Memory and Media

CNN had an article last week on how we use technologies as archives of our past Do digital diaries mess up your brain? (yes it is indeed a very sloppy title!):

“…today’s technology creates opportunities for greater, moment-by-moment record-keeping. Archives of your blog, Facebook or Twitter feed — both in text and in pictures — might reveal exactly what you ate on important occasions, the papers you were proud of and the outfits you wore”.

The article made me think of Leonard in Memento who says: “The present is trivia, which I scrible down on fucking notes”. Actually, as a media studies student at Goldsmith’s College many years ago, I remember writing an essay about the film Memento using it as an example of the contemporary virtual/human mind where the present moment in a way suppresses the past. As Leonard so elegantly puts it at the end of the film: “Now, Where was I?”. (Perhaps a too extreme and pessimistic description of the state of things. But I was a student. I don’t know what CNN’s excuse is…).

I have lost the essay now, but I remember that I was using my all time favourite Henri Bergson’s description of “the memory-image”, which are past experiences, that are unrepeatable because in our consciousness they are placed in the past in spatial and temporal contexts. The “memory-image” was to Bergson that what constitues “actual memory” – the essence of human consciousness.

I often regret that Bergson does not live today to experience the effect of technologies in our everyday lives. I wonder what he would have thought about Microsoft’s SenseCam (described in the CNN article) – an attempt to create “memory-images, that is, exact recollections of what happened. Or the status updates on Facebook that places our narratives of the present in a temporal context with the exact time of the status update.

However, what intrigued me the most in the CNN article was the thought that our behaviour and path in life might be effected by our consiousness about the technological archives we are creating about ourselves on e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc. As Barry Barry Schwartz, professor of social action and social theory says in the article:

“If we have experiences with an eye toward the expectation that in the next five minutes, we’re going to tweet them, we may choose difference experiences to have, ones that we can talk about rather than ones we have an interest in,”

Increasingly, and I really think this is the case, we will change our actions according to the archive we are creating about ourselves. Of course we are nothing without a memory of the past, as Bergson believed and as Leonard 100 years later became the perfect image of in Memento. And thus we are everything our past presents; that is, both our physical actions in the past and our (and others!) virtual actions on social network services such as Facebook and Twitter. This is really what is interesting about the technological archives we are creating – that they influence the way we choose to live our lives. This is also what Joshua Meyrowitz refers to as a new “sense of caution” effected by the different “sense of place” that we are experiencing with digital/electronic media. But then again, is it a new thing? People have always been more or less aware about the narratives they present about themselves. Perhaps the new thing is an issue of control. Who or what controls the individual’s personal narrative today?

It’s a bit scarry actually that in my work with raising children in the network society, I am working exactly with this issue. Telling kids to be aware of the archives they create, telling them to be cautious when developing their  identity. It’s a dilemma between letting kids develop their identity in their own generational framework and attempting to mold them in my own generation’s image. But I guess this has been the all time dilemma. Being an adult that has to protect both children’s right to free expression and participation and to protect their rights – and others – to exercise this right in a somewhat “risk reduced” framework.

(I am in a way saying the same thing in this article: “”When moblogger met little brother – Or how new technologies influence behaviour”)

Order in chaos…

Although I never get tired of hearing it repeated, it is really not rocket science anymore to proclaim that media have played a significant role when it comes to the breaking down of social limits and borders. In the 80’s, Meyrowitz was already talking about how electronic media contributed to the restructuring of social situations in the same way as if we were pulling down walls and opened doors. And this development has of course only been taking up pace ever since the internet was paved into our everyday lives in the mid 90’s. (Yes! I repeat it and repeat it. But I am actually experiencing a moment in time where we are still wondering and obsessing about the newness of the network society and the changes that have been taking place so rapidly within the last 20 years. So please, future generations, just bear with my obsession and thrill. Of course you will not appreciate it in the same way as me). Okay. Back to my point, which is really not my point, but rather a whole tradition of brilliant academics’ point. Although, physical and social borders between inside and outside, private and public and so on have been somehow brought down by the technological development of digital media, it is not complete chaos yet. Most girls will still be girls online, lads will be lads, Danes will be Danes and so on and so forth. There are still very explicit social and cultural principles of organization (I think this was Lash and Urry who used this term) that govern our daily digital lives – the way we interact and where we interact.

