constructions

Leave me alone?

2009-07-29T08:27:00.008+01:00

"A state of perfect privacy would be akin to a state of absolute solitude, which is not only undesirable but also the harshest modern judicial punishment short of the death penalty" (Tufecki, 2008: 22).

I have written several articles where I discuss the conundrum of disclosure vs. privacy-concerns with regard to social technologies (in my doctoral thesis, and three (!) forthcoming articles this autumn*). Zeynep Tufecki's "Can you see me now? Audience and disclosure regulation in online social network sites" has nevertheless escaped my attention till now. I still haven't read it, only the two first pages. The obvious truth of the above quote made me stop. I do believe the essence is quite same as what I have written a number of times already. Tufecki, however, refers to Irwin Altman's conception of privacy as a balance between optional withdrawal and disclosure. She emphasizes the difference between Altman and the limited conception of privacy as social withdrawal (the right to be let alone), the latter conception being flawed: We do not want to be let alone at all times. Human beings crave disclosure to some extent.

Which is what I find again and again. I'm currently working on a small privacy-focused research-project for the Concumer Council of Norway (together with my collegues Petter Brandtzæg and Jan Håvard Skjetne). We've conducted interviews with Facebook-users aged 16 - 50 as well as a a survey (her er prosjektets Facebookgruppe). A report in Norwegian will be published later this autumn, but I am sure we will also write a couple of conference/journal articles.

* Forthcoming articles where I discuss social technologies and privacy:

Lüders, M, Brandtzæg, P. and Dunkels, E. (forthcoming 2009): Risky Contacts. In S. Livingstone & L. Haddon (Eds.), Kids Online: Opportunities and Risks for Children: The Policy Press (link)

Lüders, M (forthcoming 2009). Why and how online sociability became part and parcel of teenage life. In R. Burnett, M. Consalvo & C. Ess (Eds.), The Handbook of Internet studies. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (link)

Lüders, M. (under utgivelse). Ung, dum og deilig? In Clemet, K & Egeland, J.O. (red), Til Forsvar for Personvernet (arbeidstittel). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Kontaktannonse: Søker norsk partner til EU-prosjekt-søknad

2009-01-30T11:40:00.004+01:00

Interessert i å være med i et fremtidsrettet EU-finansiert forskningsprosjekt med partnere fra hele Europa? SINTEF vil gjerne komme i kontakt med norske utviklere/leverandører av sosiale medier og brukerskapte innholdstjenester, eventuelt innholdsleverandører med et sterkt fokus på brukerinvolvering.

SINTEF er en av 16 partnere i det EU-finansierte prosjektet CITIZEN MEDIA. I dette prosjektet har bruker-sentrerte metoder vært sentrale for målsetningen om å utvikle sosiale medier og brukerskapte innholdstjenester. CITIZEN MEDIA går mot slutten, og SINTEF og de andre konsortiepartnerne arbeider med en ny søknad rettet mot 7. rammeprogram call 4, objective 1.5 Networked Media and 3D Internet. 70-80 millioner euro er satt av til denne delen av utlysningen.

Det nye prosjektet bygger på CITIZEN MEDIA og handler således i stor grad om sosiale medier. Men i det nye prosjektet er buzz-ord som ubiquitous computing, future Internet og Internet of things også helt sentrale. Vi har allerede mange ideer, men ønsker å ta utgangspunkt i hva en ny norsk parner arbeider med og ønsker å utvikle i årene fremover.

Interessert? Send en e-post til marika.luders@sintef.no eller ring.

Heekya: Wikipedia for stories

2008-08-08T15:16:00.000+01:00

I'm a lousy blogger, I know. But if you happen to visit, have a few minutes to spare, an interest in social/collaborative storytelling and the potentials emerging by integrating social network sites, take a look at this project. Looks very interesting.

Heekya: Wikipedia for Stories from DavidAdewumi on Vimeo.

Life as it should be

2008-03-22T17:51:00.001+01:00

Originally uploaded by Marika

A week of snow, sun, mountains and crosscountry skiing. I understand why this is the preferred way to spend Easter for quite a few Norwegians (most stay home though). We've tested wonderful tracks around Nordseter, approximately 100 km in total. Not too much if compared to some crazy sport-fanatics, but it's more than enought for me. Now I'm totally ready to get back to work next week, I have quite a lot of it waiting for me actually.

