Today, my community-based learning class, Social Justice in the Digital Age, visited the county jail for our last of many visits this semester. Honestly, I could hardly be more proud and inspired. We left knowing many lives were touched, including my own and each of my thirteen students'.

I'm also excited to announce North Country Resource (http://northcountryresource.org/). This website is the product of our group effort to create a directory of local public assistance agencies and other support organizations that provide services to assist with reentry and community reintegration. We also created a printed booklet for distribution inside the jail. It was quite an undertaking for one semester, and I can only see this project getting better in future iterations.

I'm so thankful for everyone involved in this project including the students, fellow faculty--especially our amazing web developers--jail administrators, and most importantly, the men and women on the inside, who made it all possible. Today, they convinced me that all our hard work is already paying off. I can't wait to see what our sown seeds will yield!

Following my fellowship at Digital Pedagogy Lab, I was invited to write an article for the affiliated journal, Hybrid Pedagogy.  You can find it here: http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/building-castles-in-the-air-critical-digital-pedagogy-and-the-pursuit-of-praxis/

I'm spending the week at the Digital Pedagogy Lab, having conversations with, and being inspired by other folks committed to teaching with (and about!) technology.  I've also been tweeting to the #digped hashtag all week, so I'm not sure I'll be summarizing my experiences here (yet, at least).  But, I do want to share some resources, since a number of people have expressed interest in my teaching materials.  In the spirit of openness, below are a couple syllabi that people may find useful, along with my typical Twitter assignment:

Twitter and Society (Capstone)
The Web in Real Life (200-level)

If you're interested in building off of what I have developed, please feel free.  And please do let me know how it goes!



My short radio segment on Twitter and journalistic practice airs today on WAMC.  The segment is also archived and available here: http://academicminute.org/2015/04/stephen-barnard-st-lawrence-university-social-media-and-journalism/

I must say, it's nice to see my work getting some traction. Here's a link to the (paywalled) article it's based on: http://jou.sagepub.com/conte…/…/2014/10/09/1464884914553079…

This weekend, I am presenting a paper at the Mini-Conference on Digital Sociology, in conjunction with the Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting.  I'll also be attending the conference, and tweeting at #DigitalSociology.  Here's a link to the paper, and the my slides and paper abstract are below.
 

Abstract:     
The proliferation of digital technologies and augmented social relations offer great potential for the vocation of sociology. Although the greatest interest in the digital turn has centered on sources of data, digitality also provides many excellent methodological benefits as well as new and evolving subjects of analysis. This paper seeks to make the case for a more digitally-attuned sociology, and to forge a path in that direction. To accomplish this task, I begin with a brief history of digital sociology — in the U.S. and beyond — as well as a survey of other, related approaches that have gained greater traction in the field. Next, I examine the state of social life in the digitally networked era and make the case for sociology’s need to update its epistemological orientation to put an end to fetishisms of technology and the "real world." Finally, I outline an agenda for the future of digital sociology along with some suggestions for how it might be accomplished.

This is an interactive digital poster presentation I gave today at the 2014 Teaching and Learning Conference at the University of Denver. In it, I explain the strategies I have developed over the years for teaching with technology, which I started doing to encourage more student engagement. Now, I have an array of strategies and assignments I can draw upon, and they keep evolving every term.  So, if anyone knows a good way to converge tweets and blog comments, I'd love to hear about it.

Later this week, I will be sitting on a panel at an Ethics Symposium at CU-Boulder.  Here is an excerpt of what I wrote in preparation for our conversation:

Complicating Factors

Despite the powerful journalistic affordances of the Twitter and the glut of information it may contain, there are obvious reasons to question the network’s effectiveness of sorting out fact from fiction.  The ‘wisdom of the crowd’ may not always be the best guide.  By the same token, one must be careful not to rely too heavily upon the first wave of information coming from the mainstream media.  As Anthony De Rosa pointed out earlier this week, “Twitter isn’t the problem. You are.”  De Rosa’s point is that “process reporting”—the sharing of information as it comes in, prior to verification, and then correcting the record later—is irresponsible journalism.  This is especially true in breaking news situations, where adrenaline is pumping the race to be firs—or, as De Rosa suggests, second—often gets in the way of what is otherwise a methodical process of gathering, verifying, and distributing information.  As NPR Counterterrorism Correspondent Dina Temple-Raston put it, “the first information that you get is usually wrong….It took us [NPR] half an hour to figure out that there were two explosions, and that, in fact, they had been bombs” (2013).   NPR’s verification process utilized a broad array of sources, found through both traditional and new channels.          

