8/2/2019 What The Tweet - What is Right
1/1
By NIKI [email protected]
JUST last week, Vinton Cef got the inte-webs abuzz with his
aticle in the NewYork Times titled The Intenet is not a
human ight.Besides the sensational headline, the aticle
was also fascinating because Cef is one of theiginal achitects
of the Intenet, back when
t was used by only the militay.Im not sue of his intentions fo
witing
he aticle, but one could ague that a couplef things that
happened in 2011 led to it.
The fist is of couse the massive potestshat happened aound the
wold fom theevolutions in the Middle East and Noth
Afica to the Occupy movement.Jounalists, academics and the
layman have
pent the past 12 months debating the olehe Intenet, and social
media specifically,
played in the movement.The digital deteminist among us ae
moe
han happy to give social media all the cedit.Afte all, thee is
no doubt that we ae on the
dge of a communication evolution and evenfte these few yeas, it
still emains a buz-wod.
Then thee ae the opponents to this idea,ke wite Malcolm Gladwell
who wote,The evolution will not be tweeted. Those
who shae his sentiment claim that socialmedia did not cause the
evolutions, butnstead only seved as an enable.
The aguments had escalated to the pointwhee, as Cef noted in his
aticle, thee ae
uggestion that the Intenet should be ahuman ight.
The issue is paticulaly acute in coun-ies whose govenments
clamped down onntenet access in an attempt to quell the po-estes,
he wote.
It was at this junctue, howeve, that Cefmade his point
technology is an enable ofights, not a ight itself.
In my opinion, he is absolutely ight (nopun intended).
Technology affods communi-
ation and the dissemination of infomation,which in tun affods
access to infomation,eedom of speech and education.
These thee things, among othes, ae whatI would conside human
ights. If technol-ogy was to be a ight in itself, then one
couldeasily ague within the same context thatadio fequency,
telecommunication wavesand satellite signals ae human ights
too.
The second thing is the intoduction of theStop Online Piacy Act
(SOPA) in the UnitedStates.
Accoding to popula technology site CNet,if passed, the act will
allow the US attoneygeneal to seek a cout ode against the ta-geted
offshoe website that would, in tun,be seved on Intenet povides in
an effot tomake the taget vitually disappea.
In shot, ISPs can be pessued to block offaccess to cetain
websites ie censoship.
Natually, the majo suppotes of the act
ae
the
entetainment industy, who claim to bevictims of acts of online
piacy. The billis expected to come to a vote when the USCongess
meets next.
Howeve, CEOs epesenting majocompanies in the digital industies
like Google, Twitte, Mozilla, Yahoo! andFacebook have come out to
oppose itthough an open lette.
Nowhee in the lette, howeve, do theseCEOs claim that the Intenet
is a ight.
Instead, they wite that the act will allowthe US govenment to
censo the web usingtechniques simila to those used in
China,Malaysia and Ian which, I suppose, wouldinfinge feedom to
infomation via censo-ship.
They also claim that the act will deny
website ownes theight to due poc-ess of law, whichinfinges the
ight toa fai tial.
In his aticle, Cefwote: The best
way to chaacteizehuman ights is to identify theoutcomes that we
ae tyingto ensue. These include citi-cal feedoms like feedom
ofspeech and feedom of accessto infomation and those aenot
necessaily bound to anypaticula technology at any
paticula time.Cef also noted that a lage
issue has been ovelooked amid this debate,and that is the
esponsibility of technologyceatos themselves to suppot human
andcivil ights.
He poposed that enginees take on a lageole in ensuing that
technology continues
to potect uses and help them execise theihuman ights.
I would like to take this one step futheand suggest that it is
not just the CEOs,technologist and even people like Cef, whoshould
take on this ole.
We the uses should as well.In 2012, I hope that uses will
empowe
themselves moe, though knowledge andpactice, to ensue that
nothing (and definite-ly not thei own actions) compomises
whatamazing technologies we have that makes thewold a bette
place.
n Niki is an MA Digital Culture and Societystudent at Kings
College London. Read his jot-tings on digital culture at
www.nikicheong.com or follow him on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/nikicheong.
wednesday 11 January 2012 R.AGE
What is right
By NATASHA [email protected]
THErE ae a few thingsthat tuly bing the yea toa spectacula close
on theK-pop scene. Apat fomanticipating the aival ofmoe ookie goups
andalbum eleases, the yea-endbings with it special musicpogammes
such as the KBSand SBS Gayo Daejeon shows.
