Virt3C 2010 Presentation

ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS IN MALTA

Alex GrechUniversity of HullVirt3c@Hull Conference: 20th March 2010

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A small island in the middle of the Med. Sometimes mistaken for Club Med.

It’s

here

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Key Statistics & Demographics

• 93 km south of Sicily• Total area 316 sq km

Geography

• Population 413,609• 1,309 inhabitants per sq km• Literacy rate 93%• Descendants of Phoenicians, Arab,

British and Italians• Largest foreign community is British• Sub-Saharan community c.3,000• Recent expats in online gaming sector

Population

National Statistics Office Malta, estimates for 2009

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Key Statistics & Demographics

• GDP €5.8 billion• Annual growth rate 3.8%• Per capita income €19,800 per annum• Tourism & Services 65% of GDP, Industry

18%, Agriculture 1.3%

GDP

• Mobile penetration of 101.3%• Broadband penetration of 26.8 %, above

EU average of 23.9%• In 2009, Malta ranked 2nd among EU

member states for e-Government services availability & sophistication

ICT, Telecoms & E-Government

National Statistics Office Malta, estimates for 2009

As the focus of ethnographic research, Malta provides “disjunctive positions and world-views that

are inherently contradictory.”Grixti (2006)

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There are “intricate networks of nepotism, patronage, and political clientelism, the pervasiveness and intensity of which are a function of the country’s small scale, population density and strong family ties.”

Boissevain (1974. 2001: 292-293)

Social

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Social

“The intensity of day to day contact sustains a sense of ‘common culture’ that is reinforced by emotionally charged rituals & ceremonies such as the village festa, that gives the impression of a simple and integrated community, sheltered from the outside world and impervious to its influences.”

Pisani (2010)

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Cultural

State

• Partit Nazzjonalista (PN) - GOV• Partit Laburista (PL)

Media• Times of Malta• Political Newspapers• TV (PBS, Net, Super One)• Radio

Church • Roman Catholic Church

Primary Institutions in Malta

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Size of spheres not indicative of relative power

Political

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“You are trained from birth never to question authority and always to obey orders unless you can do something underhand and get away with it.”Caruana Galizia (2009)

“The importance of the institutions – the state, the political parties and the Catholic Church – has strongly marked the development of the media in Malta.” Borg (2009)

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Media

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Times of Malta

Political Party Websites Di-ve Portal

Government Portals

Snapshot: Online Media Landscape in Malta

Malta Independent

Malta Today Malta Media

Daphne Caruana

Galizia Blog

J’Accuse Blog

Other Blogs

Facebook Groups

Twitter People

Mainstream Hybrid Alternative

Il-Gens (Church)

Gozo News

13Source: Groundswell, Forrester Research, 2008

Inactives

Spectators

Joiners

Collectors

Critics

Creators Publish a blogPublish your own web pagesUpload video you createdUpload audio/music you created

Post ratings/reviews of products/servicesComment on someone else’s blogContribute to online forumsContribute to/edit articles in a wiki

Use RSS feedsAdd ‘tags’ to web pages or photos‘Vote’ for websites online

Maintain profile on a social networking siteVisit social networking sites

Read blogsWatch video from other usersListen to podcastsRead online forumsRead customer ratings/reviews

None of the above

Research Focus on Creators & Critics

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“We are already at a stage where it is not always possible to determine whether a media or communication initiative is mainstream or alternative, is initiated from ‘outside’ or ‘inside’, is part of a development intervention or intrinsic to a social movement, or is distinctly derived from a particular national, cultural or movement context.

As the empowering effects of alternative media and communication become more widely appreciated, as as new methods and technologies become more widely appreciated, and as new methods and technologies become more accessible, they will just become mainstream.”