    As Adam Popescu once tweeted, “real reporting can be done via #Twitter. But not all of it.”  Similarly, we are reminded that real reporting can be done by journalists, but not all of it.  For example, this data visualization of tweets and retweets in the first hour after the 2011 Japan earthquake demonstrates how influential citizens can be in publishing and curating information in real-time. Of course, posting breaking information—on Twitter or elsewhere—is not the same thing as “traditional” journalism, which contains verified, contextualized (and, ideally, actionable) knowledge that is often the product of “gumshoe reporting.”  Doing this kind of important yet painstaking works takes time and capital, and not just the economic kind.

    Still, news consumers now have the option to ‘crash the gates’ and go straight to the source.  And it’s not just average citizens who are now more accessible.  Official sources are now an increasingly important part of the publishing cycle.  For example, Colorado’s Jefferson County Sherriff’s office utilized employed a thorough social media strategy during the September, 2013 floods.  Similarly, when the search for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect was over, Twitter users were among the first to know about it.  And the tweet came straight from an official source: the Boston Police Department.  Their post was retweeted nearly 140,000 times and received nearly 47,000 favorites.  It read:

CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody (Boston Police Department, 2013).


Drones and Disasters

When it comes to disaster coverage, drones provide obvious benefits.  They can safely go where humans cannot, and can capture revealing (if more pixelated) images at a fraction of the cost it would take to send a full-size helicopter, camera, and reporting team.  These affordances alone explain why drones may be the next frontier for disaster coverage.   But, they are not without limitations. 

    I think the biggest issue is controlling the rare access to information about private life. The monopoly over this right is held by the State and many cooperative communication corporations (Facebook, Google, Comcast, the telecomms, etc.).  Do they really want another, possibly combative, industry to have comparable access rights?  It doesn’t appear so, as the regulatory process has sought to ban all “commercial” drone usage.  As Lowy points out, “The FAA has identified the dividing line between a model aircraft and a small drone as more one of intent, rather than of technology. If it is used for commercial purposes, it's a drone. If it's used purely for recreational purposes, it's a model aircraft.”  However, the tides appear to be turning, as a recent federal judge dismissed the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) $10,000 fine against an aerial photographer on the grounds that “the small drone was no different than a model aircraft” (Lowy).  The issue is far from settled, but this ruling paves the way for the “commercial” usage of drones, including journalism. 
         
    While there may be few ethical concerns about using drones to cover disasters—especially “natural” ones—the issue gets much thornier when people come into the equation.  While the NSA now has a massive spying program built around 4th Amendment loopholes like the Patriot Act, average citizens are unlikely to be granted the right to fly and spy.  Americans’ right to privacy is surely eroding, but it’s far from gone.  For example, current techniques for recording in public require the use of “manned” (i.e. handheld) cameras.  Thus, private life may become public, but some form of physical copresence is usually required. 

    Consider, for a second, what journalism and public space would be like if video-drones use became normalized.  Would there be a sea of drones over Bieber’s mansion?  How about flying around Boston and Watertown for days as the manhunt continued?  The outcome would be even more ominous if “commercial use” included applications like Amazon’s drone delivery program.  It’s obvious why the FAA is concerned about regulating drone usage.  It’s also pretty clear why they’re an ethical concern for the journalism world: technological innovations have broadened journalistic toolkits, but merely possessing a tool does not dictate if or how we should use it. 

    This leads me to another concern about access to information and ‘convenience journalism’.  As budgets get tighter and profit margins greater, and journalists are asked to ‘do more with less’, there may be even greater pressure for news teams to pick the ‘low hanging fruit’.  (Citizen-run, celebrity-chasing, voyeur drones, anyone?)  This kind of solutionism may be fine in certain circumstances, but the widespread implications may be more troublesome for those of us still clinging to the profession’s unwavering dedication to serving the public good.  It’s much easier to print what’s coming off the wire, to air that video news release, or to stream a live-feed from an octocopter hovering over next month’s 4/20 celebration.  But, what’s best and what’s easiest are rarely the same thing. 


