#Revolutions

Egypt, a land and word recognized and associated with beautiful monuments and pyramids. will now be associated with a particular date too... Jan 25th seems to be a huge date for the recent surge in a number of uprisings currently taking place across Africa and more western middle east countries. But more importantly, this date is credited by Egyptians, due to their impressive tweeting ability. Their uprising and outing of president Hosni Mubarak, was sparked firstly by a revolution in Tunisia.

The Tunisians gathered together to rid of a corrupt government. This started by a regular citizen, Mohamed Bouazizi, a man, struggling to make a living, was harrassed one day by police about his fruit and vegetable stall he owned. From the public embarrassment he endured, he committed a self Immolation act, out of desperation, outside a government building. This led to a mass protest over the already corrupt regime that controlled Tunisia, with unemployment and poverty fueling the fire of the protest, and also the lack of human rights.

This one self immolation act started demonstrations in Egypt, with the hopes of the people being able to out corrupt president Hosni Mubarak. It came after reports of rigged elections, a rise in prices nationwide, unemployment of the youth coming out of education and personal enrichment of Mubarak himself among the politically elite while the citizens perished. But the main catalyst for the rebellion was the successful campaign of the Tunisians successfully overthrowing their autocratic ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, which gave Egyptians courage to try the same to overcome their repression.

The Egyptians fought this war, not with violence, but with social media. Twitter and Facebook were utilized by the people to fight against their leaders in a bid to regain their human dignity. Everyday, meeting points, discussions, and vital information was passed through these social media sites, to gain the upper hand, and keep their numbers up, and most importantly, let other nations and the world know their plight, what they stand for, and that they are not going to be repressed by a corrupt leader in power.

Mubarak was listening to the people, he compromised and vowed to step down at the next elections which were due in September. But the people wanted his reign over with now, when demonstrations were taking place. After seeing the trouble caused by protesting citizens, a new government was formed and sworn in. During the forming and protesting, three days in, the internet was abolished, switched off in the country, due to its incredible power of community and togetherness. This was a huge blow to protesters in Egypt. Without a way to communicate and share information they were at a loss, and looking bleak. But from nowhere, anonymous people, who heard their plight, form all over the world, due to their social networking, came to their rescue and offered them vacant router addresses so they were able to connect to the internet once more. This in my opinion, after researching and reading, was the pinnacle turning point in a dying protest. It just goes to show the power of the internet and social media, all over the world.

After 18 days of protest in Egypt, President Mubarak resigned. This whole event in history will be remembered as a fight won with social media, and the internet. It shows how powerful the web and social networking can be. Its impossible to control, or shut down for that matter, the sheer size and speed that social networks command is enormous, and out of the reach and control of any government. It is impossible, and the fact that it was made at a last ditch effort to stop the revolution shows its massive impact in civilization, I mean, what would regular citizens, consumer and entrepreneurs do without access to the internet in their own country, they were only shooting themselves in the foot. This whole episode showed the world that, social media is huge, and its here to stay.

Moral panics surrounding Social Networking

Social Networking is a phenomenal breakthrough for the internet and social interaction, with the possibility to make new friends and come closer to friends you already have. It is truly a phenomenon of our time.

But with the ability to meet and greet all over the world and make friends isn't as clean cut or as innocent as people may seem. Over the years, many different events and scandal has taken place due to social networking. One such event that was made famous worldwide and even made it into prime time news, it was the time a teenager in Australia, posted on facebook that he was throwing a party in his house while his parents were away. It was just supposed to be a small get together he said. But rather turned into a couple of thousand of rowdy party goers attending and destroying their property which left the family with thousands of dollars worth of damage. Which is safe to say, would cause panic for any parent leaving the house with there sons or daughters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm61svN4U5g

Another Panic surrounding Social Networking is the mix of Peadophiles and minors using the these sites and younger members being fooled into thinking they are talking to another person their age when it may be a sex offender. This has been the fear since the social network fad took off. With parents wondering just who their kids are talking to, what they are doing online, because the online world is a harsh and uncut, no holds barred, world, where anything takes place. Children are subject to crude, and disturbing images at a young age, and are subject to talking to complete strangers. It is a fear of all parents, especially with young children on the internet. There are nasty people in the world, and with the innocence of a child, they are much more likely to be pursued by sexual predaters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69RhWRCbstQ&feature=player_embedded

There are many ways in which a panic can ensue over online activity, whether it be meeting up to murder, cyber-bullying, or Sexual Predaters. No one is safe on the internet, the only thing you can do is shield yourself... Shield yourself with knowledge. The knowledge that this happens and to also be aware of what you are doing online.

