Showing papers on "Digital media published in 2011"

Tagging Digital Media

Abstract: A method for tagging digital media is described. The method includes selecting a digital media and selecting region within the digital media. The method may further include associating a person or entity with the selected region and sending a notification of the association the person or entity or a different person or entity. The method may further include sending advertising with the notification.

Parental Mediation Theory for the Digital Age

Abstract: This article describes the theory of parental mediation, which has evolved to consider how parents utilize interpersonal communication to mitigate the negative effects that they believe communication media have on their children. I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this theory as employed in the sociopsychologically rooted media effects literature as well as sociocultural ethnographic research on family media uses. To account for the emotional work that digital media have introduced into contemporary family life, I review interpersonal communication scholarship based on sociologist A. R. Hochschild's (1977, 1989) work on emotions, and suggest L. Vygotsky's (1978) social development theory as a means of rethinking the role of children's agency in the interactions between parents and children that new media affords. The article concludes by suggesting that in addition to the strategies of active, restrictive, and co-viewing as parental mediation strategies, future research needs to consider the emergent strategy of participatory learning that involves parents and children interacting together with and through digital media.

Digital Media and the Personalization of Collective Action : Social Technology and the Organization of Protests against the Global Economic Crisis

Abstract: Changes related to globalization have resulted in the growing separation of individuals in late modern societies from traditional bases of social solidarity such as parties, churches, and other mas ...

The History of Social Media and its Impact on Business

Abstract: IntroductionThis paper examines the history of social media. The plan was to approach this work from it historical development to its modern day perspective. The authors also looked at the definition of social media, its concept and application in the 21st century. In the decade of information systems, social media has played a vital role in transforming business and communications. We believe that the fastest way to grow a business entity is through social media and networking. In 2000, many social networking sites emerged to ease interaction with people that share common interest in music, education, movies and so on. This also affected how businesses conducted their transactions and advertisements, and also their products.It is difficult to study social media without encountering the phrase social networking. Therefore, both concepts are discussed in this article. The Merriam- Webster dictionary defines social media as "forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)." The same source defines networking as "the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions; specifically: the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business."There are many ideas about the first occurrence of social media. "Throughout much of human history, we've developed technologies that make it easier for us to communicate with each other" (Carton, 2009). The earliest information encountered by the writers of this article referred to 1792 and the use of the telegraph to transmit and receive messages over long distances (Ritholz, 2010). Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist known by many as the father of sociology, and Ferdinand Tonnies, a German sociologist, are considered pioneers of social networks during the late 1 800s. Tonnies believed that social groups could exist because members shared values and beliefs or because shared conflict. His theory dealt with the social contract conceptions of society. Durkheim combined empirical research with sociological theory. Also, in the late 1800s, the radio and telephone were used for social interaction, albeit one-way with the radio (Rimskii, 20 11, Wren, 2004).Social networks have evolved over the years to the modern-day variety which uses digital media. However, the social media isn't that new. In addition, it didn't start with the computer but instead the telephone. During the 1950s, phone phreaking, the term used for the rogue searching of the telephone network, began. This process was accomplished through the use of homemade electronic devices that facilitated unauthorized access to the telephone system to make free calls. Phreaks were able to find telephone company test lines and conference circuits to complete their task. Brett Borders stated phreaks were able to hack into corporate unused voice mailboxes to host the first blogs and podcasts (Borders, 2010).During the 1960s, the public saw the advent of email (Borders, 2010). However, the internet was not available to the public until 1991. Email was originally a method to exchange messages from one computer to another, but both computers were required to be online. Today, email servers will accept and store messages which allow recipients to access the email at their convenience. In 1969, ARPANET, created by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a U.S. government agency, was developed. ARPANET was an "early network of time-sharing computers that formed the basis of the internet." CompuServe, the third development of the 1960s, was also created in 1969 with a mission to provide time-sharing services by renting time on its computers. With very high fees, this service was too expensive for many (Rimskii, 201 1; Ritholz, 2010).Computer TechnologiesSocial media was further developed during the 1970s. …

The Arab Spring| Digital Media in the Egyptian Revolution: Descriptive Analysis from the Tahrir Data Set

Abstract: The Tahrir Data Project gathers empirical data on media use during the Egyptian revolution of January and February 2011. The Project consists of three data sets documenting media use by protesters, by coordinators, and by transnational audiences. Preliminary descriptive analysis of the data suggests that social media use was not dominant in demonstrations, but may have played an important role in connecting and motivating protesters. Metrics for media use by protesters indicate a strong presence of activities and characteristics commonly associated with communication in protests to social media and social media users. These metrics, along with preliminary data on coordinator strategies and preliminary analysis of the #jan25 tweet set, suggest an important but complex role played by social media in the Egyptian revolution of 2011. The data and preliminary analysis are presented here, together with a number of research questions for further study.

