letters. an interesting parallel between what he says about linguistic power. Perhaps in feeling the power of his own words. capitalization is not needed for strength. or would be overly forceful. It was a subtle but insightful choice in the execution of this topic.
There were a few essays. however. that didn’t seem to fit into the insightfulness of the rest of the work. Starting off the book. Steve Reich’s piece An Introduction. or My (Ambiguous) Life with Technology. while somewhat interesting. is primarily a history of Reich’s creative endeavors. It gives insight into Reich’s own past. and how the creative process evolves. but doesn’t really have the larger cultural significance embodied in the other works. Much of the book has far reaching philosophical implications for the new frontiers of media. and Reich’s essay seems to be a little too self-involved.
I found that the authors in this book all displayed how to skillfully integrate research into one’s writing. They have let the research simmer into their thought processes so that in putting the essays together. the citations feel deeply rooted in the connections of their own mental flow. rather than being stuffed in after the fact. The references seem to come from. or through. the authors. rather than a distinctly outside force. It was helpful to see how in depth research can be woven into philosophical discourse.

Persuasive technology, 5th International Conference

Persuasive technology is defined as any computer technology that is designed to change the attitudes and behaviors of users through persuasion and social influence, but not through coercion (Fogg, 2002). This area of research encompasses a wide range of technological systems, design frameworks, human behavior theories, and research methodologies. As research in this area continues to grow, new insight is being gained into persuasive system design and human behavior psychology.

In the book Persuasive Technology 5^th International Conference, a collection of essays are presented covering a wide range of themes and topics related to persuasive technology. Some of the themes that are discussed in the book include emotions and user experience, ambient persuasive systems, persuasive design, persuasion profiles, designing for health, psychology of persuasion, embodied and conversational agents, economic incentives, and future directions for persuasive technology. Each of these themes are explored through a variety of different research projects each of which utilize qualitative and/or quantitative methodological approaches.

In order to conduct a review of Persuasive technology 5^th International Conference, I have picked four essays and divided them into similar themes of technological inquiry. Each essay will be analyzed through comparative analysis in order to identify strengths and weakness of their methodological approaches. I will also identify qualitative and quantitative methodologies that occurred throughout the book and provide insight into how similar projects differentiated in their research approaches. Two research methodologies that will be discussed in this review include;

• A qualitative approach by analyzing an existing persuasive technology through the lens of a persuasive theory or design framework. This research method tries to identify what persuasive techniques are currently being used by persuasive technologies and how they might be improved through better design.

• A qualitative approach by analyzing existing design frameworks and theories in order to create a new persuasive technology. The new design is then tested and analyzed using quantitative and/or qualitative research and analysis.

Two essays on Persuasive Technology in Health Related Websites

In the essays: Pitfalls In Persuasion: How Do Users Experience Persuasive Techniques in a Web Service?, and Persuasive Features in Six Weight Loss Websites: A Qualitative Evaluation, a qualitative approach was used to analyze existing persuasive technologies in order to to provide new insight into existing design frameworks. Although both essays analyzed current weight-loss websites, I felt Pitfalls to Persuasion had a more effective approach for conducting qualitative research.

In the research project Pitfalls to Persuasion, a qualitative analysis of a popular weight- loss website was done though the use of online questionnaires and personal interviews to gain insight into user perspectives. Qualitative data was also collected through the use of the Persuasive System Design Model. This model provides a way to analyze and evaluate persuasive systems by identifying the intent (persuader, change type), event (use context, user context, and technology context), and strategy (message, route) used by the persuasive system. The PSD model also identifies 28 persuasive techniques that are categorized into primary task support, dialogue support, system credibility, and social support.

Using the PSD Model, the researchers of Pitfalls to Persuasion identified key persuasive techniques utilized by the weight-loss website and created questionnaires and interviews to to provide qualitative data on how users experience these techniques. I found this research approach to be very effective because it provided a deeper understanding of why persuasive technologies may be unsuccessful even if they implement persuasive techniques identified by existing models. For example, one of the core techniques identified by the PSD model is self-monitoring (allowing users to track online activities with online tools). Although the weight-loss website utilized this strategy by allowing users to track their calories online, the questionnaires and interviews revealed that many users were frustrated with the complexity and time commitment of the calorie calculator. The feedback from the questionnaire demonstrates that user experience needs to be taken into consideration when designing self-monitoring systems. This data can only be collected through interviews and questionnaires conducted with the users of the technology being studied.

One problem I had with the research approach of Pitfalls to Persuasion was the researchers only used one weight-loss website for data collection and only focused on problems of persuasive design. Expanding the research field into other weight-loss websites might have revealed other problems with current persuasive techniques that were not identified in the website they focused on. I would have also liked the questionnaires and interviews to focus on positive aspects of the weight-loss website because it would have provided information on what users like about certain persuasive techniques. This would be helpful for future research and design of online persuasive systems.

