Blogs: Is There Any Body Out There?

This blog was created as a way to interact with the course material and concepts talked about in Citizen Media and the Public Sphere. Blogs are a platform in which citizens can express there opinions and interests and they work as a virtual space for conversation and interaction with others. I have learned a lot about blogging over the course of this assignment and i have come to truly believe that blogs are a positive form of online engagement.

Though my blog personal did not receive any comments that does not mean that my voice and my ideas have not been heard. In fact this blog has had quite a few views despite its lack of comments. What this tells me is that even though no one has commented, people are reading what i have to say. Whether my posts have help to educate someone on particular topic or even sparked an idea in the mind of someone else, that is a success to me.

I think that social media platforms whether blogs, Facebook or Twitter allow for the sharing of thoughts, opinion and ideas. They allow people to participate in the making of content and for the creation of conversation. Though not all blogs become popular, they are still a  means of online engagement, and ultimately i think that is the most important aspect of citizen media. 

Cultural Jamming: Taking back the Public Sphere

Cultural Jamming is when people rework or repurpose corporate logos or advertisements as a means of protest. Cultural jammers are anti-consumerism and believe that corporations no longer see citizens as people but merely consumers. As such, they believe that these corporations should not be allowed to infiltrate our public space with their corrupt consumer messages. As a means of creating a dialogue with both the public and corporations, cultural jammers dustup or subvert advertisements to point out how these corporations are trying to dictate and influence our cultural and social lives.

Their are many different forms of cultural jamming that can rang from remaking advertisements, to pranking politicians and celebrities, to creating commercial parodies. No matter what the form, cultural jammers attempt to make citizens think about what these advertisements, organizations, and high profile people, are saying and how the messages and images they are conveying are harmful to our society.

Cultural jamming is a useful way for citizens to talk back to advertisers and corporations. These organizations pay to advertise in our public sphere and we, as citizens have no say in deciding what is and is not acceptable. If the public sphere is suppose to be that which belongs to the people, then those people should have a voice in determining what images are being shown and what messages are being conveyed. Corporations have infiltrated almost every aspect of our lives and whether we noticed it or not, these advertisements are sending us messages about how we should look, how we should act, what we should wear, what we should buy and what happiness and success look like.

Society needs more cultural jammers. We cannot let corporations take over our public sphere. Cultural jamming tells corporations that we are not just consumers and we will not just blindly accept their messages. If there is no one fighting against these corporations then they win, and we risk losing our voices within the public sphere, and possibly the the public sphere itself.

Social Media and Citizen Journalism

Social media have changed both the way we receive news and the way that news is created. Social media allow for citizen journalism, in which anyone with a cellphone or with access to social media sites, can document news. Cellphones provide quick access to sites such as Twitter and Facebook that allow for the fast uploads of videos and content. As a result many citizens during times of crisis and media censorship depend on social media to share videos, pictures and stories of current events. 

An example of how social media can be used as a source of journalism can be seen in the ways in which it was used during the Iranian election in 2009. During this election there was an unrest and government censorship of mainstream media led people to turn to Twitter as a means of both organizing protest and documenting what was happening within the country. Twitter and Facebook allowed citizens to share with one another as well as with the world what was truly happening in Iran.

Social media has become an integral source of information during times of media censorship.  Though social media citizens can share current events as they happen and it has allowed for the democratization of the news in which people no longer have to just rely on mainstream media for their information. 

This use of social media as a source of journalism and information illustrates that sites like Facebook and Twitter are not just used as a means to talk to friends or gossip about celebrity’s culture. Rather, social media can be used as a means of sharing and creating news.