US library of congress on flickr

2008-01-30T09:13:00.001+01:00

Woman aircraft worker, Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Shown checking electrical assemblies (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

The national library of the US has uploaded more than 3000 photos to flickr, encouraging people to tag and comment. That's a great and rather simple way to construct and facilitate national narratives and history. Additionally, some of the photos are absolutely beautiful. Thanks to Stig at Underskog for posting an entry about this project (members only).

my thesis and defense

2007-12-11T11:07:00.000+01:00

Want to read my thesis? Get a copy! Contact Kristin Sandberg at the Department of media and communication, phone: +47 22 85 04 02, k.l.sandberg at media.uio.no

/EDIT/ I don't think there are any printed copies left, but I'd be happy to send you a pdf-version of my thesis if you're interested. Let me know.

My trial lecture is next Tuesday (18th of December) from 5.15 pm - 6pm, aud. 2, Sophus Bugges hus at Blindern (at campus). Assigned title: "Changes and consistencies in subjectivity in an age of new media"

The defense will take place on the 19th of December at 9.15 am, aud. 2, Sophus Bugges hus at Blindern.

Committee: Professor Charles Ess (Drury University) and Professor Nancy Baym (University of Kansas). Third member of the committee is Associate Professor Tanja Storsul (University of Oslo).

It'll be fun, I'm sure!

crime scenes, stories and truths

2007-12-04T13:26:00.000+01:00

I've been a lay-judge at "Tingretten" in Oslo for a few years. Yesterday and today I attended my third time in the court as a lay-judge, trying to grasp what actually happened, or did not happen in a specific case. Tingretten is the first court instance in the Norwegian courts system. A full trial is conducted and the verdict is decided by a court judge assisted by two lay-judges. Naturally I can't tell you anything about the actual case or verdict, but my experiences as lay-judge have been extremely interesting. The procedures, the contrasts between the stories told by the witnesses, the rhetorics used, and the fact that these oral stories with often rather dubious connections to "the reality of what happened" constitute the background for the verdict.

Audun Kjus just defended his PhD with the thesis Sakens fakta - fortellerstrategier i straffesaker (The facts of the case - storystrategies in criminal cases, my translation of title).

ipodbatteri rules

2007-11-11T17:18:00.000+01:00

Last week I thought my ipod finally died. I tried everything to fix it, but the hard disk just didn't respond. I wondered whether I should buy another type of media player. Can't stand devices with an expected lifetime of a couple of years. It's unethical.

Now it seems my ipod works. The owner of ipodbatteri.no fixed it. While I was waiting. Charging nothing as he couldn't guarantee that he'd repaired it for good. When my ipod finally gives in, I will probably buy another one. As long as ipodbatteri is there to help me prolong it's life.

Ambivalence Towards Convergence

2007-10-31T16:14:00.000+01:00

One of my thesis-articles, "Converging forms of communication?", is one of the contributions in a newly published anthology: Ambivalence Towards Convergence. Digitalization and Media Change, edited by Tanja Storsul and Dagny Stuedahl.

Concepts of convergence and converging processes have triggered considerable attention and activities in media research during recent years. This has been an inspiring context for the discussions and analyses presented in this book.

The book elucidates a variety of understandings related to the concept of convergence, and at the same time reflects on the analytical advantage of the concept. The contributions discuss the impact of media digitalization and the degree to which the prospects of convergence have been realized. The studies range from investigations of institutional and regulatory change within media and cultural institutions, to analyses of communicative genres and social practices related to digital media.

For table of contents and ordering the book, visit Nordicom.

citizens in danger

2007-10-05T17:23:00.000+01:00

Last week BBC encouraged people inside Burma to share their stories: Accounts from inside Burma. At the very bottom of the web page, the following message has been written: "At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws." Appropriate of course, considering Burmese people risk jail and abuse for telling the world what has been going on. It's "citizen journalism" at its most interesting and perhaps cruel, mass media actors taking advantage of the upsurge of amateur quasi-reporters in conflict-areas. With the possibility of air-time on BBC and CNN, people will probably be more willing to take chances. It must represent a rather delicate dilemma for the media industry, and I don't know whether a warning such as the one above solves it.

memories

2007-09-28T09:12:00.001+01:00

Red for Burma day
Originally uploaded by Marika.

November 2000: I'm sitting on the floor in a London apartment, browsing colourful books about Burma. Next to me, a Burmese monk and his friend. I have just finished interviewing them for my master-thesis, which concerned the use of the Internet among exile-Burmese people. I did interviews with nine Burmese people during my ten days in London. I also interviewed people from the non-profit media organization Democratic Voice of Burma in Oslo.

The meetings made a huge impression on me. I know wearing a red shirt isn't much of an action. But it feels meaningful to be part of a global symbolic protest.

45 years of military repression is just surreal.

transcending souls?

