Chapter 1 - WHAT IS A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA?

This chapter discusses important questions and how media affects certain areas like politics and business. It gives examples on how both good and bad it can be used.

1.1 What is social about social media?

In this subchapter, the word social is discussed and it is stated that communication is the key in social media. Collaborations and co-operative work is included. In conclusion, social media can be understood more deeply by being engaged to theoretical questions.

1.2 What is critical thinking and why does it matter?

Critical thinking is discussed as being critical of a phenomenon or an idea, and why? Because we can. Coming to power in critical thinking and in media, the power here is in communication.

1.3 What is critical theory?

Critical theory is a specific form of critical thinking. In critical thinking, the book mentions Karl Marx. Skipping the introduction, in Marx’s writing there is concern for the human and socialism. He stressed the social is the key and media and society are always open for change. When it comes to have invented the internet, his book Grundrisse describes about a global information with everyone attempting to inform and introduce connections, which is what the internet does in modern time.

According to Ben Agger in 2006 there are seven foundations in critical social thinking and there can be six identified dimensions when it relates to Marx’s works.

1. critical theory has a normative dimension
2. critical theory is a critique of domination and exploitation
3. critical theory uses dialectical reasoning as a method of analysis

Kritisk teori

Fuch tar i denna del upp dialektiskt filosofi för att förstå samhället. Dialektiken byggger på motsättningar och att det är dessa som för samhällsutvecklingen framåt. Karl Marx myntade begreppet ”motsägelser är källan till all dialektik" (Marx 1867, 744). Fuch diskuterar Marx dialektik och beskriver motsättningar mellan det kapitalistiska systemet och arbetarklassens intressen. Kritisk teori är en teori knutet för målet om ett rättvisare och solidarisk samhälle. Det handlar både om den politiska makten, ekonomiska, kulturella makten och makten över media och kommunikation.

Kritisk teori och Frankfurtskolan

Kritisk teori och Frankfurtskolan är två teorier som liknar varandra. Man kan säga att Frankfurtskolan är en förlänging och en modern form av kristeori.

Frankfurtskolan är en tradition av kritiskt tänkande som har sitt ursprung i verk av forskare som Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer och Theodor W. Adorno. Det är en politisk och kulturell rörelse baserad på den socialistiska ideologin. Kritiken mot kapitalismen gäller naturligtvis även media där man menar att kapitalistiska medier är modifieringsmetoder i dubbel mening. För det första reducerar de människor till konsumenternas status av reklam och varor. För det andra är kulturen i kapitalism i stor utsträckning kopplad till varubeteckningen: det finns kulturella varor som köps av konsumenter och publikprodukter som mediekonsumenterna blir själva genom att säljas som publik för de kapitalistiska mediernas reklamkunder.  Kommunikation är verkligen en viktig aspekt av ett samhälle utan dominans. Det är emellertid också i kapitalismen en form av interaktion, där ideologi med hjälp av massmedia görs tillgänglig för dominerade grupper. Kommunikation är inte automatiskt progressiv

Frankfurtsskolans teori och den kritiska politiska ekonomin i media och kommunikation har båda utvecklat kritik av mediekommunikationens roll i exploatering, som ideologiska medel och potentiella medel för befrielse och kamp. Båda traditionerna är värdefulla, viktiga och komplementära tillvägagångssätt för att kritiskt studera sociala medier

Ebba Metzmaa och Nicke Grozdanovski

Social media: A critical introduction

Kapitel 2

The terms ”social media” and ”web 2.0” has been popular to use when talking about certain applications of the world wide web like sites for social networking such as Facebook or Twitter and blogs. The term web 2.0 was established by Tim O´Reilly in 2005. Some of the most characteristic about web 2.0 are ”participation instead och publishing”, ”users as contributors”, ”rich user experience” and ”control of one´s own data” among others. Web 2.0 was born from a crisis of Internet economy in year 2000. The market values were high for many Internet companies and with little profit for them. Many Internet companies was going bankrupt due to the crisis called ”dot.com bubble.” So investors had to be convinced about that a company would come with profit in the future so web 2.0 was seen as something new and promising in this aspect and helped overcome the crisis. The crucial fact about web 2.0 according to Tim O´Reilly that the users is seen as a collctive intelligence and that they togheter create the platforms of the Internet.

Of course there are also some critiques about web 2.0 and the optimism about social media in general. Some of the critique is that:

”Web 2.0 is based on the exploitation of free labour.”

”Blogging is mainly a self-centred, nihilistic, cynical activity.”

”Web 2.0 users are more passive users than active creators.”

The chapter also goes through some definitions of web 2.0 and social media and argue that it is important with social theory in order to understand social media.

Media and social theory is also discussed saying that ”media are not technologies, but techno-social systems.” Human activities help create the knowledge that is produced and consumed with ”the artefacts of the technological level.” The Internet is based on both a technological infrastructure and humans interacting.

