Week 8, Task 5: Article 1

Just realised I put the wrong number on the previous article, so the order will be wrong! This is article 1, the previous is article 2.

I found this subsection in Lister and thought it relevant to the task, I know its not exactly an article but I still found it useful.

This section highlights what parents think are the dangers to their children online and why they would restrict their child's time online. The article says that constraints of time, space, access and resources available online can be more restrictive online than just on using a computer. This is because there is the constant threat of paedophilia occurring through children stumbling across a chat room and pretending to be older than they really are. This is a spin on the older notion that it was dangerous for children to play outside, prompting many parents to buy computers for their children in the first place, providing a scapegoat for outside play. It is now reversed that the internet allows children access to most of the vices the world holds, whether that be the threat of paedophilia or accidentally stumbling across pornographic materials.

So parents learn to use new security protocols to make the internet child proof, either through the use of firewalls and filtering systems or the creation of restrictive passwords or adult supervision. Therefore, the children are monitored just as much online as they would be in the physical realm outside the front door.

Week 8, Task 5: Article 2 Summary

This article investigates young people's perceptions of their own identities and how the media is used to shape their "self". The interlinking ideas of media and identity are explored through an in-depth look at ethnic minority media representation, and how this affects the audience.

An examination of creative and visual methods within social research introduces the methodology used in the study. Young people aged 13 to 14, of varying social and ethnic backgrounds from schools in Dorset, Hampshire and London created collages using media materials to show 'how I see myself' and 'how I think other people see me'. The researcher also used open questions in one on one interviews. 111 identity collages were produced to form upon which the findings of the researcher's theory are based.
The analysis revealed that young people view their identities as complex and diverse, whilst understanding that there are factors that contribute to the formation of their identity which are changed constantly.

I think the study shows how important role models are to impressionable young minds, and how individuals carry their identities. The researcher also suggests that the media functions as a to help young people form their present identities, and have an influence on their future self.

Week 8, Task 4: Academic Articles

Article 1:
Lister, M. et al. (2003) New Media: A Critical Introduction, Section Titled The Domestic Shaping of New Media, Subheading The Networked Home, page 239, Routledge, New York.

Article 2:
Artlab (2007) Young People, Identity and the Media by Fatimah Awan, available at http://www.artlab.org.uk/fatimah-awan-phd.htm

Article 3:
London School Of Economics (1999) Young People, New Media by Moira Bovill, available at http://www.psych.lse.ac.uk/young_people/press.html

Article 4:
Big Mouth Media (2007) Young people warned over social networking, Unknown author, available at http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/young-people-warned-over-social-networking.asp/4254/

Article 5:
The Guardian (2005) Young blog their way to a publishing revolution, Owen Gibson, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/oct/07/media.pressandpublishing

The technophile student...

begins his/her day in bed, as most students do. S/he rolls over to discover their holographic alarm clock come MP3 Player dock says it is 12.35 in the afternoon. This is not good, as student has a large assignment to send in today and shouldnt have spent so long out last night. So dragging his/herself out of bed, student hobbles over to the laptop on his/her desk and touches the screen to turn it on. Several hours later, after getting increasingly bored with said assignment student decides to see what games are available on the internet using his/her new touch screen laptop. Another two hours of touch screen tetris later, student finishes the essay and emails it off to the campus's main online office.



A week later, when student is wondering why they havent received feedback on their assignment from Mother Brain at the university, s/he checks their email outbox. Student forgot to attach the assignment to the email and is now failing the course.



ANother week later student receives another email saying that because the assignment was late s/he has received a 50% mark deduction and the essay is still a fail.

The Daily frustrations of a neo-luddite....

Begin when they wake up and fight to turn the alarm clock off. They turn the light on, they get ready for work, and they step outside, where they must navigate the streets to work after the train system made them late, due to the lack of clarity on the screens for which platform the train would arrive at. At work, their boss informs them that the whole system of categorising stock will be upgraded to an electronic system, so over the next few weeks everyone will be required to attend a mandatory basic computing course to prepare them for the changeover.



Over the next few weeks the luddite becomes increasingly frustrated with this idiot box they call a computer as it contatins more commands than Paris Hilton's handbag does accessories. (Not that the luddite knows who this is as s/he is way too practical and hardworking to find time for Heat magazine.) After taking two weeks to try and find his/her way around the desktop of a pc and only just able to print something from Microsoft Word, the luddite makes it his/her priority to print off his/her letter of resignation, choosing to leave this job to work on a farm, where the work is far more physical and traditional than this computing lark.

The person who most threatens the notion of native/immigrant in digital culture would be...

My Dad i think. Like my grandad, he wasnt brought up with computers etc but they did come to exist within his lifetime. He is 41 and manages several depots for M&G Vehicle Hire, so he needs to constantly keep updated with what vehicle is where, who has rented it, if it needs any repairs etc through a complicated computer system. He is constantly asked to rectify problems within the system as he has a firmer understanding of it than most, the same going for computers in general.



I would brand myself a digital native, yet my father who I would have first thought of as a digital immigrant knows more about computers than I do. He is the one I look to when my laptop deicdes to crash, needs formatting or I need a new programme installing and I dont understand how to do it or how to operate it. Our first home PC was bought around 9 years ago, and he set it up from scratch and kept it in optimum running condition, whilst me and my sister used it for games and the internet, and later our schoolwork, he worked to make it run at optimum efficiency.



Aside from PC's my Dad also likes to have the latest in Home Entertainment. He has a 36" high definition plasma TV mounted on the wall, a surround system placed around the living room where the system decides it would be best and a DVD player capable of upscaling standard definition into high definition. Some of this still seems foreign to me, all I know is that it makes the actors and actresses faces much more detailed so we can see all of their faults, I wouldnt know what resolution it is running in and how we could remove the ghosting effect from the edge of the screen, as a lot of this is jargon to me. Everyone specialises in something and I would say my dad specialises in technology more than I do, who would call himself a digital native.



Therefore I think he most challenges the concept by being more well versed in the world of technology than a 19 year old young man.

The youngest digital immigrant I know...

would be my mum. She is 39, and grew up without computers and various instances of new technology because in her generation, it wasnt always about having a computer or a video player as these were new expensive technologies that werent practically compulsory to own, like they are now. She has learned to use a computer very efficiently and works on one at her occupation regularly, utilising the internet and various programmes to collect and type up data. She has her own ebay account and regularly sends emails when she can kick my sister off the computer. Im not entirely sure if she would still use the computer if she didnt have to, as whilst she has her own mobile phone and Nintendo DS as new technologies, she doesnt seem to feel the urge to frequent the computer as often as my sister and I do.