Who Is @_FloridaMan?

MSNBC,The New York Times, WFLA-TV, Reddit and even Wikipedia – these are just some recent articles and news about @_FlordiaMan. Try google search and you will get over 400 million results!

Before its popularization through Twitter, Florida Man had already been all over the Internet. The Florida tag had originally started on Fark, a community website that allows members to comment on a daily batch of news. However, the real boom and Florida Man-ness has begun in January 2013, after the creation of the Twitter feed, followed by the immediate increase in popularity on social media sites like Reddit and Tumblr. The memes typically allude to news stories and articles about unusual and strange crimes or events occurring in Florida. Florida Man tweets consist of news headlines with “Florida Man” at the beginning (EXAMPLE: Florida Man Tries to Walk Out of Store With Chainsaw Stuffed Down His Pants).

@_FloridaMan Twitter feed, who is believed to be the “World’s Worst Superhero”, has over 290,000 followers so far and still remains anonymous! What is more, Florida Man has already found his Florida Woman! @_Flor1daWoman is the only person followed by @_FloridaMan!

I highly recommend checking out Best Florida Man Tweets ranked by @_FloridaMan himself!

Have you wondered how micro-celebrity technique works? Well, now you know! @_FloridaMan is a perfect example of a micro-celebrity! 🙂

Open Source – Connectivity – Low Cost – Versatility – Simple, But Not Too Simple

These are just some of the advantages of ARDUINO! What am I talking about?

Quoting the Arduino team:

“Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.”

To you or me, it’s like a little computer you can program to do things, and it interacts with the world through electronic sensors, lights, and motors. The platform is being built and improved for step-by-learning, building on lessons or sharing codes everyday. In short, non-engineers can bring their crazy ideas to life! You can get sensor data in, write a little bit of code, but not necessarily – you can just cut and paste to get it started!

To summarize: great open-source software for multiple systems, lots of libraries, drivers that work, simple and low cost (what is really important especially for us students)!

So if you want to make a Turn Signal Biking Jacket, Auto Lacing Shoes, a Twitter Mood Light, an EyeWriter or a Mobile Dance Stage, you can! Sounds impossible? Well, it has actually already been made! I just wanted to boost your imagination!

To check out mentioned above projects and many others use the link below:

20 Unbelievable Arduino Projects!

Stil want to know more? Here’s a short documentary made by the Aruduino Team:

Limestone Community News – the Power of Citizen Journalism

Citizen Journalism has become immensely popular over the past few years. When I say ‘citizen journalism’ I mean private individuals doing essentially what professional reporters do – report information. But enough of boring definitions, let’s focus on real life examples!

Let me introduce you to Josh Lynagh, a Mount Gambier resident and a founder of Limestone Community News Facebook page with its 11,000 likes. It is more than 40% of Mount Gambier’s population. Mr. Lynagh describes the page popularity as ‘mind-blowing’. The idea was to comply and publish news from SA police Limestone Coast public news site and emergency services. He soon started receiving messages from locals about community events. He then realized how powerful social media is these days and has begun to post about anything relevant to Limestone Coast Community.

Along with positive feedback, he admits he has fielded heavy criticism from people saying ‘you’re not a journalist’. Dr Vincent O’Donnell, a Media Commentator from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, says the page ‘has the presentation of a legitimate news site but was presenting gossip, not news’. He also claims that ‘the danger of social media pages such as Limestone Coast Community News, is there is no way the reader is able to cross-check for unsubstantiated information’. Fair enough, Dr O’Donell, but isn’t that we, ordinary people, decide what we want to believe in? Isn’t it up to us what we consider to be ‘credible sources’? Doesn’t we have the right to be citizen journalists, especially in our own communities? Josh Lynagh has an authority among Mount Gambier residents and somebody else will be an authority for another community – this is how the world works today.

The Hunger Games ‘Transmedial’ Success

First of all, what does Transmedia Storytelling mean? Henry Jenkins says that “transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience” (p.1). In other words, these are different stories pertaining to the same narrative universe through different media channels, allowing prosumers to take active role in the process of expansion. Still don’t get it? Let’s have a close look into the Hunger Games film series’ transmedia campaign for better understanding:

https://prezi.com/embed/7wqqqfpt1njg/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=1&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0#

Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal

“Good artists copy, great artists steal” – a quote associated with world famous people like a co-founder of Apple Computers Steve Jobs, a Russian composer Igor Stravinsky a Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and an English poet T.S. Eliot. What do they mean by stealing? Well, let me introduce you to remix culture, the age of combining, transforming, and taking inspiration to create something new!