The chapter then continues to describing different sociologist wiev on sociality. Émile Durkheims thoguths about the social as social facts who states that a social fact is every way of acting. Applying this wiev on social media brings out that all media and software are social in the way that they are a product of a social process. Max Weber focuses on social action and social relations. Weber meant that if a social relation shall continue their must be a meaningful interaction between humans. Ferdinand Tönnies sees the social as a community built on co-operation in order to understand the social as collaboration. For Karl Marx ”co-operation is the essence of the social.” With help of this statement Marx discusses community and collaborative sides of a society.

Further the chapter explores how the web is social in the aspects of these sociologists statements. Based on this you can see that web 2.0 is ”a computer-based networked system of human communication.”

Isabella Larsson

Social media as participatory culture

Participatory culture is a term that we use, describing the involvement of users/audience/consumers in social media. So it could for example be by editing a text in Wikipedia or creating content on youtube etc. This model is often opposed to the mass media and broadcasting model which is more of a typical one sender and several recipients like the newspapers, radio or television. So the difference here is that the audience can be more active and create culture themselves rather than just being passive and listening. What the Internet analyst Clay Shirky, the Australian scholar Axel Bruns and the business consultants Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams all have in common in their statements is that they all talk about the positive aspects of social media. They all point out that these medias are capable of making a change in our culture and make our society more democratic. According to Henry Jenkins spreadable media are on the logic “if it doesn’t spread, it’s dead” and in this way, the audience of this media are actively shaping the media flow, and the culture becomes more participatory. Sharing this media in different ways like co-creating, reusing or remixing is according to Jenkins a manifestation of a gift to our economy. What Jenkins is talking about here is that spreadable media is empowering the consumers and is making them an important part of a commodity success. He argues that a long term benefit from this would be an expansion for different brands which will intensify the consumer's loyalty by increasing emotional attachment to this particular brand.

Nadia Ghorbani

Kap. 4 Sociala medier och kommunikationsmakt

Kapitel. 4 tar upp olika mediers förhållande till makten och hur den används och förändras. Utgångspunkten är Manuel Castells som är professor i sociologi vid Kataloniens öppna universitet i Barcelona, där han också styr Internetets interdisciplinära institut (IN3). Han är också professor i kommunikationsteknik och samhälle vid University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Communication

Makt är ett välkänt begrepp men kan tolkas och definieras på olika sätt beroende på vilken makt man talar om och vem som besitter makten. Fuch nämner i kapitlet många olika teoretiker som har sin egen definition av maktens betydelse. Detta är viktig kunskap när man diskutera de sociala mediernas betydelse i samhället. I Kapitlet tas följande delar upp socialt teori i Castells 'inriktning, begreppet kommunikationskraft, kommunikationsstyrka på sociala medier och kommunikationskraften i den arabiska våren och ockupationsrörelsen

1. Social teori Enligt Manuel Castells teori är socialt teori den systematiska utvecklingen och sammanhanget av att identifiera mönster i sociala relationer och handlingar och att förklara samhällets utveckling och struktur.

2. Kommunikationskraft: Här diskuteras det utifrån några teoretiker om hur den nätverksbaserade kommunikation kan användas som maktmedel. Fuchs har en annan uppfattning än Castells teori att människan inte kan försonas med varandra trots kärlek, utan samhällen formas och kännetecknas tyvärr ofta av våld och tvång och är därför ofta enligt Castells en del i maktförhållandena. Fuchs däremot menar att kärlek är en modell där många människor upplever känslor och därmed bli fyllda av värderingar och osjälviskhet som motverkar våld, dominans och tvång

3. Kommunikationsstyrka, sociala medier och masskommunikation: Här diskuteras mediernas olika möjligheter att kommunicera och hur man direkt eller indirekt utnyttjar sin maktposition till att påverka medborgarna. Man diskuterar sociala mediers betydelse och påverkan för medborgarna i jämförelse med traditionell media. Man tar upp tre olika slags maktpåverkande typer av medier

 Ekonomisk mediekraft: Mediekoncentration; Privat media äganderätt. Inverkan av företag på media via reklam. Marknadstryck för att producera homogent innehåll med stor överklagande; Innehåll som vädjar till rika konsumenter som gör det möjligt att en typ av åsikt domineras
Former av motkraft: Offentliga media, alternativa gräsrotsmedier, offentlig finansiering för alternativa medier.

Politisk mediekraft : Stora politiska intressen koncentreras i stora medieföretag. Stor påverkan på samhällsutvecklingen och den politiska debatten.
Former av motkraft:  Mediekontroll som säkerställer kvalitet, rättvis rapportering, mångfald, yttrandefrihet, sammansättning och åsikt. Alternativa nyhetskällor Statlig omfördelning av resurser från de mer kraftfulla till de mindre kraftfulla

Kulturell mediekraft- Kändisvärlden kan påverka samhällsdebatten i endera riktning. Medborgarna lyssnar till kändisarnas åsikter och glömmer bort att tänka själva
Former av motkraft: Skapande av motorganisationer som utvecklar motdiskurser och driver egna medier.