In contrast to Pitfalls of Persuasion, the essay titled Persuasive Features in Six Weight Loss Website: A Qualitative Evaluation, did not Interview or collect data from online users, but Instead, only used qualitative evaluation by using existing design frameworks and theories. The PSD model was once again used for qualitative analysis, but was applied to multiple websites rather than just one. This allowed for the identification of persuasive techniques that are being used across several current weight-loss websites, but did not provide any information on user perspectives. I think the addition of online interviews or questionnaires with users would have added more depth to the project and provided better insight into how to design better weight-loss technologies. For example, one technique that was identified as having strong support in most of the weight-loss websites was social support. While this is an important technique identified by the PSD model, an understanding of how user's experience the social support systems of current weight-loss websites would have provided important information for future persuasive technology development. This was clearly shown in Pitfalls of Persuasion, which found that many users did not relate to the online forums or felt uncomfortable sharing private information online.

The use of qualitative research through online questionnaires, surveys, and interviews is an important research method that could add new insight to many of the research projects in Persuasive Technology, 5^th International Conference. Using existing design models and frameworks can help to identify what techniques are being used effectively or ineffectively in current persuasive technologies, but it assumes many ideas about how users experiences those techniques. Qualitative research through online surveys and questionnaires can help nullify some of these assumptions and let the users speak for themselves.

Two essays on Persuasive Technology in health related Websites

Another research method that was used in many of the research projects in Persuasive Technologies, 5^th International Conference, was a qualitative analysis of previous research and design frameworks in order to create new persuasive technologies. The technology was then tested through quantitative and/or qualitative analysis in order to discover how users felt about the technology and if it was an effective system for attitude and behavior change.

Two research projects that I found particularly interesting that created new persuasive technologies and tested them on human subjects was Ambient Persuasive Technology Needs Little Cognitive Effort: The Differential Effects of Cognitive Load on Lighting Feedback versus Factual Feedback, and Designing for Persuasion: Toward Ambient Eco-Visualization for Awareness. In Ambient Persuasive Technology, research was conducted through a literature review which provided information on existing theories and helped guide the researchers when designing their project. The design idea was then tested on human subjects by having each participant perform ten tasks using a digital thermostat to program temperatures based on simulated scenarios. Feedback was given either through ambient lighting on the wall (green for low energy, red for high) or through factual feedback by providing users with the amount of wattage being used. Results indicated that less energy was used when feedback was provided by the lighting system than factual feedback.

One problem I had with this research project was no interviews or questionnaires were conducted with the participants after the study was completed. I thought this would have provided important information on why users reacted better to the lighting system than the factual design. I felt the researchers made conclusions about the project which were true, but couldn't explain why users reacted the way they did beyond the theoretical explanations they discovered in their literature review. Interviews with participants might have uncovered new information about user experience with ambient technologies or might have revealed problems with the project that the researchers might have overlooked.

Another issue I had with this research project was the actual testing of the project done in a very short time period. I think this creates problems because users may react to the persuasive system in a certain way because of the novelty of the technology. Perhaps if the study was done over the course of a couple months and done in the context of the users house results may have been different. Although this may have been impossible due to financial and time restraints of the project, it would have been helpful to acknowledge these limitations in the discussion section of the essay.

In another project , Designing for Persuasion: Toward Ambient Eco-Visualization, two ambient technologies were created as widgets for the apple laptop computer. The widgets provided feedback on energy consumption in two different visual forms, one consisting of meters, and the other using eco-visualization of a coral reef. The goal of the project was to test if ambient displays can be an effective technology for reducing energy consumption, and if so, what type of visual form is most best for achieving this behavior.

One approach that I found be effective about this project was the test subjects implemented the technology into their day to day lives by downloading it off a server and installing it on their laptop computer. This allowed for the technology to be tested in a real world context, which I think is important for understanding how users truly react to the persuasive technology. Another research approach I found effective about this project was in addition to the quantitative data that was collected, qualitative research was also conducted by interviewing test subjects after the study was complete. This provided a deeper understanding of the quantitative data results and allowed for the users to express what they did and did not like about the ambient display technologies. This contrasted from the other study mentioned above, which made conclusions from only quantitative data.

Concluding Thoughts

The four essays/projects I have discussed in this review represent only a small portion of the essays in Persuasive Technology, 5^th International Conference. I chose these essays because I felt they demonstrate how research approaches can differentiate across projects of similar persuasive technology inquiry. Comparing and contrasting these projects helps to highlight shortcomings and good practices of research methodology in persuasive design. I felt the use of qualitative research through online surveys, interviews, and questionnaires to be very helpful for providing a deeper understanding of the persuasive technologies being investigated. Although this approach was outside of the scope of some of the projects, I think interviews are extremely important for understanding user perspectives and providing a deeper understanding of quantitative data results. If possible, which often is not, I also think it best to conduct the research project over a long time period in context of real world settings. This will provide more accurate results of how effective the technology will be if it becomes a real product and is used in people's day to day lives. One area that I think I could have covered better in my review was the quantitative approaches used by the different research projects. Unfortunately, I don't have much background in this area so it will be important for me to become more familiar with quantitative research as I move forward with my project.

Overall I found Persuasive Technology, 5^th International Conference to be a very good book for anyone interested in persuasive research and design. The book provides insight into new theories and design ideas that can helpful for anyone interested in designing their own persuasive technology. The book demonstrates how broad the field of persuasive technology is and how it can be used in a variety of different contexts for achieving behavior change. I think this book will be very helpful for designing my own research project because each essay provides a frameworks for how to approach research methodology in this field. As I continue forward with my project I think it will be important to incorporate research approaches that I found to be most effective from this book.

