Computer Mediated Communication

I came across a reading by Zhao, Grasmuck & Martin (2008) called Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships.

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0747563208000204

The study looks at identity constructions on Facebook, and explores the online environment. According to Zhao, Grasmuck and Martin (2008),

“As the corporeal body is detached from social encounters in the online environment, it becomes possible for individuals to interact with one another on the Internet in fully disembodied text mode that reveals nothing about their physical characteristics.”

An important characteristic of this emergent mode of identity production is the tendency for people to play-act at being someone else or to put on different online personae that differ from their "real life” identities (Stone, 1996; Turkle, 1995). They use the example of,

“in the online world, a man can pretend to be a woman, a nerd to be a star athlete, and an introvert to be an extrovert.”

The control users have over the privacy settings of their accounts enables them to separate their Facebook pages into many "back” and "front” regions (Goffman, 1959). This allows them to stage different identities for different audiences.

The topic on mediated identity was of great interest to me as it is sparking public concern in the world of Facebook and other forms of CMC. It is interesting to see first-hand how people manipulate their identities through CMC  like Facebook with the intention of creating a “socially desirable self”.

I agree with Zhao, Grasmuck & Martin (2008), “identities are what we convince others to think of us as; it matters not whether that happens online or offline, or whether they are anti-normative or socially desirable.”

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday.

Stone, A. A. (1996). The war of desire and technology at the close of the mechanical age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Zhao, S., Grasmuch, S., & Martin, J. (2008). Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 1816–1836.

Profanity Presentation Week 11

Last week Claire and I did our presentation on Profanity. Here is the link to our powerpoint. Enjoy!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/110175343/Lucy-and-Claire-Group-Presentation

Mediated Identity

In response to Kate McAtee’s post “The Internet has become a weapon”.

http://katemcatee1.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/the-internet-has-become-weapon.html

Statistics have suggested that each day, 55 million status updates are made. I find this incredible, and to think that 55 million people have disengaged themselves from the moment to present it to others who are absent seems ridiculous. Why do we update our status? Why do we check in at the beach? Why do we suddenly hashtag everything that comes to mind and sight? It all comes down to mediated identity.

I will agree with Kate, I am guilty of it too. The guilty pleasures of an iPhone. It is all too simple to take a snapshot, choose a filter, upload and bam – you have a hipstomatic photo complete with a check-in, emoticons, hashtags and a box for comments. The obsession with Instagram in this day and age is ludicrous, with people posting images from pets to picnics, and everything in between. We spend so much time making sure our meal looks good in our Instagram photo that it is usually cold by the time we eat it.

In April 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for approximately $1 billion. Instagram was Facebook's strongest competitor and would have taken over the world of mobile photo sharing. Smart move Facebook.

So Kate, I couldn't agree with you more. Social networking is consuming us one check-in at a time, and it is sad to think that there will be no turning back..

The real question is do people really care about what we are eating for breakfast?  

Where the Bloody Hell Are You?

The $180 million Tourism Australia advertising campaign “Where the bloody hell are you?” was banned worldwide and caused an uproar, especially in Australia.

Here is the television commercial that was banned, which features scenic images of Australia and its beautiful landscapes, rainforests, oceans, cities, beaches and deserts. 

The television commercial was first banned in the United Kingdom in 2007 because of the use of the profanity “bloody” in the commercial. What a double standard coming from a country where they allow the FCUK billboards!

In a reading by Hong, she talks about how Australians use “bloody hell” in their casual conversation. But from an intercultural point of view, saying “bloody hell” may be perceived differently. 

I personally do not find the word “bloody” or the phrase “bloody hell” offensive in any way. I grew up on a cattle station in a very remote area and I have become accustomed to certain profanities due to the nature of my father’s work and the environment in which I grew up. Dad is your typical Aussie farmer – laidback, friendly, and hard-working. Most of the time he is using “bloody” as an intensifier, like “What the bloody hell was that?” or “I saw that bloody stray cat earlier.”

I do, however, understand that different cultures perceive the word as offensive, just as we perceive some gestures in other cultures as offensive. Hong mentions that the word “bloody” may be considered impolite in other cultures, however it has been part of Australian culture for longer than we can remember. 