Following the fashionable friend : the power of social media - weighing publicity effectiveness of blogs versus online magazines

Abstract: This article investigates-and compares-the effects of brand publicity in social and 'traditional' digital media. In an analysis of consumer responses to identical brand publicity in seven popular b ...

Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World

Abstract: Provides an introduction to the new theory of Net Locality and the profound effect on individuals and societies when everything is located or locatable.Describes net locality as an emerging form of location awareness central to all aspects of digital media, from mobile phones, to Google Maps, to location-based social networks and games, such as Foursquare and facebook.Warns of the threats these technologies, such as data surveillance, present to our sense of privacy, while also outlining the opportunities for pro-social developments.Provides a theory of the web in the context of the history of emerging technologies, from GeoCities to GPS, Wi-Fi, Wiki Me, and Google Android.

Alternative and Activist New Media

Abstract: Reviewed by Luke Heemsbergen Polity Press, 2011, 294 pp., 9780745641843, 29.95 (paperback) Lievrouw’s addition to Polity’s Digital Media and Society series offers a well read and written introduction to the socio-political histories, purposes and forms of Alternative and Activist New Media (AANM). It also reiterates the author’s theoretical explanation of mediation while categorising emerging ‘genres’ of new activist/alternative media by their purposes and means. It is this latter genre study that somewhat complicates the means and purposes of the aggregate work.

Re-constructing digital democracy: An outline of four ‘positions’:

Abstract: There is currently a diversity of understandings of digital democracy being deployed within popular commentary, research, policy making, and practical initiative. However, there is a lack of resources clearly outlining this diversity; this article undertakes such an outline. It provides a reconstruction of four digital democracy positions. These four positions are referred to here as liberal-individualist, deliberative, counter-publics, and autonomist Marxist. The delineation of each position draws from critical-interpretative research and has been developed with respect to three elements: the democratic subject assumed, the related conception of democracy promoted, and the associated democratic affordances of digital media technology. The aim is to draw attention to different understandings of what extending democracy through digital media means, and to provide a framework for further examination and evaluation of digital democracy rhetoric and practice.

Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media

Abstract: In this updated second edition, Jason Farman offers a groundbreaking look at how location-aware mobile technologies are radically shifting our sense of identity, community, and place-making practices. Mobile Interface Theory is a foundational book in mobile media studies, with the first edition winning the Book of the Year Award from the Association of Internet Researchers. It explores a range of mobile media practices from interface design to maps, AR/VR, mobile games, performances that use mobile devices, and mobile storytelling projects. Throughout, Farman provides readers with a rich theoretical framework to understand the ever-transforming landscape of mobile media and how they shape our bodily practices in the spaces we move through. This fully updated second edition features updated examples throughout, reflecting the shifts in mobile technology. This is the ideal text for those studying mobile media, social media, digital media, and mobile storytelling.

Theory of Planned Behavior and Ethics Theory in Digital Piracy: An Integrated Model

Abstract: Since digital piracy has posed a significant threat to the development of the software industry and the growth of the digital media industry, it has, for the last decade, held considerable interest for researchers and practitioners. This article will propose an integrated model that combines the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and ethics theory, the two theories that are most often used in digital piracy studies. Data were obtained from university students in China, and the model was examined using the structural equation model (SEM). The results show that moral obligation and justice, derived from ethics theories and TPB variables, such as attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, influence the behavioral intentions of individuals to commit digital piracy. The attitude of individuals toward digital piracy is also found to be influenced by perceived benefits, perceived risk, and habit.