Ploug, T., Hasle, P. F. V., Oinas-Kukkonen, H., & SpringerLink. (2010). Persuasive technology. Berlin: Springer.

Fogg, B. J., & Books24x7, I. (2003). Persuasive technology. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Children and the Internet

By Sonia Livingstone

While it may be true, as some pop-culture guru’s claim, that 90% of all children between the ages of 8 and 12 in Great Britain use the internet as their “first portal of information,” there are far too many variables in that equation. Sonia Livingstone, in her book titled Children and the Internet, does not try to take an objective stance on the issues at hand but rather weighs the pro’s and con’s by comparing and contrasting the empirical, the explanatory, and the ideological.

Many of these factoids have been over-hyped as the primary cause of not only what ails every modern child in out techno-heavy and techno-savvy society, but also what projects this latest generation one step further up the evolutionary ladder in mankind’s ability to master and continually re-master the skills of global communication.

On the one end of the spectrum, health and wellness scientists attempt to analyze the physical, psychological, behavioral and social affective domains of the internet on children, testing and treating toddlers to teenagers. A compendium of their findings could be labeled “From A to Z: 101 Approaches to the Study and Treatment of Media’s Maladies and Medicines from Autism to Zoloft.” At the opposite end of the spectrum, the network nightly news covers a human-interest story of a 9-year-old kid cracking computer code on a cure for world hunger or finding his twin brother on Facebook from whom he’d been separated since birth.

Furthermore, there are multiple “portals of information” to be explored and multiple perspectives to be examined, as well as multiple phenomena occurring simultaneously and changing rapidly to be compared and contrasted.

And finally, because every single examiner has a set of different criteria and diagnostic tools, the fact is that there is no sufficient independent evidence to predict the long-term outcomes of any of these claims!

Livingstone is a professor of Social Psychology and head of the Department of Media and Communications at London School of Economics, and Political Science. She has committed a great deal of her research to children’s internet use. Through several books and hundred’s of academic articles she has illustrated media influence on a younger audience and has offered various thoughts on digital safety. She is recognized for a variety of methodological approaches and has conducted projects including both quantitative and qualitative research methods. “Her earliest work was recognized for the innovative way in which she combined critical and social psychological theoretical frameworks and employed qualitative interview research methodologies, traditions that she still identifies with today.” (Wikipedia)

How does Livingstone continue her innovative methods in Children and the Internet? I believe Henry Jenkins of MIT best summarizes the intention of Livingstone’s book: “Sonia Livingstone is equally at home with statistical and ethnographic insights as she digs deep into the paradoxes and contradictions surrounding young people's online lives. She punctures myths and tips over sacred cows here, but in the process, she's modeling a process of healthy skepticism about the claims being made on all sides about what it means to grow up digital. Throughout, Children and the Internet offers us a guide to how we might seize the potentials and avoid the risks of this new and uncharted cultural terrain.” (Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

So what can we do to try and get a handle on the paradoxical effect on the bodies and minds, thoughts and emotions of the Digital Media Age on children? To be or not to be “plugged in”… does it cause children to be “zoned out” or “on task”? Does it kill their brain cells or activate their synapses? Does it threaten their privacy or enhance their social communication? As said by David Buckingham, Institute of Education, University of London, “Looking beyond exaggerated hype and panic, Sonia Livingstone offers a balanced and comprehensive assessment of the role of the internet in children's lives. Combining rigorous quantitative and qualitative research with a critical awareness of broader theoretical questions, this is a definitive work that takes the debate to a new level.”

For example, Facebook, a social networking site that has spread like wildfire, continually challenges the difference between private and public information. “Online spaces of intimacy continue to change with proliferation of mobile and interactive devices, blurring the offline and online in flexible and complex ways.” (Livingstone, 108) Statistically 58% of UK children aged 8-17 make their Facebook profile only visible to friends, and 12-17 year-olds found that 66% keep their profile wholly or partially private. (Livingstone, 110). Why is this important? Because children and young adults must be aware of what they are revealing about their personal life and who might take advantage of it. Tragically, some might take advantage of private information and exploit various individuals.

The Washington Post article entitled: Cyberviciousness and a student's suicide: the fault is always in ourselves, describes a most recent tragedy involving social networking and the death of a student.

