推特的热门话题的英国作业

 

在几周内,苏珊大妈一直占据在Twitter的热门话题上。Twitter的数据已经显示,苏珊•波伊尔在当前时间是最新事件或突发新闻。一个令人惊异的天才,凭借在YouTube上一个仅仅15分钟的英国达人秀视频就登上了最受欢迎排行榜。就在苏珊•波伊尔的前一周,《我曾有梦》被放在YouTube网站上来自世界各地超过3500万人称赞她的演唱。确实,这个视频比在SNS上专门为市场大品牌设计的其他视频取得了更大的成功。许多人观看、评论、分享或谈论她美丽的声音无论她外表如何。

 

他们是关于一些特别的视频,值得指出一个不可避免的事实:YouTube有能力去爆出下一个大事件。人们观看、评论和共享视频,因为其内容很好。苏珊•波伊尔的表现是很好的内容,这就是为什么它能在线传播如此之快。现在问题出现了,为什么大家觉得它好-答案各种各样-因为她是一个好歌手,因为她的表现令人惊奇或者因为在她唱到高潮之前评委观众的态度会因为她的外貌而产生偏见。

Over a couple of weeks, Susan Boyle has been pegged at the top of the trending topic of Twitter. Twitter's barometer has been popping, Susan boyle as the most current event or the breaking news of the current time. An amazing talent, who ascended the throne of popularity in just fifteen minute with a video on You Tube from Britain's got talent. Its was just a week before Susan Boyle, I dreamed a dream was posted on You tube and has got more than 35 million people acclaiming her singing all over the world. Indeed, the video has achieved much greater success than many other videos designed specially to market big brands on SNS. Many people have viewed, commented on, shared or talked about her beautiful voice irrespective of her looks.

 

Their is something about the video so special and it's worth pointing to an inevitable truth: YouTube has the power to break the next big thing. People viewed, commented and shared the video because the content is good. Susan Boyle's performance is good content, and that's why it has spread so quickly online. Now the question arises, why people think its good - the answer vary - because she is a good singer which she is, because her performance is a surprise(not expected from an old na�ve) or because the attitude of the judges before she sings highlights the way human beings can make prejudices based on appearance(Human psychology).

 

Another interesting thing about Susan Boyle video is the way it got distributed. The first people to pick the story were bloggers, embedding the video into their blogs. This started linking it onto with friends on SNS, such as Face book and Twitter and that's how Susan Boyle was everywhere.

 

The proliferation of shared content online means there is more to choose from and more to enjoy. The biggest characteristic of online content is its pervasiveness and that makes probably easier for us to share. So Susan is not only a good singer, but teaches us a lot about social media.

 

Social network sites supports a wide array of everyday practices and much of what takes place in these environments parallels longstanding community practices around TV/network channel content. At the same time, the mediated nature of these digital environments inflects everyday practices in new ways and widespread community engagement with the TV/network channel content has reshaped certain aspects of social media.

 

我的计划-My project

 

My project examines 1) social and technical capital on social media 2) kinds of TV/network channel content and community formation on SNS 3) How SNS direct mass consumption of TV content on SNS 4) the benefits and detriments of social media.

 

Though in general, my work analyze, the rise of web based social networks and simultaneous rise of community video sites online, such as Facebook, twitter and many others. I try to analyze how groups (communities) from the core structure to social networked publics and how social publics collaborate and facilitate social behavior around videos on SNS. Video connects people from global to social level, like You Tube can be said as the new social culture which has all forms of video expression. The technical and the social capital restored by social media is socially interesting but can become quite technologically boring and hence its evolution is reshaped by the users everyday. I focused on four set of relations that play a dominant role in social media which are participation, customization, co-ordination and visualization in relation to videos. I examined how communities' sociotechnical practices supported and complicated all three sets of relation on SNS. I also began to recognize some of the core features of network/Tv channel content(searchabilty, exclusitivity, identity and persistence) which form the basis to hunt for a kind of content which leads to a set of dynamics(creation, archiving and sharing).While these properties and dynamics gives a little idea of the core practices followed by communities online, but it certainly does reshape the online environment and play an important role in creating, archiving and sharing the available online TV content. Social media has brought every medium the next door, creating users as the producers and the consumers.

