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constructions

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

always progressing?

Last week I agreed to present a paper at the Örebro/Copenhagen/Oslo/London PhD-network seminar which will take place 28th and 29th of September in Örebro. Main seminar theme seems to be the argued outdated term convergence. I have yet to decide what I'm going to present, although I'm thinking about writing a brief paper on photo-sharing services. I seem to do this all the time: having far too little time writing my papers before presenting them. Which means my papers are literally works-in-progress-still-with-a-very-long-way-to-go. Why nag, I still have a month left, right? I only have three weeks though, as I will not be thinking a lot about my PhD-project while enjoying NYC between 17th and 25th of September. Oh, I do not mean to complain having a week of pleasure in New York...

Friday, August 27, 2004

I flickr too

I love the flickr tags. I like the look of the 150 most popular tags: words in various sizes, changing from time to time. Good pictures, bad pictures, hardly any tacky pictures (I searched for pictures tagged nude, but surely this picture won't offend anybody). Why do we share moments from our lives? Maybe flickr isn't too different from hotornot-sites? Maybe I want to look more closely at various easy-to-use photo-sharing services? I might just do that.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

hot hot hot

TV2 called me again today, looking for somebody who could talk about children and the use of mobile phones. Clearly mobile phones (which btw is not my main project-focus), IM, online diaries, photo-sharing services ets. are hot research themes, especially from a mass media pov. I said they should talk to Rich Ling though. I have, after all, hardly started my research yet, whereas Rich Ling has been working with these themes since forever, and recently written The mobile connection: the cell phone's impact on society.

Monday, August 23, 2004

towards a definition

I have made a simple model in my paper-in-progress trying to revise distinctions between personal media and mass media. I mentioned Luhmann's definition of mass media in my last post - I mentioned it because it really eloquently puts how we have usually understood mass media: as institutions in society that make use of copying technologies to disseminate [generally accessible] communication. Luca's comment to my last post is however important: to Luhmann mass media are a differentiated function system. Personal media are not, but are used within all of societies social systems. Trying to keep my blog-postings brief, I am sometimes too short (I may have a general problem of assuming people understand what I mean...). I believe my point is that definitions of mass media should focus exactly on mass media being institutionalised and professionalised. I am not particularly fond of Luhmann though. Which might be because I find him so utterly difficult. I like John Thompson however. His definition of mass media is not too different from Luhmann's: Thompson defines mass media through five typical characteristics: technical and institutional means of production and diffusion; the commodification of symbolic forms; a structured break between production and reception of symbolic forms; the extended availability of symbolic forms in time and space; and finally, mass media products are available in principle to a plurality of recipients (Thompson 1995: The media and modernity: page 27-30). Less than ever, these characteristics describe mass media only. This is why I rather focus on two axes: 1) Symmetrical relations/Mediated interaction <--> Asymmetrical/Mediated quasi-interaction. 2) De-institutionalised/de-professionalised <--> Institutional/professional. Personal media are non-institutional and non-professional and they are more or less symmetrical facilitating mediated social interaction.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

conceptualising

I read Jean Burgess web-log the other day where she mentions Chris Atton's paper The Mundane and Its Reproduction in Alternative Media. It's not that I feel short of relevant references, as I've been working on and off with a paper trying to revise the distinctions between personal media and mass media, but this paper still comes in handy.

In my PhD-project I explore how teenagers use communication devices such as IM, mobile phones, profiles, blogs/diaries for private purposes, and I am especially interested in patterns of interplay, or the juggling of various devices. I use the notion of personal media to encompass it all. Obviously mass media are institutionalised and professionalised, and nothing like private conversations between a few friends or the average personal home-page. But at the same time, boundaries are more fuzzy than before the digitalisation of media technologies. Previous definitions of mass media can to a certain degree describe personal media: Niklas Luhmann for instance argues that mass media include all institutions of society that make use of copying technologies to disseminate generally accessible communication. Telephone conversations between individual participants are not generally accessible and thus not mass mediated (fair enough). But clearly a notion of personal media includes communication which is privately produced but still generally accessible. Eventually, the paper will become available online (within an indefinite time or at an unspecified future time)

Monday, August 16, 2004

Øyafestivalen

Friday and Saturday were perfect in Middelalderparken. Music, sun, so-happy people, beer, atmosphere and great after-parties. I've uploaded a few pictures, mainly from some of the concerts I went to.

Friday, August 13, 2004

festival!

