MetaFilter and Citizen Journalism in the 9/11 Attacks

Over the past many weeks, our class has analyzed specific case examples of the Internet's role in providing a tool for ordinary individuals to contribute to journalistic dialogue as events emerge. One of the benefits of using the Internet to studying citizen journalism is that fact that, to a large extent, many instances of citizen and witness journalism can still be found in their archived real-time state. The website MetaFilter, which has been in operation since 1999, is a great example of being able to 'go back in time' and track real-life responses to famous events as they occurred.

The MetaFilter entry for September 11th, 2001 provides for a particularly interesting, if not immensely haunting, analysis of eyewitness reports coming together through a unified electronic medium to coordinate information on a large scale. The first post on MetaFilter occurred at 8:58am, twelve minutes after the first plane hit the north tower (listed at 5:58am in the post, Pacific Time). Following the comments in the thread, one will find users chiming in, trying to gather as many details as possible. Only a few comments down, user TNLNYC posted at 9:06am (6:06 PST) that a second plane hit the South tower, an event which had occurred only three minutes prior. Commentators begin speculating almost immediately as to who perpetrated the attacks, and whether or not they were attacks in the first place. cCranium posted the first image in the thread at 9:33am (6:33am PST), which although taken from the website of a traditional news organization, represents an early use of using social media to spread multimedia and imagery about disasters.

In terms of commentary, one of the most striking moments of foreshadow comes from user ktheory, who states that "our focus (as Americans) must not only to bring justice to those organizing this attack, but on preserving civil liberties. During peacetime, it's easier to be socially conscious and live morally. I'm most concerned that an event this drastic will cause many to replace ideologies based on reason with ideologies based on fear." Furthermore, user Doug posted at 9:51am (6:51am PST) that "This is going to be a big turning point in the history and character of this country," which is followed by reports only minutes later that the south tower had just collapsed, the first of the buildings to fall. More than functioning as a mere log of events, comments such as these demonstrate the emergence of sentiments that would later permeate our discourse surrounding this particular historical event.

MetaFilter itself is unique in that it does not represent, in straightforward terms, an "open" and free web. Since 2004, MetaFilter has charged a $5 sign-up fee for creating an account, which although potentially limiting to some users and demographics, prevents a flood of troll and spam accounts. The site also features relatively strict guidelines, aimed at maintaining the site's purpose as a literal "filter" for the most interesting content on the web. Thanks to these restrictions, MetaFilter has remained a niche community, though its simplicity and ability to foster discussion nonetheless allow it to access as a hub for eyewitness reporting when important events and disasters occur. In this sense, it becomes a moderated, yet very much fruitful, outlet for the facilitation and preservation of discussion. In doing so, users nowadays can explore these time capsules of dialogue surrounding major events since the beginning of the last decade, providing a valuable resource not only for studying the emergence of early Internet citizen journalism, but also for discovering the rhetoric that surrounded such events within the discussion of ordinary individuals.

A Closer Look at a Real-Life Form of Immersive Journalism

This week, Nonny de la Pena of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism, joined us in class to discuss some of her latest projects, including Hunger in L.A., which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and to teach us a little bit more about the up and coming idea of 'immersive journalism.' As we've noticed the shift to digital journalism, we see more technology related projects popping up in the industry.

While researching more examples of immersive journalism, I stumbled upon Condition ONE.

Condition ONE is an immersive video player for the iPad, which allows users to simulate being in another environment - one that is not quite virtual, that we saw in Nonny de la Pena's work, but rather a world that was captured using real video footage. For example, Condition ONE has video footage depicting soldiers in battle and the Occupy movement protests. Condition ONE is interesting and unique in that unlike other news organizations who specifically formulate their existing news and layouts to fit mobile devices, such as smartphones, iPads, and tablets, this application was built specifically for the iPad, so there's no need to readjust-to-fit, so to speak. Christian Pilling, of Condition ONE, said, "Condition ONE is, instead, new content, which requires a new syntax and grammar. Groundbreaking in technology, Condition ONE has a lot of potential to really simulate other environments for its users. Like Nonny de la Pena's work, a demo of Condition ONE was available at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, to an excited and interested audience. 

In comparison to the type of immersive journalism that Nonny de la Pena does with the virtual 'Second Life' type environment and avatars, this type of journalism is a bit more realistic with its real-life footage. However, the 'immersive' part may be lacking in comparison, simply because, as shown in the video above, you can easily see the environment you're standing around as you watch the footage on your iPad screen. It appears to be much less intense, because it's almost as if you're watching a movie instead, but from a cameraman's first person perspective. There are no headsets or gear involved, just you, your iPad, and Condition ONE. There's a lot of progress to be made with this program, but the sheer potential of this type of immersive journalism is overwhelming, and I'm sure we will see many more news stories portrayed in this manner very soon.