SO HERE’S A TEST: Do you feel at home, understand, appreciate, know how to respond to the following (look at the comments to the videos):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAh_4tXUh_0

http://www.youtube.com/user/julieg713

http://www.youtube.com/user/FizzicsEd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO1qcwnd0ok

(this is Danish, so if you are not Danish, you won’t get the point here , sorry):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITak3arfak0

IF YOU DON’`T GET IT OR ARE LAUGHING RIGHT NOW: Don’t worry, you just don’t belong to the social and cultural community of the people who does understand and know how to behave within these communities.

Is this not order in chaos or what?

Logningsbekendtgørelsen

What is Media Literacy?

Media literacy is to the 21st century what literacy was to the 20th. To be media literate is a precondition for participating fully in the network society. However, the notion that access and technical skills automatically lead to full participation should be questioned. The media literate citizen today needs not only a connection and technical skills, but s/he also must have the skills to read and write various media forms as well as the social and ethical skills to navigate competently within the digital media environment.

 

What is media literacy? The first skills that come to mind for many people when we talk about media literacy are the purely functional skills. We think of a tool; a medium that one needs to command. It is the technical skills needed to use the tool and the medium that are emphasized. And not the social and ethical skills needed to navigate in a digital space. And these images of media literacy are still haunting the schools systems around the world.

But of course – we all know better…

Unfortunately, there is a tendency to think that access and technical skills automatically lead to all the skills that are necessary to live and interact in a digital environment.  The Negroponte initiative ”One laptop pr. child” somewhat reflects this perception. Not to say that it is not a fine initiative with a great political signal value – access and functional/technical skills are truly preconditions for participating in the network society. However, it’s not the only precondition. To have a computer does not result automatically in the skills needed to take advantage of the full potential of digital media and to be able to interact in a digital environment responsibly. This goes for countries where the penetration of internet access is not very high and it goes for countries where it is high.

One very good example that exemplifies this notion is the ethnographic studies of internet users made by Professor Don Slater from The London School of Economics in Ghana some years ago. Ghana was one of the first African countries to access the internet in 1994. And since then there has been an explosion of internet cafes in the country. However, although the internet is accessible in Ghana, the internet users were here not using the internet as a source of information. The internet was used to chat with foreigners. Only one internet user had by coincidence accessed ccn.com and she was not completely sure about what it was.  Predominant societal power structures were here reflected in the Ghanesians use of the internet.

So what is media literacy if it’s not access and technical skills only? Media literacy is no less than ”literacy” was perceived in the 1970’s and 1980’s where campaigns were focusing on the importance of being able to read and write texts in order participate in the wider society.  And what is literacy? Literacy is: “the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society.“[i]  

If we recognize the role of ICT in the wider society as the World Summit of Information Society is doing in its declaration of principles[ii], we can also argue that media literacy is in today’s society a right.  And to strive towards eradicating media illiteracy worldwide should therefore be a priority.

Access to ICT is increasing worldwide. But as argued, access does not result in media literacy. The public library did not automatically result in literate populations.  The first to create a somewhat “public” library were of course the Romans.  However, the power structures in the wider Roman society were only transferred into the library.  Only the ones who could afford an education could and would use the library. (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_library)  

That said…when it comes to the definition of Media Literacy there is presently an ongoing debate that media literacy should not be distinguished from literacy in general. This argument is based on the recognition of the role of ICT in the wider society. However, as I, and many others, see it, it is also important that media literacy is understood on its own terms; that we conceptually distinguish it from previous forms of literacy. A general misconception in the educational systems today is that media literacy should be approached as traditional literacy skills have been approached. But we need to focus on the ”newness” of the skills needed in the network society – we need to distinguish these skills from skills needed in earlier societal stages. ICT has brought something new and different into our lives – something that we cannot compare with other moments in the history of mankind. The skills needed here are not just the skills to use a new form of medium per se, as eg. the skills to read a book were. The skills needed to use ICT are the skills needed to participate in a digital space that extends our everyday life and space.   So what one needs today in order to participate fully in society is something new and different from before digital media became integrated into our everyday life and societal processes.