If there is any doubt about the pervasiveness of moral confusion and illogic in our society, one need only sample responses to the suicide of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University student and a promising violinist, who committed suicide after his roommate and a female acquaintance, also a Rutgers freshmen, used a hidden webcam to record him having sex with a man and streamed the images online. An interrogatory headline in USA Today says it all: “Has Social Networking Gone Too Far?” A subhead declares, “Student's suicide after he was shown having sex on illicit webcast puts focus on civility and privacy.” This tragedy is not about “social networking.” It is about immoral and amoral cruelty, spiked with anti-gay bias, and about a culture that prefers to assign responsibility to tools rather than the young people who used them for evil. (The Washington Post, 10.2.2010)

I agree with Susan Jacoby, author of the article, that “This tragedy is not about social networking” however I do believe this an important wake up call for children, teenagers, young adults, and especially parents, that each individual knows the risks at hand while having both an online and offline “life” and when to separate the two, when to combine, and what information is appropriate and safe to divulge. You would be hard pressed not to admit that access to the influx of today’s digital media and the ability to mass-produce information with a single click did not contribute to the demise of Tyler Clementi. I would hope that this unfortunate death would lead our society to seek a better understanding of private and public knowledge and how to properly educate our children to use social networking and other digital devices in a humble and conscience matter. The author of Internet Inquiry notes that public and private not be considered a dichotomy but “rather a continuum.” (Markham, Baym, 80) Livingstone notes:

Now the challenge is to theorize people’s, including children’s, engagement with the internet more thoroughly, asking, for example, not who lacks access to the internet but whether it really matters; not simply noting who participates in online forums but identifying whether and how this contributes to civic participation; not simply worrying about the risks children encounter online but asking what is meant by online risk and how it relates to offline risk; not simply asking whether children have the skills to engage with the internet but whether these enable them to engage with their society in all its manifestations – local and global, public and private, serious and playful, enchanting and dangerous. (Livingstone, 3)

Livingstone provides a broad narrative of children’s internet use and the ever-changing environments of the digital frontier. Things are moving very fast and we don’t yet know how to define the digital generation nor can we determine what it could be. In the mean time, know your children both online and off!

Book Review by

Amy J Jones

Livingston, Sonia. Children and the Internet. Cambridge, UK. Polity Press, 2009

Annette N. Markham. Nancy K. Baym. Internet Inquiry.

California, USA. SAGE Publications, 2009

Wikipedia. 2010

After Photography, by Fred Ritchin

What comes after photography — or at least the chemical trace of light that photography once was? And where does that lead us as media producers and consumers, as citizens or as humans?

Fred Ritchin’s recent book After Photography sets out to envision not only a medium more complex, better linked and more ubiquitous than could be handled by the tactile photo, but also how those implications spread from a screen to our own bodies. Two decades after the introduction of Adobe’s Photoshop software, we are just beginning to see how the digital age will morph, clone, copy and manipulate the fabric of a medium that helped define the modern age, a society and possibly a post-species. The pixels have only begun to move.

Ritchin brings a 30-year-long résumé working for Time/LIFE and the New York Times, an academic career at New York University and the International Center of Photography, and prior works on the evolution of the medium to this book. (New York University, 2010) His experience in the analog world of photography is thoroughly matched by his work in the digital. He was a pioneer planner of the early New York Times on the Web and some of its most ambitious early multimedia works.

Ritchin’s work in this book is predominantly personal, drawing on that vast experience to color his interpretations. This is not a traditional scholarly work, heavily citing direct research done by either the author or quoted sources. It is more the culmination of 40 years of experience and examination of the medium of photography. Its organization is meandering, exploring multiple themes under each chapter heading, with many of those themes resurfacing elsewhere, but it is a pleasant and thought-provoking read.

Ritchin opens the book (2009) in broad strokes, setting the stage for topics as diverse as media ethics, war, cloning and cyborgs. He builds metaphors about present and future photography through comparison with past technological change that upended our way of life, using, for example, the move from the horse to the car as a comparable change. He uses this illustration not only to show how the terminology of the former way of life colors the new (such as the clinging reference term of “horsepower” to describe something far from equine), but also as a means of imaging how great and terrible the change might be:

“The horse kept things mostly local, constrained by the biological; automobiles, like cyborgs, did not. The paving of vast stretches encircling the planet, the growth of suburbs, as well as the displacement and degradation of the extended family can be attributed in considerable measure to the automobile. The proliferation of malls, countless deaths in high-speed accidents, and the enduring obsession with oil have little to do with horses.” (p. 21)

With all change comes compromise, and though Ritchin is far from a technophobe and further still from a pessimist on the future of photography, he seems to reveal an urbanist’s view of the car here, only reflecting on the negative changes it has brought. Later in the book when he eagerly imagines a redefinition of society and humanity for the better, he could have easily referred back to the myriad positive social change brought by increased mobility.

“We are also changed, turned into potential image,” he adds (p. 21), pointing out an evolution in the idea of privacy brought by the ubiquity of cameras and images in our day-to-day existence. “‘In a YouTube world, one’s home is no longer one’s private retreat: it’s just a container for a webcam,’ as the New York Times (Green, 2007) recently put it.”

In the chapter “Of Pixels and Paradox,” Ritchin focuses his attention on the difficult youth of digital photography. He cites and describes the canon cases of digital manipulation of photojournalistic images starting with National Geographic’s 1982 cover image in which one of the pyramids at Giza was moved to better fit the image on the cover. That case launched an industry’s continuing self-examination of digital-age practices, and, as Ritchin argues, the digital age of photography.