Blog because you want to, but also to prevent Alzheimer's Disease... and even worse Dementia!

Blogging has been used all around the world for many purposes: informing, updating, venting, persuading, and promoting ideas and thoughts. The age of blogger's are anywhere from 13-45. Today, we can now add seniors (55 and up) to the world of blogger's and for the purpose of medical and health prevention. Seniors with Alzheimer's have been blogging to slow down the disease and prevent Dementia. Seniors that blog have been able to recall events and tasks, reminding them of what they did

Rebecca Logsdon, clinical psychologist and researcher at the University of Washington's Department of Psychosocial and Community Health says, "Web logs and e-mail can be an excellent way for people with AD to maintain family and social contacts, and to counter the depression that often accompanies their illness... We just don't know if the Internet directly impacts brain functioning," Logsdon said. "But even if it doesn't, it may slow down the debilitating consequences of the disease."

After working with seniors (5 years), I believe there is some truth to what Logsdon suggests about blogging. Seniors often learn quickly and feel a sense of accomplishment when completing projects like making lists or playing card games online. We can now add seniors to the generation of blogger's because they are armed with keyboards and ready to share and re-live precious moments to share with the world, and more importantly themselves.

Military Games: A Multimedia Recruitment Tool

While a misleading headline like “Terrorist Video Game” may quickly grab your attention, a similar, yet true story like “Government Funded Military Shooting Game” for actual recruitment has avoided public interest until now. This summer marks the 10-year anniversary in which the US Army’s publicly funded game project, known as America’s Army, designed to provide the “public a virtual Soldier experience that was engaging, informative and entertaining,” has been in existence.

However, what steps out as most important in our case as 'digital natives' is America’s Army as a political game or alternative media influence. In contrast to this week’s reading in which author Michael Sicart stated "[newsgames] utilize the medium with the intention of participating in the public debate,” political games are explicit in limiting player interaction, like only playing for Team America. 


Unlike the chronic media reports of video games as detrimental and threatening to society, the military has contradicted itself in comparison to the Pentagon case on terrorist videos games as propaganda and recruitment tools. Yet with liaisons to the military, news outlets fear releasing such investigative stories for fear of the military ceasing it supply of stock footage, which is why the story isn’t so known.

As for the game itself, the military has gone extensive lengths to ensure its massive success. Among the many accolades it has received, from Best Use of Tax Dollars to Most Realistic Game of the Year, the Guinness Book of World Records awarded it the most downloaded War Game in 2008.

Soldiers: Official US Army Magazine

The concept of military games isn't new at all. According to author Carrie McLeroy of Soldiers Magazine, "Gaming has long been an important tool used by militaries to assist in training, analysis and mission readiness" and games have been used for thousands of years.


Despite not being a newsgame, America's Army remains essential to our class discussion because it demonstrates how the US Government and military devise alternative media methods to achieve their political agendas.

The Digital World: Moving from Society into the Classroom

In Vineet Monahan’s article “The Digital Transformation of Education: A 21st Century Imperative,” Monahan discusses Apple’s partnership with McGraw-Hill, one of the major suppliers of educational material, to introduce textbooks especially designed for the iPad. There are many pros and cons to this notion and whether it will help students in grades K-12 to learn material. Critics to the collaboration examine the monetary problems affecting many school districts across the United States, as well as how this new technology will change students learning habits and whether students will take learning seriously if they are being taught through this new medium. On the other hand, supporters of this new partnership recognize that today’s children have been introduced to technology from a very young age; therefore, bringing technology into the classroom only reflects this exposure.

Monahan is in support for bringing technology into the classroom, and I agree. Over the past fifty years, society has made a dramatic transformation, yet our school systems continue to rely on outdated teaching strategies. If we want our younger generations to develop and society to expand, it is important that our nation changes the classroom dynamics by introducing aspects of modern day life. Monahan states that “One thing I’ve learned throughout my career in education is that students thirst for connections between what they’re learning in the classroom (and how) and what they see happening in the real world. Bringing technology into the classroom helps them draw these parallels and keeps them interested in what they’re learning.”

If the future of our country is in the hands of the youth, the cost for integrating new technological advances in the classrooms shouldn’t be an issue. As a society, we need to exhaust every possible solution to the dwindling education system that is failing our country. 