These pogammes oftenfeatue a sting of pefomanc-
es fom many of the populaKoean idols.While these special
pefom-
ances ae eye-candy fo fans,the inceased buden on theatistes
having to ehease andpepae fo the shows havelanded many of them in
hospi-tal.
Exhaustion and fatigue aebecoming inceasingly com-mon among
Koean atistes evenwithout the pessue of yea-endshows.
K-pop idols often go thoughhous of eheasal time in odeto put on
a flawless pefomance.With the added pessue of hav-ing to compete
with new goups
that cop up all the time, veteanatistes often choose to fogo
estand ehease moe.
Some idols have taken to socialnetwoking site to expess
theifatigue. Gahi, the fontman of gilgoup Afte School, tweeted
Feelslike a heaving (sic) evening aftethe ecoding of yea-end
concetsand shows have ended.
Juggling eheasals and inte-views ae no longe the onlythings
included in the schedule ofa Koean atiste as vaiety showpogammes
have also becomemoe demanding.
Kiss And Cry is one of thesepogammes. It equies a guest totake
pat in a seies of ice-skatingcompetitions.
When Kystal, a membe of thegoup f(x), was booked to patici-pate
in the show, she found that itwas just too big a buden fo he.
Just a month befoe appeaingon Kiss And Cry, f(x) had eleaseda
new album and to pomote it,Kystal had to attend inteviews,shows and
othe events. Whenshe finally came on the show, she
fainted on the ice duing a pe-fomance.
Appaently, the incident wasnot the fist time that Kystal
hadfainted duing a show. Two yeasago, the singe fainted on
stagewhile pefoming Mr Boogie at the2010 Lotte Concet.
Too much to bear
Some K-pop idols have also
taken to acting to eithe boost oevive thei caee.Popula TV damas
such as
Dream High 2, High Kick andAthena have all featued popu-la K-pop
atistes. Howeve, thedemanding schedule and ecod-ing sessions foce
some atistes tostay up all night in ode to com-plete thei wok fo
the day.
On Jan 1, 2012, Pak Jiyeon,a membe of South Koean gilgoup T-aa,
was hospitalisedfo fatigue fom almost non-stopeheasals.
Jiyeon is cuently acting inthe popula dama Dream High
2. She was said to have gone fothe shooting of the dama at
4am,ight afte she finished ecoding ayea-end pogamme.
An associate fo the atiste stat-
ed that Jiyeon had been eheasingfo the music pogamme in
asleep-depived state and that itwas a shame that she had a
damashoot aftewads.
Jiyeon is not the fist membe ofT-aa to have fallen pey to
fatigue.On July 19 last yea, Hyomin, too,fainted while coming back
fomthe filming of a dama.
She was taken to hospital anddiagnosed with fatigue fom beingtoo
wapped up in pomotionalduties fo the goups new songand fo he new
movie, as well asfilming a TV show.
South Koean atistes who haveto pomote thei wok both inthei home
county and in Japanae also feeling the stain as theyhave to tavel
between the twocounties all the time.
Membes of SECrET weeepoted to have suffeed fomfatigue as they
had to pefom
pomotional duties back-to-backin both Japan and South
Koea.Hyosung, a membe of SECrET,
was hospitalised afte having pe-fomed and appeaed at eight
dif-feent places within a shot peiodof time.
In ecent yeas, it has becomeinceasingly appaent that exhaus-tion
and fatigue ae pat and pa-cel of being in the limelight. Is itall
eally woth it, though?
A numbe of K-pop idols speakof sacifice being the main key
tosuccess, but exactly how muchof a basic need can you
sacificebefoe it becomes detimental toones health?
Pehaps some day the Koean
music industy shall see somekind of intevention in ode toimpove
the woking conditionsof these idols and egulate theiwoking
hous.
Till then, all we can do is sup-pot ou idols and of couse,
sendwods of encouagement eachtime we see a woying Tweetfom ou
favouite K-pop stas.
What
theTweet
d Vito Cf,Chif Ittevglit vic pitfo Googl Ic.
aft school pfomigt th Ko PopClt at alt .
som of th mmb of
What price, fame?