I samtliga tre typer av maktkoncentration har sociala medier en stor betydelse för att skapa en samhällsdebatt. Tyvärr går det inte alltid åt det positiva hållet har det visats sig på senare år. Många alternativa nyhetsfakta sprids och ibland rena lögner och myter för att skapa politisk debatt och föra samhällsutvecklingen till den riktning man önskar.. Detta är en farlig samhällsutveckling som man måste se upp med. Källkritik måste upp högt på agendan

4. Kommunikationskraften i den arabiska våren och ockupationsrörelsen. Våren 2011 utbröt frihetsrörelser i många länder i Norra Afrika och Mellersta Östern med olika slutliga resultat. Sociala medier hade stor betydelse för aktivisterna att nå ut både internt och externt när statlig media försökte strypa informationsflödet under demonstrationerna.

Fuch är väldigt kritisk till Manuel Castells teorier men framför allt hans slutsatser. Flera gånger argumenterar Fuch mot Castells och visar en annan sida av sociala medier. Fuch menar att Castells saknar den sociala teorin och är alltför teknisk i teorin. Han glömmer bort människan enligt Fuch och saknar en samhällig analys. Fucs menar att man ska förhålla sig kritisk till sociala medier men att analysen måste bygga på den verklighet som råder.

Nicke Grozdanovski

Chapter 5: The power and Political economy on Social media

5.1 & 5.2

To study power, one has to study both ideology and political economy. Making a critical analysis of the power structure of Twitter, one need to study both economy and ideological aspects. Participatory democracy theory have two main feature. First, the understanding that democracy is more than voting; for instance culture and economy are also areas of democracy. The theory is also questioning if participatory democracy and capitalism can work together.

Social media is not an open public sphere, it is a place colonialized by multimedia companies. People who celebrate social media as a democratic and political power tool, fail to see that they celebrate a capitalist ideology, they fail to see how the internet is shaped mostly by capitalist interests. Big companies own the social media sphere, and therefor they are the ones who decide what freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in social media is.

5.3 Capital accumulation and social media

Many companies use the Internet to target their customers in order to increase the income. By using Internet they can use different advertisements and many ads at the same time to different user groups depending on the users’ interests and online behavior. For advertisers internet is a good tool for reaching out to customers, because the advertisers can show more advertisement that are likely to fit the interests of the users in the same period as non-targeting advertising, for example the television. With the rise of user-generated content, free-access social networking platforms, that yield profit by online advertisement and have many users, the advertisement has a better effect on the customers. With users uploading photos and images, writing wall posting and comments, sending email to their contacts, accumulating friends or browsing other profiles on Facebook, they constitute an audience commodity that is sold to advertisers. In order to do targeted advertisement, the corporate web must monitor and record personal data and online activities and then store, merge and analyze the collected data. This allows them to create detailed user profiles and to know about the users’ personal interests and online behaviors. Social media that are based on targeted advertisement sell this information to advertisers to allow them economic surveillance. The more the companies are willing to pay, the more information they get from the internet users.

 5.4 Free labour and slave labour

With the Internet and social media also come a lot of problems. The existence of digital media is based on various forms of the exploited. Even if they all work with the same thing – digital media – but in various forms of labour, their value is based on how much profit they can give the advertisers. For example the ones with the highest salaries are the bourgeoisies of highly-paid workers in Internet companies. Then there are the low-paid precarious knowledge worker, unpaid Internet users and the highly exploited workers in developing countries. The ones with lowest value for the capitalists are the slave workers, with very little salary, who extract minerals that are used as raw materials in digital media. This also gives the problem with commercial social media, which idealize social media in order to detract attention from their class character. Or they simply want to advance the attraction of investors. In the end, it is all about profit. 

Erik Elmrud och Amanda Lindqvist

Chapter 6 - GOOGLE: GOOD OR EVIL SEARCH ENGINE?

-Overview

Many search engines were created in the beginning of the World Wide Web and Google is now one of the most well-used. This chapter will analyse Google on all aspects in its creation, power, employees, users and format.

-6.1 Introduction

Google is the most accessed website in the world among others. It is used in basically every everyday life situations. “To google” has become a new verb in several languages, in Swedish and English as prime examples.

-6.2 Google’s political economy

Founded in 1998 and became a public company in 2004. Since then it has expanded in profit, usage and made its owners and CEO(s) the wealthiest in America. Google wasn’t heavily affected by the economic crisis in 2008 but it’s value still dropped with millions of dollars. Funny enough did Google earn and make a lot of advertisement for other companies based on Google’s own user-data history. With a large company like this, does all the employees make a huge salary? No, only the founders and the CEO(s), and giving them 70-90 % of the power and voting. By not taking fees, Google exploits all their users and their content. The data Google contains either sells or are stored. Other than that Google lives on as a kind of economic surveillance.