Check out my video blog post:

References:

http://marketingland.com/remix-culture-rethinking-what-we-call-original-content-41791

http://remixtheory.net/?p=1126

And they lived Happily Never After…

 

Saint Hoax  is an anonymous artist  and sociopolitical activist from Middle East. According to Hoax’s website he ‘combines tangible and digital mediums to create beautiful visual lies that tell an ugly truth’. His controversial campaigns have reached media all over the world (American ABC Action News and bustle.com, South African News24 , and BuzzFeed). The artist’s recent domestic violence awareness campaign titled “Happy Never After” consists of four posters that depict Disney princesses: Jasmine, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Ariel, as abuse victims.

The denotations in Hoax’s works are clear. Let’s take Princess Jasmine as an example. This fictional character, who appears in Disney’s animated feature film Aladdin, is usually portrayed as a perfect in every way and very brave woman. Saint Hoax destroys this idealised image and covers Jasmine’s face with bruises and blood. Her black eye sends the strongest message. Also Jasmine’s perfect hair has been ruffled a little bit, but she is still wearing the usual jewellery and crown. After all, she is a princess, but her facial expression does not denote that. Sorrow, helplessness and fear are the feelings we can clearly sense in this picture.

Although the signified, meaning the mental concept of an image, can seem straightforward at first sight, the message is much more complex. Disney’s fairytale is turned into a domestic violence nightmare. Perfect Princess Jasmine became an abuse victim. She suffers like real people do. Her idealised image has been shattered into small pieces.  “The aim of the poster series is to encourage female victims to report their cases in order for the authorities to prevent it from happening again”, Hoax explained on his website. The message is emphasised by the poster’s caption, “When did he stop treating you like a princess?  It’s never too late to put an end to it”. Disney princesses are believed to be ideal females with their “happily ever after” lives. By portraying them as victims of abuse Hoax wants to stress that no woman is safe from domestic violence. What makes this campaign really controversial is people’s emotional attachment to Disney princesses as they are part of many people’s childhoods. This cultural relevance helps to get a message across by relying on shock value. His aim is to voice out the injustice and inequality that would provoke  a debate in a ‘mediated’ public sphere, especially considering his region.

Hoax’s works caused controversy for many different reasons, but as he said in a phone interview with ABC Action News, “if we want to tackle it [domestic violence] in any way we have to shock the audience in order for us to pass the message across”. However, many believe relying on shock value is not the best way to raise awareness among people. Another issue is campaign’s one-sided view as it emphasises physical harm and women. It may appear that mental abuse and male domestic violence victims are less important. However, Saint Hoax is planning on launching a campaign which will recognize victims of any sex and background. This simple, but significant example shows how differently images can be read. It is all about interpretation. We need to remember that a sign consists of a signifier and a signified. In other words, it is not just about what we see, but also what is evoked in our minds.

Drone ‘journalism’ ?

Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary & Thesauru: “The work of collecting, writing, and publishing news stories andarticles in newspapers and magazines or broadcasting them on the radio and television.”

Wikipedia (everybody’s favourite): “Journalism is gathering, processing, and dissemination of news and information related to the news to an audience. (…) The media that journalism uses vary diversely and include: content published via newspapers and magazines (print), television and radio (broadcast), and their digital media versions — news websites and applications.”

American Press Institute: “Journalism is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information. It is also the product of these activities. Journalism can be distinguished from other activities and products by certain identifiable characteristics and practices.”

These are all ‘classical journalism’ definitions. Why classical? Because in the era of digital media and new modes of being a user, participation and content production that come with it, journalists have to change their strategy if they want to maintain their power. Newspapers, magazines, radio and television, including their digital media versions, are not enough for prosumers anymore! And drone journalism is here to rescue them!

