INVESTIGATING THE BLOGOSPHERE – WEEK 8

One of our class assignments was to investigate blogs through links on a chosen subject. Chai and myself chose the political unrest present in Thailand at the moment. I thought it would be an easy task to start from one blog which would link with another and so on until we had linked 10 times. Unfortunately it was not to be. We were stumped after two blogs. The exercise was very fruitful as it totally destroyed my concept of the interconnectivity of the internet through links on blogs. I found that it is a simple process to very quickly finish up looking a t a web site created by a mass media organization. This situation seemed to become verified by my classmates as in turn they noted the same difficulties as myself when presenting their findings to the class. It has caused me to reflect on how prevalent the large corporations are on the internet.
It is now going to be very difficult for me to justify any notion within myself from the idealistic viewpoint that the internet would free the public from the tyranny of mass media corporations. It is becoming more evident all the time that the internet is extending the western democratic process of consumerism. I am noting that “businesses’ such as Yahoo, Google and the like are developing what could be termed ‘complete internet experiences’ for users, their sites developed so that the user is coerced through clever use of gadgets to keep returning to their perceived self produced home page which is in reality an attempt to capture the user.
Oh dear, the freedom’s promised by idealists may not be so free after all.

Week 6: My Activity and Passivity in using communication technologies

This requires another personal viewpoint. I think two sections are asked for.
Firstly passivity; do I just sort of sit back and get modern communication injected into my brain (a la Frankfurt School).
I must admit I consider the Frankfurt school of thought still applicable. Think about it, advertising of products everywhere. I am guilty of falling prey to the mass media advertising machine. There was a time when I would never buy no-name brand products. Bird’s Eye, Kraft, Fountain tomato sauce etc. The same with clothing – especially when Levis jeans became popular. I would only buy Adidas trainers and Billabong T-shirts. Yes, a victim of society, whether I liked it or not.
Secondly - activity. Modern media offers me much more choice in what I choose to view; TV or internet in my case. I watch little programmed TV (say, about 5 hours per week). In my case I watch DVD’s I hire from the video shop much more, preferring the asynchronitical approach. Far exceeding the time spent watching TV is time spent on my PC. Uni studies take up a fair amount of that nowadays but even before that I spent lots of time on my PC, with it becoming a necessary part of my life. I feel active in the sense that I feel I have control in the choices I make in what I do. This ‘activity’ also comes at a price, a price I am willing to pay. The lessening of a face to face social life has been replaced with communicating with people overseas. I feel that I am far more socially active now that I would be without a PC. The hours and money I have spent ‘investing’ in new communication forms has paid returns for me. I feel I am empowered more, have gained more knowledge in fields I am interested in as well being able to communicate with like minded people. The online work exercise in cultural production in my case holds true in many ways, except to find out about that you will have to read my blog.