Petit, Salazar & Dagron (2009)

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Social

Not necessarily having access to offline social

capital

Reshape boundaries rather than just being

heard within them (Pettit, Salazar & Dagron,

2009)

Cultural

People with countercultural

loyalties, embracing an alternative vision of technology as a

tool for individual and collective

transformation (Turner, 2006)

Political

Free from interference by the

state, market actors, and multilateral

agencies

Produced by the local community in their own language for

their own consumption on issues that they

themselves deem relevant to their

needs and so ‘alternative’ in

content from the dominant media’

(Saaed, 2009)

Alternative Attributes

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Little Academic Research on

Internet Culture in Malta

• Point of departure: the way in which a communicative technology is encountered from and rooted in a particular place (Miller & Slater, 2000)

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Malta’s aspirations to become a

model for technology

advancement

• Aspirations to become one of top ten information societies in the worldNational ICT Strategy 2007-2010

Proportionally high take-up of social networks

• High broadband penetration has supported exponential growth in membership of social networking sites – 33% of population on Facebook

Early indications of use of social

media networks by citizen

journalists

• Indications that uptake of social media networks may disrupt existing mainstream media hegemonies

Scope for Study

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Example of Citizen Media use on Twitter

Source: http://twitter.com/alexgrech

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Example of Citizen Media use on Facebook

Source: Facebook

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Source: Facebook

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Harassment of Carnival goers by police

Source: TimesOfMalta.com

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Mainstream media reporting of Carnival

Source: TimesOfMalta.com

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Blogger attack on a Magistrate and a Politician

Source: DaphneCaruanaGalizia.com

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Blogger attack on Magistrate and a Politician


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Blogger attack on Magistrate and a Politician


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Other blogs join in…

Source: MaltaInsideOut.com

Other blogs join in…

26Source: http://www.jacquesrenezammit.com/jaccuse/

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Tabloid media reacts to blog attack

Source: MaltaToday.com

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Blogger reported by Magistrate to police

Source: TImesOfMalta.com

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Blogger keeps blogging after police interrogation


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First concrete consequences of blog attack

Source: www.di-ve.com

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“Maltese youths are still digital immigrants, and in a different category from their European counterparts. However, there is a growing awareness by young people that with the Internet, virtually anyone can broadcast to audiences roughly the same size of those targeted by the traditional mass media in Malta.”Sant (2009)

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Processes like persuasion, free speech, knowledge acquisition, democracy and citizen have now taken a new dimension and offer new challenges with the introduction of the new media. Ownership of a radio or television station or of a paper still implies power.

However, as a result of an omnipresence of media in peoples lives, the fragmentation of the audience is bound to change how media influence the audience, and in turn, how the audience influence the media.

This does not mean a decline in the power of the media but it implies a change in power structures and their role in a democratic society.”

Lauri (2009)

“Whether (traditional) media will still be (important) in the next decade is not easy to predict.


33Source: Facebook


34Source: Facebook

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Source: Facebook

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A long term involvement among the people, through a variety of methods, such that any one aspect of their lives can be properly contextualised in others. (Miller & Slater, 2001)

“..A commitment to engage, rather than forestall action in our mediated communities.”

Senft, 2007

The journey is rooted in ethnography

Virtual Ethnography requires an involvement with the technologies which form part of the setting studied. The ways in which these technical settings are treated require a special approach from the ethnographer, different to the approaches used in more traditional settings

(Hine, 2000).

Analytical Framework

Internet Culture

Power Systems

Network Society

Social Capital

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Malta appears to be poised at a stage where citizens have found new tools that may open up possibilities for social change; but also where “the dominance of mainstream players in online media may impede effective grassroots initiatives.”(Saeed, S. 2009)

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Alex [email protected]

http://twitter.com/alexgrech

Visuals:

Albireo2006Alex AttardAlex GrechAron Mifsud BonniciOBS1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/albireo2006/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blurredfoto/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blurredfoto/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/obs1/

Virt3C 2010 Presentation

Education

Transcript of Virt3C 2010 Presentation