-6.3 Googology: google and ideology

Google like to say they use the “20 % rule” in benefit of their employees to let them work on own projects. Ironically the projects will only be owned by Google as a company. Critique means employees are forced to live the “Google life” were work and fun projects will take up all their time with difficulty living outside of the company.

There are a few ideologies that exists thanks to the internet. Internet solutionism is one, “internet is the solution to the world’s problems”, and Oscar Gandy (2009) states algorithmic prediction and control might cause higher racism and separatism, or persecution. The control on the internet is shown in how panic is handled. Even for users, privacy isn’t optional. The information will be used for and against users and employees, if it isn’t sensitive data or personal information.

6.4 Work at Google

Is it really that good to work at Google? While advertising tasty food, interesting people visiting and fun projects (20 % rule), the darkness of long working hours are hanging. It shows off as a family-convention, calling each other Googlers, but estimates to create peer-pressure and performance anxiety.

6.5 Google: God and Satan in One Company

According to the author, Google is both the best and worst ever happening to the internet. The positive is how it can help people on many levels, but on the other hand it also has capitalism by the corner making these technologies and production relationships.

6.6 Conclusion

The author ends the chapter by stating that Karl Marx invented the internet and Google when it comes to what he has written about communication and information services, which makes Google’s founders only “idea borrowers”
.
Ebba Metzemaa

Kapitel 7 - Facebook: A Surveillance Threat to Privacy?

I kapitel sju tar författaren upp Facebook och hur de ser sig själva i samband med deras användares integritet. Kapitlet handlar även om den kraft Facebook har över samhället och hur Facebook blir sedd av vissa personer som en del av vardagslivet.

För många människor är Facebook ett ställe som de spenderar en stor del sina vardag på, även om det kanske bara är många korta stunder på varje dag. På plattformen skapar de nya relationer och håller kontakt gamla vänner. Plattformen blir använd av både gamla och yngre människor i samhället och det är mycket personlig information som blir utlagd av de som har en profil. Detta kräver att dess integritet är intakt och att den inte blir kränkt på något sätt. Att människornas information inte blir såld vidar till företag som vill ha den personliga informationen som finns där. Människor har rätt att välja vilken information som är tillgänglig för andra människor eller olika företag.

Facebook har inställningar där människor, som har egna profiler på plattformen, kan bestämma hur offentliga de vill ha sin information, som de väljer att lägga ut på sidan. De väljer om deras profil ska vara privat, att den bara ska kunna bli sedd av vänner och familj, eller om alla som har Facebook har möjlighet att se allt han eller hon har och kommer att lägga ut.

Facebook vill försäkra sina användare att de tar hand om deras data på ett bra sätt och att användare har full kontroll över privat kontroller. Men det finns inga kontroller för att tillåta användare att stänga av annonserares tillgång till deras data. Facebook säger att de inte delar med sig av användares information till annonserare, men målinriktad reklam är alltid igång.

Facebook är ett kapitalistiskt företag. Målet för dem är att nå finansiellt resultat. Företaget gör det med hjälp av målinriktad annonsering. Som betyder att dem skräddarsyr reklamen för att passa användarna med hjälp av den mängd av personliga ”likes”, både positiva och negativa som gör det möjligt för den övervakning av denna data att identifiera och analysera vilka produkter som användarna har störst trolighet att köpa. Annonsering är den största inkomst källan och att det är den vanligaste modellen för sociala plattformar. Facebook garanterar sina användare att de skyddar deras integritet medan de samtidigt möjliggör kommunikation av användarnas data i syfte att rikta in sig på annonsering. De säger att skyddar deras integritet samtidigt som de bryter integriteten för ekonomiska skäl. Det är oklart vem användarnas data blir delad med. Men datan blir utnyttjad för vinst tillverkning och därför av ekonomiska skäl.

Skaparen av Facebook säger att dess begrepp handlar om att världen kommer att bli bättre om du delar med dig mer än vad du normalt gör. Han vill hjälpa människor att, med hjälp av Facebook, skapa ett öppet samhälle. ”För att göra världen mer öppen och främja förståelse mellan människor. ”
Enligt författaren av kapitlet, och därmed resten av boken, gör Facebook inte världen till en bättre plats, den gör den mer kommersialiserad. Världen blir bara bättre för företagen som är intresserade av annonsering, inte för användarna.  

Emmeli Lönnberg

Chapter 8. Twitter and Democracy: A New Public Sphere.

A microblog is a development of the blog which is a website where postings are published, and where the latest postings are put first on the page. A microblog is a blog with shorter postings, and it is characterize by the more complex interaction pattern of the Web 2.0 social media. Certain users have followers, and thereby sends texts to certain people. Murphy have three characteristic traits of the microblog. First, the users publish short postings, and have a public profile. The postings are collected on the users’ page, and anybody can read it. The user decides what micro blogs to follow. Twitter and Weibo are the most popular micro blogs in the world.

