29 Nov
Increasing concerns of privacy
1. Do employers have the right to know what their employees do when they are not working? Why or why not?
Personally, in general, I don’t think that employers have the right to do so. Employees don’t get paid by the employers when they are off duty. During this “free time”, they are not in employment relationship, and the employers are not in a superior position and not responsible for employees either, so they don’t have the authority to get to know what the employees are doing outside the workplace. It is unfeasible for the employers to know what their employees are up to 24-7, because the employees are just working for them, not under their custody. It’s understandable that employers monitor what their employees do when they are at work place, it is for organization’s benefit, but if employers do so when employees are not working, I have to say that it is infringing on their privacy. (P.242)
2. Can these cases with professional athletes (Sanderson, 2009) can be applied to (or compared with) other types of employees — such as lawyers, teachers, advertising sales reps, etc. Why or why not?
Well, I don’t think that the cases in Sanderson’s article can be applied to other types of employees. Athletes are a special kind of employees, and they mostly are well-known and draw people’s attention much more than other types of employees. What they do are often eye-catching, and may affect their performance and then their organization’s revenue(P.251). In addition, these athletes are celebrities, and mostly are considered as role models, so they have more social influence no matter they are working or not. But other types of employees, like lawyers, teachers, they don’t have that much fans and normally people wouldn’t “monitor” what they do outside the work place. Besides, what they do when they are not working wouldn’t influence their organizations’ revenue as athletes do.
3. Should people be concerned about the location tracking capabilities discussed by Abe (2009)? Do these technologies have negative aspects?
I don’t think it would be an issue to be worried about. Unless we are suspects or criminals, we need not mind it even if the traces of driving are monitored and stored by the Car-Navi system. (P. 78) It’s true that we expose ourselves by using the information and communication technologies, but we are living in a digital era, it’s like you can’t leave no footprints when walking on the beach, no one can be invisible and it is impossible to run away from these technologies.Besides, everyone is under the same “surveillance”, not just one or two people are specially targeted. The negative aspect of these technologies I can think of is that we lost some privacy that they use our data for profit purpose. Overall, these technologies brought so much convenience and far outweigh the negative aspects.
4. Is the typical college student’s participation in Facebook an example of Abe’s “peer surveillance”? Why or why not?
In my opinion, Facebook is not a good example of Abe’s “peer surveillance”. Although it has the similar nature with mixi, one of the most popular and biggest social networking services in Japan (P.79), that both of them are social networking websites, it doesn’t has the two main characteristics that are considered as “Peer Surveillance.” First, anyone can sign up on Facebook without an invitation from a member, second, it doesn’t have the “trace record” system that each user can check who visited his/her profile and diary page (P.79). These two features are the place where “peer surveillance” function and make users feel safe and comfortable, which Facebook doesn’t have, so I don’t think it is a good example.
15 Nov
Crowdsourcing: eclecticism
In this week’s reading “WHEN THE MEDIA MEET CROWDS OF WISDON—How journalists are tapping into audience expertise and manpower for the processes of newsgathering” by Karthika Muthukumaraswamy, I found the “News-Press utilities rates” case very interesting. I think the News-Press is very brilliant to use this innovative solution. It’s not surprising that residents of the Cape Coral county of Florida showed so much enthusiasm and initiative for participating in the paper’s investigation into the increasing costs of local public utilities, because that’s the issue related to personal interests, nobody wants to pay more for no reason. The residents utilized their abilities and skills and make the investigation into a team work to figure the whole thing out, and then they got a good outcome. We can see the power of crowdsourcing from the case, and it didn’t cost the News-Press much for the process. What’s more, “the News-Press launched a more structured project, called Team Watchdog.” It gave citizens a way to be “in the role the media plays in keeping government leaders accountable”, said a Team Watchdog group member. Like Muthukumaraswamy’s article mentioned, citizens “brought to the newsroom in terms of expertise and manpower”, and the crowdsourced journalism’s becoming more and more general, as in this article.
