Regarding the discussion of concepts of “new” media, I agree with Tony Feldman, which he states “digital media make information increasingly manipulable, networkable, dense, compressible and impartial.
The website I chose is Youtube which allows people to upload and watch whatever videos people make or find. Youtube is also a really famous website for people from the entire world to share their videos and comments at the same time. The advantage of news and comments spread through Youtube is that Internet breaks the rule of space. But at the same time internet opens to everyone, it brings the problem of reality or fiction which people has to analyze whether what they see on Youtube is real or not. Of course Youtube has been a really good platform of individual journalists that try to broadcast news around us during war times and incidents; for example, the gun shot at Virginia University. During the gunshot, one of the student video taped sound of gunshot and students running across the school and then uploaded it on Youtube using his cell phone before any reporter or police get to the university.
On the other hand, by the time people enjoying the pleasure Youtube is providing for us, the mess up of reality or fiction of news becomes a serious problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vl3T4kfuWc
This specific video shows a piece of news which looks like a cutout from CNN news reveals that Justin Bieber is actually a 51 years old criminal that has a teenage voice and he also uses facemask to create a new identity as Justin Bieber. The news also includes a psychologist analyzing his insane personality through his lyrics and a little girl accusing him for sexual abuse. This piece is really well organized, shot and edited as news, I had to watch the news twice to find it is a fake, and ever since that when I see Justin Bieber on TV I have this vision of him being a 51 years old criminal. In Manovich’s word “new media is programmable”. I know that news is faked but there is still plenty of people believe that is true. Compare to the point that Feldman asserts, this particular website proved that the digital information is easily manipulate and altered to be anything people wanted it to be and only left the choice for others whether to believe in it. Besides, just like what Turkle states in her article “Simulation immerses individuals in programmed worlds of constrained choices where the rules are clear—unlike in the real world in which we must also live. It encourages us to accept binary assumptions and thinking—much like computer binary code.” The line between fact and fiction has been so blurred online which raised a question to me, that is, how to distinguish the information online, and is there a way to prevent people from untrue or even dangerous information?
But maybe we can debunk hoaxes like the one you mention much more easily for the same reasons that we can create such hoaxes so easily. Maybe the internet is self-correcting?
回复删除