Language and Learning in the Digital Age

Abstract: Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2012/review1.pdf February 2012, Volume 16, Number 1 pp. 30–33 REVIEW OF LANGUAGE AND LEARNING IN THE DIGITAL AGE Language and Learning in the Digital Age James Paul Gee Elisabeth R. Hayes ISBN: 978-0415602778 US $29.95 168 pp. Routledge New York, USA Review by Paul Rama, University of California Irvine Gee and Hayes’ latest work, Language and Learning in the Digital Age, is an informative read dealing with the potential, perils, and implications of digital media. Parallels and comparisons are drawn between oral language, literacy (defined as reading and writing), and digital media, and how these latter two have altered the way we communicate and interact. As leading authorities on games and learning, Gee and Hayes illustrate their arguments with examples from video games, including Second Life and World of Warcraft. These, along with non-game examples such as a cat listserv, “birding” (p. 72), and amateur science, contrast school learning with that found in “passionate affinity spaces” (p. 69), which are argued to be ideal spaces for personally meaningful, situated learning. The authors challenge institutionally valued literacy skills, which have been reinforced in our current school systems. The book’s title describes the content of this work, which succeeds in illustrating how language, which is essential to learning, is once again being shaped, this time by digital media. The introduction lays out the premise of the book, which is that “digital media ‘power up’ or enhance the powers of language, oral and written, just as written language ‘powered up’ or enhanced the powers of oral language” (p.1). In the next two chapters, the authors give an historical account of the relatively new developments of literacy and digital media. Gee and Hayes relate how literacy changed oral language, setting up their historically contextualized account of how digital media (like literacy before it) is reshaping communication. Briefly, they argue that oral language, available to all humans (barring any major impairment), existed for many thousands of years prior to reading and writing (literacy). Oral language is dialogic and flexible, allowing for speakers and hearers to interact to clarify meaning. Rich as we are with oral language, once literacy began to flourish, words once spoken could travel beyond the limitations of time and space. Speakers were no longer required to convey information; however, the intentions of the speaker (writer) could be interpreted in unintended ways. Whereas oral language is highly interactive yet fleeting, and written language permanent yet inflexible, digital media offers a high degree of interactivity, while also possessing the relatively permanent nature of writing. Gee and Hayes explain that “Digital media like (like text messaging, Twitter, and other social media) are bringing back concrete images and experiences, as well as metaphors for understanding the abstract and complex” (p. 12). Language and literacy is being powered up by digital media, resulting in new forms of (digital) literacy. This makes possible the rise of new literacies beyond reading and writing print text, Copyright © 2012, ISSN 1094-3501

Reply to Evgeny Morozov's review of The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam

Abstract: Morozov is absolutely right to point out that other countries—not in the set analyzed in Digital Origins—might reveal different paths toward or away from democratic government. But a quick look at some of the examples shows that they do not directly conflict with my argument that the proliferation of consumer electronics in countries with an active civil society and limited resource wealth seems to come with democratic consequences. China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela are often offered as examples of how a tough regime can use digital media to oppress their citizens.

User interface to facilitate exchanging files among processor-based devices

Abstract: A first processor-based device (PBD), such as a personal computer functioning as a host and containing digital media files, may share a selected file with a second PBD. Media file-sharing may be facilitated by an automated technique including graphical user interfaces (GUIs). In one embodiment, when a device user wishes to transfer a file to another device, the user hovers the file over a particular desktop icon and drops it, causing it to be automatically transmitted to a corresponding destination. Optionally, in response to hovering, a software program automatically generates a GUI indicating potential destinations. The user then selects a destination, and the system automatically transfers the file to that destination. In another embodiment, media sharing can be initiated from a digital appliance, such as a digital picture frame, and a file can be sent to another PBD, such as another digital picture frame via an intermediary PBD.

Understanding Digital Culture

Abstract: This is more than just another book on Internet studies. Tracing the pervasive influence of 'digital culture' throughout contemporary life, this text integrates socio-economic understandings of the 'information society' with the cultural studies approach to production, use, and consumption of digital media and multimedia. Refreshingly readable and packed with examples from profiling databases and mashups to cybersex and the truth about social networking, Understanding Digital Culture: crosses disciplines to give a balanced account of the social, economic and cultural dimensions of the information society illuminates the increasing importance of mobile, wireless and converged media technologies in everyday life unpacks how the information society is transforming and challenging traditional notions of crime, resistance, war and protest, community, intimacy and belonging charts the changing cultural forms associated with new media and its consumption, including music, gaming, microblogging and online identity illustrates the above through a series of contemporary, in-depth case studies of digital culture. This is the perfect text for students looking for a full account of the information society, virtual cultures, sociology of the Internet and new media.