What’s Next?

Given the instances of erroneous reporting by both citizen- and professional- journalists, I seek a departure from the endless cycle of mud-slinging at those actors (often non-professionals) charged of mucking up the journalistic process by publishing or publicizing unverified information.  Besides, “professional” journalism is often the primary culprit, anyway (see Sohmer and De Rosa).  Instead, we should ensure that journalistic practice remains in touch with journalistic values.

    On a more abstract level, we might also ask, as medium theorists might, how certain communicative platforms help make some outcomes more likely than others.  This would be a question of technological and communicative affordances and how they are leveraged in pursuit of particular goals.  In other words, what tools are best for best for this particular job?  Ideally, we could avoid situations where “the only tool you have is a hammer,” and “everything looks like a nail.”  Inevitably, some people will keep pounding away until others come along and make us stop.

    The same approach applies to the drone phenomenon.  As the recent court ruling shows, the question is not so much if, drones will be used, but who will be allowed to use them, when, and to what ends?  So, as drones start becoming part of the journalistic toolkit, we must keep in mind the goals and values of the profession, and be mindful of when and how we use them.  If they’re abused great harm might be done, and a great privilege could be lost. 

The American media market is well known for its flashy, profit-oriented approach to content production and distribution.  Tactics of conglomeration (concentration of ownership by a parent company), Vertical and Horizontal Integration (shared efficiencies across commonly-owned companies) help media conglomerates accomplish a kind of synergy (inter-organizational efficiency) that companies outside the “Big 6” can hardly compete with.

As a scholar and educator focused on the field of media, I know all too well that examples of this kind of market/media logic are everywhere, just waiting to be found.  Practically every program produced by a major media outlet will model parts of this logic if one looks carefully enough.  There may be nothing new to see, but it’s still a useful endeavor to uncover what’s behind the veil.  Still, every once and a while we’re faced with such extreme examples that they render visible what is so often hidden in today’s media environment.  I recently recognized NBC’s The Voice as such a specimen.  (Watch the full episode below.)

The Voice is an example of corporate media logic par excellence.  During its season five finale, The Voice demonstrated just how deep the synergistic waters can run.  The final episode included numerous performances by popular artists seeking exposure for their individual brands, as well as their new line of products…err, albums.  More importantly, the vast majority of those artists work under popular music labels previously affiliated with the conglomerate.  For example, Lady Gaga (Interscope), Ne-Yo (DefJam), One Republic (Interscope), and Aloe Blacc (Interscope) are each supporting Comcast’s bottom line in their own resounding fashions. And, of course, the season five winner (SPOILER ALERT!), Tessanne Chin, was awarded a record contract with Universal Music Group, a major label with prior ties to NBC Universal/Vivendi.   

But, the story doesn’t end there.  Producers of the The Voice also discovered even more synergies by partnering with Kia Motors.  Not only did Kia help The Voice cross-promote by creating a special model for the show, they also helped close out the season with “a few surprises” for the season’s three finalists: a private tour of Universal Studios, a visit from the Grinch himself (yes, they’re also cross-promoting a new movie), and a new Kia.  In return, Kia was able to advertise their 2014 lineup to viewers around the world. 

Taken together, this is the capitalist logic on steroids: a handful of powerful media companies that are incredibly well-funded, sparsely regulated, and hardly diverse.  And, like it or not, the trend keeps growing stronger.  After completing their merger with NBCUniversal/GE just months ago Comcast is now looking to purchase fellow conglomerate Time Warner Cable.  If the plan goes through, Comcast, which is already a juggernaut in the American media market, could become one of the largest and most powerful media companies ever.

NOTE: This analysis is far from exhaustive, as The Voice exemplifies many more trends of the new media environment than can be covered in one post.  For example, The Voice has been incredibly successful at engaging its audience and leveraging them to various ends.  For example, members of the fan community help boost profits by purchasing songs, voting, and cross-promoting with the help of numerous social media sites.