 

Social networking sites like Joost, YouTube and Hulu poses social networking features like program ratings, "favorites" lists, discussion forums, and chat sessions which leverage and integrated the power of social networking to create a new type of interactive and participative environment. Individuals, who build communities around TV content recommends video to peers, subscribers can stream selected content on a personal page for a shared viewing experience with visitors and "friends."

 

As communities learn to navigate social media, individual practices and collective social norms evolve to account for the infrastructure. To explore and theorize social media, I integrate social science theories concerning everyday practices with a theory of technology. The result is a qualitative analysis of how communities are formed in social media around network/TV channel content making sense of these environments in order to engage in everyday practices.

 

论文组织-Dissertation organization

 

This dissertation is organized around three sets of relations central to social media �participation, customization and visualization in relation to Tv/network channel content across SNS. Chapter 4 examines social and technical capital induced by social media and community formation, Chapter 5 describes mass proliferation of network/TV channel content across SNS and Chapter 6 describes how social network sites shapes and influence content on SNS

 

In each of these chapters, I begin by laying out a relevant theoretical framework before turning to analyze how community formation across SNS around network channel content is affecting TV content and social publics at large.

 

While each analytic chapter in my dissertation addresses a different body of theoretical concerns, three core theoretical frameworks are woven throughout my dissertation: network/TV content, technology and change, and social networked publics.

 

Chapter 2 outlines the case study, a qualitative analysis approach that I took in this project and Chapter 3 provides a historical overview of media landscape which supported the emergence of internet and simultaneously a new media landscape," social media". Appendix 1 provides information on the functional tools and applications for videos available at different SNS which proliferate videos across SNS. Finally, my concluding chapter 7 addresses the implications of my findings and analysis with respect to conceptions of networked publics. The tone of this chapter is intentionally more reflective and less grounded and I offer my views on how I believe my work can be applied.

 

定位公众社交网络-Locating Social networked publics

 

Social networked publics are the networked publics, reorganized by networked technologies. Also, it needs to be understood in context to 1) a social order not through an essential notion of 'the social' but also through the networks of connections between human agents, technologies and objects. 2) The social and cultural entities formed (whether human or non-human) within those networks acquire power, richness and stability for the connections routed in the social publics. Social publics in social networking sites like orkut and face book are like any other publics forming communities on common interest and knowledge. A cluster of individuals (publics) connected through networked technologies, same as publics connected by identity or geography.

 

Castells( 2000) argue information age to be increasingly organized around networks. The new information technology paradigm forms the core to the entire social structure where network constitutes the new social morphology of our societies. (Castells 2000:500) I agree with his framing, but I extend the term further to account for the resultant spaces and collectives that emerge because of these developments.#p#分页标题#e#

 

社交媒体-Social Media

 

Social media is an emerging concept and incorporates online technology and methods through which people share content, personal opinions, swap different perspectives and insights into world issues. The social networked publics are given many names by Clay Shirky(Clay Shirky,2008:20): all variation on the themes such as 'social media', 'social software' and 'social computing' and so on. Though there are some distinctions between the tags but the idea to communicate remains the same. Social media can take different forms from social blogs to wikis, internet forums to video rating and pod cast to bookmaking. Social media networking is integrated across different social networking websites like Bebo, Facebook and other social networking services like plaxo and Mybloglog.

 

Clay shirky describe readers as one media outlet and stresses the way communication happens and that constructs social sense in the society in many ways. He describes media is getting social and innovation is happening anywhere. Social media is supports conversation and groupism.

 

"When we change the way we communicate, we change society. The tools that a society use to create and maintain itself are as central to human life as a hive to bee life. Through the hive is not part of an individual bee, it is a part of colony, both shaped by shaping the life of inhabitants. The hives of social device is a piece of bee information technology that provide a platform literary for the communication and co-ordination that keeps one colony viable.".(as original in Clay Shirky,2008:17)

 

As clay shirky cites Yochai Benkler in the wealth of networks,(Clay Shirky,2008:133) who calls the network as artist and author of wealth of networks, call non market creation group of value 'common based pear production draws attention the way publics feel happy to cooperate without any financial reward. He cites the best example as wikipedia where thrust to edit and communicate is more than to get paid for what skills one poses.

