Community+and+Public+Sphere

====We can use this page to post links related to community on the web and/or how the web is a new kind of public sphere. This may be a page that has links about democracy and politics and the use of technology in these areas. For example, how has Web 2.0 influenced the democratic process? Or what is a web based community?====

Matt Elkins In this journal written by H. Copes and J. Williams, they discuss how people's attitudes towards abstinece can be affectd by subculture in online forums. they identify five main affirmation techniques such as acknowlegement of responsibility, injury, or victims, the discounting of condemers, or reference to priority relationships. One example that is used is a technique that actors use to keep themselves with a positive self-image so that they are able to perform at their top ability on stage or film called neutralization. " neutralization theory can be viewed as a theory of both narrative sense-making and identity construction" (Williams/Copes). They go on to explain that people tend to construct their identites to follow their carrer choice. Wherein people who have deviant careers must take on a deviant identity to function in their world. this article is very helpful if you are doing research on identity and how it is effected by whatever subculture a person is involved in.

Copes, Heith, and J. Patrick Williams. "Techniques of affirmation: deiant behavior, moral behavior, and subcultural identity." //Routledge// (2007): 247-72. Print.

Kara Hasaka

In the journal article made by Charles Soukop, he analyzes certain “fan sites” and the fascination our culture has with movie stars, musician, athletes, etc. otherwise known as “celebrities." One feature I found to be particularly fascinating is the light he sheds on the people who run these fan sites. He mentions that, for the most part, the people creating and running these sites acquire no financial gain from the time they put into the sites; it is merely their “day job.” Soukop then continues to discuss exactly how wise time we devote to these sites is. Soukop elaborates, “ Further, when devoting hours to creating a Web site, a Web site that literally could emphasize any topic or issue, thousands of Internet users choose to design a Web site devoted to a celebrity” (Soukop). He then goes on a detailed description of the complex processes of identification involved in these fan sites.

Soukop, Charles. “ Hitching a Ride on a Star: Celebrity,Fandom, and Identification on the World Wide Web.” //Southern Communication Journal// 71.4 (2006): 319-337. Print. 23 October 2009. [|Hitching a Ride on a Star: Celebrity, Fandom, and Identification on the World Wide Web] Gabriela Bueno The article I read this week is named “Everybody is a movie critic: New websites and online readers chime in.” This article is very relevant to my topic because it is about the film industry. The article is about some of the film critics in the movie industry. Many of the critics have been laid off due to poorly written reviews that make the box office. Since know the internet is so readily available for everyone people go to sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic and write their own reviews based on movies they watched or read ones that already have been posted. “Rotten Tomatoes, which get about four million visitors a month” (Cieply) is a fast growing movie rating site. The score movies from a scale 1 to 100, sixty and above is fresh and below that is rotten. This is good for the people but not so good compared to all the newspaper critics that have been dropped or have reassigned. The article says there has been a movie city update on the last 121 critics left in Hollywood, but according to research done by market cast people who go to the theater 12 or more times a year about 48 percent of them are influenced by reviews to some extent. Rotten Tomatoes has changed film criticism the “web now has invigorated criticism as an activity while undermining it as a profession’’ (Cieply). Instead of people waiting around for professional reviews they now can access them on the web quickly and by people who do it by interest not because it is their job, that may help they be influenced a little more to go watch the film. I think anyone can use this article if they are interested in the influence of reviews written by ordinary people. Works Cited: Cieply, Michael. “Everybody's a Movie Critic: New Web Sites and Online Readers Chime In” Lexis Nexis Academic. New York Times, 13 June. 2009. Web. 21. June. 2009.

This video explains really well how Craigslist allows anyone with access to the internet to buy or sell anything to anyone, and no one has to have a membership to do this. The way that Craigslist is able to do this is by charging posting fees for certain ads such as real estate, job offers, and even personal dating ads. What is interesting about these online businesses is that they don’t run on a solid business plan. In fact, they are unable to create a business plan because the web is constantly changing and it is really the users that update the contents of the site. This is really important because it allows a business like Craigslist or eBay to grow incredibly fast if it becomes popular enough. The video also explains how Craigslist is creating a new and faster way of trading among communities, and how people can even have the site send them updates to their computer about listings online so that everyone is always up to date on everything they are looking for. At the beginning of the video it says, “Craigslist is a place to find everything for everyone”. What the video maker is trying to say is that web 2.0 is not only changing the way that people communicate online through social sites, but it is also changing the way we do many other things such as buying and selling things, buying a house or even dating. This video made me ask the question “How have we changed the way that people do business over the past few years as the internet has developed?” I thought it was interesting to see how Craigslist has created such an open and user-friendly marketplace that can be used from almost anywhere by anybody with an internet connection. I’m also wondering if there is any black market trading or other illegal activity being conducted through Craigslist because it is such an open marketplace, and it can’t all be monitored all the time. This video is really straight forward and explains the concept really well with easy stick figure illustrations that help a lot. The thing that I’d like to know more about is the effect that Craigslist is having on newspapers and magazines that rely on ads being posted to generate a large portion of their income. This could maybe lead to a large decrease in the amount of actual paper advertising that is published in the next few years. Overall this article is really useful if you are doing research on internet trading or social networks or web advertising. - **//Matt Elkins//** [|Craigslist Video]

[|mmonoya6]

Megan Montoya Section 2 September 11, 2009 It’s fascinating to see that not only do normal, everyday people use social networking, but so do working professionals. It has been researched that IT professionals use social networking to do business as well as research business. “About more than two-thirds of IT professionals on a Network World reader panel, and while personal use of these tools is common, IT professionals spend more time on social networking sites for business reasons than for play.” Most people are not aware that professionals are using it in the work area to contact co-workers and other business professionals. "It's a perception that's really not out there broadly. I think this data will shock people" says Tom Austin, one of the researchers of social networking. The three popular networking sites used by IT professionals recently are MySpace, face book, and Slashdot. Professionals who are looking to gain in the business world will use these social network sites, for example, people will use you tube to watch and learn new technology programs or other technological things in order to get ahead in their career. Tom Austin is doing a similar research to see if there are companies who require their employees to use these social networking tools, especially those who are in large companies where meeting everyone is not possible. Tom says that management should be careful about their employees using the networking system but use it to the best of the company. As Tom had said earlier about getting companies to use it for communication he did find a company whose manager found out they were using face book because the company didn’t offer a program to be able to get hold of other employees if need to quickly. As seen here social networking is not just something used for people to use to get to know the world but used professionally to get ahead in the world. []

Matt Elkins September 18, 2009 Myspace and other sites tha allow free music streaming have really affected the way that the music industry does business. Record companies have been put out of business by the sharing of music online for free because their entire way of making money is to sell music as a third party distributor. Even iTunes, the leader in online music, is struggling to make deals with record labels just to keep their head above water in the online music industry. That is generally what this article is about. It's really interesting to see the types of deals that major businesses are trying to make withh record labels such as phones that come with unlimited music downloads in exchange for a certain percentage of every device sold. the world of music is changing and it will be interesting to see what the industry will look like in 10-20 years. [|Music Online]

Link to Wikipedia with an overview of "Public Sphere": [|Public Sphere on Wikipedia]

Link to video about Networks and their role from //Seed Magazine//:[|Seed Magazine]

Link to interesting excerpt from a book that researches cyberactivism: [|Cyberactivism]

Link to Global Voices, a site that culls together conversations on the web about global issues and activism. You can search by topic: [|Global Voices]