I think “Wisdom of Crowds in General-interest Reporting by Recruiting Generalists and Experts” is a suitable title for the case. Because firstly, “the increasing costs of local public utilities” is related to every resident’s interest, so it’s “General-interest”. Secondly, the News-Press invited local people to join investigation, and the “Generalists” are those “made trips to City Hall to question public officials, and obtained internal city memos to help uncover the truth behind the increased prices.” “Experts” are those with specific areas of expertise, engineers, lawyers, and accountants, who can interpret some certain documents.
In my opinion, the News-Press case is a good example of crowdsourcing. Like Jeff Howe defined “crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call. Although News-Press’s crowdsourcing is different from the in the article “Africa’s Gift to Silicon Valley: How to Track a Crisis” device using, “undefined, large group of people or community” did contribute a lot. As Muthukumaraswamy stated,“one of the biggest advantages of crowdsourcing, of course, is to use expert help in areas where journalists traditionally lack training.” If the citizens didn’t step in the investigation, only reporters or journalists probably wouldn’t be able to find out the reason of increased prices, for it’s hard to understand blueprints and balance sheets for people without certain knowledge.
8 Nov
Remix：a way of reminiscing
This is the very first time I make a rideo. I picked some classic cartoons, and when I was remixing them, lots of memories rushed back.
I think remix is a way to reminisce or commemorate childhood or good times.
It’s hard to say whether remixing is a creation or not, but I do agree with the A Remix Manifesto video that sharing is the nature of creation, and everything came from something else. Besides, these cartoons are not “pure creation”, they all came elsewhere.
5 Nov
Blog Post 9 Comments
17 Oct
Online activists: guardians of liberty
After I read Rohlinger and Brown’s article and found the organization like American Civil Liberty Union, I think I got a new knowledge of online activism. Like Rohlinger and Brown stated in their article “the Internet engages individuals in a broader range of activities—and this has important implications for democratic processes.”
It took me quite a long time to look for an organization’s website, since I barely knew one before. After plenty of research, I decided to choose the ACLU (American Civil Liberty Union). ACLU is the “nation’s guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.” It was established in 1920, and according to Wikipedia, “the ACLU reported over 500,000 members in 2010.” ACLU has the clear layout as MoveOn.org, anonymous comments, functional links, related news updates and pictures, no advertisements, etc. ACLU encourage participants to give them support or donation then be a part of protecting rights and liberty, and it also “provided members a free space away from the direct control of dominant groups in which they could articulate an oppositional point of view” mentioned in Rohlinger and Brown’s article.
Meanwhile, there are some differences between MoveOn.org and ACLU as well. Firstly, signing up on MoveOn.org needs to provide name, E-mail and whole mail address while ACLU is even simpler that only needs the E-mail and zip code. Secondly, ACLU has a functional link to their blog, but I didn’t see it on MoveOn.org. Those blog posts are divided into many different categories like Capital Punishment, Free Speech, Human Rights, LGBT Rights, and Racial Justice etc. These posts are about ACLU recently helped people (no matter are their members or not) who has been suffering unequal treatment to defend their rights. Such as the newest one “The Best Person (Andre Cooley) for the Job…Fired for Being Gay”, the ACLU has filed suit on behalf of Andre. Thirdly, they have different missions. ACLU is more concerned about individual rights and liberties, and it gives those online activists a chance to be guardians of liberty, while MoveOn.org is focused on political action and “enables progressive activists to talk to one another and challenge corporate power”.
In addition, I wasn’t aware of that Burma is one of the most censorious nations before I read Talbot’s article. I don’t think censorship can ever be a smart move because people are not easy to be fooled and they can always find a way to see the uncensored version. I really agree with Rohlinger and Brown that “the Internet provides a unique mediated space, and social movement groups that understand how to meaningfully organize a citizen’s experience in this space have the potential to effect social change”, and it “provides an alternative media space for those that disagreed with the policies and challenges the power structure.”
10 Oct
Gain Political Knowledge through the Daily Show?
Honestly I’ve never heard of the Daily Show before, and we don’t have like political comedy this kind of formats in China, so watching the Daily Show is a brand new experience. I’ve never been into political news before, and I think I’m one of the “less politically interested viewers”, according to Xenox and Becker.