 

Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, defines social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content".( Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein Michael, 2010). Social media is a newly emerging concept so designed which supports and disseminate social interaction on social networks irrespective of who produces it. As Henry jenkins cites( Henry jenkins,2006:26,27)Pierre Levy's notion of Collective Intelligence where he explains knowledge as dispersed across social networks, "Everybody knows something, nobody knows everything, and what is known by any member is accessible to the group on demand".

 

The essence of social media lies in social interaction which facilitate social behavior. But I argue that we might be limiting the definition of social networks to technology, use of electronics and internet. At a point of time pen was or/is a piece of technology, a computer tied to cables as a part of electronics and internet was accessible via computer. But today a pen may not be a technology, a laptop runs with battery and internet is accessible via mobile phone, I phones and many more. Hence definition of social media has to be understood in context to the social software present at a given point of time(which may change time to time). Social media can be labeled as an amalgamation of people and technology over a medium that values social interaction and helps them to communicate and collaborate more effectively.

 

Though the term ' social media', is still evolving and the definition will keep changing pertaining to the medium used by social publics to communicate each other.

 

While social is more of a qualitative judgment, its about human beings and media is used as a tool to send and receive information. It's two-way, more like a conversation around a piece of information, for instance a tag is shared and others tag it, and then individuals in the community talk about it on Twitter, Digg, and FriendFeed.

 

In Wisdom of Crowds (James Surowiecki,2005),Surowiecki talks about the larger than life benefits of technology and the ways in which one create and share meanings are better than before, as they are shaped by diverse group of people who may expertise in different field. In this way the social use of technology is changing the way publics construct and collaborate with multiple forms of media. Surowiecki's book focuses on the collaborative nature of social media, and the benefits provided with the new conduits. Falling back to Marshall McLuhan's "the message is the medium",(Mc luhan 1964) identified social aspects of media and explained the interconnection and inseparability of media and message. David Giles quotes Mc luhan and states " each new medium shape society by its own terms"(Giles, 2003, p. 6)." To form a community technology, media and culture are the critical components linked to each othre. David giles (Giles,2003, p.7) explains the three drivers of change which are mass communication, culture and technology. Such drivers provide the mechanism or medium to create shared meanings. Marshall McLuhan believed that each new medium shaped society, and that the media was simply an "extension of ourselves" (McLuhan, 1964, p.11).

 

Social media as a discipline, signifies the current social networking web that disseminate social interaction between individuals and the communities. An emerging personal norm to satisfy our deep-seated desire to communicate, express and share our opinions which in return build the community and the society. Media build our imaginary, it defines how we make sense of something - it extends across range of activities. For instance, if we speak to people, the way advertisements speak to people, they must have punched our face, Oh "Look at this cool watch I found" (so...you should check it out sometime) and ... "Look at this great watch" (so...you should buy one) are very much the same, but the way its presented changes the meaning. It exemplifies the difference between communication with a for - pay motivation and communication where there is a thrust to share and express.

 

Social media uses "social publics" to create information in a constructive and collaborative manner.

 

Social media can take many different forms which may include text, images, audio, and video. Technologies such as blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs,email, chat, music-sharing, group creation, and voice over IP, to name a few. To cite some examples of social media applications are Yahoo (reference, social networking), Wiki (reference), face book(social networking), orkut (social networking), iTunes (personal music), YouTube & dialymotion(social networking and video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), and Flickr (photo sharing).

 

Social media is, a tool or utility that allows construction and collaboration of the masses to provide customized information that leads to community development and facilitate social behavior.

 

Social media can be seen as a rising distinct principle that requires a unique set of skills and experience.

 

社交网络上的网络/电视频道内容-Network/TV channel content on social network

 

While social element is not new to TV, the concept of watching network/TV channel content on social networking sites are relatively new and engage viewers in a way that integrate TV/network channel content with other communication tools like voice chat, peer ratings and integration with social networking websites.