So what kind of definition of media literacy do we want? We want one that recognizes the role of ICT in the general society and thus build on a general definition of what skills are needed: ”to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society”. And we need to define what is new and different from the skills needed in the ”pre- network society”.

So, what is media literacy? To be media literate is to have the skills to[iii]:

-          read and write many forms of “languages”/ systems of signification (to be able to read and write text, image, sound, structure etc.) 

-          to use the technical tools of digital media ( the computer, mobile etc.)

-          to relate the “systems of signification” to broader social and cultural contexts (And what is specific about these contexts when we talk about the new media environment is that these contexts are fluid, constantly changing. So not only do you need to know different languages (your own and English), but you also need to be able to interpret different ”texts” from different types of ”authors”. You need to know the social and cultural norms of the communities you move between etc.)

But ”media literacy” is even more than just the interpretation of the language of new media and the ability to interpret the social and cultural contexts of the sign systems. Perhaps we should even move away from using the term media literacy. To be able to achieve your goals, to develop knowledge to participate fully in society, you today also need a specific approach to life; the capacity to behave and navigate within an environment that per default is digital, to be creative, intuitive and practical, to be critical, to be open-minded and individually responsible. These are skills that are to a certain extent very different from the skills that traditionally were and in many cases still are prioritized – that is to say:  the ability to focus, to listen, to respect the authority on a subject etc. (see the post below on teacher’s traditional media culture Vs children’s digital media culture)

So these are the skills that are necessary to participate fully in the wider society today:

1. Characteristic of digital culture: The blending of the private and the public…

Skills: The ability to keep private in a public place

1. Characteristic of digital culture: The access to numerous pieces of information here and now…

Skills:The ability to prioritize, categorize and choose between much available information

1. Characteristic of digital culture: The immediacy and reach…

Skills: Ethical and moral competences when distributing information and interacting with other people

1. Characteristic of digital culture: The combination of many forms of communication…

Skills: The ability to read and interpret images, form and structure as well as text and words

 

 

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[i] (UNESCO Education Sector, The Plurality of Literacy and its implications for Policies and Programs: Position Paper. Paris: United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2004, p. 13, citing a international expert meeting in June 2003 at UNESCO. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001362/136246e.pdf )

 

 

[ii] “We recognize that education, knowledge, information and communication are at the core of human progress, endeavour and well-being. Further, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have an immense impact on virtually all aspects of our lives. The rapid progress of these technologies opens completely new opportunities to attain higher levels of development. The capacity of these technologies to reduce many traditional obstacles, especially those of time and distance, for the first time in history makes it possible to use the potential of these technologies for the benefit of millions of people in all corners of the world.” (World Summit on the Information Society – from Declaration of principles, Geneva, 2003)

 

[iii] Definition based on a definition in “Current trends and approaches to media literacy in Europe“, a study carried out for the EC by the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, 2007

The clash

Molding tomorrow’s citizens into aware and empowered digital citizens should be an easy task. We’ve done it for centuries -raising children to become empowered in the society of tomorrow, that is. But there is a tiny problem though. In this very moment in the history of man, the velocity of technological development has been unprecedented. We’ve never seen anything like it. And we are a little bit stunned. The point is that our everyday life is digital, so we need to be digital ourselves. The easiest thing I could do right now would be to blame the digital generational gap between children and their adults, point a big fat finger at the adults and say “Get used to it and educate!”It would be so easy. But of course I cannot do that.  In Denmark we do have a rather strong political focus on our role as participants in a globalized network society. Though, a recent survey evaluating IT in the Danish school made by the Danish evaluation institute EVA in corporation with the Danish Ministry of Education recently showed that teachers still need more training, that ICT is present in the school, but not functioning, that IT is not integrated well enough in the actual subjects, that knowledge sharing systems are primarily used for administrative purposes and that individual IT initiatives were not supported sufficiently by the school management. These are some of the factors that influence the way in which we bring up kids to become functional empowered citizens of tomorrow.  But there are also the cultural and social factors. And what I see in the classrooms is a conflict between two sets of everyday meanings and practices (that is to say: two different cultures) that clash when students -that have grown up with digital media as natural elements of their everyday lives – and teachers -that have grown up in a completely different media environment – meet in the classroom.