This discussion is an old and well-documented one though, and Ritchin moves beyond it by extrapolating our will to alter and manipulate images of ourselves and the world as a precursor to altering our physical body, setting the stage for surgical or genetic alterations to the body by making it acceptable in images of ourselves, our models, our movie stars:

“Not only are bytes, unlike chemistry and film, not palpably physical but they become metaphors for a depiction of reality as informational. While photography is conventionally thought of as depicting the present to be seen as the past, we have also, unbeknownst to ourselves, been making coded images of the future — our own as transformed humans, or what some are calling, with justification, ‘post-humans.’”(p. 42)

Where his look at our growing propensity to reengineer ourselves is antipathetic, he moves on to post-tourists with an almost eager anticipation, embracing the idea of “photographing the future” by digitally inserting ourselves into scenes in advance of being there. Rather than waste the time of posing in front of the cathedral of Notre Dame, we could send our friends those manufactured images and proceed to actually exploring the streets, culture and conversations of an unfamiliar new land. No longer will the checklist of “most-photographed” sites separate us from actually being present at the scene.

Ritchin also rethinks how the changing relation to a photograph in the digital age as something mutable compares to memory. Our recollections are not photographic. They are subject to mood, timing, emotion, time and selectivity. Photographs could easily become more of an expression of memory than a perceived-as-subjective document. “The past would be recreated, rethought and reinvented, the process more resembling an oral tradition where divergent views of the community are taken into account.” (p. 58)

Though the photograph, even in its earliest form, was not an informational dead end, the great interlinking expansiveness of hypertextual structure could spill to the photographic medium. Ritchin draws examples at more than one point in the book from early Web image maps, allowing a viewer to click in an area of an image as one would a hypertext link. But rather than a simple link to a different Web page the ability to drill deeply into a photograph — its meaning, context and complexity:

“The photographic frame would then move beyond an excerpt from a visible reality, radiating outward, connecting to ideas, events and images that were previously thought of as external. The photographer, cognizant that framing both does and does not exclude the rest of the world, could then try to be more present, aware, less confident that it is the camera that will ‘remember.’ And as author and viewers grapple over time with the photograph’s meanings, creating new links and interpretations, it will become evident that the photographic process necessarily involves an ensuing contextualization. Rather than encouraging forgetfulness, the photograph might invite too much remembering.” (p. 59)

With his background as an editor in the world of photojournalism it is unsurprising that Ritchin examines the change digital imaging has brought to coverage of war and politics, illuminating how a change in working methods and deadline demands has made more shallow the coverage of events as complex, nuanced and important as both. He points out conflict photographers faced with hourly deadlines and unable to explore the larger scope of the story, and he lays out a brief history of how a political candidate is no longer the person running for office, but merely the image of him or her as designed by handlers. This, Ritchin argues, has contributed to the erosion of the power of journalistic media. “For better and for worse, the result of these last several decades of media manipulation is that people now sense, consciously or unconsciously, that when we watch television we are not watching anything but television, and when we look at a photograph we are primarily seeing a photograph.” (p. 94)

In “The Social Photograph,” Ritchin argues through critic John Berger that photography should be incorporated into the social and political memory rather than using it simply as a substitute for memory. Rather than being a reporter to the rest of the world, he quotes Berger as arguing, the photographer should consider herself a recorder for those involved in the events being photographed. (Berger, 1980) No longer should the photographer fail to consider the contexts and concerns of the photographed, but he should embrace them into the hyperlinked complexity of the photograph itself. Reporter and empathizer, the interpreter communicates not only for himself, but for the interpreted.

Ritchin admits this new collaborator (the photographed) can be a more than problematic one, and I can’t help but wonder where a bright line should be. With his earlier discussion of the manipulation of the media by politics, how could this thought — generous though it might be to the disenfranchised subjects of the ethnographic documentary — be used in connection with a world where all messages, even the personal, are spun as marketing?

His hypertext metaphors deepen again in the book, where he paints visions of “Blade Runner” and “Minority Report” mixed with “Fantastic Voyage.” Ritchin looks toward a “hyperphotography” that extends so far beyond the bounds of a simple paper rectangle that it loses all connection to history and becomes diffused among the sciences, sheds linear story telling structure and demonstrates the relativistic connection an image has to the world. “The new photograph will be read and understood differently as people comprehend that it does not descend from the same representational logic either of analog photography or of painting that preceded it.” (Ritchin, 2009, p. 144)

Throughout the work I wondered silently if he would predict where a professional image-maker, such as me, might fit into his predictions. On page 147 he finally arrives there as well as he could be expected to. How do we use a quickly changing medium in a way that can respond to “some of photography’s frailties, its lies and limitations”?

• In “Unmasking Photo Opportunities Cubistically” he notes we should contextualize the invented realities of opportunity provider by including documentation of the whole planned scene.


• By “Photographing the Future so a Version of It Does Not Happen,” he argues we could illustrate visions of the result of our actions. With the reader let in on the conceit, we paint in visceral images the predictions of a warmed planet, for example.


• By “Enfranchising the Subject,” we give a voice back to the subject of the photograph, first, by making no assumptions about them, but also by handing the camera directly to them.



• Through “Reporting as ‘Family Album’” we design work to illustrate the lives of loved ones abroad, and provide methods for the work to be contextualized by the subjects, adding depth and multiple perspectives to the story telling.


• And by providing “Constructive Interventions,” we lessen a photograph’s voyeuristic nature and allow the reader to react to the image with direct aid, repeat prevention or political action.

