Participatory news–

by Janet Johnson on March 3, 2010

The new Pew Internet and American Life Project shows how news is changing. We can carry the news around 24/7. It’s the ritual of communication that entices people to participate. People want to be a part of the “drama” of news–emerging media allows us to participate more readily. News is now becoming dialogically interactive–we now have multi-voiced reports that can give us a more vivid view of the world. As Walter Lippman said, “All the reporters in the world working all the hours of the day could not witness all the happenings in the world” (Public Opinion 338). With new emerging media–we just might witness all the happenings in the world.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project findings

The internet and mobile technologies are at the center of the story of how people’s relationship to news is changing. In today’s new multi-platform media environment, news is becoming portable, personalized, and participatory:

  • Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
  • Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
  • Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites

{ 2 comments }

Social Networking Current Events Assignment

by Janet Johnson on March 1, 2010

I am challenging my class to collaborate on Google docs to write an essay about how the Internet tells a current event story such as the Chile Earthquake.

This assignment enhances our chapter out of Jenkins book Convergence Culture: Photoshop for Democracy.

This week you do not have to do an individual blog post. Instead, you will break up into groups and explore a current events topic assigned by me. You will analyze how the people used the Internet to disseminate information.

Critically analyze how social media plays a role in your topic as Jenkins did for the chapter Photoshop Democracy.

1. How are citizens participating in these stories?

2. What  information did you find?

3. What social media sites did you find with the most useful information? Did you find the information credible?

4. Discuss the pros and cons to citizen media vs. traditional media such as broadcast news and newspapers.

5. Overall, how do you as a group feel that this current event is represented in a collective knowledge environment. Does the information get misconstrued, or more clear?

Hints: what are the search hastags in Twitter? What links are other people providing?

Overall, critically analyze the type of information you are finding and what types of Internet sites people are using to find information. Did you find Twitter to be more useful for up-to-date information than MSNBC.com or did you find that Twitter was useless.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites

{ 0 comments }

The Dissertation Table of Contents

February 27, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT……….. iii
DEDICATION……….. iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……….. v
ABSTRACT……….. vii
LIST OF TABLES……….. xii
LIST OF FIGURES……….. xiii
Chapter
I. USING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE DIALOGIC INTERACTION:
A 219-YEAR HISTORY OF PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS    ……….. 1
A 219-Year Tradition……….. 4
The Printing Press: Political Newspapers Reign in Campaigns……….. 5
Lincoln and the Telegraph……….. 9………..
Front Porches and Film……….. 10
President’s Voices in the Living Room……….. 12
A Radio Conversation: Franklin D. [...]

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites
Read the full article →

Blogs and Dialogism in the 2008 United States of America Presidential Election Abstract

February 21, 2010

Here is the official abstract that will be attached to my dissertation!
ABSTRACT
JANET LYNN JOHNSON
BLOGS AND DIALOGISM IN THE 2008 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
MAY 2010
The historical 2008 U.S. Presidential Election has set a new-media standard for future online campaigns. New media allows candidates to create a more dialogical and intimate experience with the electorate. [...]

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites
Read the full article →

Tea–Warms the Soul

February 20, 2010

I’m not a coffee drinker, I’m a tea drinker. In fact, I think I’m turning into a tea snob.
I’ve recently discovered the taste difference between preparing loose tea vs. tea bags. Loose tea just gives out a richer, more flavorful taste than tea bags. When you open your tea strainer, you find the leaves expand [...]

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites
Read the full article →

Bad News Day until Lysacek won Gold

February 19, 2010

The news seems to only show the bad news. We are bombarded with bad news through the Internet, 24 hour cable news, and access to news on our mobile phones. This past week we heard about the University of Alabama professor shooting her colleagues in a faculty meeting, and then yesterday a man flew a [...]

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites
Read the full article →

After the Defense-Now what?

February 16, 2010

No one really tells you what it’s like to write a dissertation, finish a dissertation, and then revise a dissertation. As I finished revising Chapter 5 of my dissertation I wondered how did I do it? To write a dissertation takes perseverance. You really must focus on the task and just do it. No one [...]

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites
Read the full article →

Snowed in: No one will ever see this presentation for FRS

February 15, 2010

This Friday my panel and I missed the Federation Rhetoric Symposium hosted by  Texas Woman’s University’s English Speech & Foreign Languages. Each year  either Texas A&M Commerce or Texas Woman’s University hosts the event. This year’s speaker was going to be Patricia Bizzell. But, unfortunately, my friends and I live too far to have chanced [...]

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites
Read the full article →

Snow Day

February 12, 2010

Yesterday, February 11, an unusual weather event hit North Texas. A record breaking snow fall of almost a foot of snow in some area.  The snow brought photo opportunities.

Share and Enjoy:

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites
Read the full article →

Watching Oprah makes you a better person

February 10, 2010

A new research study finds watching Oprah can make you a better person.
Why Watching Oprah makes you a better person
The warm and fuzzy feelings you may experience after watching others perform virtuous deeds may in turn lead you to act altruistically as well, according to a new study based on the results of two separate [...]

Share and Enjoy:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • del.icio.us
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • Add to favorites
Read the full article →