Media use in the workplace

Week 8’s task was to reflect on media use in the workplace. There are a number of different types of ethnography, however, ‘media ethnography combines ethnographic methods from traditional participative observation to the tools of netnography (an online research method originating in ethnography which is applied to understanding social interaction) and visual analysis’, (Gianpietro Mazzoleni, pp.739-742).

Today, there are numerous of employers who do not allow for media use in their work environment, however, media use has become quite apparent in everyday work circumstances. With updated technology, employees are using media in their workplace to search for answers on the web or to take photos using their iPhones or tablets to see where the problem needs to be fixed.

My previous job consisted of me travelling to Sydney every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, catching the 7am train from North Wollongong station to Central in Sydney where I worked on the streets and in shopping malls doing fundraising for charities. My given charity was called ‘Taronga Conservation Society’, so I worked on behalf of Taronga Zoo on the breeding and rehabilitation side for our current endangered species. I worked 9am-5:30pm trying to stop pedestrians on the busy streets of Sydney, hoping to inform them of what our conservation society did, and of course, trying to get people to sign up to our charity to give monthly donations to help fund for breeding programs at Taronga.

We used tablets that had a sign-up sheet, for when we convinced strangers to jump on board with us and donate, we would sign them up on our tablets. On the tablet, the sign-up sheet included the people’s names, D.O.B, address, if they are currently employed, email, phone number, then their credit card details or BSB and account number so monthly deductions could take place. This was the only form of technology we used in our work environment as we were sent to different locations every week; we weren’t sitting at a computer desk everyday, we were standing and walking around so we had to hold onto our tablets.

Our tablets could not be used to access any social media such as Facebook or Twitter as they were strictly used for work purposes. We were allowed on our phones at break, but it wasn’t too strict where as is someone caught you, nothing bad would happen. In many ways social media is just another in a long line of workplace distractions – chatty co-workers personal telephone calls or long smoko breaks. Each workplace should have a very clear policy that sets limits on ‘reasonable use’ of internet based facilities that outlines what sort of communications are and are not acceptable. For example, when I was working, if we were standing on our phones for more than 5 minutes not doing the job, we probably would have been fired. My job was not that strict what so ever, but it is common courtesy to someone who employs you; you are expected to do your job and not be standing around doing nothing.

Bridge of pebbles that has changed the media

Week 8’s lecture focused on the idea of figurative bridges that are made out of pebbles along with the conceptual shift of social media. As we know, the internet allows individual and mass communication, the way we find our media and news is via social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook, instead of buying your local newspaper every Saturday from the closest newsagency. This new way of absorbing information conveys a difference in age and how one has the ability to become a ‘prosumer’ rather than a ‘consumer’.

‘Gatekeeping’ is this idea of filtering, deciding what is important, what should be called media, what should be called news and what should be discussed.

“While audiences did retain the ability to buy or not to buy the newspaper, to switch on or off the radio and television news, in practice this choice amounted in many local markets that were served by only one or two major news outlets simply to a choice between the news as it was offered, or a self-imposed news blackout” – Axel Bruns

Reddit is a good example where tonnes of information and sources are gathered, then posted online for people to see over and over again. This depicts a problem for journalists as they have to fight for their work to be seen and captured by reporters. This constant flow of information shows how “bridges made of pebbles’ is a metaphor for the pebbles being the numerous amount of information provided by many social media networking sites, and the bridge representing the whole organisation of information which leads to which information is fact or false.

Below is a YouTube clip on how ‘social media is changing journalism’.

 

iOS vs. Android; open and closed sources

It has been obvious that one of the most controversial topics that arise relating to phones, is always, Android or iPhone? The idea of Google’s Android is that it is a more ‘”open” source, while Apple’s iOS is a “closed” source. Android is open in a variety of ways, for one thing, the Android operating system is based on code from the ‘Android Open Source Project’.

The beginning of 2007 saw Apple announce the iPhone and Google’s response was very different because at the end of 2007, Google announced the ‘Open Handset Alliance’. Both Apple and Android have a number of similarities, but also differences which sometimes conveys why one is better than the other. The idea of this closed vs. open source portrays a sense of freedom. This is due to being able to download apps outside of the designated system (its own app store) – for Android, which does not have many restrictions and even if it does not approve of an app, you can install it elsewhere.

Closed source however means that you can only install apps from Apple’s app store and no where else. This is why Apple’s iOS is referred to as a ‘closed source’.

So, if you are fine with the downloading of apps that are only available on Apple’s app store, then iOS is the one for you, but if you like to go off track a bit and like downloading apps outside of Google Play, then Android is the one for you.

Ethnography

BCM241 so far has been the study of ethnography; whether it be auto-ethnography, online ethnography or collaborative ethnography, ethnography is defined as “the systematic study of people and cultures”. It is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view from the subject of study.

While cooperating in writing in an auto-ethnographic style a few weeks back, I got to write about my own cinema visit. It was different in a way writing in an auto-ethnographic style, but it allowed to me to reflect back on my experiences. In the process of learning about ethnography, I have been able to read and engage with other students weekly blog posts.

“Ethnographic studies can turn preconceived notions and misunderstandings about a particular culture into positive comprehensions. Ethnographic studies can also lend credibility to other interpretations from studies about a particular culture that have been done in the past” – Krista Kerley, 2017.

When reading few blog posts on Cinema Spaces, I found that mostly every one had mentioned Hagertsrand’s three constraints which helped develop a theoretical post. Ethnography also includes the process of participant observation and this was clear in the blog posts. Each person had written a different type of ethnography, whether it was an auto-ethnography reflecting on their own experience in a cinema, or inviting someone older to join them in a cinema memory by creating conversation. This clearly depicted that participant observation needed to be conducted to write an ethnographic response.

All of the blogs that I read told a story that related to oneself and they all portrayed some sort of ethnographic response. Ethnographers face strengths and weaknesses every day. These blog posts told cinematic experiences and how it was done/related to Hagerstrands’s three constraints. People created an in depth post about their own posts and related their story to their own audience. Media audiences can consist of a few people or thousands of people and it was clear in different blog posts on which audience people were focusing on.

While collaboration is central to the practice of ethnography, realizing a more deliberate and explicit collaborative ethnography implies resituating collaborative practice at every stage of the ethnographic process, from fieldwork to writing and back again.

Collaborative ethnography allows us to learn and engage with others while communicating with participants and creating meaningful ethnographies.

“We might sum up collaborative ethnography as an approach to ethnography that deliberately and explicitly emphasizes collaboration at every point in the ethnographic process” – Lassiter, 2005.

ifeud – e – what?

This weeks concept was quite interesting as I had never heard of the term ‘the feudalisation of the internet’ before. The walled gardens play a large role in the feudalisation of the internet as the ‘walled gardens’ are described in terms of the apple app store and Facebook. In the lecture, Ted described feudalisation as something vague and widely contested. A walled garden is referred to something that is open and free in a certain environment, however there are boundaries and limitations – hence the wall.

The concept is incredibly relevant today, with the continuous expansion of corporations such as Apple and Facebook, and in 2013, Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads, (Apple Inc 2013). With the feudalisation of the internet, the biggest issues on the internet today include surveillance cameras, hacking and privacy and with Facebook being the largest social media platform that is used today, hacking is increasing and privacy isn’t even privacy anymore.

The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character and every thought. – Ted