 

In past, many ethnographic researches have shown that people enjoy watching television as a part of socializing in groups. TV can foster multiple forms of sociability, according to an ethnographic research conducted by (Lora Oehlberg, Nicolas Ducheneaut, James D. Thornton, Robert J. Moore, Eric Nickell: 2006) to study the patterns of interaction on network/TV channel content, they categorized TV sociability : direct (e.g. when chatting with friends and family while watching network channel content) or indirect (e.g. when discussing previously viewed programs). Mc luhan's (1974) idea of "the global village" describes the sense of simultaneity created by the electronic medium(TV & radio), where he portrays an event where TV is ON in living room so as the discussion and the participation of the members in living room about the content. This specific kind of media produces new kind from of involvement and participation which supports Mc luhan's idea of global village in where everybody is present at the same time. Castells, who puts shadow on "culture of real virtuality," in which he explains "we are not living in a global village, but in customized cottages globally produced and locally distributed." (Castells 2000: 370).

 

Kitchen(1998) cites, the outcome of internet which has simultaneously added reception of TV to the interactivity of online relations. (Kitchen,1998:15). Henry Jenkins explains in convergence culture (Henry Jenkins, 2006:26) "television provides fodder for so called water cooler conversations and online forums offer an opportunity for participants to share knowledge and expression." Tv /network channel leverage and integrates the power of social networking to create a new type of interactive, participative and engaging user-directed experience. Jenkins cites young people, forming communities using popular (social) media to expand their collective wisdom and from many types of publics (groups) to interact in unpredictable ways. For instance, he takes us to the secret world of spoiling survivors, where he outlines the impact of reception of TV show "survivors". He analyzes survivors fandom interaction with spoilers of the show calling it "collective intelligence in practice."(Henry Jenkins, 2006:28). Here he explains that one person might not know everything, everyone knows something that can bring some relevance to the discussion and leads to participation. While discussing American Idol (a reality TV show made for audience participation) Jenkins cites participation in such communities not only leads to brand affiliation but empowers a control to assert their demands, which influences the show to move forward.( Henry jenkins:2006:80). Analyzing interactivity and participation jenkins writes, "Interactivity refers to the ways that new technologies have been designed to be more responsive to consumer feedback...Participation, on the other hand, is shaped by the cultural and social protocols" (Henry Jenkins, 2006:137). So, the creators (content producers) decide interactivity, and users (content consumers) may interact with what is given where as participation allows users to become creators and consumers of the content. Hence, in this way both network operators and non network players create and capture value while dramatically changing how consumers experience TV on social networking.#p#分页标题#e#

 

With the rising importance of social media, TV has changed and so as the family room. TV experiencing is changing and replaced by online virtual communities (social publics) accessed by personal devices like mobile phone, I phones etc. Social publics needs to be defined here: social publics can be defined as people forming communities that extend beyond friends and peers, neighborhood, cities, countries, and across the continents. As Natalie Klym and Marie Jose Montpetit cites Robet putman, (Natalie Klym and Marie Jose Montpetit,2008:2) who describes "social", a function of consuming and engaging in amusing activities in public spaces thus leveraging the living room experience. Such a perspective leads to granulation of media space as a result of personalization of media device which moves TV to personal TV, Personal TV to PC, PC to laptops and laptops to I pods and mobile phones. In this way putman's idea of social engagement contribute well to the TV experience on social networks and explains how individualization of technology enables contacts on social media.

 

Many emerging online video service like Hulu and joost integrate social networking features like program ratings, discussion forums, chat sessions and "favorite list" in their offerings to make consumer TV watching experience more interactive and meaningful. Meanwhile, popular Web-based social networks like Facebook, orkut and MySpace have begun embedding video applications into their sites, resulting video distribution platform. The functionality tools of social networking sites allows streamlining of selected content on a personal page for a shared viewing experience with visitors and "friends." In this way, video-oriented social networks transforms into "virtual TV/network channel provider" entertaining the user and the community. The virtual TV/network provider act likes a broadcaster and programs the customer service and follow a process of selection and rating, based on peer and friends selection. In a way it enhance the user experience and create a platform for discussion and participation.

