Round 1 - Fight!

Round 1 - Fight!

There's not a real fight but I might find myself in one..

I did like everyone's presentation and I think it helped shape or recognize relatable threads in my thoughts about my own final.

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So, topic the first:
The PRC's Traditional Control of Information (and the People) Remediated Online

This is a huge topic, but I think it can be pared down. I really like this topic and it kind of intersects with some of the things I was going to discuss in my final paper re: fragmentation of groups/technology and how that will continue a divide online.

Lorena referenced a Chinese YouTube analog called Tudou, but another popular video sharing site is Youku. If I were writing about how Chinese video services filter content/results, I'd look at more than one site. I'd also try to use Chinese search terms. I don't speak/understand much Mandarin and I don't imagine many in the class do, so here's a useful English-Chinese dictionary: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php .

Also, I had a problem with the video clip because that wasn't really indicative of user generated content (I'm certain it exists), but rather a repost of a clip from CCTV-9 (the English language arm of China's government run news service), which might be available through on your cable or satellite service. I found it on Dish Network 265 and online (http://english.cctv.com/01/index.shtml). I felt that was kind of like searching for America on Youtube and finding a clip from a pro-America news outlet and claiming that the prevailing sentiment/available opinion about in the US.

Another issue to consider is how Internet use in China is different than here. Although I largely interacted with students, accessing the Internet at an Internet cafe is significantly more common there than here. Due to various factors, personal computing seems less personalized. Tracking may be easier or harder due to this.

Might also want to look into the PRC's history of requiring registration for people who owned computers/got online, I don't think they require this anymore (Did I learn this in this class? I don't remember).

May also want to browse some English language Chinese blogs to get a better feel for online culture in China. There is a surprising amount of anti-government blogging and whatnot. Is it quickly altered? Yes, but it is out there. There's a lot about China's online culture at this blog: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm.

So, I brought up a Firefox extension/add-on called China Channel, but I didn't realize that it hasn't been maintained since '08, but you check it out here: http://chinachannel.hk/#home. It basically allows you to temporarily route your traffic through a Chinese proxy so you can get a Chinese view of the web; however, I don't know if it works any more.

Some things that Julie brought up that also concerned me were the sites Lorena referenced as examples of the Chinese web browsing experience. Having accessed the Internet while in China, I can speak from experience that when you do a prohibited search or try to go to a prohibited URL, there's no red screen saying forbidden or otherwise explicitly notifying you that you've done something the state doesn't appreciate. In my experience, if you try to go to YouTube or Facebook it just loads a white page, acts like the page didn't exist, and then blocks your service for 10 to 15 minutes. Searches were very similar, things were either completely absent from the search results (Tiananmen Square would just give you pictures of Mao) or your access would be temporarily blocked.

A more recent thing related to Internet filtering in China is the Green Dam Youth Escort. There should be a significant amount of news about the effort and public backlash.

Wow, that's a lot of crap about Chinese Internet. Sorry, I think I'll have to truncate the rest of these a bit.

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Gender Roles Reinforced Online?

I wasn't sure where Sheila's topic was initially going. The Facebook and MySpace stuff initially seemed more about demographics rather than gender roles. However, both the ultra-gendered and neutered spaces of Stardoll and Club Penguin offer all sorts of possibilities about who and how they play out gender roles in these spaces.

I like the idea of exploring the possibility of gender neutrality in online spaces and/or how meatspace social pressures/norms migrate with us as we migrate into cyberspace.

Maybe this was part of the original concept, but I also think it might be interesting to look at how developers/owners try to create a space for purpose X, but it gets transmuted into purpose Y by the users even though they theoretically have less "power" using that service.

Sorry for this anemic section, I don't think it's going to get much better though. I think it's a really good idea, but I don't have a clutch of resources at hand for this. However, there was an article a while back about Myspace being a digital ghetto and the "white flight" to Facebook. Kind of crazy and not related to gender specifically, but it's an interesting side note in the context of social networking tools and there could be gender issues at play as well. (http://www.inquisitr.com/27998/myspace-now-a-digital-ghetto/)

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Cell Phones as a Bridge Between the Urban and Rural

There seemed to be quite a bit of discussion on this in class already and I didn't have any burning questions or comments about Maurice's topic.

It is a reasonable argument to make. I think the only thing that came to mind was the idea of something like a connectivity/technological arms race between independent farmers as they try to circumvent large commercial farms and agri-business. The little guy can use technology to undermine and compete with the big guy, but doesn't the big guy have the same opportunity to respond in kind using the exact same tools.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but I'm trying to make sense of my own notes.

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Education Through Gaming

Corrinda's topic is rather good and the research/reasoning seems on point. An article about an achievement gap, gaming, and gender was recently posted on Kotaku.com: http://www.kansas.com/2010/04/08/1260027/are-video-games-causing-achievement.html. That article argues that a "decline in boys' [academic] scores coincides with the emergence of video games." The article talks more about how gaming for entertainment is a distraction to traditional education, so it is different from the core of the argument, but it provides a counterpoint to build an argument around or something to support the position that since kids are distracted by gaming, why not use it as an education tool because it inherently has educational potential. However, I don't know if that can be worked into the lesson plan project that Corrinda is creating.

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Politics Online and in Traditional Media
Or
Old School vs New Skool

There definitely potential to argue that the Internet has or is beginning to fundamentally change a significant aspect of contemporary society; however, I think the way the topic was framed make it sound more like a report of what happened in the most recent presidential election.

Kat had a lot of information, but I think the main point might need to be focused into something about how the Internet and web have fundamentally changed expectations and in order to be successful in politics or marketing, people/groups need to rely on the micro-level communication and detailed organization afforded by the Internet and web rather than the macro-level broadcasting that worked before. That's kind of vague too, but I think that's a path that might yield more than just approach A vs approach B.