The Daily Show I watched is Oct.5 –Bruce Willis. At first, Jon Stewart talked about America’s apology to Guatemala for intentionally and secretly infecting people with STDs which happened more than 60 years ago. In “syph happens” segment, Jon said “by the way Guatemalan syphilis experi-mint—worst Ben and Jerry’s flavor ever.” Probably because of my lack of the background knowledge or my English comprehension, I didn’t “get the joke”. I guess Jon thought that the apology was pointless so he made fun of it? Afterwards, he talked about the Green the Army with Jason Jones. I really thought Jason was a senior military analyst, but after I googled him it turned out that he is an actor. Then Lewis Black came up, I thought it was serious. (Is it me or he really looks like Colin Powell? ) The second one I watched is Oct.06–Philip Dray. Jan began with the indecision 2010, I didn’t understand quite well either, but the north and south Delaware was really funny. Afterwards, I went to Google to check whether Jason Mycoff is a real professor of University of Delaware or not. I totally agree with Xenos and Becker that political comedy “to operate more as a news enhancer than a news supplement, especially for less engaged viewers who are most likely to come to political comedy without a particularly extensive existing stock of political knowledge.” And I think “soft news” make the stories not that boring, particulaly for those who never watch ‘hard news’ like me.
When I was browsing Google News, I found myself was not very into political news. I looked the story like “Beijingers should get back on their bikes” and “How bad is McDonald’s food”, other political news were hard for me to start to read. The only political news I actively searched was what I heard from the Daily Show, then to find out what the real issues were, like the syphilis experiments, which is similar to the Xenos and Becker respondents.
I will continue to watch the Daily Show. Although I’m probably one of “individuals who watch soft news shows do so primarily in serach of entertainment, not enlightenment” according to Baum. Based on the two epidodes I know those news are not totally made up, and it made me curious about the real issue to look up hard news then gain factual political knowledge . I think Xenos and Becker is right that “comedy may serve to help less politically interested viewers gain information and understanding of political issues on the nation’s agenda. “
10 Oct
Media Diary 7
Today I got up at 10:00am. Surprisingly I didn’t feel dizzy though I went to bad at 3:00am, but I don’t think I should do that again. At 10:30 I went to the living room to have breakfast and I turned on TV to see whether there’s something interesting on weekends. Then something did catch my eye. It was kind of a commercial but was a series of used cars including their pictures, conditions and prices etc. I think it was catchy because I’ve been wanted a car since I arrived in the US, for it’s so inconvenient to go anywhere without a car. And I also was impressed by the prices. In comparison, they are way much lower than in China. Take a Corolla(Toyota) for example, it would only cost less than 10,000 dollars here but more than 20,000 dollars in China. It sounds crazy but it’s true. At 11:30 I used my cell phone to check the bus information. It became essential to to check RTS.com at weekends if I need to go out, for if I missed a bus, I’d have to wait for an hour for the next one. I went to the post office to send a gift to one of my best friends in China because her birthday is coming. It’s my first time going to a post office and it took longer than I thought. I got back at 3:30 and turned on my computer to begin to search some information for another class’s presentation. Then I went to Renren, Kaixin001 and gmail. At 7:00 I had dinner with my roommate and asked her opinions about “Boys Before Flowers”. I was surprised that she barely slept last time for watching all the rest episodes! Now she is a bigger fan than me. After dinner I went back to my room and watched a new episode of the Big Bang Theory (it’s so hilarious), Desperate Housewives and Glee. I think Glee is novel and different from other dramas I’ve been watching. It’s a good way to hear English songs so I like it.
It’s so interesting to write media diary this week, I think it helped me to understand life in the US better. When I was in China, I only use my cell phone for texting and calling and spent about 20 yuan( equals $3), but now I use it to check emails and browse websites instead of texting and fees rose to $20. Besides, I’m a little surprised by my obsession with the internet especially those sites like Renren, Kaixin001 etc., and they were not this sticky. Now I’ve realized that how essential these things (computer, internet, TV, cell phone etc.) are, I guess now if we try to live without them, life would become miserable.