Many do not consider drone footages as professional journalism yet (what my meme depicts), but they have been becoming more and more used by journalists over the past few years. There are some limitations like costs and, most of all, legal issues, but it is undoubtedly the future of journalism. We just need to explore how drones can be used in this context and realise how much more access to information they can provide us with.

P.S. Here is a very recent article about ‘drone journalism’ that I really enjoyed reading, you might like it as well:

The brave new world of ‘drone journalism’

Introducing the CUNY Academic Commons!

Locked appliances vs generative platforms – an on-going issue that we are all familiar with, especially with well-known Apple vs Android ‘war’.  In this week’s post I would rather focus on the generative ones as I believe they are the future of our Convergence Culture (unless we want to end up as victims of permission-culture). I did a little research an came across the CUNY Academic Commons. It is an emerging platform opened and closed at the same time. What do I mean by that? If you want to find out listen to my SoundCloud podcast! Enjoy!

Want to know more? Here’s CUNY’s promotional video:

References:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102289985

http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/

http://nyupress.org/books/9780814742952/

Media effects: the Cyberbullying Business

Cyberstalking is becoming more and more frequent among people of all ages (apart from the youngest). The majority of us are aware of its seriousness and know it is considered a crime that can lead to expensive lawsuits. However, in recent years it has become even more common than face-to-face stalking. Cyberstalking is believed to be one of the current anxieties about the media effects.The question is why? Is the media to blame for the increasing number of online offences? It seems like the media’s effort to enhance awareness by variety of commercials, news, movies, including documentaries, just encourage new stalkers to occur and cause the growth of the ‘cyberbullying business’. In result, instead of helping to protect the audience from cyberbullying in general, the media makes viewers more anxious what leads to continually rising numbers of online stalking contraventions.

For the purpose of this blog post by cyberstalking, which is a part of cyberbullying, I mean the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other electronic communications devices to stalk another person. Cyberbullying involves using the Internet to threaten, harass, or intimidate someone against their will. Just because it does not include physical contact with the perpetrator does not mean it can be ignored. The problem is it is not always easy to tell whether the crime was actually committed and is hard to find potential offenders. In other words, it is hard to furnish indispensable evidence. Nonetheless, there is a number of things we can do to protect ourselves. Paradoxically the Internet provides us with heaps of information, tips and pieces of advice when we are in danger of cyberbullying, especially when considering the emerging social media platforms.

The statistics complied by nobulling.com show that in 2014 55% of those who were bullied (45%) have experienced cyberbullying. As for The Ditch Label annual cyber bullying survey of 2014 (over 10 000 young people were surveyed) and it was reported that 7 in 10 young people are victims of cyberbullying. What has changed over the past few years is that males and females are equally at risk of cyberbullying and becoming cyber bullies these days. According to the survey Facebook (top place: 54% out of 75% surveyed Facebook users) , YouTube (21% out of 66% reported being cyberbullied) and Twitter (28% out of 43%) found to be the most likely sources of cyberbullying.

Technology opens our lives up in ways that were not possible even less than a decade ago.  Cyberstalking or cyberbullying in general are relatively new problems, having evolved with the mass media culture and the Internet. Unfortunately, everything has its positive and negative consequences and there is no one, specific medium to blame. It is the viewers’ fault that the numbers are constantly increasing. We should take a closer look at social factors that are one of the most important issues while talking about cyberbullying. We cannot stop the development of digital culture. It is up to consumers’ (rather called prosumers these days) common sense if they consider TV commercials, news and movies, including documentaries, as warnings against cyberbullying that will increase our awareness or as acts of violence that ‘cultivate’ aggression in society (Cultivation Theory, George Gerbner).

Copyright infringement cases – pure evil itself!

Copyright. Everybody knows it has been taking away our “copy freedom” for a long time. However, before I did research  on copyright topic I basically had no idea how serious it has got over the past few years. It is not just about Piracy and protecting Intellectual Property Rights, as probably many people think, including myself until Monday. Unfortunately, it does not concern only ‘usual’ content anymore. We are undeniably heading toward permission-culture model. Digital enclosure is only a matter of time.

Thinking about it made me wonder about famous copyright infringement cases and I decided to give some thought to it as find it really interesting!

Here is my prezi mind map that will hopefully familiarize you with this issue:

https://prezi.com/embed/qmttbhgslus5/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0#