Post on 29-Mar-2015
Connected
Network characteristics
A social network is an organized set of people that consists of two kinds of elements: human beings and the connections between them.
Networks have shapes. Where you are in the network affects your experiences.
Rule 1: We shape our networks
We chose friends, many of them similar to us
We chose how many friends
We chose how much to connect our friends with each other
We chose how central we are in our networks
Rule 2: Our network shapes us
Are our friends connected?
How many friends do our friends have?
Rule 3: Our friends affect us
Rule 4: Our friends’ friends’ friends’ affect us.
Rule 5: The network has a life of its own
Six Degrees of Separation and Three Degrees of Influence
Stephen Mitchell Reading:History of News
Mitchell wrote about how surprised Europeans were at the speed at which news traveled in the African bush
The news traveled through social networks – it spread from village to village very efficiently, and given the tight connections in each village, could spread nearly instantly within villages.
As large cities developed
The “three degrees of influence” described in the Christakis readings meant that people no longer had access to all the news they might want or need to know, simply through their social networks
Another delivery mechanism for news developed to meet the demand: journalists and newspapers
Over time…
The development of more efficient means of transmitting information grew into the “mass media.”
Journalistic connections with “the public” grew less personal, less connected. Audiences became anonymous, indistinguishable masses.
Journalists
Still operated within social networks but the networks included mostly sources and other journalists
The ties that connected journalists to ‘the public’ were one-way ties, designed for information flows that were uni-directional
Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky
Describes the development of an economy that included more free time than individuals and society had ever had before
This ‘surplus of free time’ was spent in watching TV. Millions of people around the world spend millions of hours watching TV
The move from mass to networks
Technology and culture empower people to form diverse networks that operate alongside the mass media
These networks are destroying the economic model that allowed mass media to be stunningly successful businesses
The growth of networked journalism
Practiced by a much wider variety of people
To much more defined communities
With broader definitions of what counts as journalism
Using more distributed methods
We will still valueprofessional journalists
But their role will change, from that of serving as an authority, an actor on behalf of the public
To a role as bridges, connectors, facilitators between and of networks
And perhaps, as respected moderators known for truthfulness, fairness and civility
Journalists have a special role
The network can shape us, but we shape the network as well, and society puts it on journalist's shoulders to shape the network in a way to help people through the passing of important information. Everybody can spread information, but we as journalists supply the public with reliable facts that can keep social networks from believing false facts. (Eric Wilkinson)
We will have many more amateur journalists
People who commit acts of journalism
People who do journalism part-time
People who become experts in niche subjects
People who consume, share and produce news
Editors will become more important
To filter enormous amounts of information
To highlight the factual and useful
To publish it in ways people can easily access
Editors to Curators
Editors select what they think you should know and publish it (the grocery store model)
“Curate suggests the functions of editing, aggregating, organizing, culling, directing or conducting.” (N. Elizabeth Schlatter) (the local foods expert model)
Your curation and production
You are curating news for yourself and publishing it on your iGoogle site
With our Ning site, you are creating content and participating with others in making meaning
On the Wiki site you are creating collective knowledge (see Wikimania, 2006)
Today’s challenge
To create a collective study guide for the midterm using the course wiki
(In the future we’ll discuss other ways to pool our collective intelligence)
Midterm
Multiple choice and short answer questions about key points from the readings: Stephens (History of News) Lasch (Lost Art of Argument), Kovach (Verification, Independence), Sunstein (Republic 2.0), Sunstein (Polarization), Jackson and Jamieson (UnSpun), Christakis (Connected)
Midterm
Multiple choice and short answer questions about key points from class discussions:
History of news, types of news, credibility, source evaluation, truthfulness, fact and opinion, gatekeeping, gatewatching, differences between journalism as product and journalism as process, editing, curation, influences of social media on journalism, multitasking audiences, and more.
In-class participation
Turn in [credible] questions you’d like to see on the midterm for 2 points in-class participation.