Digital skills of internet natives: Different forms of digital literacy in a random sample of northern Italian high school students

Abstract: This article outlines the main results and methodological challenges of a large-scale survey on actual digital skills. A test covering three main dimensions of digital literacy (theoretical, operational and evaluation skills) was administered to a random sample of 65 third-year high school classes, producing data on 980 students. Items include knowledge questions, situation-based questions and tasks to be performed online. A Rasch-type model was used to score the results. In agreement with the literature, the sample performed better in operational skills, while showing a particularly poor performance regarding evaluation skills (although for this dimension the test shows reliability issues). Through a robust regression analysis we investigate if a skills divide based on ascriptive differences, gender and family cultural background, exists among the students. It emerges that cultural background has a significant effect, which is stronger on operational skills, while gender shows a more definite impact on t...

Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics

Abstract: This is a study of the material life of information and its devices; of electronic waste in its physical and electronic incarnations; a cultural and material mapping of the spaces where electronics in the form of both hardware and information accumulate, break down, or are stowed away. Where other studies have addressed "digital" technology through a focus on its immateriality or virtual qualities, Gabrys traces the material, spatial, cultural and political infrastructures that enable the emergence and dissolution of these technologies. In the course of her book, she explores five interrelated "spaces" where electronics fall apart: from Silicon Valley to Nasdaq, from containers bound for China to museums and archives that preserve obsolete electronics as cultural artifacts, to the landfill as material repository. Digital Rubbish describes the materiality of electronics from a unique perspective, examining the multiple forms of waste that electronics create as evidence of the resources, labor, and imaginaries that are bundled into these machines. Ranging across studies of media and technology, as well as environments, geography, and design, Jennifer Gabrys draws together the far-reaching material and cultural processes that enable the making and breaking of these technologies.

Media Convergence: Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life

Abstract: This book focuses on how everyday media such as Facebook, iTunes andGoogle can be understood in new ways for the21st centurythrough ideas of convergence.Key chapters explore the development of the internet, the rise of social media and the new opportunities for audiences to create, collaborate upon and share their own media.

The immediacy of online news, the visibility of journalistic processes and a restructuring of journalistic authority:

Abstract: Transparency has been emphasized as a new norm within journalism and has received a great deal of attention. The credo of transparency is openness, and the interactive potential of digital media has been identified as one key element in achieving openness. In this essay it is argued that by exposing previously hidden journalistic processes, the high speed of online news plays a part in this orientation towards transparency in journalism.

Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work

Abstract: The renowned cultural theorist and media designer Anne Balsamo maintains that technology and culture are inseparable; those who engage in technological innovation are designing the cultures of the future. Designing Culture is a call for taking culture seriously in the design and development of innovative technologies. Balsamo contends that the wellspring of technological innovation is the technological imagination, a quality of mind that enables people to think with technology, to transform what is known into what is possible. She describes the technological imagination at work in several multimedia collaborations in which she was involved as a designer or developer. One of these entailed the creation of an interactive documentary for the NGO Forum held in conjunction with the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. (That documentary is included as a DVD in Designing Culture.) Balsamo also recounts the development of the interactive museum exhibit XFR: Experiments in the Future of Reading, created by the group RED (Research in Experimental Documents) at Xerox PARC. She speculates on what it would mean to cultivate imaginations as ingenious in creating new democratic cultural possibilities as they are in creating new kinds of technologies and digital media. Designing Culture is a manifesto for transforming educational programs and developing learning strategies adequate to the task of inspiring culturally attuned technological imaginations.

The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media

Abstract: Digital storytelling uses new media tools and platforms to tell stories. The second wave of digital storytelling started in the 1990s with the rise of popular video production, then progressed in the new century to encompass newer, social media technologies. The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media is the first book that gathers these new, old, and emergent practices in one place, and provides a historical context for these methods. Author Bryan Alexander explains the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling, weaving images, text, audio, video, and music together. Alexander draws upon the latest technologies, insights from the latest scholarship, and his own extensive experience to describe the narrative creation process with personal video, blogs, podcasts, digital imagery, multimedia games, social media, and augmented realityall platforms that offer new pathways for creativity, interactivity, and self-expression.