Few of these ideas are terribly new. But though all of these ideas as described have been tried elsewhere, he argues for a comprehensive, photography-wide awareness of the consequences of our work and an effort to correct them. This was not a recipe, but a discussion of possibility.

As much as Ritchin looks back into the history of photography, communication and art, and as broad as his imagining of the future has been, I found one discussion conspicuously absent from this book. Change — possibly on this scale — has come to photography before, in 1888 when George Eastman introduced the relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use Kodak that put photography in the hands of the masses for the first time. How did that democratization of media change the landscape of the 20th century? (Lindsay, 1999)

In closing the book, Ritchin’s metaphors grow ever larger as he compares the impossible-to-understand universe of quantum physics to the impossible-to-imagine future of the ubiquity and usefulness of images. In the spirit of some of his own hopes — that a photograph no longer be trapped in a given fraction of a second — he looks both backward and forward:

“Just as a photograph taken in a fractional second of Moses with the two stone tablets might have been meaningless to his contemporaries, for whom a temporal and spatial fragmentation into a two-dimensional photograph would probably have been illegible, so too the digital photograph may appear murky to us until our understanding of the universe advances.” (p. 181)

Notes

Berger, J. (1980). About Looking. New York: Pantheon Books

Green, P., (2007). Yours for the Peeping. New York Times, Nov. 4, 2007. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/weekinreview/04green.html

Lindsay, D. (1999). The Kodak Camera Starts a Craze. American Experience. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eastman/peopleevents/pande13.html

New York University (2009). Ritchin: Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Retrieved from http://about.tisch.nyu.edu/object/RitchinF.html

Ritchin, F. (2009). After Photography. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.

Media consumption and public engagement.

Media consumption and public engagement.

In reviewing this article as a whole, in parts, and in re-read sentences after re-read sentences, i want to draw on three main observations. The first: how much research was done in the literature, and why. The second: this study illustrates why it is impossible to look at online data without having to consider offline data and vice versa. The third: it felt like the research conducted was so broad they raised more questions than it answered.

Couldry and Livingstone did more background research than i even fathomed to consider. They truly dissected everything they wanted to look at, and exhausted the literature out there. Their main research question, “What can media, and the organization of communication, contribute to democratic engagement and so to the long-term sustainability of democracy,” First the authors set out to distinguish “public” from “political.” I was really appreciative of this because as i was researching the digital stacks for my own research on participatory culture, it seemed like every other article was on the elections, polls, and votes. To look at engagement through the lens of media and participation through the lens of actionable engagement was brilliant. Right off this really helped me see how to frame your research parameters. If they had not done so, i would have assumed political engagement.

The other main take-away i had from the theoretical foundations section of this article was how much attention was payed to the methodology. The emphasis here was not the how, but why. Couldry and Livingstone did ample research on studies that utilized diaries, surveys, and interviews, because they were going to utilize all three methods. The diary was utilized because they wanted a way for the participants to be able to reflect. It was never intended to be a daily journal, but more of something at the end of the week they could record thoughts and impressions. The interviews were established to that they could put into context the journal entries. There was a fear that the journal entries would form a narrative as opposed to a genuine reflection, so the interviews were to help the participants and the researchers stay honest. The surveys were also in place to help get the participants on the right course when it came to their responses. They weren’t prompts by any means, but it put into perspective what they should be taking into consideration.

This was key for me as well. Throughout this entire section of the article there was definitely more emphasis put on the issues or difficulties/limitations they foresaw themselves getting into. This really helped narrow their focus and eliminate any skepticism or ambiguity in their research. I’ve been taking so much time to think about what i want to research, and virtually none spent on what i am not. By setting clear expectations on what i’m not trying to do, or being transparent in any difficulties can actually increase credibility, or at least that was the impression i got when i was reading.

When looking at the results of the research there was a lot of discussion on why each answer created more questions than it answered. Each one of these responses essentially boiled down to the fact they were only looking at “online” data without taking into consideration of offline data. Two examples are when they looked at the medium of choice to report their journal in, and what types of media the participants placed more value in.

The researchers felt that they wanted to let the participants report their observations in a way that would be the least intrusive on their day to day routine. This meant that if someone was more comfortable emailing, writing, blogging, or doing an audio recording, they could. The intent was wonderful because they desired the most natural and honest responses, so they left the medium open. The consequence was not only that it was difficult to decode consistently across all platforms of media, but the content of the responses was vastly different given the medium of choice. For example, those who chose email were usually keeping a daily report of their mediated activities while on break at work, meaning their responses were very short and to the point. Email was also a popular medium for those under 50 years of age. Those who chose audio/diary recordings tended to tell stories, and was more popular with those over 50. It was difficult for the researchers to leave out external factors such as medium, participant demographics, and the physical conditions in which the documentation occurred.

The second area where the researchers had difficulty in separating online vs offline data was in seeing where each participant found value in the media. The biggest example of this was the differentiation of how the media was used. The biggest example of this occurred when the researchers found participants over 50 years of age mostly read the paper as a means to “keep up with the daily news,” whereas younger participants kept up with the daily news through television and the internet. This made it particularly difficult in trying to determine if different forms of media spurred any more participation than others. Each conclusion they came to was, “it depends.”

