Our class discussion today regarding internet trolling reminded me of something I have come across on Facebook known as “formspring” (http://www.formspring.com/). Basically, formspring is something that allows people to ask their friends anonymous questions. The catch phrase for some of those who have a formspring is “Ask Me Anything.” I checked out some of the questions that people have asked their friends and, to be honest, a lot of them are questions that I don’t think people would ask in “real life.” The fact that formspring allows the person who asked the question to remain anonymous gives he/she the sense of freedom to literally ask a friend anything. I found some of the questions to be personal, for example, a person might ask his/her friend a sexual question. I think this is similar to internet trolling because the anonymous aspect of both formspring and trolling allows people to hide behind their computer screens and never actually face the people they interact with via internet.
Archive for March, 2010
Formspring
March 24, 2010Analysis 3: The Medium of the Database
March 9, 2010Elizabeth Novotny
March 9, 2010
Media 280
Analysis 3:
The Medium of the Database
The relatively new medium of the database varies a great deal from the narrative structure of traditional media. The traditional media of the past consisted primarily of television, radio and newspaper. In today’s world, the use of the database medium offers more ways to access and organize information. Society at large benefits from the use of the medium of the database, as it enables media to be generated in more efficient ways.
There are many ways in which databases affect the way media is generated. One way in particular is that within databases there are several ways in which a person can upload information, hypertexts being one way in which individuals can do so. For example, Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia source constructed by society that allows users of the website to access a multitude of information from a single search entry. The links that are placed within the text of a search entry are numerous, enabling users to upload an infinite amount of information.
In addition, the use of the database makes generating media more efficient simply due to the fact that databases store information for an infinite amount of time. Database users can ultimately access information from past years when such information was actually considered news. In addition, the information is better organized due to the structure of the database. This is unlike generating information from the narrative structure of traditional media typically because it would be more difficult to access old news from television channels, radio broadcasts and newspaper articles from the past.
Databases not only make it easier to acquire information, but they allow users to comment on such information. The development of blogs, for instance, allows people to do this. Blogging has become especially popular now-a-days, allowing for direct expression of ideas and opinions. A medium such as YouTube also allows viewers to comment on what they are viewing. The ever-popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people like you and me to comment on news that otherwise would have only been spoken or written about by paid professionals through traditional mediums such as television, radio and newspaper.
It can be concluded that the new medium of the database differs a great deal from the narrative structure of traditional media. Unlike the traditional media of the past, the medium of the database allows information to be generated more easily by society. As a result of the relatively new development of databases, information can be accessed and organized in more efficient ways. Perhaps it can be stated that in the future databases will dominate how society at large generates media.
Liz Novotny's Blog 