Test 1 Flashcards
Key components of social media
Internet based, asynchronous, perceived interactivity, value from user generated content, mass personal-communication. Exchange of user generated content.
“Web 2.0/New Media/Digital Media”
Includes video games, internet radios, podcasts, e-books, etc. Much more interactive style of social media. They fail to meet the criteria of traditional social media. Uses Bulletin Board system (forums/chatrooms). Used in a political sense as well: engage with voters, helped to facilitate fundraising to pursued voters and connect with them.
Brief History of Social Media:
1935
New machined called the Notification emerges in London. It allowed people to make or cancel plans, let someone know where you were, post a message more generally.
1970’s
bulletin board system. message boards/dial-up services.
1990’s
WWW (1991). instant messages begin. Peer to peer messaging, file sharing. Napster, lime wire, Six Degrees (1997)
2003
Myspace: News Corp purchases it for $580 million. It became more popular than Google in 2006. Used by-product learning.
Equalization Hypothesis
The internet has the ability to level out the political playing field.
SixDegrees
Allowed users not list family members, friends and acquaintances; post messages and items on bulletin board of their 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees. Used the six degree of separation concept (that everyone is on average approx. 6 steps away by from of introduction or from any other person in the world).
Functions of Mass Media
- Democratic Legitimacy and Accountability:
“Fourth Estate”
Through fair, natural and objective reporting the media can utilize the government, educate citizens and demand for power. - Important Agent for Socialization:
Presents a social order - Reinforces Shared Values:
- Provides Pleasure and Entertainment:
Rise of information (books, videos games, music, etc.)
Concerns about Web 2.0
User generated content gives opportunity to distribute potentially uninformed political commentary and to conceal biases or hidden agendas, loss of citizen privacy, internet is not the great equalizer it was promised.
Digital Divide
The distinction between the information haves and have-notes; the gap between the c computer literate and the computer illiterate. The uneven access to information and communication technologies which happens at the individual level, in countries who have less internet penetration.
Second Level Digital Divide
The primary concern for scholars of ICT, focussing on usage, understanding and knowledge of the internet (digital literacy). Digital literacy refers to the skills and abilities related to technology, such as computers and the internet, as well as knowledge about norms and how to appropriately use these technologies.
How problematic is the digital divide: voting?
Despite the rapid growth and penetration of the internet, online voting is still relatively uncommon.
Older voters, rural voters with less reliable and consistent access to the internet. Voters who are less wealthy and knowledgeable. Disenfranchisement based on the digital divide will cause some voters to have an easier time voting = more likely to vote.
Media Logics: Strategy Frame
Characterizes politics as a strategy.
All matters are seen through this frame.
Horse Race Frame
Emphasizes who is winning and losing. Disregard of real events and issues.
Conflict Frame
Non-political attributes (appearances, etc.)
Negativity and Storytelling Frame
TBD
What kind of media opportunities are there?
Accessibility, Engagement, Administrative Efficiencies,
What kind of concerns are there?
Technical issues, fraud atomization.
Memes
Internet memes as a piece of digital content that spreads quickly around the web in various iterations and becomes a shared cultural experience. It is how cultural information evolves and is distributed in society. Memetics was introduced to society
Four types of internet memes
- Verbal media memes
- texts, words, phrases, stand and lingo, key words, hashtags, etc.
- MAGA, #Imwithher, Black Lives Matter - Auditory Media memes
- Songs, melodies and sounds that are used in political and social discourse
- “Protest songs” - Visual Media memes
- Images, collages, posters, photoshop contests, comics, photos, pictures, caricatures, etc.
- Pepe the frog = alt-right - Audiovisual media memes
- Videos, clips, gifs, vines, etc.
3 ways to engage with user generated content
- consuming
- watch read view, but do not participate - Participating
- includes both user-to-user interaction and user-to-content interaction - Producing
- encompasses creation and publication of one’s personal contents such as text, images, audio and video.
memes as a form of delegitimization: in what ways?
- authorization (law, authority)
- Moral Evaluation (emphasis on values and morality)
- Rationalization (goals and outcomes; truth and effectiveness)
- Mythos (narrative that rewards moral and just action or reveal a cautionary tale)
Memes vs. democracy
- memes can increase knowledge since they are often about complex political issues
- memes offer ordinary citizens the ability to engage w politics and express their political beliefs
- memes build on humour and be a powerful tool off political persuasion
- memes can contain misinformation
- memes are more likely to engage in hate speech, racism, misogyny.