Habermas has a definition of the public sphere. It is events and occasions that are open to all, all citizens have access. The public sphere is often where the political discussion takes place, and those discussions should be unrestricted, for instance these meetings should be characterized by the freedom to expression. Habermas idea of the public sphere has its roots in Marxian political theory. Habermas argues that private property is necessary to participate in the public sphere, but that the wageworkers are denied this. The bourgeois class also only serves their own interests. There is a critique that Habermas has to much focus on the bourgeois class. Feminist critique of Habermas concept is that women during history haven’t had access to the public sphere, and as a consequence today some groups form separated public spheres, and some argue that a true public sphere consists of many smaller public spheres. However, Garnham talks about the necessity for a bigger public sphere, he argues that it is better that there are fewer media that more people consume, than a lot of smaller with special interest, there is a need for some kind of unity in a society. Habermas argues that the public sphere is a place for public debate, and a place where a battle over property and intellectual skills takes place.

There are different views on social media, including Twitter, and what they do to the politics of the world. Clay Shirky argues that the social media is strengthening the freedom of assembly, and is opening up the public sphere. She means that the new social tools are making it easier for people to work together. Anybody can publish, and as a consequence of this freedom to publish there are freedom of (digital) assembly.

Zizi Papacharissi argues that social media is connecting the personal to the political. Before the private sphere was in a way isolated, now it is connected to the world. There are new ways to be politically active, participating on political issues on social media. Twitter has demolished the border between private sphere and the public political sphere, now the private is the political realm. However, she doesn’t talk about that real people in a crowd is more visible and threatening to the people with power.

Jodi Dean argues that social media has taken people to a state of post-politics. Papacharissi is talking about the new private political sphere. For Dean, this is the same as foreclosure of politics. Dean means that political activities on social media is something else than real political struggles in real life, that are more time-consuming and risky.

Malcolm Gladwell argues that real political struggle, in real life, is dependent on real ties and trust between people, and that online these ties are weak. Therefore, twitter activism only works when there are no risk involved.

Evgeny Morozov argues, in line with Gladwell, that Twitter is political activism for a lazy generation, there is no risk involved and, for instance, joining a Facebook group doesn’t have any real impact. Morozov means that the belief in “Twitter evolution” is based on cyber-utopianism, a view that denies the downsides of the internet and have the thought that the web will free mankind. Shirky argues that even if there are many barely committed actors on social media, committed political actors definitely can effectively use Twitter and Facebook in their political struggle. One could also notice that only 7 % of Twitter trend topics were political. Also, during the protests in Egypt, face-to-face communication, phone and broadcasting were more important.

Erik Elmrud

Chapter 9: WikiLeaks: Can we make power transparent?

9.1 WikiLeaks and power

WikiLeaks was founded by Julian Assange in the year 2006. It is a non-profit and non-commercial Internet platform that is funded by online donations. The purpose of WikiLeaks is that it is intended to make information about organizations that abuse power available to the public. Such documents can be uploaded anonymously by using an online submission form. WikiLeaks tries to make power transparent by leaking secret documents about political and economic power. 

In April 2010, WikiLeaks published a video that shows how the US air force kills civilians and journalists in Iraq. But this was not the only top-secret document that WikiLeaks published to the world. In fact, more than 90 000 top-secret documents have been visible to the public. This circumstance, that WikiLeaks has become a subject of world politics, has led to the discussion of the political power of the Internet and social media.

Michael Foucault’s theory about Surveillance implies that surveillance is a form of disciplinary power. Surveillance is knowledge about whether individuals behave as they should, in accordance with the rules or not. WikiLeaks’s goal is to make public knowledge about institutions in order to monitor them to see whether they behave in accordance with certain normative rules, for example to discover conspiracy, corruption, exploitation and oppression. Today Internet shapes the lives of many humans. It has become the new key to information, communication and co-production. Internet can be aid to be a “panoptic eye of power” and it allows the power to be reverse to those who are normally not the object of surveillance, for example WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is a way to give powers to those who usually don’t have power otherwise

9.2 WikiLeaks, Liberalism and Socialism

Liberalism has freedom as basic value and individualism as view of society. The economy is seen as a private property and the source of wealth is the capital. Private affairs are not controlled by the state and the culture is characterized by plurality of interests and worldviews. The political struggle is against regulating state. In contrast to Liberalism, Socialism emphasizes has equality as a basic value and sociality and solidarity as a view of society. The economy is seen as a collective ownership and the source of wealth is the “co-operation of creative human beings freed from exploitation”. The state and politics in Socialism is categorized by grassroots democracy and the culture is controlled by universal rights and interests. The political struggle is against capital interests, exploitation, capitalist state and ideology. WikiLeaks has a liberal ideology, because it sees big government as the main problem, which reflects the liberal tendency to never trust governments. It also has a strong focus on freedom and the value of information plurality with a focus on “good governance”, which means that open governments answers injustice rather than causing it and they expose and undo corruption.