Digital marketing strategies that Millennials find appealing, motivating, or just annoying

Abstract: With the increasing usage of digital media by consumers, more companies are using digital marketing to reach their target markets. The purpose of this study is to examine various marketing strategies that are commonly used in digital media and ascertain which ones are preferred by Millennials and are effective in influencing behavior. Millennials have been identified as a driving force behind online shopping. While there have been numerous studies about online advertising, there has been little academic research focused on what types of digital marketing strategies are preferred by Millennials and which ones influence their behavior. A survey of 571 Millennials indicated a preference for online coupons and side-panel ads; Millennials do not like pop-up advertising. Graphics are highly effective in grabbing their attention. Millennials will repeatedly visit a website that has competitive prices and good shipping rates. If given an incentive, such as a discount or reward, Millennials will write an online pr...

Domain management for digital media

Abstract: In accordance with the domain management for digital media, a device obtains multiple pieces of protected content from multiple content providers, where two or more of the content providers employ different digital rights management systems. The device also accesses a license server to obtain, for each piece of protected content, a content license that is bound to a domain. The content license permits the device to play back a piece of protected content.

The Duality of Media: A Structurational Theory of Public Attention

Abstract: Digital media offer countless options that compete for a limited supply of public attention. The patterns of use that emerge in this environment have important social implications, yet the factors that shape attendance are not well integrated into a single theoretical model. This article posits such a theory using Giddens’s notion of structuration as an overarching framework. It identifies public measures that distill and report user information as a pivotal mechanism that coordinates and directs the behaviors of both media providers and media users, thus promoting the duality of media. The theory is then used to understand evolving patterns of public attention in the digital media environment.

Media as Material: Information Representations as Material Foundations for Organizational Practice

Abstract: Through a confluence of different disciplinary interests and trajectories, questions of the materiality of digital media and information technologies have recently come into relief. There are several different strains of work under this broad umbrella and it is valuable to distinguish between the varied concerns. This paper has two objectives. First we begin by teasing apart and describing five related ways to conceptualize the materiality of digital goods. Our goal in this is to provide a typology for delineating current streams of research and language for analysis. Second, we unpack one of these conceptions in terms of socio-technical systems and organizational practices. Specifically, we analyze the role of digitization and simulation, or the materiality of digital representation, in order to shed light on how social and organizational systems respond to, create practices around, and develop delineating logics about digitally rendered data.

Mixed source media playback

Abstract: Playlists having media items from more than one source are described. Media items in a first library are mapped to media items from an online media item store. Media items within the playlist that can be found in the first library will be played from the first library, while media items not within the first library will be played from the online media store. By identifying media items present in both libraries and playing them only from the first library, the described method can reduce the royalties needing to be paid by the online media store. Further methods are disclosed for setting limits on the number of media items that can be shared by a second library.

The limits of peer production: Some reminders from Max Weber for the network society

Abstract: In the last few years, a powerful consensus has emerged among scholars of digitally enabled peer production. In this view, digital technologies and social production processes are driving a dramatic democratization of culture and society. Moreover, leading scholars now suggest that these new, hyper-mediated modes of living and working are specifically challenging the hierarchical structures and concentrated power of bureaucracies. This paper first maps the assumptions underlying the new consensus on peer production so as to reveal the sources of its coherence. It then revisits Max Weber’s account of bureaucracy. With Weber in mind, the paper aims to expose analytical weaknesses in the consensus view and offer a new perspective from which to study contemporary digital media.

Digital Material : Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and Technology

Abstract: Three decades of societal and cultural alignment of new media have yielded a host of innovations, trials, and problems, accompanied by versatile popular and academic discourse. New Media Studies crystallized internationally into an established academic discipline, and this begs the question: where do we stand now? Which new questions are emerging now that new media are being taken for granted, and which riddles are still unsolved? Is contemporary digital culture indeed all about 'you', the participating user, or do we still not really understand the digital machinery and how this constitutes us as 'you'? The contributors to the present book, all employed in teaching and researching new media and digital culture, assembled their 'digital material' into an anthology, covering issues ranging from desktop metaphors to Web 2.0 ecosystems, from touch screens to blogging and e-learning, from role-playing games and cybergothic music to wireless dreams. Together the contributions provide a showcase of current research in the field, from what may be called a 'digital-materialist' perspective.