If You Can't Beat Them Join Them

{Photo credit: http://www.dudelol.com/grandma-on-facebook/}

Although some elderly people are frustrated with social media and feel isolated from it; others are embracing it and taking the approach "If you can't beat them join them!" This article brings to light the ways older generations are using social media outlets such as Facebook to keep in touch with their grand kids and other relatives and feel more involved in their lives. The article jokes "That next friend request could be grandma."

 http://www.insidefacebook.com/ is a website that keeps track of its users data and analyzes how facebook is being used; it has found that it's fastest growing demographic is women over the age of 55. These women could include everything from grandma wanting to see her grand kids faces or a mom - stalking her kids while they are away at college. The point is this crowd is using facebook as a tool to keep informed. Unlike Facebook's younger users who often join Facebook to connect with current friends in high-school or college Facebook's older users are drawn to the possibility to connect with friends they have not seen in years and family members who they do not see often enough.

It is more difficult for some older users to learn how these social media outlets work, but generally once they have the will and patience to learn they become more comfortable with it. It can be a foreign concept to some because they are not accustomed to technology and because of the way it is taught. An elderly women in the article comments "Most things in the world we learn from elders, but technology is the realm we learn from the younger generations." Older generation are being taught the ins and outs of social networking sites by their younger relatives or now many Senior Citizen living communities are offering classes on it as well. Some older generations tend to shy away from social networking sites is because they feel it is an invasion of privacy and it may feel uncomfortable and unnatural broadcasting certain information about themselves. Because of this, older Facebook users are more likely to comment on others postings and photos than initiate. As the older generations become more comfortable with Facebook, some claim other sites such as Twitter are still very intimidating for them and they do not see themselves participating in the near future. They are taking baby steps to become a more tech savvy crowd.

Childrens learning games and apps

    In this world of quickly advancing technology it is not surprising to see young children navigating cell phones, iPods and iPads, or having their own child-friendly versions of hand held devices. Children are often among the quickest to learn and are often most fluent at using the devices. However, it can be very concerning when children pick up items like books or magazines and do not really know how to use them properly. This video is a perfect representation of this concern:

    Rafe Needleman from CNET continued this type of discussion as it concerns apps that are geared toward children, even teaching apps. He explained that although there are many apps out there available to children's learning, they may in fact be teaching them the wrong way. He explains that children are engaging in these learning apps, and although they may acquire a few facts along the way these games are not so much about learning as they are about becoming addicted to the game.
    Children are growing up in a world where computers, iPads, iPods, and smart-boards are all part of their learning experiences in school, doing many of their projects on these devices, even homework assignments are online with websites like StudyIsland, and Learning Upgrades. These sites although educational can provide games as a way of learning. This can be problematic because as Needleman explained "the real world is not a game". The biggest concern is that children learn to treat their education like they treat their video games, searching for the fastest, easiest ways to get things done, looking for shortcuts and simply memorizing things without really learning them. Needleman seems to think that these types of apps and games are not applicable to the "real-world". He suggests sites like DIY because it involves both physical world and digital world interaction for learning to take place.
    This concern over the digital world of education is very real, it is something that many parents think about, but that is not to say that this concern is needed. Although it may seem to us that children having so much involvement in the digital world is bad, that may not be the case. Children have the opportunity to engage and learn these new technologies as they arrive, they will have the skills needed to live in a world that relies so heavily on digital technology to accomplish most tasks. This new generation will be able to handle technology far greater than our generation, they will be the true "digital natives", knowing the ins and outs of how the technology works and how to properly use it all. The apparent dependency is not unlike our dependency on the telephone to communicate quicker and easier than the written letter, This fear of  these children, this new generation, and their deep connection to technology is something we cannot really relate to, something we may fear simply because we do not understand it as well as they do.

I used to read and now I skim

When I was in high school reading was one of my favorite past times, in fact it was my only past time. I grew up in a household that had no accessible television or internet. My father had a computer in his office that I was not allowed to use and my mother had a TV that she used to watch terrible VHS movies that I didn't want to watch anyways. My parents always told me that if I was bored then I should pick up a book, study, or go play sports. When I went to school my friends would always talk about the latest show or internet phenomenon and I had no clue what anyone was talking about. But, when a reading assignment or book report was due, I was the first one to have it read and completed. Also, I didn't just read books, I ingested them. I read every word and could interpret meaning even in the most complicated Shakespearean plays. This intense reading was coupled with an incredible ability to concentrate and focus on words, meaning, and subtext.
This all changed when I went away to college and bought a laptop. With this new, modern tool I discovered how to do slacker reading and research. Any information that I wanted was all of a sudden a click away. Instead of having to do hours of reading and research for a project or report I simply had to Google it. My projects took half as long and I began to search for the most expedient way to complete each educational task. I had became, what I called a skimmer. Since the information became more and more expedient I became more and more obsessed with getting it faster. Nothing was fast enough for me, not even reading the articles that were made readily available. No instead of reading it, I simply extracted the quote or passage that I needed for my project and dumpted the rest. I love this new way of doing work. I takes me no time at all and I don't have to do all of that pesky reading. My mother noticed my new lifestyle and she told me it was very bad and that I should read the old fashioned way. But this new way is much better, now i have the time to do what i want.                