9.3 WikiLeaks, Journalism and Alterative Media

A journalist is a paid person, who creates information of recent or current events of interests to the public. But journalism can also be any kind of information at the hands of professionals or amateurs, of journalists or citizens and of users or producers in a peer production. The most basic definition of journalism is “finding things out, then telling people about them via newspapers, radio, television or the Internet”. The problem with journalism is that it often, in many countries, gets censored by the government like in the case with WikiLeaks. But WikiLeaks is an alternative medium that makes use of Internet document leaking to try to make them available to the public. The worldviews of WikiLeaks give more weight to politics than to political economy and ideology critique. In order for WikiLeaks to become a critical, socialist watchdog medium it needs to acknowledge socialistic theories and practices and the radical critique of capitalism. So the answer to the question is yes, but it needs to undergo some changes in order for it to work properly. WikiLeaks is a first step of doing so. 

Amanda Lindkvist

Chapter 11

·       11.1 Social Media Reality: Ideologies and Exploitation

            Ideology

This part of the chapter talk a lot about how social media have been the cause and been painted the villain when it comes to violence by the mass media and how that is not the case. The reason for the violence have many different factors and all comes from different factors in our society per the same part of the chapter.

·         Exploitation

Here the problem with how politics, social media, the internet and money are intertwined is brought up again in shorter text and very cramped together. The text brings up Twitter as an example of a platform where politics plays a minor role but still have an influence.

·         Social Media: Anticipative and Limited Sociality

It is brought up that social media can’t be truly social when capitalism is still involved as it is today. How when social media platforms are owned by corporations, when humans have ownership over them, social media can’t truly be a free social experience for humans.

11.2 Social Media Alternatives

·         The Internet and the Logic of the Commons

Again, here the author brings up the capitalism side of the internet but it’s also brought up that the Internet should be a free and common place without any restrictions as it has now.

·         Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Crisis

The meaning behind, causes and reasons for neoliberalism is explained and summaries and we learn of what part capitalism and neoliberalism play in each other.

·         Struggles

The most important part of the third part under this title is that a need for consumer protection in cyberspace to be realized as a part of a policy that protects the information environment.

·         Data Protection Laws

Data Protection Laws are brought up as something that should be put in place to protect users on the internet to protect their personal information and an example involving Facebook in Ireland is used.

·         Opt-in Advertising Policies

The problems surrounding opt-in and opt-out solutions when it comes to corporations and advertisement on the internet.

·         Corporate Watch Platforms as a Form of Struggle against Corporatism

Throughout this whole chapter so far there have been a lot of talk about capitalism and corporations and what power politics and economy have over the internet and social media but this chapter brings up how they so called spy on us users and about websites that spy on them.

·         Alternative Internet Platforms

Alternative internet media is almost impossible to achieve if we are to listen to this chapter. It tells us that to create an alternative platform outside of capitalism you must create it within capitalism first, money is always needed in other words.

11.3 Towards a Truly Social Media and a New Society

This chapter and book ends with bringing up the theme that seem so run throughout the whole text which is privacy, capitalism, corporations and how before there will ever truly be a Social Media there have to be changes within the society in a whole.

Anna Good

Analys av hemsidor

Analysis of the British Library web page (https://www.bl.uk/)

The British Library (https://www.bl.uk/)

How well is the British Library website created and presented for the end user in terms of Web 2.0 characteristics? Web 2.0 is a lot about Social media and how users use these platforms to communicate. The main characteristics of Web 2.0 are: users’ participation instead of just publishing, users as contributors, radical decentralization, radical trust, rich user experience, the web as platform, control of one’s own data, remixing data, collective intelligence, attitudes, better software by many users, play and undetermined user behaviour (fuchs, 2013, p. 32).

When it comes to how user friendly British Library’s website is, there are a lot of interesting characteristics. For example, British Library has more than 14 million hits on Google. The user can follow British Library on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Instagram and Google+. Very often the library posts news on their website with the latest new about the library. On the website the user can also find links to the library’s blogs. According to the website, the library has 19 blogs. The user can also find information about British Library on Flickr and Wikipedia. Another interesting thing is that the users can give critiques on either Google or Facebook about their experience with the library. According to 505 users on Google, the British Library has received 4.5 stars out of five in total and according to 9 438 users on Facebook, the library has received 4.6 stars out of five in total. On Google the user can also see statistic, for example which days are the most busy ones. According to Google Wednesdays are the most busy days. Here the user can also write a comment whether this information is correct or not and the user can send this information to the cell phone. Even TripAdvisor has information about British Library and also here can the user give critique. Also here has the British Library received 4.5 stars out of five in total based on 2 836 votes. The British Library seems to use social media a lot to reach out to its users and the users in return can participate, contribute and use the web as a platform for communication. People can basically find the British Library almost everywhere on the web, which makes it very user friendly