Catfish

Catfish is a 2010 American documentary involving a man being filmed by his brother and friend as he builds a romantic relationship with a girl on the social networking website Facebook. - WikiPedia.

Before watching the movie, i had heard nothing about the plot, or narrative. So it was fresh, but something that was also expected at the same time (As I'm writing and you read this, I assume you seen the Documentary). As the movie was unfolding piece by piece, I began to think, that this could be happening to many people worldwide, there is nothing to stop people from leading imaginary lives, portraying anybody they want, even impersonating someone they may not even know. Why someone would do this, is beyond me, perhaps for companionship, or for the thrill of being a person they cant be in reality.

In my view, the security of being online and not face to face, by yourself and in your own space allows someone to impersonate a "fake" person, and without punishment, or embarrassment or being caught, because confidence is an issue with these people who go to the effort of impersonating multiple people online on a social network, like the woman 'Angella' in Catfish. She took on the a completely different persona, one of a beautiful model, who is extremely talented, makes her own music and is an all-round artist. To Angella, this was the perfect person, she took peoples pictures from Facebook and constructed a new person, but also took others work, music, and passed it as her own.

Some people would be gullible and believe everything they seen, read or hear. But to me, its not gullibility, its peoples innocence that fools them. people who arent as tuned into the online world, or who get out and around, talk to people in general are liable to believe, this is this persons life, there world, and there work. what you see is what you get, these people believe. but just like Yaniv, in the movie, his cunning and street smarts were able to pick out the cracks in the story and dissect it piece by piece, which led to him unveiling Angella's intricate (and maybe pointless) hobby. But its left unknown to us if Angella planned to cause harm to Yaniv or if it was simply a hobby to Angella.

But, Overall, the film is a wake-up call to peoples innocence, like they say, dont believe everything you read, and leaves you wanting to question that stranger you accepted friendship with on Facebook. Anyone can be Anyone.

Verdict of the movie - 9/10

Communities

"Traditionally a "community" has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location" - Wikipedia.

This sentence to me, seems like the original definition of the term, but as the technological age advances, and humans become more and more diverse, this term becomes distorted, and loosely thrown around, with more meanings than ever.

One such community that would be more associated in this digital age, is an online or virtual community. Whether you like it or not, we are all part of an online community, even using the internet is considered being part of a community. The likes of Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, these social networking sites are communities. Then music communities, Soundcloud, Mixcloud etc, are specific for music fans, where people post content for others to view, use, alter, etc. Like a traditional community, people are in the same general or local area (in this case a website). This occurs in a virtual world and from people all over the world, hence Marshall McLuhan's term "Global Village", this has never been so true. As the world diversifies, people have less and less time for face to face interactivity for most of all the people in their life. Even in business, some of the things we do now, would not be possible without access to the internet and help from virtual communities. People regularly talk with others over the internet, but who interact and communicate with each other on a day to day basis, friends, family, relatives. This is something I have experienced personally.

With tradition communities, virtual communities are quite similar, but in different settings, you have people who are new to a community, (in a town and on a website). and you also have people who are regulars in the community (local/well known people in a town and moderators/Admins on a website). virtual communities are contrived from traditional communites but are familiar in setting and function. Someone has to be classed a member, to be considered part of a community. But these virtual communities know no bounds as the the geographical boundaries are eliminated and anybody can talk to anybody and share common interests, insights and idea's. New friendships can be formed, creativity can flow, new movements, groups and associations can form, both locally and internationally. Through online communities, you can find things that you never knew existed, or had any information about, I personally, have had a good experience through joining online communities. A few years ago, I wanted to join an American football club in Ireland, but knew nothing about it, so our good friend Google help me, and with a little search of "Irish American Football", my world was transformed. I had access to new information and was all of a sudden I was chatting to people about the sport in Ireland, what teams there were, how I could join a team, where they were based. This was ALL thanks to the Irish American Football Community, which I found virtually. They do exist, and you will find people with the same passion and commitment for things online like when you do in reality. The possibilities are endless with virtual communities. There is a whole world to explore.

Fan Culture

This weeks discussion is about fan culture, which is being a fan of any piece of work, be it a movie, a decade, a game, a book etc. So there are many cultures that can be picked apart and explained, but I thought, none better than one I am interested and take part in myself. Which is.. Gaming culture.

I am an avid gamer myself, and am in tune with a lot going on in gaming communities and check regularly, forums, websites, blogs for new movies, parodies, comics etc. for different works of fan fiction (which is work from the fans of a particular series/piece of work, but it is not from the original creators/writers/directors).

One of the more popular gaming works of fan fiction is the Red vs. Blue videos, which takes from the original Halo franchise and turns it into a comedic series of video's using the games characters and forming new dialogue for the characters.