 

As Natalie Klym and Marie Jose Montpetit, states social network to becomes a "virtual operator"( Natalie Klym and Marie Jose Montpetit,2008:7) performing a customized and personalized programming habits based on what a user or a community may like. For example, you tube automatically share an individual ratings, favorites, and more on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Reader with YouTube Autoshare. (you tube).

 

YouTube have grown accustomed to watch video on personal devices. Personal devices are paired and networked and results in a global virtual community, where every individual is interacting with every other. In this sense, personal devices and its personalization can be viewed as the foundation of new way to access TV content.

 

Though still at early stage, but this new frontier of TV is evolving at a very faster pace and needs to be researched more.

 

公众网络-Networked publics

 

Networks has become the dominant cultural logic of the society. As Castells describes a network society, to be a society which is organized around social (castells, 2000: 495)networks which process and mange information through information technology networks. The idea of the network society is related to, but goes beyond, the very notion of the information society, which stresses on the growing size and importance of information flows in the society(Webster, 2006) and to emphasize the structure of advanced societies in terms of a complex of interlinked and interdependent networks (Berkowitz and Wellman, 1988; Castells,1996). Castells network logic is besides information, pervasiveness, flexibility, and convergence that form the core feature of the information technology paradigm (2000a: 69ff).

 

"As an historical trend, dominant functions and processes in the Information Age are increasingly organized around networks. Networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture" (as original Castells' 2000: 500).

 

Castells' argues that it is not purely the innovations and technology that defines social societies, but social, cultural, economical and political factors play an important role in shaping the society. The Space of Flows plays an important role in Castells' vision of the network society, defined by hubs where these networks crisscross and communication takes place.

 

Castells points out that the network should be seen as a part of bipolar opposition between the Net and the self, in which individuals try to affirm their identities in a rapidly changing world. (Castells,2004:55) This identifies formation of networks which are simultaneously physical and virtual, filled with individuals who both produce and consume the information in the technological paradigm. But, as Deleuze (Gilles Deleuze 1990:177-182) presciently describe" today the self is not so much constituted by any notion of identity but rather is reduced to "dividuals." Instead of individuals, publics are constituted in multiple micro-publics which are simultaneously overlapping on telecocons, and sharing telespace with inmates and many others. Castells ideas centralize on self generation, self direction and self selection which do not support the idea of many to many and hence can not be called as "mass communication". It's more one to many than many to many creating loopholes in the networked publics. Networked publics communicate in communities and other than individuals, its communities which build the hive of networks and form networked publics.

 

According to network theory, a node's relationship to other different networks is more important than its own uniqueness. As Gummesson describes; Nodes, hubs (highly connected nodes), links and interaction are the basic elements of all networks. (E. Gummesson,2000). He asserts nodes as specific way of creating network that applies the elements and properties in an individual way like that of a centralized network (one hub), the decentralized network (many hubs) and the distributed network (no hub) referring to the topology of networks that forms the network landscape which can also be termed as clusters. Clusters are dense groupings of nodes and links under which everybody can easily reach to everybody else. Yochai Benkler cites nodes as, "that distributes architecture with multidirectional connections among all nodes in the networked information environment".( Yochai Benkler,2006:36) where the networks are dominated by a few key nodes in a hub and are connected to each other, each node is equal to all others and can reach to each other. Networks are open structures which can be expand to unlimited boundaries, integrate new nodes as long as they are able to communicate with the network. (Castells, 1996: 470-71).

 

Networks were traditionally perceived as structures but they are much more than a structure, they are the processes going on in the structures and the processes of changing the structures. And this change characterize a new form of dynamics in the network that has multiple nodes interconnecting networks. As both a space and a network of people, networked publics are fundamentally cluster of nodes, the connection between nodes and the way those nodes link people in new ways and form clusters/communities. Networked publics are just not social publics networked together, but they are publics which are transformed by social networks and its properties and potential. As a network, networked publics are connected through nodes and are regulated by its properties. These properties transform the social publics and introduce new possible practice, configure the structure of social networked publics and shape the interaction in communities.

 

技术和改变-Technology and change

 

Technology and change are deeply interwoven in my studies and I believe that change marks the technology revolution. I take a social constructivist approach with respect to technology, social media and networked publics, and the change that occurs in relation to technology.