Monday, March 14, 2011

Moral Panic and Social Networks

Social networking services are broadly defined include those that are profile focused (Bebo, MySpace, Facebook), content focused sites (YouTube, Flickr), virtual worlds, mobile sites, and blogging.


The impact on youth from economically disadvantaged families is what Jenkins worries about most. "Already, you have a gap between kids who have 10 minutes of Internet access a day at the public library and kids who have 24-hour-a-day access at home," he says. "Already, we have filters in libraries [required under the Child Internet Protection Act of 2001] blocking access to much of the Internet. Now we're talking about adding even more restrictions."


With more and more children accessing the internet it has become some what dangerous as can been seen in Catfish which I just talked about when you can't really know someone you talk to online. With kids interacting more some people have taking advantage of this hench the protection act of 2001. Some kids may not be as aware as older people about the fact people mightn't be who they seem. There has been many cases were kids have talked to someone online maybe believing that they are their same age or same school and then thinking it's ok to meet up with them without knowing who they really are and a few times we hear that they are nothing like who the percieved themselves to be. This is also true though with older people but we have a bit more sense so it's not as worrying.


It's easy for any body to set up a fake website and take information of some else as so many pictures and information is posted on the internet and it can be takin by anyone. A few photos and a few fake friends( because people add people they don't know just to have a large number of friends on the site) and some fake information and you would be none the wiser if the person is real or fake.

Catfish

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This is a documentary about how on social networks people mightn't be all they seem or even the person that you think they are and also how easy it is to convince someone that your someone else completely.
It's a documentary about a guy called Nev who took a photo and it was published onto the news paper, later he got emails of paintings and paintings themselves from a girl called Abby who liked his work. These two people create a new online relationship with him sending her photos and her painting them. Nevs friends is filming the journey from Nevs point of view.

It show how Nevs is introduced to Abbys whole family and start to become closer and closer. He starts falling for Abbys older sister Megan and talks to her through facebook. There bond becomes really close and they arrange to meet up, Megan and the whole family so they can finally meet face to face.

But before they leave Nev is talking to Megan online when she sends him a song that she had supposidly sung there and then. Nev and his mate really enjoy it but then look up other cover versions of the song and find the exact same song but it's not Megan singing but someone else. With realising this out being shocked they asked her to sing something else and the same thing accord where they found the same cover song.

They decide to go along with Megan and pretend that they never realised it as they were meeting them and would find out soon. They travel miles to were Megan said that she lived and the building was empty. The then went to were the mother Angela and Abby lived. He find out then that Megan really didn't ever exist and that Angela had pretended to be her by copying photos and adding fake friends to look real in the eyes of the internet. She done this to escape reality and live as a different person for a while when she is on the internet.

The documentary really shows how much someone can lie over the internet and even if the seem genuine you should meet them face to face before you can actually throughly believe they are who they say they are.


Here is a link to a trailer for the documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQZncEwejO4

Communities

Traditionally a "community" has been defined as a group of people interacting and living in a common location.Since the start of the Internet, the concept of community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location. Which renders out the old term of communities and brings new types of communities and interactions with people of the same common interests instead of location.



There are five main types of communities which then branch out into many different types :

Interest. Communities of people who share the same interest or passion.
Action. Communities of people trying to bring about change.
Place. Communities of people brought together by geographic boundaries.
Practice. Communities of people in the same profession or undertake the same activities.
Circumstance. Communities of people brought together by external events/situations.


virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. One of the most pervasive types of virtual community include social networking services, which consist of various online communities.
These social networks allow people with the same interest and not just your neighbour to get together and learn more about and get to know people with common interests.



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Friday, February 25, 2011

Fan Culture

Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the object(s) of their fandom.
These are examples of different fan cultures.


Science fiction fandom dates back to the 1930s and maintains organized clubs and associations in many cities around the world. It has held the annual World Science Fiction Convention since 1939, along with many other events each year, and has created its own jargon. Media fandom shot off from science fiction fandom in the early 1970s with a focus on relationships between characters within TV and movie media franchises.
Anime and manga fandom began in the 1970s in Japan. In America, the fandom also began as an offshoot of science fiction fandom, with fans bringing imported copies of Japanese manga to conventions. Before anime began to be licensed in the U.S., fans who wanted to get a hold of anime would leak copies of anime movies and subtitle them to exchange with friends in the community, thus marking the start of fan subs.