Today is the second day of Øyafestivalen: the best oppurtunity in the world to keep a jour with exciting Norwegian bands and a handful of interesting international names. The location for the festival is near perfect - in Middelalderparken (the Medieval Park ) in Gamlebyen, the oldest part of Oslo. Øyafestivalen is just so good-vibes. It reminds me of a mini-Roskilde festival. I love music-festivals. My pop/rock-festival biography: Roskilde in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996; Quart-festival: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001; and finally Øyafestivalen: 2003, 2004. I admit I find it very comfortable with a festival where I actually live.

Yesterday's best performances were without a doubt We (picture) and The Streets. We (the band) were very entertaining, which combined with quality psycedelic music made the concert a very nice experience. The Streets: I love Mike Skinner (sort of). Interestingly I observed a girl at one point towards the last half of the concert, find her camera-phone, take her picture and leave. Guess she now had documented her meeting with the Streets and was ready to go and see Air. I only saw/heard the last couple of songs that Air played, but really, I didn't mind. I loved their Moon Safari, but I don't consider Air to be an important concert-band.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

mms again

I had just finished my post about newspapers using mms-photos on Friday, when a reporter from TV2 called me and asked whether I could explain why Norwegians have sent so many mms-messages this summer. The answers are kind of obvious, but ok, I don't mind being the one who indicates why that may be. Besides, the reporter wanted to know what social consequences extensive use of MMS might have. This is obviously more difficult to answer. I answered a lot of questions, indicating that free-periods and generally lower prices for mms-messages have been important as more people establish patterns of use. We need some time to integrate this new service into our everyday lives and to see what functions we give them. We send SMS-messages to co-ordinate our lives, and clearly MMS-messages differ somewhat from how we use text-messages this way. I believe the different functions of SMS vs MMS are rather important and interesting. However, although there might be differences in functions, the fact that we are already used to sending text-messages, makes it easier to start using MMS-messages. The banal fact that more people have camera-phones, and that technical problems are now rare have had their consequences as well. I talked abot how people have their phones with them all the time, and that this actually make people document their lives with photos of experiences or plain everyday happenings in a new way. I said a lot more as well, and I said the same things in different ways. Anyway, I knew I would probably end up saying one or two sentences on the nine o'clock news. They did a rather nice job editing though, and I was pleased with my TV-debut. TV-debut in this context though. I once chose and introduced a Fatboy Slim- video on MTV-id/MTV-Nordic (didn't see that though).

I have had my Nokia 6230 for two months, and I do take somewhat different photos with my phone than with my camera. Basically because I have my phone with me all the time. Of some reason I kind of like the low-quality pictures. I don't send them a lot though. I generally bluetooth things between phone - powerbook - phone. I love bluetooth.

Friday, August 06, 2004

mms

The Norwegian newspaper VG has had the same low-resolution picture on the front-page of their online newspaper for about 24 hours now. The mms-picture has been taken by an anonymous person, who witnessed when the police picked up an ill-fated 40-year old Somalian from the mosque in Trondheimsveien in Oslo. The front of Norwegian online newspapers are frequently changed, so this is rather unique. Apperantly VG were willing to pay more for the picture than Dagbladet. It is actually indicated that the mms-photographer was paid between 10 000 - 20 000 NOK. Questions concerning what happens when everybody becomes potential photographers of any incident are obviously interesting and ethically problematic. I live next door to the mosque, I was probably home when the police picked him up. Would I have taken the picture?

The 40 year old psychiatric patient from Somalia, stabbed, injured several and killed one person on the tram on Tuesday, and the media have naturally been full of stories concerning the undesired event, about Somalians in Oslo, about psychiatric treatment in Norway in genereal and of asylum seekers specifically.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

nude

People undress and get naked on the web. This is a nice project exploring how a few people relate to nudity and the shape of their bodies (as well as other people's bodies).

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

xxx

"But this is porn!", my friend exclaimed yesterday evening as we were witnessing the disturbing rape-scene in Baise moi. It is definitely an explicit movie, but I was feeling far from aroused and turned on. I guess a few might feel some sort of tingle intermingled into other more worrisome emotions (without being psycho or having sexual problems), but I am clearly of the opinion that Coralie Virginie Despentes' story is not pornographic. The team behind the movie seem rather casual about it though: "We don't have problem with having a pussy and using it (Despentes to Kulturnyt(listen), Danish Radio, april 2001)". There's no doubt I'm more used to watching violent movies. Baise Moi is definitely violent, but that I could cope. I don't want to see it again, but I am happy I have.