This leads me to the last observation I wanted to make in the fact that this research book raised more questions than it answered. Now i’m not saying this a bad thing by any means, but the purpose wasn’t to see what questions would arise, but rather to answer a specific research question. I felt there were a significant amount of factors that played into the ambiguity of this research. First, the demographics of the participants were overwhelmingly over 30 and female. Because of this, there wasn't a balanced representation in the values of the participants, making every conclusion they had circumstantial. Second, by opening up so many different ways the participants could respond to the research, it made it difficult to draw concrete conclusions from one medium to the next without having to take into consideration offline factors. I don’t feel as though i would have a large problem with this research if they set out to simply explore the impacts media had on public engagement in a case by case basis. For example, instead of just saying “mediated public engagement,” they should add a specific medium like “...through news periodicals.” By isolating each major medium i felt they could have focused on why the offline data mattered as opposed to continually having to use the data as adding complications. I respect the fact that the researchers were trying to create a comprehensive study, but i now see the complications of trying to do so in the fact every single factor cross-references each other and trying to wrap it all up in a pretty bow become difficult.

In conclusion I did take a lot away from this article on how effective literature reviews can be in fine tuning the parameters of your research topic. I now know that i have to look into a lot of different areas not only in regards to the trending topics of my research(generational studies, participatory culture, online communities), but the successes of ethnographic online community studies as well. I also have a much better understanding of why narrowing the research question down is vitally important to the results section. I think my first hint of this was that the “issues” section of the results was longer than the literature review, or at least it felt like it was. This means that for the literature review I do for my thesis, I need to focus on the “why” more than the “what” or 
“how.” I know I want to do a case study on Project for Awesome 2010. I know I’m going to do this through interviews and participation. The “why,” however needs to be clearly stated so that I can focus my research questions. Am i doing the research because I dislike the rapport my generation has developed in the eyes of organizations and ivory towers? Am I doing it because I want to draw upon the key components that make this online community successful and conceptualize them in the work environment? Etc. The last thing I want to reflect on is that it’s ok to end up with more questions than I start with. Research is an evolving process to where I wont know have the questions and issues I’ll inevitably have until i’m experiencing them. I didn’t love the book, however, it absolutely demonstrated a framework for me, thus clarifying a lot of ambiguity for myself.

Satire TV Book Review

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as significant and effectual enablers for democratic political discussion? The Simpsons and South Park as political and social commentary to be taken seriously? This is exactly what the authors of Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era propose. Satire TV is a celebratory exploration of the current insurgence of satirical programming as the primary political critique for post-modern and post-network democratic societies and a proponent for greater social engagement on the part of individual citizens.

From the very beginning of the volume, the editors make a telling statement reflecting their priorities: “[l]et us as volume editors show our cards here at the outset by stating that we believe satire TV to have considerable political value” (Gray et al 2009, 7). The book celebrates and embraces the rise in satire as cultural critique and participation. Divided into four sections, Satire TV positions an old method of satire within the new realm of post-positivist post-modernity. Beginning with an essay by the book’s editors Gray, Jones, and Thompson, satirical television is situated in a post-network world where narrow-casted cable programming has set the stage for using comedy as serious political critique. The second section delves into the role of fake news in analyzing both the state of political culture as well as the role of journalism in informing society. Section three dives deep into post-modernism, particularly looking at deconstruction as a method to reveal meaning. The fourth and final section touches on the delicacy of comedy when charged with racial overtones.

Historical Satire

The authors situate current satirical programming within a history of broadcast political satire, emphasizing both the changes now taking place and new observations of cause and effect from the overlap of fictional broadcast narrative with actual politics. Detailed examples are provided of interaction on each show evaluated, questioning social norms surrounding network and internet media.

In advocating the use of satire on television as a useful means of political engagement by ordinary citizens, Satire TV posits two things: first, that passively watching television shows equals participation in the political debate and second, that satirical programming is the critical voice of the everyman that would otherwise be unheard. The belief is that “to satirize is to scrutinize and therefore to encourage one’s audience to scrutinize as well” (11). In the wake of Stephen Colbert’s speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents Association Dinner, there was a tremendous ripple effect demonstrated by the ‘viral’ spread of the recorded speech. Editors Gray, Jones, and Thompson explain the significance of Colbert’s speech, concluding by saying that “the incident tells us of how satire can energize civic culture, engaging citizen-audiences … inspiring public political discussion, and drawing citizens enthusiastically into the realm of the political with deft and dazzling ease” (4). This, then, is how otherwise passive television watching can be transformed into political engagement on the part of ordinary spectators. Presenters such as Jon Stewart carefully craft their persona to be clearly identifiable to their target audience and therefore vicariously stand in for the audience, verbalizing what such a large audience would not otherwise hear.

What Does It Mean?