There are so many example of fan fiction in gaming out there that it is hard to show someone how it works, unless they are in the culture, understand the workings and interests of the fans of this particular culture. But one game culture and community that I was apart of for a long time was form the game, Team Fortress 2. This community was one where fans are very important to the workings of the game itself, where developers of the game sent out polls, and ideas of the next levels or characters etc. and the gamers would send there own designs and ideas in, sort of like a competition and the community would vote for the best and the developers would implement the ideas into the game. Developers would constantly look for feedback and request that gamers sent in their ideas to further the game. There was a whole community surrounding this game alone, including comics, movies, blogs etc. this was one of my favorite works of fan fiction from the culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-yPQ51GOfk

There is so much to cover in gaming cultures alone, that even games themselves can have cultures based around them. There are many exhibitions all over the world for gamers to attend and meet up, express there opinions and ideas, show others their own work, and meet the creators of the original work.

Some of the these Expo's are: Comic Con, California Extreme, Penny Arcade Expo (which is run by fans).

Media Panic!! :O

In this post I will talk about a particular media panic and explain what exactly a media panic is.

Media panic is a term often used to describe criticism against a new medium or media technology. and we also have a Moral Panic.. A Moral Panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. these go hand in hand when applied to modern media culture.

One industry that has seen many criticisms and targeted by mass media to induce a media panic is the computer games industry. It is often the computer games industry that takes much of the heat from news papers, televised news readings, online articles, radio etc. With higher authorities such as politicians and opinion leaders thinking that video games stimulate violence, crime, sexual crimes, even mass murder. But in this very interesting article http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-5831007-7.html, it explains that how after studying the effects of online gamers over a months period of playing, there is no viable link between violence and computer games. this being said, the scientists that carried out the study said, that there is no telling what the long term effects could be, but there is no strong indication of violent behaviour in computer gamers after playing a violent game.

This is good news in my opinion, because no longer can politicians turn to video games when there is a national tragedy, then just slate the games industry for making people do this, all it gets is bad publicity from the mass media, by telling the crime fearing people basically, video games = anti social behaviour, and on a larger scale, aggressive attacks, murders, etc. In other words, scaring the people even more, until maybe one day, nobody leaves there house in the fear that, they open there from door and they will get murdered.

Only recently, I read an article that blamed the Moscow bombings on the cult video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where in the game there was a highly controversial scene in an airport, which was identical to what happened in Moscow. I think this was only a matter of time before this was blamed for something that happened. This is stupid in my opinion, why isn't the same thing said in the films industry? they get off Scot free, while a weaker industry takes the entire blame for something like the Moscow bombings (along with many other cases). this article pretty much sums up this paragraph - http://www.1up.com/news/russian-airport-bombing-connected-modern-warfare-2-media

As technology becomes more advanced, especially for gaming, this means games get more realistic, and as games get more realistic, they (more than likely) will get aimed towards a more adult audience. This is were the Video games rating act 1994 comes into effect. I cant understand, why 12 year olds are allowed to play games with an 18+ ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) rating by their parents, but then when violent or graphic images are portrayed, the game gets the blame.. HELLO!!! Wake up, parents! This personally annoy's me, on many levels. The game is for adults (clearly, if the rating is 18+), it even comes with warnings on the back of the box that says, "Sexual themes", "Intense Violence" etc. But as soon as there is an uproar about a game by parents, the media speculate everything around the game, giving bad publicity, and causing fear in something that people don't really understand, it gives people biased and wrong knowledge and information that these things are bad, and nearly, persuading people to be 'against' something they know nothing about. Which is unfair, because people are like sponges and blank canvasses... They want to believe it is bad, so they can blame something for when anything goes wrong.

Research #2: Rockers

Rockers are a subculture that originated in Britain in the 1950's. That was highly influenced by motorcycles (cafe racers) and rock and roll music.

Brief History:

Commonly insulted by mods and other subcultures as greasers, the term rocker is used differently in many countries, but all of which associate or contrive from the original british rocker. This subculture was mainly taken up by young males, with little or no female involvement, due to the rough and ready nature of the rockers. Female involvement was only comprehended if that female had a boyfriend who was a rocker. Around the 60's there was a lot of media coverage of violence surrounding rockers towards the mod subculture. Their musical interest was solely british rock and roll, and were not seen as very fashionable by other subcultures, with darks jeans, boots and leather jackets being the trademark fashion of a rocker, and also not seen to far away from their cafe racer motorcycle.

Characteristics of this subculture:

• Masculinity

• Rough and Ready

• Motorcycles

• No Female involvment

• Dark leather clothes/Jackets

• Emphasis on Sexuality