Comments for Digital Media @ CoLab

Comment on the “social media generation” at the polls by carly

carly — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:22:27 +0000

Yeah, the issue of journalism as raw material I think is definitely central. Often the best of these videos incorporate material from literally dozens of television newscasts, which demonstrates a significant level of engagement. Additionally, pieces often assume a fairly informed/sophisticated viewing audience — in most cases, the joke just isn’t funny unless you’re at least moderately well-informed in the first place.

Comment on the “social media generation” at the polls by riddle

riddle — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:48:26 +0000

Carly, interesting post. I wonder whether there are content differences between what people get through traditional gatekeepers vs. what they get through their social networks.

My hunch is that the network places greater emphasis on entertainment value than “straight” news organizations do, particularly the print media: more dessert and fewer vegetables. I suspect people are also more likely to circulate items with an overt point of view than those taking the traditional journalistic stance of neutrality.

Finally, I think that the emerging ecosystem takes professional journalism for granted as a source of raw material. If you look at the blog entries, YouTube videos and op-ed pieces being circulated on current events, you’ll find that they are usually responses to a straight news story of some kind. If the much-discussed threats to traditional journalism significantly erode coverage of local, national and international news, the apparent diversity of grassroots participatory media may end up with people actually discussing fewer and fewer topics.

I wonder whether the situation is similar in Europe? Is there significant involvement of social network systems in European electoral politics? What about the role of European political bloggers?

Comment on Collaboration in international communities by riddle

riddle — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:07:54 +0000

Update: the panel went off as planned and a good time was had by all (thanks, Ana!)

My presentation is available online: http://www.prentissriddle.com/papers/riddle-2008-sxsw-CulturalModels.pdf

And the podcast can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/2tzw8u

Comment on Collaboration in international communities by riddle

riddle — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:28:23 +0000

Ana has asked me to post a bit about what I plan to cover in my talk.

My main point is a pretty simple one. I like to see some give and take on a SXSW panel, so for the sake of discussion I am going to make the argument that reliance on cultural models is dangerous. My inclination is to drop the models as quickly and possible and go to actual users and data, and secondarily to informants who have close experience with actual users, in order to focus on “ground truth” rather than cultural generalities.

It’s true that we all approach a user community with preconceptions, and being aware of the models we are using can both expose our hidden assumptions and help us ask the right questions. So if the model (whether a formal one like Hofstede’s cultural dimensions or an informal one like cultural stereotypes) says that we should expect behavior X and constraint Y from a given community, some of my first questions to the users and to the data would be intended to test our expectations for X and Y.

It should be fun to see how my fellow panelists respond to that friendly provocation! :-) See you there.