I agree with Hong, that the phrase “bloody hell” is part of the Australian culture and it should be respected as one of the common and casual phrases. The Tourism Australia advertising campaign should never have been banned, as it would have done wonders for the tourism industry in Australia. 

References

Hong, M 2008, "Where the bloody hell are you?": Bloody hell and (im)politeness in Australian English. Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication, vol.1, no.1, pp33-39.

Social and Moral Order

This week my blog post on social and moral order is a response to Ashley.

This is the link to her post.

http://smasheslerat.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/prison-for-dummies-wk8.html

Weider detected a code which was operative at a halfway house. This code was a set of activities that they should and should not engage in, showing loyalty to the other residents and avoiding spending time with the staff. Part of the code states that a resident must not trust staff. This is mentioned in Ashley’s post. Ashley works at a youth refuge in the Illawarra and sometimes feels uncomfortable confronting residents. This is probably because the residents display a strong sense of loyalty to one another and it may be intimidating to a staff member who is on the “outside”.  

I stumbled across another article by Einat and Einat (2000) that touches on the inmate subculture in Israeli prisons. The behavioural and moral code may be seen as a collective and functional stand for coping with the prison environment. It alleviates the suffering caused by deprivation, inhospitable conditions, social heterogeneity of peers, confusion between two worlds, lack of stability, relative inactivity, boredom, and an unclear future. Punishments for breaching the code are severe and strong negative sanctions are applied in the form of verbal and physical violence, social isolation, withholding food, and withdrawal of commodities such as cigarettes and drugs.

“A prisoner who becomes a snitch will be ambushed, knifed, his face will be cut… So everybody will know who he is, and that they should never act like him.”

Another example of this inmate code is seen in the film The Longest Yard, where a group of inmates forms a gridiron team to play against a well-drilled team of prison guards. Throughout the film the inmates are determined to show the guards who is boss on the sporting field.

   

I totally agree with Ashley, there is an element of apprehension when dealing with criminals, big or small! Even when you have the “authority”. 

References

Einat, T & Einat, H 2000, ‘Inmate argot as an expression of prison subculture: The Israeli case’, The Prison Journal, vol.80, no.3, pp309-325.

Weider, DL 1974, ‘Telling the code’, in R Turner (ed.), Ethnomethodology: Selected Readings, Penguin Education, Harmondsworth, pp144-172.

Ethnomethodology

Ethnomethodology is definitely a new addition to my vocabulary dictionary.. This seems to be a common thing in SOC 250! After exploring Garfinkel's reading, this new concept became somewhat more familiar and I now realise that such a ridiculous word really isn't that scary. 

I stumbled across a reading by Dalvir Samra-Fredericks, who outlines aspects of ethnomethodology's contribution to the study of "face" and the doing of face-work in terms of an interactional accomplishment. This reading was of interest to me because it incorporates elements of Goffman and Garfinkel.

Garfinkel is well-known for his "breaching experiments" and the moral accountability of interaction. Garfinkel's famous words were we all "hold each other to account in terms of a practical reasonableness and appropriateness". Garfinkel talks about the reprimands when "background expectancies are breached and the natural attitude of everyday life is disrupted", and how this can create anger and righteous indignation.  

An example of a breach of the acceptable and localized norms or protocols of interaction is “walking in unison” to a stranger on the street. I found this YouTube which is an experimental video in which a group of people decided to break the unspoken rule by walking next to a stranger on the street at the same pace they are walking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeGk-NPXu7c

“Strangers on the street do not walk together. Even if travelling at the same speed, people will walk in a staggered formation unless the pathway is too crowded to avoid it. In the event that one person wishes to pass another, the passer will accelerate and overtake the person being passed, who might choose to slow down a bit until the pass is complete. Then both people resume their normal walking speeds.”

Here is the reading by Samra-Fredericks which I'm sure will provide you with insight!

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/science/article/pii/S037821660900335X

References

Samra-Fredericks, D. 2010. Ethnomethodology and the moral accountability of interaction: Navigating the conceptual terrain of 'face' and face-work. Journal of Pragmatics 42, pp.2147-2157.

Data Presentation

So this was my YouTube video and Prezi presentation for my data discussion.. 

I am going to expand on new concepts in my research project, these were just my initial ideas! 

Let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqiD0KTZrKE

http://prezi.com/ao0n4r3heul2/data-discussion/