  

 In the Web 2.0 it is important that web pages are easy to use and that they look inviting. It can be noticed that there is not much text on the top part of the page, the part of the page a visitor first sees when entering the page. There is a black background, and the text British library with relatively big white letters. Under that the text For research, inspiration and enjoyment. This appears to be the, in a way, slogan of this publically financed institution or “company”. On top of the page to the left, is the official logo. The logo looks like a flag hanging down, with red background and white capital letters. Then there is much space with no text, and to the right, a picture of two children reading. The impression of the page is “clean”. There are different categories on top of the page. Catalogues & collections has the sub categories Catalogues, Digital collections and How to get started, where the library educates the user in information search. The category Discover & learn has the sub categories Learning, Online resources and Highlights, where they pick some special objects from their vast collection. The category What´s on have the sub categories Members and Events. Then there are the categories Visit, Business support, Shop and Join, where one can become a member. One can notice that the library really is trying to make the web page inviting and easy to browse. They are trying to communicate the message that the library is for the library users, and they try to create a community, by the social media that is constantly present on the home page, and one can also become a member of the library.

En webbplats för massmedia - Wikipedia

sv.wikipedia.org

Ett exempel på en webbplats för massmedia är Wikipedia. Det är en webbplats där det finns tillgång till en stor mängd information och där går det även att själv lägga ut information om ett ämne som man tycker är viktig. Webbplatsen används som en lagringsplats för information i många olika ämnen. Det är en av de största webbplatser där man lagrar information, som finns på nätet. Webbplatsen har ingen annonsering av vad man kan se, så dess inkomstkälla är inte målinriktad annonsering.

Användaren är en bidragsgivare, av information, till webbplatsen. Det är både negativt och posetivt att använda sig av en webbplats där de tillåter sina användare att fritt lägga in information. Det tillkommer mycket ny information till hemsidan på detta sättet men information är inte alltid giltig, eftersom användarna kan skriva vad de vill och det är svårt att hålla reda på. Ibland är informationen inkorrekt, källan där informationen ursprungligen kommer ifrån är kanske dålig. Längst ner på webbplatsens startsida finns det information om dess integritetspolicy som berättar hur webbplatsen de sköter användarnas bidrag av information mer.

Det finns ingen direkt kontakt mellan användarna, inte som det kan vara på andra webbplatser. Det är inte en social webbplats, det inte en social plattform och den information du delar med dig kan andra användare både se och redigera utan ditt tillstånd eller webbplatsens skapare.

Webbsidan är enkel att använda, speciellt när man bläddrar, "browse", genom information. Du kan lätt gå från en källa till en annan, inom webbplatsen. I texterna, som finns på webbplatsen, finns det genvägar till andra texter med mer information som är kopplat till den ursprungliga sidans text. Genvägarna de är ord som är blåa. Det finns även genvägar brevid texten som går att klicka på. Det är också enkelt att navigera i webbplatsen.

För att göra informationsökningen enklare för individen, går det att ställa in sidan på olika språk. Det gör det enklare för användaren när han eller hon kan välja det är funkar bäst.

2.      A website that might be a direct competitor to the libraries:

An exampel of such a website is Goodreads www.goodreads.com. The headline of the website reads ”Meet your new favoritebook.” Beneath the headline are two questions for the visitor of the website: ”Deciding what to read next?” and ”What are your friends reading?”

The purpose of the website is to give people tips of what to read next and to find more of the book genres they like. On the website there is a long list of genres for the members to explore and search through. As a member you can also create bookshelves where you can list books that you have read and books that you want to read. You can update on what book or books you are currently reading so that your friends can see and get tips for what they might want to read next. Goodreads is a good website since it allows you as a member to keep lists of your books. As a reader you often have a very long to read list so with goodreads you can easily go through that list to see what you want to read next. But such websites as goodreads might be a direct competitor to libraries. Now the users of a library can sit at home by their computers and find out what books they want to read and easily order them online. The need to go to the library to find new books fades.

The website Goodreads is well presented for the end user according to characteristics of web 2.0 since you as a member of the site can be a part of creating it while creating your profile and your own bookshelves which other users can see and get inspired from. It is a very social website beacuse you as a user shares your books with other users and rewiev books so that your followers can find new interesting things to read. It is a social platform for people with a common interest. The web becomes a platform according to the characteristics of web 2.0. And trhough this you as a user get a richer user experience since you can share your reading with others. A richer user experience is also one of the main characteristicts of web 2.0. Also the users are contributors to this website since they are a part of its creation and formation.

4. En webbplats för en offentlig, icke-kommersiell institution eller organisation som en statlig organisation, icke-statlig organisation (förutom bibliotek).