Satire TV closely explores what satire is accomplishing for the general public and why it is important at all. By highlighting how the boundaries between performance comedy and legitimate news reporting are being blurred, Satire TV provides insight into how satire is being used differently from previous historical employments of political satire and that current satirists are engaging and changing the nature of the political debate beyond simply criticizing and drawing attention to superficial flaws. The authors emphasize how Stewart and Colbert in particular have crossed boundaries that were unthinkable in years previously. For example, when Chevy Chase parodied President Gerald Ford in his “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live, Chase was “never asked seriously for his analysis of political events. Stewart, in contrast, is now sought out for his growing reputation as a media watchdog, while his show has gained a significant voice within political discourse” (98). Only recently, Stephen Colbert testified – in character – before Congress on behalf of rights for immigrant workers. His celebrity brought attention to an important issue that otherwise may have only received marginal coverage in traditional news sources.

Gray, Jones, and Thompson also tell us why is it important that the news and journalism are the targets of satirical parody through shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

As many historians of parody have noted, parody (especially in periods of heightened interest in parody) often contributes to and signals the evolution of a genre; when a genre finds its most interesting and popular form(s) in its parodies, said genre is often dying. Thus today’s increase in news parody, in particular, may be signaling the genre’s dire need for innovation and maturation and may be contributing to the push to rejuvenate it and make it evolve. (19)

Blogging is one example of how traditional journalism has changed: anyone can create a blog and proclaim the “news,” forcing traditional journalistic organizations to reconsider their role within and contribution to the education of society.

The second section of the book addresses the role of ‘fake’ news in engaging and critiquing traditional news sources. “It is through this act of pointing out the artificiality of real newscasts, press conferences, and other forms of public discussion that, for many of its fans, this ‘fake’ news show actually comes closer to embodying the characteristics – like authenticity and truth – that we would normally associate with the ‘real.’” (86). Echoing the message of shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Satire TV paints a portrait of “traditional” news reports as akin to the Wizard of Oz: nothing but the artifice of smoke and mirrors of a would-be political power cowering behind the curtain of banal language and watered down reports. It is emphasized that traditional news is just one narrative of public life and satire and parody provide additional opportunity for democratic discourse and deliberation (16).

Theoretical Foundations

The theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, particularly his writings on the carnivalesque, and Sigmund Freud provide a theoretical foundation that a number of the authors draw from. Bakhtin emphasized how carnival is subversive and anti-authoritarian,[i] that the carnival is a participatory spectacle erasing boundaries between performers and spectators,[ii] and that it “subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos”.[iii] “As should be evident, Bakhtin thus regards humor and laughter in terms of the power they allow the laughter vis-à-vis the laughed-at object” (emphasis in the original) (10). In contrast, “Freud saw humor as frequently harboring our aggression toward forces, institutions, and individuals that hold power over us” (10).

In his May 2009 critique of Satire TV, Patrick W. Gallagher looks at the issues not explained in the essays. He points out that the history of television is explored, but not enough historical context is provided for the 2000s, when this programming was created and set. Gallagher also criticizes the failure to explain why Bush was so easily satirizable; that the future of satire in Obama administration and going forward is not explored; and that gender and race do not receive enough treatment.

I would like to build on this by pointing out that the editors are eager to lampoon what they see as the ridiculous practices of political conservatives and openly proclaim their view that criticisms of satirical programming are “weak and based on erroneous assumptions of audiences, the nature of politics, and the nature of humor, satire, parody, and entertainment more generally” (7). I found that the book, while enjoyable to read, was unapologetically celebratory and failed to reflexively turn the same critiques back on itself and the programs being studied. However, a distinction is drawn between what they see as the significant work of Stewart and Colbert and the relative unimportance of Saturday Night Live skits, which the editors claim fails to be “meaningful satire” (29). There were only two chapters tucked at the end of the volume that addressed what happens when a show crosses boundaries and becomes ineffective or simply offensive. The explanation given for the lack of success of The Boondocks and Dave Chappelle’s Nigger Pixie sketches was in a word, racism. “Satire reflects, refracts, and reconstitutes the fundamental beliefs and mores of a segment of the world in order to critique its practices – giving a through-the-looking-glass image of a particular swath of society with all defects in full and enlarged view. … In other words, as long as there is racism, doing racial satire will be problematic” (248).

While the book expands upon the delicate and intricately layered social critique enacted by Stewart and Colbert, I question whether the book turns the same critique back on them. Are the authors blindly accepting the work of Stewart and Colbert in a way they would ridicule believers in the conservative right doing the same?

Conclusion

In the conclusion of his review, Gallagher comments that “[s]ince post-network satire TV developed to such a huge extent as to become an oppositional force to Bush, it will be interesting to see how it changes in the absence of such a clear enemy”.[iv] The benefit of more than a year’s distance from that review is that we see how the lack of President Bush as the primary target has done little to diminish the force and momentum of satirical critique. There are numerous targets within the conservative right, and the conservative right itself has become enough of a target to provide satirists such as Stewart and Colbert an ample amount of material with which to work.

An enjoyable read, but one still steeped in literary and sociological tradition, Satire TV presents a portrait of ideal post-modern life in which satirical critique and political parody enable average citizens to engage politics and society in a meaningful way.

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[i] http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?UID=160&rec=true accessed 9/30/10

[ii] http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/marxism/Bakhtin.html accessed 10/1/0

[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivalesque accessed 10/1/10

[iv] http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/73808-satire-tv-by-jonathan-gray-jeffrey-jones-ethan-thompson/ accessed 9/26/10