1) Invasion of the “Digital Natives”
Apparently I ‘m a ‘digital native’. I didn’t know it until yesterday, but that’s what I am. Those on the other side of an apparently vast generational divide, who must actively seek out the tools so readily at the disposal of the digital natives, are classed as the ‘digital emigrants’. It is highly likely that your parents fall into the latter category; mine certainly do (heck I can send a sms, whilst my parents despise the thought of even turning on a mobile phone!). Regardless, this is my life now; I sense a new frontier approaching after having the realisation that I belong to the digital native tribe.
But what the flichen is a digital native really? It is true that I and my digitally native colleagues have been presented with a textbook definition of what it means to be a digital native. However, I suppose I have only to observe my own behaviour to discover what it really means to be classified as a digital native. Today in the Introduction to Media tutorial we were told that one simple method of creating a ‘professional portfolio’ would be to buy a small book and fill it out with our thoughts and observations from our daily immersion in the big splashy realm of the media. Despite this, I thought it would be easier to start a blog rather than use a more traditional medium. My parents don’t get blogs,; and as such find them relatively inaccessible. Case closed; divide observed.
Hence from this point on I shall attempt to maintain a blog that not only record aspects of my life, but also the lives of others, and their representation in the media, as well as other occurrences in the media that I find particularly interesting or intriguing. Whilst I believe there is a distinct elegance in utilising a medium to discuss the issues of that medium, in this case the internet, I will not restrict my blog to a discussion of the purely ‘digital’, and I’ll try to record aspects of print, television, radio and myriad other forms. Yay for the prosumer, viva the presentational, and Horay for professional development peoples!
2) Curious Rabbit Hole.
The ‘media’, in a general sense, encompasses an immense landscape. The internet, I believe, is emerging as its most predominant landmark, yet paradoxically as it develops and becomes more familiar to more and more people, it becomes stranger and stranger.
Recently Viacom, a parent company to MTV challenged Youtube in a bid to have the site remove all content originating from the music channel, or any of its other subsidiaries. Now to me Youtube represents free media; a shift from members of the community acting as consumers toward being ‘prosumers’; media by the people for the people….or whatever. However, as Youtube has progressed from an infantile website, into a highly publicised and popular cyber destination, it has regressed in its ability to provide freedom, and its boundaries have become more solidly defined. This is horrible, because for a long time I enjoyed watching MTV’s animated sitcom Daria on Youtube, which is not currently available on DVD in Australia. Now obviously MTV won, and rightly so; Daria and other material have been removed, yet I find this quite ironic. While MTV attacked Youtube, due to a lack of licensing to its content, it failed to provide a DVD of Daria and thus fill the void it has created by scolding Youtube’s presentation of the program. A DVD release is stalled by the licensing problems associated with the music it borrowed over the years to complement the show’s wonderful animation and dialogue. Is MTV practising what it preaches?
On another note, some things that have saddened, yet have also intrigued me recently, are the tragic events surrounding Carly Ryan’s death, and how these events have influenced and have been influenced by the internet. The story has been covered extensively by various digital print websites including ABC; http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1854715.htm.
One interesting element is the negligence of the mainstream media, and the current coverage of the issue itself. Brandishing labels such as ‘emo’ and ‘goth’, the mass media has extensively utilised Carly’s Myspace to construct an image of her. It would seem that the mass media believes Carly’s online existence and real existence were indistinguishable, and that for much of the media, Carly provided a definitive depiction of herself through Myspace.
Undoubtedly legal proceedings will eventually arise from the current investigations. To what extent then, will the current actions of the media hinder the course of justice in the future? Does the media have a responsibility to provide a more balanced representation, that does not focus predominantly on an identity created (and I use this deliberately as one does literally create their identity on Myspace) on the internet?
Seemingly, Carly’s Myspace has emerged as an important tool is ascertaining who was involved with her death, and much emphasis has been placed on this source of information in the media. However, I would imagine that police involved in the investigation, or journalists tracking the story would be immensely frustrated by the extensive control of information Myspace users possess. For example, I have read several times on various news sites remarks such as the following;
“… Most of those MySpace sites - which pay tribute to Carly and could potentially hold vital clues to investigating detectives - have been blocked by their creators to everyone but her tight-knit group of friends.”
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21272701-5006301,00.html
And…
“The blocked profiles have become an obstacle for detectives, who believe the pages could possibly hold vital clues.”
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=228930
Is this a subtle cue from the media for Myspace users to alter the accessibility of their profiles? It is quite possible that this is yet another example of an emerging social divide, and the influence of ‘digital revolutions’. For many digital natives and informed digital emigrants Myspace is a world of its own, with rules and laws of its own; that can obviously be misunderstood and misinterpreted by uninformed digital emigrants. If someone sets a profile to private – it is private! The law of our material world does not pervade this virtual world and hence police cannot easily open these avenues of inquiry, as they would in a normal case. Perhaps we are beginning to see the implications of the digitalisation of social interaction, and perhaps the digital emigrants will have to adapt to this ever-changing landscape, developing new methods of penetrating the new virtual barriers that guard information, within this landscape, that have not previously existed.
