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SOC250 Group Presentation: Mediated Identity and Interaction
SOC250 Group Presentation: Mediated Identity and Interaction
SOC250 Group Presentation: Mediated Identity and Interaction
Overview:
Introduction Micro Online: Identity
Introduction:
Mediation:
Mediation refers to what media do, and to what we do with the media. It is a term that defines the media, both the media of mass communication (radio, television, the world wide web, but also the press) and the media of interpersonal communication (fixed and mobile telephony, e-mail, but also the letter), as actively creating a symbolic and cultural space in which meanings are created and communicated beyond the constraints of the face to face, and which is becoming increasingly significant for the conduct of public, institutional and private life. Readers, viewers and audiences are part of this process of mediation, because they continue the work of the media in the ways they respond to, extend and further communicate what they see and hear on the worlds multitude of screens and speakers (Silverstone, 2006).
Example One:
...think about a new album by your favourite artist. It is not just the sound of a few musicians playing together in a studio. Instead, the reality of the sound that they might make has been mediated before it reaches you. Engineers and producers have re-modeled the sound and artists have packaged the album. Newspapers and magazines have reported the group and created a context for the album so that most people probably had an opinion about it before it came out.
Example Two:
If you ever go to see a comedy show recorded for the television, you will see the process of mediation in action. What might end up as a half hour broadcast, will be recorded over an entire evening jokes that might seem spontaneous when watched on the TV will have been endlessly repeated until just right. The studio audience will have been trained into laughing in exactly the right way by warm up men and the text that finally reaches the public will also be given context by use of soundtrack music and computer graphics.
CMC can take place over local area networks (LANs) or over the Internet. Internet CMC, as well as allowing for global communication, also provides for the added dimension of hypertext links to sites on the www, and to email addresses.
Text messaging
Blogs Social Networking Sites: -Content Centric -User Centric
Thx 4 yr txt
Absence of capitalization (even with pronoun I and proper names) I got your email. ill be over later on in the day
Use of "in"-terms and abbreviations (BTW, ROTFL, PTB) BTW have you heard an update on the continuing saga?
Message-comment structures in e-mail, etc. Have just had your payslip and returned tax card. Oh goody. Hypertext (in the WWW)
capitalization ("shouting")
Instead of using it as a control key you have to do two keypresses :( Why not join the most exciting thing since Sues hedgehog followed Tim round the building :)
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCiY1y3uJ3o
Symbolic Interactionism:
The three fundamental elements of the looking glass self are: -Imagination of appearance to the other person -Imagination of their judgement of that appearance -Some sort of self feeling, such as pride or shame (Scheff, 2005). I/Me couplet
Dramaturgy:
The self strives to convey an identity consistent with the expectations formed by the audience and with the situation or stage that frames the interaction (p.96) (Robinson, 2005). Frontstage/backstage Given/given off
Online Identity:
..cyberself-ing offers a fresh slate for MUDders to create new online identities (p.97) (Trukle, 1995). ..the range of acceptable behaviour and expression in MUD environments far surpasses that in the offline world (Wertheim, 1999).
Trolling:
Discussion Question:
Goffmans extended metaphor of dramaturgy, expressions given, and expressions given off remain salient for he cyberself. Online expressions are still given and given off through text; front stages and backstages are critical to framing cyberinteractions. Thus, interaction in cyberspace perpetuates the same self-ing that exists in the offline world (p.107-108) (Robinson, 2007). Is the process of self-ing is the same both in cyberspace and in the offline world? Why or why not?
Backstage with the Knowledge Boys and Girls: Goffman and Distributed Agency in an Organic Online Community
Qualitative research of Knowledge Boys and Girls Organic Online Learning Community (OOLC) named CabbieCall Learners studying to become Cabbies No instructor or teacher
Learners who are part of OOLCs therefore control almost every aspect of their own online spaces, as well as what takes place within them. The implications of this are that OOLCs are able to serve members unaddressed needs in ways that top-down externally controlled groups might not (p.308) (Ross, 2007).
Regions
Goffman describes regions as venues for performances. Region boundaries are more precisely sense-boundaries, not necessarily physical boundaries (p.314) (Ross, 2007).
Frontstage
Each frontstage creates the possibility of and necessity for its own backstage through its singularities. (p.315) (Ross, 2007) Online virtual space as back-region created/enabled through the existence of the frontstage Cyberspace back-region exists because it is in specific reference to the front stage
Goffman describes, it is a FR that allows a BR to be conjured as its opposite entity. Backstages are unique to and joined to specific frontstages and create the opportunities to critique them in their particularities (p.315) (Ross, 2007).
Back-Region
The online community BR becomes a sanctuary of sorts for taking social and academic risks, one where potential adverse consequences are few and benefits are legion (p.307) (Ross, 2007). People are protected by anonymity and pseudonyms Use of inclusive and esoteric language can disguise online communication
Language and pseudonymity prevent intrusion into the back-region Works to exclude uninformed outsiders Allows for benchmarking behaviour Allows learners to test their knowledge Allows members to use be open, honest, and use commonly inappropriate, blunt, vulgar talk without fear of personal consequences
Discussion Question:
Goffman notes that by invoking a backstage style, individuals can transform any region into a backstage (p.128), especially when the talk in this place makes explicit or implicit reference to activities in the FR. This can be true even if there is only a symbolic or metaphorical disconnect between the FR and the BR, and there does not need to be any sort of official designation of a space as a BR in order for it to be such (p.315) (Ross, 2007). Do you agree that the CabbieCall OOLC is a backregion?
Discussion Question:
Online learning communities or OOLCs have been shown to be significantly efficient learning tools. Which do you think is a more effective learning environment: University or OOLC? Why?
Bibliography:
Barnett, C, Rose, G & Robinson, J (2006), A Demanding World, Milton Keynes, Open University Worldwide. Goffman, E (1971), Performances in Goffman, E, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Harmondsworth, Penguin. Joinson, A & Dietz-Uhler, B (2002), Explanations for the perpetration of and reactions to deception in a virtual community, Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 275 289. Ooi, V (2002), Aspects of computer-mediated communication for research in corpus linguistics in Peters, P, Collins, P & Smith, A (Ed), New Frontiers of Corpus Research, Amsterdam, Rodopi. Roberts, B (2006), Symbolic interactionism 2: developments in Roberts, B, Micro Social Theory, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. Robinson, L (2005), The cyberself: the self-ing project goes online, symbolic interactionism in the digital age, New Media Society, Vol. 9, No. 93, pp. 93 110. Ross, D (2007), Backstage with the knowledge boys and girls: Goffman and distributed agency in an organic online community, Organizational Studies, Vol. 28, No. 307, pp. 307 325. Scheff, T (2005), Looking-glass self: Goffman as symbolic interactionist, Symbolic Interactionism, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 147 166. Turkle, S (1995), Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet, New York, Simon and Schuster. Wertheim, M (1999), The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet, New York, Norton.