How I Get My News

I must admit back in the good old days I used to enjoy going to Starbucks after a long day of school and just sit there with my large (i hate saying venti what is up with that why not just say large...) white chocolate peppermint mocha frapp (not the healthiest choice oh well) and sneaking away with a copy of the NY Times.  It became sort of a weekly ritual while I was in Junior College and even though I never really retain news for very long i did enjoy feeling like a badass intellectual sort of person.  Even though I kept this up for a good two years spending way to much money on coffee I eventually fell out of this tradition.  Like I have said I've never really been much to care about the news I usually just stumble upon a story and become interested in it but something changed all of that something happened that even the newspapers couldn't compete with for my attention.  This amazing thing is the smartphone.

Once I got my first smartphone I downloaded a BBC news app and instantly fell in love with it.  I loved checking the news and seeing what was going on in the world because with so many choices I always found some category that interested me.  I remember a discussion that we had in class about how print media is becoming obsolete and I wanted to raise my hand and say something but I was a bit to shy, but what I always have thought is that with the convenience of an app on my phone that gives me the news and also how this generation seems to prefer reading from screens rather then paper it seems nothing but natural that we are moving to an online form of news.  Its so much easier to carry around the news in my phone rather then walk around with a newspaper sticking out of my back pocket.  Someday the nostalgic sense of print media will be lost to the generation before mine but in the big scheme of things does it really matter, I mean all things come and go, is it so important that print media remain an important tool of journalism? My answer to that would be No because what is important is that the news be made and that journalists continue to spread their stories around the world to as many people as possible whether they see it on tv, read about it online or on their phones, hear it over the radio, or read about it in the paper.  What matters is that the news is available, and well to me it is.

An Era of Internet Commodification

A commodity has been commonly defined as "any unprocessed or partially processed good." Accordingly, before the advent of the Internet, the word "commodity" commonly described things such as grains, fruits, vegetables & precious metals. Enter, "the Internet." Art, music, journalistic sources and even friendships can now be attributed with the ideology(of commodity) that circumvents the goods mentioned above. In layman's terms, art, music, journalistic sources and friendships are now becoming "commodified" by the Internet. And what does this possibly mean?

Take journalistic sources for example. In the first two weeks of class, we discussed the potential downsides attributed with digital journalism. As this new form of storytelling overthrows traditional print journalism, articles are consistently being put-out at a rate that our once "sluggish," journalistic world has never seen before. Anyone can post anywhere at any time. With this sudden influx of stories & opinions, we have to be aware that the "professional on paper" aspect of journalism is exponentially decreasing, meaning, the credibility of sources has become a big issue. Another way of thinking about this idea is that many "unprocessed or partially processed" individuals are writing journalistic pieces, a privilege once held by the credentialed individuals ruling over professional journalism's prose-filled world.

Another example would be from "Why parents should educate their kids about tech," in which Scott Steinberg considers the meteoric rise of social networks and how they shape our children's experiences. He explains, "only six years ago, before Facebook opened to the general public in September 2006, the term "friend" typically described neighborhood pals and schoolmates." As for today, it can just as easily reference hundreds of peers, potential crushes or even random strangers. Our kids interact online with these people, some of whom we will never meet. Facebook, one of the bigger faces of the Internet today, has commodified human relationships.

In my personal opinion, the Internet opens up the doors to boundless opportunities. However, with the role that technology now plays in our everyday lives, there are certain ethical factors and potential dangers that we have to be aware of, while we proceed with caution.

A Blog's use as a News Source

According to the Digital Journalism seminar discussion, not all people born into the "digital age" should be considered "digital natives", since that's not a guarantee that one is naturally tech savvy. Palfrey's three-step process is more believable of an average internet user's online research process than the usual assumption that most users merely read blogs as their news source and cease further research.



One blog in particular is apparent in encouraging further research of a topic in every post he writes. Instapundit, a popular blog created by Glenn Reynolds, touches on several subjects including politics, mass media and the War on Terror.

Many of Reynolds' posts consist of one statement but half of the statement will be a link to another article talking about the topic. Although Reynolds' wit and quickness of distributing posts initially gain readers' interest about the topic, providing a link or several links in the post to longer articles further encourages readers to become knowledgable about the topic. 

Although most blogs provide biased opinions about their chosen topic, that does not mean blogs should be written off completely as a source of information.

I agree with Palfrey's assertion that part of a blog's function is providing a starting point for research of a particular subject or topic that sparks the interest of the reader. However, it is up to the reader to find more accurate and objective text/media on the subject in order to gain concise knowledge to form their own opinion, and to possibly spread their own newly-formed opinion through their own means of communication; whether in a social networking site, their own blog, etc.