New Media & Politics: Citizens use of web 2.0

8/8/2019 New Media & Politics: Citizens use of web 2.0

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Citizens Use of Web 2.0

A Cautionary Tale If a tree falls in the forestand no one is there to hear it, does it make a

sound?

Francine Carron



ContentI. Introduction

A. General Information

B. Why do citizens use Web 2.0 ? (Motives)

C. Articles & Methods used

II. Citizens use of Web 2.0 explained

A. Numbers

B. What do citizens create ?

C. Citizen Journalism + The Case of Senator Lott

III. Conclusions

IV. Suggestions for further reading



I. Introduction (1) A. General Info

The Internet is increasingly influenced by intelligent

web services that empower users to contribute to

developing, rating, collaborating and distributing

Internet content and customizing Internetapplications.

As the internet is more embedded in peoples lives

users draw on new Internet applications to express

themselves through user- created content (UCC).



Introduction (2) A. Gen. Info

There is no widely accepted definition of user-createdcontent. In the study of the UCC by OECD it is definedas

a) content made publicly available over the Internet

b) which reflects a certain amount of creative effortand

c) which is created outside of professional routines andpractices.

= Netizens!



Introduction (3) B. Why do

citizens use Web 2.0 ?

Self actualization: The ability to take on a

community role that develop skills and opens

up new opportunities.

Post (political) outrage

Adding value people assume others are

interested in hearing their opinion

Social and Professional reasons

Ability to contribute and be recognized for

those contributions



Belong to the community and its subgroups

Other reasons for blogging might be whistle

blowing, a secret private life. Connecting with peers

Self- expression

Achieving a certain level of fame, notoriety orprestige.

Introduction (4) B. Why do

citizens use Web 2.0 ?



Introduction (5)

C. Articles & Methods used.

Bloom, J. , 2003-08-27 "The Blogosphere: How a Once-Humble Medium Came to Drive Elite Media Discourse andInfluence Public Policy and Elections" Paper presented at theannual meeting of the American Political Science Association,Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Philadelphia.

Flew, Terry (2007) : A Citizen Journalism Primer. InProceedings Communications Policy Research Forum 2007,University of Technology Sydney.

Graham Vickery, Sacha Wunsch-Vincent,Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Deve (OECD): Participative weband user-created content: web 2.0, wikis and socialnetworking.



Introduction (6) C. Articles &

Methods used In the paper of Bloom, The Blogosphere: How a

Once-Humble Medium Came to Drive Elite Media

Discourse and Influence Public Policy and Elections,

the author analyses the case of Senator Lott in detail.

1) Sketches first the entire backgrounds

2) Careers of the political figures

3) Describes and analyses the event.

4) Details every moment a posting of the incidentwas put online.

As a result to prove the power of New Media.




Methods used In Flew, Terry : A Citizen Journalism Primer is

more of an elaborated literature study on

existing information of citizens use of Web 2.0

There is no detailed explanation of a

methodology used. Yet, the author did analyze

a few news websites such as BBC, and 2

websites in Korea and Malaysia.




Methods used In the book of Graham Vickery,Sacha Wunsch Vincent, Organisation for

Economic Co-operation and Deve (OECD): Participative web and user-

created content: web 2.0, wikis and social networking, data from major

internet tracking sites such as for example Alexa is used to provide them

with the necessary data.

OECD compiles these internet data together with the data from the

European Commission on UCC to provide a complete analyses.

Interesting is that the data not only covers the US but also Europe and

Asia.

No specific methodology is explained but yet it is obvious to derive how

they proceeded their research. (as mentioned above)



II. Citizens use of Web 2.0

explained (1) A. Numbers
















(5) B. What do they create?



II. Citizens use of Web 2.0 explained (6)

B. What do they create ?




C. Citizen Journalism The internet has even created a new type of

journalist, called the citizen journalist.

People without professional journalism

training can use the tools of modern

technology and the global distribution of the

internet to create, or fact-check media on

their own (Glaser; 2006; PBS).



Citizen journalism, for instance, allows users to

influence or create news, potentially on similar terms

as newspapers, companies or other major entities.

Creators of UCC have brought attention to issues thatmay have otherwise gone un-noticed (e.g. the online

circulation of video files of politicians making racist

remarks).

Often when unexpected events occur, the only

source of immediate documentation may be users

with their mobile phone cameras.


(8) C. Citizen Journalism



Celebrity Journalism: http://perezhilton.com

The Korean OhMyNews site

http://english.ohmynews.com

The malaysiakini.com site

www.malaysiakini.com


C. Citizen Journalism



Background:Senator Trent Lott: Senate Majority Leader of the Republican party addressed a gathering of former Senator Strom Thurmonds 100th birthday

partySenator Strom Thurmond: Leader of theDixiecrats or officially known as the States RightsDemocrats. The Dixiecrats raison dêtre was

opposition to integration and civil rights for theregions Blacks. In 1954 he won a senate seat inSouth Carolina.