Jag har valt att analysera och titta på Emmaboda kommuns hemsida www.emmaboda.se Kommunernas hemsidor har olika syften för användarna så det är viktigt att framsidan är tydlig och lätt att söka sig vidare på. Här uppfyller Emmaboda kommuns hemsida det syftet för informationssökande människor. Oavsett om syftet med besöket på hemsidan är söka arbete, få information om olika kommunala tjänster och verksamheter, söker information om olika turistmål, olika boendetyper, politiska företrädare och beslut mm hittar man enkelt vägar till den sökta informationen på hemsidan. En bra sökfunktion finns också där man med hjälp av valfritt sökord kan hitta den information man söker.

  Trots det är informationssökning ett av det svåraste kommunikationsmedlen på en hemsida. Detta beror naturligtvis på att vi människor är olika och olika duktiga på digital informationssökning. Därför är det viktigt att fler kommunikationsmöjligheter finns där besökarna kan hitta telefonnummer till ex. kommunväxel och andra kontaktmöjligheter som mail och fax för att därifrån lotsas vidare till aktuell person som kan hjälpa den sökande att få information eller hjälp på annat sätt. Det finns även möjlighet att översätta hemsidan till massa olika språk och det är viktigt för nyanlända och turister. Det finns även möjlighet att få hemsidan uppläst. Viktiga tillgänglighetsfaktorer som gör att man inte utestänger någon från information. Överst på sidan finns viktiga sökverktyg för att lotsas vidare till den verksamhet man söker. Klickar man på en av t ex ”Utbildning och barnomsorg” får man ytterligare valmöjligheter som gör att man snart hittar rätt oavsett om det är gymnasieskola eller förskola man söker. https://www.emmaboda.se/utbildning--barnomsorg.html.

  En kommuns hemsida är informativ och kan vara en djungel om man är ovan. Men lär man sig använda den så finns det oändlig med information för den behövande. Det är viktigt att uppdatera en sådan informativ hemsida ofta och hålla den ständig aktuell. Det är också viktigt att hemsidan ser bra och gärna med vackra bilder från kommunen eftersom en kommuns hemsida är ett ansikte utåt.

 På en hemsida förmedlas det nyheter som berör kommunen, allt ifrån kriser till uppmaningar om bevattningsförbud. Därför är det viktigt att använder sig av den för att hålla sig uppdaterad av det som händer.

  För den som är intresserad av samhällskunskap finns här mycket att hämta om hur en kommun fungerar och är uppbyggd. Nämnderna och kommunfullmäktiges dagordningar och protokoll publicerar så varje kommuninvånare kan läsa om vilka beslut som har fattas. Finns även kontaktuppgifter till de folkvalda politikerna.

  Sidan är helt reklamfri men man kan hitta länkar till de kommunala bolagen och till Glasmuseet i Boda Glasbruk ”The Glassfactory”.

5. A website of an association - Växjö Domkyrka

https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/vaxjo/vaxjo-domkyrka-

We have chosen a church website, Växjö domkyrka, and at first glance the website seem easy to use. The website uses cookies and tells you that right away when you bring up the website, but unlike other websites in our own experience they have a page where they explain what cookies is, what it does, a link to the laws around cookies and how not to have it be used on your computer in link to this website.

When it comes to commercials or advertisement, there are nothing to be found. There are only a contact information box to the right with contact information for the church and it’s staff and a virtual picture of the church’s inside made by Google maps. On the left side of the page there are a column who expands and shows information like the Swedish Church’s graveyards, Swedish Church in Växjö, help and support for yourself and others, more contact information, coming events, other churches and information about the Christian faith. On the same left side there are icons showing that you can search with your own words on the web-page, see what kind of events are in the church’s calendar, an icon to change web-page and a direct-contact icon called “prata med oss”. Further down on the page you can see the opening hours, hours for baptism and marriage ceremonies and finally information about the church’s history, legend, style, seats and instruments visible in the building.

This is a website very well designed to make it as easy as possible for its users and information is very easy to find and don’t take long to find what you’re looking for. It has columns to the left and on top of the screen with a picture of the church beneath it with the Swedish Church logo on top. The meaning of this website is to give information about the churches, their work and how you can use them for your benefits (marriage, funerals and your child’s baptism). Other positive traits the web-page has is its language options. What we think are positive traits on this web-page are that the language options are very helpful. You can switch from Swedish to English, switch those languages to a talking device who tells you what the text says if you have difficulties with reading of any kind or prefer to listen instead of reading. The most exciting thing is that the web-page has sign language as an option.

We don’t think the church gains a profit on the website itself but a website costs money to uphold and here in Sweden people donate money to the Swedish church and our suspicion is that some of that money is used to run and uphold the different church websites for Swedish churches. What we do think gains them in profit is that they are large and modern enough to even have a web-page with multiple layers. With layers, we mean the web-page covers several other churches in the Swedish Church association.