Education - The Key To Success?

The New Media industry isn't by any means a hard one to get into. In fact, success in the industry could be as simple as uploading a clever YouTube video, and raking in money as millions are forced to watch advertisments on your YouTube channel. This success can be seen in internet supstars such as RayWilliamJohnson and Shane Dawson.

Both of these YouTube users regularly upload comical videos which are seen by millions and a hefty commision is offered from YouTube as a "business partner". We can rest assured that is a lot of money. Especially in comparison to what the average person who works in the industry earns. The average person who most probably has invested money in an education for the industry. So is this fair? Is it fair that someone invest money and time (years most of the time) and STILL earn less than someone who simply mixes together a couple of funny videos and gives a dubious commentary?

Admittedly, not EVERYONE in the industry has an education. "The vast majority of participantspreferred informal learning or ‘learning on the job’ as a way of developing their skills." (Gill 2007) Is this the more efficient way to go?

While an education is definitely beneficial to attaining work in the industry, it's not always the best option, after all, nothing beats actual experience in the actual industry.

REFERENCES

Gill, R. (2007). Informality is the New Black. In Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New Media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures: 24-30 & 38-43.

Everyone's a Doctor...

In the past weeks, the subject of the "new media" and it's relation to our everyday lives has been mostly frivolous and focused on things such as games, music and television. However, this week's topic is a lot more serious. It has now become incredibly easy to diagnose medical problems, simply by "Googling" the symptons. No doubt somebody else out there has had the same symptoms and documented them online, just waiting for somebody else to find.

Tania Lewis states, "...the internet would seem to represent the ultimate site for disseminating health information to ‘lay’ people...", and she is absolutely right. It seems that anyone can be a doctor these days, that's not to say that doctors will become redundant, as obviously, that would never happen. It does mean that the layman will be able to know more about themselves and their body much easier than before the new media changed everything.

Is this "self-diagnosis" more dangerous than it seems? It could be, indeed. Medical information obtained from an unidentified individual may not always be the most accurate, in fact, it could be completely wrong and have dire results.

I for one, have used the internet to diagnose some minor medical conditions, however, would I rely on it for serious conditions? Probably not.



References

Lewis, T. (2006). Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? In Media, Culture & Society, volume 28, issue 4: 521-539.

The Umbilical Link

It's been well established that the new media as a whole is becoming widely more accessable to previously untapped markets; but is this dissemination of media getting out of hand? Genevieve Bell states that,

"Mobile phones are bought for children so that they can be used to communicate with them, but also as a sort of game that parents perform with their children, whereby the phone provides a constant umbilical link spooled out from parent to child that the parent is able to use to reassure him/herself of their child’s safety." (Bell, 2006)

This "umbilical link" seems to cross many lines, but mostly it seems to cross the line of trust. It seems to some parents that the mobile phone is more a spying device rather than a convinient method of communication. This misuse of new media could be considered unethical, however, parents do have the right to keep watch over their children.

Sometimes parents take this right to the extreme. "he had recently enabled location tracking functions on his daughter’s cell phone—he remarked, ‘I know where my daughter is within a radius of 500 meters.'" (Bell, 2006) Surely there must be a point where the parents can trust their child enough to not need to know exactly where they are at all times. When did parents suddenly decide that this level of stalking was necessary? Children managed to grow up just fine without constant supervision before the new media had a stranglehold on society.

Has the new media made this "helicopter parenting" too easy?



References

Bell, G. (2006). The Age of the Thumb: a Cultural Reading of Mobile Technologies from Asia. Knowledge, Technology, & Policy, Summer 2006, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 41-57.

Feeling Hot

In C. Hamelink's, "The Ethics of the Internet : Can We Cope With Lies and Deceit on The Net?" mention is made of what's known as "flaming". This is something that is all too common on the internet. In fact, the internet has made such a thing much easier to do and virtually removed the consequences of verbal abuse. "The greater the distance to potential victims, the more readily will people inflict harm that they would refrain from in face-to-face situations." (Hamelink, 2006). The terms "keyboard warrior" and "internet tough guy" are thrown around in excess these days, and for good reason too.

It seems, accoring to Hamelink, that without the physical barriers of face-to-face interaction, people are significantly more open as to what they are saying. Is this immoral? Even if there is an engagement between two people and it is online, isn't it still an engagement?. Two real people are still talking to each other who both have real feelings. In some cases, even people who would not normally even dream of being rude to somebody in person can turn to the dark side online. "...it’s astonishing how many people who are perfectly Polite in everyday life seem to forget their manners in their e-mail" (Rinaldi, 1997)

When it comes down to it, everyone should just try their hardest to be polite, no matter what the situation. There should not be serperate standards for different situations. When having real interactions with people, even on the internet, real etiquette should be used.

References

Hamelink, C. (2006). The Ethics of the Internet: Can we cope with Lies and Deceit on the Net? In Ideologies of the Internet, K. Sarikakis & Daya Thussu, pp. 115-130. New Jersey: Hampton Press.
 
(Accessed March 28, 2011)

Rinaldi, A.(n.d.). http://www.fau.edulrinaldi/net/ten html

(Accessed March 28, 2011)

The Internet - An Escape From the Self?

Online mediums such as Social Networking Sites (SNS) provide users with an opportunity to create a virtual counterpart of themselves which may or may not be an accurate representation of them in the real world.

"Online, users can claim to be whoever they wish. Like actors playing a role, they can deliberately choose to put forth identity cues or claims of self that can closely resemble or wildly differ from reality." (Pearson 2009)

 This fact is part of the appeal of the online identity. If you have certain traits that may be considered to be embarrassing, they can easily be covered up or not even mentioned at all. It is also quite easy to make outlandish and untrue statements about yourself, after all, who are your online "friends" to question you?

"Other claims in the profile may be untrue, yet unquestioned by friends and colleagues, who may simply assume this is an aspect of their acquaintance about which they do not know." (Donath & Boyd 2004)

The online identity is quickly becoming a sizable branch of the human identity. Will it eventually take over? Will our online identities soon be the only identities we have?

References

Pearson, E. (2009). All the World Wide Web's a Stage: The Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks. First Monday, Volume 14, Number 3.
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2162/2127 (Accessed March 14, 2011)

Donath, J., & Boyd, D. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal. Volume 22 (4): 75.
http://www.danah.org/papers/PublicDisplays.pdf. (Accessed March 14, 2011).