New to Twitter

I have recently become a Twitter user – yes I know I am behind with creating an account… however…

This means that I am completly new to the social rules and customs of this specific community. And this is a great feeling. I guess this is the great thing about our internet communities in general; that we constantly have to recreate ourselves, moving between the many online  social and cultural spaces.  It  demands from people to be flexible.

On Twitter I love the  search engine where I can search any term I want and then being met with a list of “twitters” – moods, information, links, whereabouts – from people all over the world and fields.  

At the present I feel a tiny bit lonely on Twitter though. I have only two “followers”, and I am not sure if I am providing them with anything useful with my twitters since they are 1) situated on each their site of the world and 2) work in two very different fields. The only thing that connects them in this world is me, because I know (or at least I have known) both of them at some point in my non-virtual life. 

Well, somehow this is what makes the internet a great place to explore: The connecting points between the physical world and the virtual are people. And thus the life we live online is made of the stuff that makes us people: dreams, identity, ideas, imagination.

Time Mag’s Person of the Year

Okay, I take the “oops” back (see one of my earlier posts). Time Magazine’s elected person of the year 2008 is definitely NOT an “oops”…

The future of the internet – anything new?

The third survey on the future of the internet 2020 from Pew Internet & American Life Project just came out. It predicts the impact of the internet on society etc.

But its not a magic glass ball! More like a compilation of expert science fiction and opinions. And of course opinions born out of our various perspectives and approaches to the internet and its impact on society and people. It’ s the same story over and over again. For example: Will the democratic dimensions of the internet inflect a more tolerant behaviour – yes or no? etc. 

And then there are the obvious predictions about the future development of internet, mobile and society: We will primarily use the mobile to access the internet, the real and the virtual as well as traditional borders betweeen work and leisure time will disintegrate…and so on…

Com’on look around you! It’s already here (at least in some parts of the world)! It’s not 2020. It’s 2010. And not a prediction at all.

I dont really see anything new in this survey and it’s not even entertaining like real science fiction. And perhaps not even half as intellectual as one of the good old science fiction films with touch screens, portable cameras for the public and super computers. There are no new inventions or predictions that we can get inspired by in this survey - nothing that can contribute to produce the future.

If I really want to know something about the immediate future of the internet, I’ll look here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/opinion/16tue3.html?_r=2. And if I want to shape and inspire the future, I’ll make a Science Fiction movie…

YouTube Symphony

The times when I love my Internet historic moment in time the most, are the times when I hear about projects and ideas that truly make use of the democratic potential of the medium. 

The YouTube Symphony is one of these projects. This is the channel where you can participate in a symphony created specifically in the collaborative spirit of the internet. You can choose your instrument, download the nodes and watch your personal own conductor video to practice your part of the symphony. And then take part in this collaborative video symphony by uploading your video to the YouTube channel. How great is that?

Let’s see and hear more about these positive examples of mobs using the internet for what it was originally made for….great things….

Social media is…

Either we are thrilled or we are worried. Social media has made us addictive, lonely and deprived us of human contact OR it has made us extremely social, loving and caring. This is at least the usual discourse about social media- which is actually quite boring. Let me say this once and for all: Social media does neither! Social media is neither the cause of loneliness nor extreme happiness.

Social media is:

• the framework for digital social interaction 
• a tool to administrate our social network
• an extension of our everyday social life
• a social space where your private and public social network unfolds at the same time in the same space 
• a space with different qualities than physical space – or rather an extension of physical space that adds a “different” dimension to physical space
• a place with a different dimension, which is really not that complicated: things can be copied, distributed widely and they are searchable. 
• a potent and powerful tool that can be used for extremely good things or extremely bad things
• a social sphere where you are the one with the power to make things good or bad (not the medium itself)- so just use social media responsibly (“mediamocracy”). 

Social media has different qualities than “physical space”. And its here now!We learned to walk among each other on earth – I am sure we can also learn to do the same on the internet.