Starting of with the first article I read, Introduction: The Digital Revolution, the Informed Citizen, and the Culture of Democracy, by Henry Jenkins & David Thorburn. They discussed how the evolution of technology and computers has not surpassed the impact of movies and television, in regards to speaking to the vast public. The article discussed how the internet has brought evolution to the revolution, as a result has allowed alot of people to become aware or conscious on various subjects. However, these items may not be easily accesible for the variations in generations, or financial contraints, to many of of the public that is computer illiterate, or many other reasons. As a results this information is not being widely dispersed to the public as well as the older forms of communication such as print, media, television, and movies. As an example during the Obama campaign there was alot of products, keepsakes, memorables, etc.. that were available online. Alot my friends and peers had access or knowledge as to where to obtain such things, however my mother, and older relatives that are not computer literate didn't. Their main source for products, info, memorables, etc.. was through the media, newspaper, advertisements and magazines. Another example the "Where the Hell Is Matt" dancer Matt Harding that made his infamous debut via the internet. Matt was not as widely known as he is now since he was reveiled to a broader scale of society. If you asked the majority of americans have they heard of the guy that has danced around the world while being videotaped, they will know or at least what you're talking about. Before he was made publicized by the contemporary media alot of my family, friends and even I didn't know who he was. This goes to support that yes, the evolution of technology has brought about a revolutionary approach to reaching the public. This emerge in technology has not demised or depreciated the effect or massive approach and connection that media, radio, news, movies or television to date. Will this technology ever surpass our contemporary form mass communication and information?
The next article I read The Civic Potential of Video Games by Joseph Kahne, Ellen Middaugh, Chis Evans discussed the civic gaming experiences or effects in regards to a study done on 17 year olds. The article states that the teens or youths that play video games are just as equally politically and socially engaged as other non-gaming youths. Further more it goes to say that teen gamers do gain some civic outcomes such as becoming aware of moral and ethical issues, organizing groups or klans, socializing, networking and making them socially conscious. So in various aspects these teens have shown that games do have a civic impact on us and our society. Our future is constantly producing a newer generation of gamers that will use these civic outcomes positively or negatively in life. They are able to distinguish reality from fiction, and leave the vicious, mass murdering, psychotic killing, car stealing, cop killing ideas behind, once the game is turned off (majority of the time).
The third article I read Young Adults and Virtual Public Spheres: Builiding A New Political Culture by Alan E. Rycroft contradicts Henry Jenkins & David Thorburn's article. Alan E. Rycroft believes that the internet is paving the way for young adults to become informed, organized and influentual in the world today. He believes that this new technology of texting, emailing, surfing the web, blogging, etc... is a major form of communication and is globalizing the world politically. This new form of mass communication is truly allowing us to become politically conscious as well as interactive. Just as I mentioned earlier about the Obama memorabillia earlier in my blog that was widely publicized via the internet. I also received text from friends with campaign info, jokes, etc.. as well as having friends blog on facebook. Alot of my friends were not as politically involved as they were this presidential election. This contributed alot to the vast amount of information obtainable through the internet via wireless and non-wireless forms. I agree with Rycroft the internet and the ever changing forms of technology has and will continue to greatly impact society not only in regards to politics but every aspect of the world.
My fourth article A Socio-Technical Vision of Democratic Knowledge Exchange by Brian Whitworth and Rob Friedman, discuss how the internet is bringing about the demise of Academic Journals. The authors believe these academic journals should be absorbed into online journals and also have democratic feed back allowed. This will allow the journals to stay in publication as well as evolve with the revolution of media and public interaction. I believe in order for these academic journals to continue publishing succefully they are going to have to evolve as well. The majority of readers are not going to subscribe to a printed journal and wait for delivery, when they can easily access or download a minimal or no cost from the comforts of their own home. In addition we are interactive society just as we were yesterday. We want our opinions heard, we want democracy and equality. We don't want our forms of information governered totally by the creator, or owner of such publication do we? Most of us want to be able to respond, interact, blog about it, post a comment, even have your response posted (as most newspapers such as Seattle Post Intelligencer or magazine Essence)in a article. If these academic journals aren't absorbed into online journals they will have less of an effect on shaping societies ethics and reaching a bigger demographic, as a result they may continue to decline and we'll only have a prominent few that cease to exist.
Overall I believe the internet and games have a vast effect on our life ethically, morally and shape our society. The games and internet allow us to network with other people that have different views and opinions. These forms of technology allow of to make informed decisions based on the information we receive or search for through them. They also aid us in making moral and ethical decisons based on the knowledge gained, lesson learned or mission accomplished. These forms of technology allow us to become globaly connected and infomed. As a result we are becoming advanced in various aspects of our lives, such as socially inept, health conscious, career orientated, politicaly organized, computer literate, obtaining problem solving skills, and hand eye coordination, just to name a few.
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- Try to think of an interesting hook instead of just jumping into the articles. Maybe take a minute to address the overall subject and your own experience, and then go into the articles. That way, you're building rapport with the audience.
ReplyDelete- I LOVE that you get into the impact of computer access and how that means there ARE people who are cut off from the civic engagement that the Internet would allow. This is HUGE, and is quite ANTI-democratic, isn't it? People argue "Oh, go to the library!" but even still there are not enough computers there. My mother was on dial-up until just recently, which is another way that such information is not readily accessible because load times are SOOOO freaking slow on dial-up. So, then, how do we address this or resolve this issue?
- So you mention all of the negative traits of games and how players are able to leave that behind. Are you arguing then that the negative is being replaced with positive action, ie INCREASED civic engagement?
- I like that you come back to emphasizing games in the conclusion, but I would have liked to see you making that connection in regard to the individual paragraphs/ articles. But I still think the conclusion is great...!
It really helped me to look at the example blog you sent me. I will defintely shoot for a better intro on my next blog. Please continue to critique and give me better examples on how to prepare for my essay.
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