Developments on the Internet have had profound effects on the anime fan community and the way in which anime is consumed. Additionally, fan interest in anime has inspired many developments in technology. Roughly 68% of fans obtain anime through downloading from the Internet or through their friends, a much larger proportion than in any other medium. As a result, fans have made some of the most sophisticated advances in peer-to-peer software in order to make searching for and downloading anime online faster.











Thursday, February 24, 2011

Moral Panic

Backword messages in Rock and Roll


The 1950s saw two new developments in audio technology: the development of musique concrète, an avant-garde form of electronic music which involves editing together fragments of natural and industrial sounds; and the concurrent spread of the use of tape recorders in recording studios.These two trends led to tape music compositions, composed on tape using techniques including reverse tape effects
When the rock ‘n' roll craze first swept the United States, many viewed Elvis Presley's swiveling hips and Jerry Lee Lewis' feverish performances as lewd and dangerous. Many adults worried that the new style would entice the younger generation to rebel.




After two kids attempted suicide in 1985, their parents accused the heavy metal band Judas Priest of hiding subliminal messages in their songs to convince listeners to commit suicide. The technique was as simple as writing the songs so that, when played backward they would convey a message. 
Anyway, a few Christian DJs got wind of the story and decided to fan the flames, playing records backwards for signs that bands were trying to kill their fans. Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Pink Floyd and even Jefferson Starship were all alleged to have place secret messages encouraging their fans to give it up for Satan.

Some humorous way bands had used this to their advantage was for example




Pink Floyd dropped a backmasked message into "Empty Spaces" (listen ), from 1979's The Wall:
-... Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont...
-Roger! Carolyne's on the phone!
-Okay.
Everyone was so caught up in the moral panic fun, that they forgot to ask the obvious question. Why the hell would rock bands want to kill off their customers? Rob Halford of Judas Priest said at the time that if they were going to put subliminal messages in their songs, they would have gone with something like "buy more records" or "don't forget to pick up Judas Priest t-shirts and keychains at fine stores everywhere."
The case against Judas Priest was eventually thrown out in 1990 when the judge realized it was completely fucking insane. The panic would have continued, but, luckily, the CD was invented; making backwards messages impossible to hear. Then gangsta rap hit the mainstream and suddenly parents wished they could have the backwards Satanism thing back

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Glam Rock


Glam rock (also known as glitter rock) is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter.
In the UK the term glitter rock was most often used to refer to the extreme version of glam pursued by Gary Glitter and his support musicians the Glitter Band, who between them achieved eighteen top ten singles in the UK between 1972 and 1976.A second wave of glam rock acts, including Suzi QuatroRoy Wood's Wizzard and Sparks, dominated the British single charts from about 1974 to 1976.
Glam rock visuals peaked during the mid 1970s with artists including T. RexDavid BowieRoxy Music and Gary Glitter in the UK and New York DollsLou Reed and Jobriath in the US.
Although glam rock went into a steep decline in popularity in the second half of the 1970s it was a direct influence on acts that rose to prominence later, including Kiss and American glam metal acts like Quiet RiotW.A.S.P.Twisted Sister and Mötley Crüe. It was a major influence on the New Romantics in Britain, acts like Adam Ant and Flock of Seagulls extended it, and its androgyny and sexual politics were picked up by acts including Culture ClubBronski Beat and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Greasers


Greasers are a working class that originated in the 1950s among young northeastern and southern United States street gangs, and then became popular among other types of people. In the 1950s and early 1960s, these youths were known as hoods.

Clothing items typically worn by greasers included: Sir Guy shirts, white or black T-shirts (often with the sleeves rolled up); whiteA-shirts (as outerwear); ringer T-shirts, Italian knit shirts; Daddy-O-style shirts; black, blue or khaki work jackets, black or browntrenchcoats, Levi denim jackets; leather jackets; blue or black Levi's 501 jeans (with rolled-up cuffs anywhere from one to four inches); and baggy cotton twill work trousers.

Their name game from their greased back hair.Typical hairstyles included the pompadour, the Duck's tail and the more combed-back Folsom style. These hairstyles were held in place with hair wax (pomade).
Although the greaser subculture was largely an American youth phenomenon, there were very similar subcultures in the United Kingdom and Australia. The 1950s British equivalent were the Ton-up boys, which evolved into the Rockers in the 1960s.

Some music they listened too were
House of the rising sun.Animals.
Leader of the pack.shangri las
Terry.Twinkle.
Walking in the sand.shangri las.
Road runner.Bo Diddley.
Searching.Del Shannon.
Highway 61.Bob Dylan.
Paint it Black. Stones.
Dancing in the street. Martha Reeves and co
30 Days.Chuck Berry.