9 Oct
Media Diary 6: crazy night
Today I had to get up at 8:30 am, because there was a group meeting at 10:00. As usual, I turned on my cell phone to check my gmail account first, and there were two new ones, one is an advertisement and the other is from one of my American friends, but she just sent me a link without saying anything else, so weird… I guess I didn’t get enough sleep so I felt very sleepy. After breakfast I was more conscious, then I used my cell to check RTS and this time the GPS worked well, it didn’t take me long waiting for the bus. On the way to school I was listening to Kim Bum’s Christmas Eve’s Sky on my ipod and I think I’ve listened to this song for over one thousand and five hundred times, my another record… Our meeting ended at 11:00, and I planned to go to the Criser Hall as I was informed yesterday afterward, but I’ve never been to that building before. I tried to use the google map with my cell phone (I’ve never used it before), and it gave me the right route, but I was so stupid that I went a wrong direction and was kind of lost, so embarrassing… Then I asked someone and she pointed me the correct direction, finally I got the right place. In the afternoon I had a class from 12:50 to 4:00, and then I rode RTS to go home. On the way I checked my gmail account again, and it turned out that the weird email I got in the morning was a virus, my friend sent another email explained that and told me not to open it. So glad I was so sleepy this morning that I didn’t check it out.
At 6:00 I had dinner with my roommate while talking about some Korean dramas with her. She is a fan of them too but I was surprised that she haven’t watched the “Boys Before Flowers” yet. It was such a blast in Asia last year and was based on a Japanese manga. Indeed, the manga “Boys Over Flowers” was already very famous a long time ago, but it became well-known in Asia since it was first adapted for a TV drama of Chinese version and the name was changed to “Meteor Garden” in 2002. It was such a success and so popular that everyone has watched it and was talking about it. In 2005, Japan made their new drama version “Hana Yori Dango” based on that manga which was successful too. Although it’s the same story, the new Korean version is still quite worth watching it, the cast and music couldn’t be better. After my recommendation she began to watch it when the dinner is finished. I didn’t plan to watch it since I’ve seen it for several times, but I couldn’t help it then I sit down to watch it with her. Crazily we watched six episodes in a row, and then I felt sleepy so I went back to my room and finished my diary and I found this interesting comparison on Youtube.
8 Oct
Media Diary 5: film music is fascinating
I got up at 9:10am today, and as usual first thing I did was turn on my cell phone to check my gmail account and there were no new ones in the inbox… Then I went to the living room to start have breakfast while watching TV. On CBS 4 the program Dr.Phil is on again, and I guess it started at 10:00. The topic was the same as yesterday’s, about teenagers been bullied. There was a twelve year old girl’s mother came to the show and she said she was so worried about her daughter who has been cyber bullied. On the internet A (one of her daughter’s friends) said right to her daughter what A wanted most is her daughter to die, otherwise A would kill her daughter. It seems like that mean girls really exist, but this girl is way worse than those in the movie Mean Girls. I don’t understand why a teenage girl would want another one to die, this is beyond me. I didn’t finish watching it, for I have to go back to my room to write a paper for a class. I started to write it at 10:20 while listening to the song “Without Words” by Jang Geun Suk over and over again. After finished my paper I went to Renren, Kaixin001 and played the Bricks Breaking on Facebook, then three hours were gone. At 6:00 I went to school and while riding on the bus I played BrickBreaker with my cell phone. After I got school I went to the library first and went to wordpress.com to left my comments for this week’s blog post while listening to the Japanese film music composed by a great Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi, “One Summer’s Day” from the movie “Spirited Away”. “The Rain” from the movie “Kikujiro”. And “Laputa – The Sea of Cloud Under The Moonlight” from the movie “Laputa:Castle in the Sky” The movie “Spirited Away” and “Laputa:Castle in the Sky” were both directed by Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director. Joe Hisaishi composed a lot for Hayao Miyazaki’s movies then they become great partners.
At 7:20 I went to a lab to observe an undergraduate class for an hour. Then I rided RTS and on the way home I played BrickBreaker with my cell phone again and got a new record. I got home at 9:20 and started to write today’s diary.
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