Collapse of context - Michael Wesch

When we are interacting with another person, or people, face to face we are constantly evaluating the situation consciously, and subconsciously for what people might say or do, and what the best action would be to suit the situation. we are constantly, as humans, taking note of the physical surroundings, often performing herculean social calculations almost unconsciously in the micro-second gaps of conversation or even occasionally in a more conscious and deliberate manner even as the conversation continues to buzz along. As people we are exceptionally good at sizing up situations such as social interactions, and even evaluation our own appearance, actions and the way we present ourselves and engage in the conversation. it is how we understand if the other person is happy, sad or angry at what we say, and how we present ourselves into these moods. Though some peoples context may be harder to read than others, understanding these contexts is vital to maintaining the conversation and not taking something the wrong way. Erving Goffman presented his own theorys on social context in 1959, in where he describes the "line" he must create in order to present himself to others. he also describes a process he calls "face work", which is the idea that, in a social interaction, his facial expressions are constantly being examined and negotiated. All in all every single facial expression can be taken in differently by the other person, and are all important to the way one presents himself. And the way someone presents themselves depends a great deal on context.

Michael Wesch's theory is that when a person is presented with a webcam for the first time, many of them are unsure of what to say, and these first time vloggers are presented, not with a lack of context, but with a total context collapse. when they look into that little glass eye they are totally unable to see the faces of any of the millions of people who may see them when they say what they want to say. this is what is meant by context collapse, as the people who see them could take it in any context, so they are unable to present their "line", as Goffman would put it, and present themselves in any certain way, as there is no social situation to evaluate. This can be very confusing, and make it very hard to know what to say into a webcam. He must address anybody, everybody, and maybe even nobody all at once.

Wikinomics

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaberation, or peer production, and open-source technology such as wikis to be successful. Tapscott and Williams have released a followup to Wikinomics, entitled "Macrowikinomics, rebooting business and the world", which was released on September 28, 2010.

According to Tapscott, Wikinomics is all based around four ideas: Openness, Peering, Sharing, and Acting Globally. The use of mass collaboration in a business environment, in recent history, can be seen as an extension of the trend in business to outsource: externalize formerly internal business functions to other business entities. The difference however is that mass collaboration relies on free individual agents to come together and cooperate to improve a given operation or solve a problem, instead of an organized business body brought into being specifically for a unique function. This kind of outsourcing is also referred to as crowd sourcing, to reflect this difference.

David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. He specializes in the study of contemporary media audiences, everyday digital media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression. He graduated from the University of York in Sociology in 1992. He then took his PhD and taught at the University of Leeds from 1993 to 2002. He was then appointed Professor of Media and Audiences at Bournemouth University. In 2006 he joined the School of Media and Communications. Gauntlett's critique of media 'effects' studies sparked controversy in 1995. He slammed the effects model saying the following things:

- The model tackles social problems backwards

- It treats children as inadequate

- Assumptions within the effects model are characterised by barely-concealed conservative ideology

- Inadequately defines its own objects of study

- Often based on artificial studies

- Often based on studies with misapplied methodology

- Selective in its criticism of media depictions of violence

- Assumes superiority to the masses

- Makes no attempt to understand the meanings of the media

- Not grounded in theory

Since then he has published a number of books and research on the role of popular media in people's lives. In particular he has focused on the way in which digital media is changing the experience of media in general. Since the late 1990's, he has produced the website Theory.org.uk. In 2007, Gauntlett published a notable article about Media Studies 2.0.

In 2008 Gauntlett proposed 'the Make and Connect Agenda', an attempt to rethink audience studies in the context of media users as producers, as well as consumers of media material. This argues that there is a shift from a 'sit-back-and-be-told culture' to a 'making-and-doing culture', and that harnessing creativity in both Web 2.0 and in other everyday creative activities will play a role in tackling environmental problems. These ideas are developed further in 'Making is Connecting'.

Facebook vs Twitter dermographics

Youtube and facebook

Youtube and its social impact:

Youtube was the first easy way for viewers to post videos onto the internet, making it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to post a video that a worldwide audience could watch within a few minutes. An early example of the social impact of YouTube was the success of "The Bus Uncle" video in 2006 - a heated conversation between a youth and an older man on a bus in Hong Kong, and was discussed widely in the mainstream media Another YouTube video to receive extensive coverage is "Guitar" - a performance of Pachelbel's Canon on an electric guitar. After it received millions of views, The New York Times revealed the guitarist to be Lim Jeong-hyun, a 23-year-old from South Korea who had recorded the track in his bedroom. Charlie Bit My Finger is a viral video famous for formerly being the most viewed YouTube video of all time. It had over 245 million hits as of November 2010 - two brothers with one-year-old Charlie biting the finger of his brother Harry, aged three.In Time's list of YouTube's 50 greatest viral videos of all time, "Charlie Bit My Finger" was ranked at number one.

Facebook and it's social impact:
Facebook has become one of the leading social networking sites on the Internet today. It is used by millions of people around the world, such as high school students, college students, family members and friends, all using this tool to simply keep in touch with one another. Other people, however, have come to use Facebook for business purposes. It is simply a multi billion-dollar organization that has affected the way people communicate today. It is apparent that Facebook has such an eminent control over its users; nevertheless it is the user who must determine whether this is a good or bad control.
In many ways this program could be considered technologically advanced compared to some competitors such as Myspace. The applications that are permitted within Facebook continue to improve as well as add up. Facebook is simply a way for those to connect to others. This search can be as limited as the user permits, however it enables you to remain close to friends you saw last week or those you have not been given the opportunity to speak with for several years.

Cultural Inversion

Cultural inversion refers to the switch from the communities in the outside world to the communities over the internet. It is the collapse of normal social life, in where the internet's communities such as facebook, msn, twitter and myspace take over. It is also the idea that while someone is alone in their house on their computer, they are actually only a click away from talking to anyone. Its is kind of the opposite of the phrase "so close and yet so far".

Mash-ups
A video mash-up is the combination of multiple sources of video—which usually have no relation with each other—into a derivative work, often lampooning its component sources or another text. Many mash-up videos are humorous movie trailer parodies, a later genre of mash-ups gaining much popularity. To the extent that mash-ups are 'trans formative' of original content, they may find protection from copyright claims under the "fair use doctrine of copyright law."

Parodies
A parody (also called send-up, spoof or lampoon), in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or make fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, "parody is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice." Often, the most satisfying element of a good parody is seeing others mistake it for the genuine article.

Participation videos:
The public are involved
This is also commercial media exploiting Youtube, as T-Mobile has it's own channel and know that people will want to see their adverts as they are different.