(10) C. The case of senator Lott



Lott began with general praise of Thurmondscareer and longevity, but then said with a smile:

I want to say this about my state: When StromThurmond ran for president we voted for him.[Whoops, whistles from audience] We're proudof it. [Applause] 3 Then his face turned deadly

serious as he continued: And if the rest of thecountry had of followed our lead we wouldn'thave had all these problems over all these years,either.





The Senate Majority leader had, in 2002, not

only endorsed Thurmonds segregationist

platform of 1948, but expressed the opinionthat the racial progress since then was a

problem.

But no prime time news show mentioned the

story and the following morning no

newspaper did either.





Citizens use of Web 2.0: Friday, December 6th,

2002 the statement of Lott appeared in ABCNews daily on-line column, The Note: Here is

what Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississipi, said yesterday at Senator StromThurmonds birthday party. (Including hisstatement)

The item was poorly placed on the websitebut yet it started a snowball rolling down hill.





While the mainstream media were late to thestory, bloggers spread the word and kept thestory alive until the Washington press corps could

no longer ignore it. Famous bloggers such as Atrios, Conason, Noah,

Marshall are all liberal bloggers, but by 9:15 PM,conservative University of Tennessee LawProfessor and blogger, Glenn Reynolds, posted anentry on his own blog, Instapundit*, agreeingthat TRENT LOTT DESERVES THE SHIT he'sgetting from Atrios and Josh Marshall.





By Friday at noon, everyone in the Washington

press corps knew about Lotts odd remarks asput by blogger Bob Somerby, of The Daily Howler,which was fully true.





Effect of Web 2.0 Usage by Citizens: Trent Lott

stepped down as Majority Leader on December20th , exactly two weeks after its posting on

The Note under pressure from the

Washington press corps, the Senate

Republican Caucus, and even the WhiteHouse.





As Dan Goodgame* and Karen Tumulty*

wrote in Time: The papers did not make noteof his comments until days after he had made

them. But the stillness was broken by the hum

of Internet bloggers who were posting their

outrage and compiling rap sheets of Lottsearlier comments.





Recognition: When TIME finally got to the story on the16th, they gave bloggers credit.

Blog expert Mark Glaser*, went even farther: Most majormedia outlets ignored the remark but Webloggers such asJosh Marshall, posted scathing attacks on Lott. Now themainstream media must swallow its pride, follow theInternet on the story, and even give credit where it's due.

Time magazine gave credit to the "hum of Internet bloggers

who were posting their outrage and compiling rap sheets of Lott's earlier comments."





III. Conclusions (1)Many positive points but what are the weak points or

Measurement of UCC is also still in its infancy

More in depth research is needed on the

motives of citizens using Web 2.0

Its impossible to forecast where the internet

will take journalism in the future.

The creation of content by users is often

perceived as having major social implications.What are they ??? More study needed.



III. Conclusions (2)

Challenges related to exclusion, culturalfragmentation, content quality and security

and privacy have been raised.

A greater divide between digitally literate

users and others may occur and cultural

fragmentation may take place with greaterindividualization of the cultural environment.




It has also been argued that the

democratization of access to media outlets

fulfils an increasingly important role for

democracy, individual freedom, political

discourse, and justice. Is this true ??




Other challenges relate to information accuracy and

quality (including inappropriate or illegal content)

when everybody can contribute without detailedchecks and balances.

Other issues relate to privacy, safety on the Internetand possibly adverse impacts of intensive Internet

use.



IV. Suggestion for further Readings (1)

Don Tapscott: Grown Up Digital: How the NetGeneration is Changing Your World. ( Read thepart on Citizen Net: How young people and the

Internet are transforming democracy) Lowell Feld: Netroots Rising: How a Citizen Army

of Bloggers and Online Activists Is ChangingAmerican Politics

Jerome Armstrong: Crashing the Gate: Netroots,Grassroots, and the Rise of People-PoweredPolitics



IV. Suggestion for further Readings (2)

TREMAYNE, Mark (ed), (2007), Blogging,Citizenship, and the Future of Media, Routledge.

Gwen Solomon,Lynne Schrum, Web 2.0: new

tools, new schools Aaron Barlow: Blogging America: The New PublicSphere (New Directions in Media)

Michael and Ronda Hauben: Netizens - On theHistory and Impact of Usenet and the Internet(Perspectives)

Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody: The Powerof Organizing Without Organizations

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New Media & Politics: Citizens use of web 2.0