2007-09-06T08:23:00.000+01:00

For the qualitative-minded researcher, the open-ended interview apparently offers the opportunity for an authentic gaze into the soul of the other... (Davd Silverman (2003) "Analyzing Talk and Text: 343).

In an otherwise interesting article, I believe Silverman reads too much into the intentions of researchers conducting qualitative interviews. This sentence really jumped out on me. I'm preparing two lectures in methodology that I agreed to do at the Department of Political Science. At first I regretted having said yes, but clearly it might just make me more prepared for critical methodological comments on my PdD-thesis. There, I immediately felt sick thinking about it. My defense, if it is approved will take place on the 19th of December. Touch wood.

f**king banner

2007-08-22T20:37:00.000+01:00

No, I'm not at all happy with the new banner on the top of my blog. After four years at start.no and home.no.net, I will have to move. Think I'll just resign and use blogspot. I am using Blogger after all. URL: marika75.blogspot.com.

summary of my phd-thesis

2007-08-10T12:45:00.000+01:00

Being in mediated spaces: An enquiry into personal media practices

The main purpose of this thesis has been to analyse mediated practices among young people: what significance do use of personal media have for the individual user? The concept of personal media is understood as denoting tools for interpersonal communication and personal content creation. Although the history of personal media did not commence with digital network technologies, the development since the mid 1990s indicates that new patterns of being in mediated spaces have materialised. The consequences are potentially considerable, and it is therefore vital to understand personal media practices from a user-perspective. Moreover, the recent development affects previous notions of communication media. A crucial ambition has consequently been to conceptualise the notion of personal media and the distinctions between personal communication and mass communication. This study is primarily based on qualitative interviews with 20 users, aged between 15 and 19 years old. Participants all have a multifaceted online presence and, accordingly, a particular knowledge on the area of study. Throughout the research project I also observed their ever-changing presence online.

The thesis opens with a synthesizing discussion, in which I present previous research on personal media; introduce eight specific research questions; consider the methodological approaches pursued; and theoretically deliberate on aspects concerning communication, subjectivity and privacy in networked cultures. The opening discussion is followed by five articles, which comprise the main part of the thesis.

In “Conceptualising personal media”, I explain the main characteristics of personal media. I introduce a two-dimensional model, locating personal media and mass media differently according to a horizontal interaction axis, and a vertical institutional/professional axis.

In “Mediated subjects: how personal media affect performances of selves”, I examine perceptions of self-performances. Mediated communication is characterised by other qualities than offline communication, and users regularly disclose private information. As a consequence boundaries between what is considered public and private are changing, yet the constructed mediated self cannot be described as unfiltered.

The main purpose of “Becoming more like friends: a qualitative study of personal media and social life”, is to examine the qualities of mediated interaction and the integration of mediated and immediate social spheres. Mediated communication differs from face-to-face communication, not by being less meaningful, but by enabling other forms of disclosing practices. I argue that the ability to integrate different social spaces has become a characteristic element of social competence in network societies.

“’I made this!’ Being through creative digital practices” was written in order to analyse the creative aspects of being in mediated spaces. Sharing fragments of everyday stories appears to be important for media practices to be personally and socially meaningful. I argue that perceptions of creative strategies are connected to originality and the ability to create aesthetically pleasing expressions. Creative practices are nonetheless ordinary and essential parts of life, and being creative in mediated spaces is a way of being social and receiving recognition from peers.

In the final article “Converging forms of communication? Interpersonal and mass mediated expressions in digital environments”, I examine the grey-areas, which cannot be described as purely interpersonally mediated or mass mediated. The concept of communication is discussed by examining aspects of interaction, participation and social integration. These aspects are applied as variables in an analysis of conversations in a personal weblog, Underskog and a reader-discussion in the online edition of the Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet.

mountains

2007-08-01T10:13:00.001+01:00

Idunn
Originally uploaded by Marika.

I'm off to Telemark together with Idunn, Janne and Mette. Four women and a simple cottage for a few days. Very low-tech, I'm looking forward to it a lot. Idunn and I had a couple of wonderful days there in August 2005. Peace and serenity, here I come!

Oh, had an interesting experience yesterday. After Simpsons (which was fun), we ended up on the rock-pub Maiden. Featuring "Karaoke from Hell". Not the average karaoke-bar and not the average karaoke-concept. Instead, old metal classics to choose from, a live band to sing with. Lights and action. Uh, I didn't sing, I have never seen such dedicated karaoke-performers.

being in mediated spaces

2007-07-31T13:15:00.000+01:00

My now submitted PhD-thesis is entitled Being in mediated spaces: An enquiry into personal media practices. Yet, curb your enthusiasm, no need to get all excited yet. After all, I now have to wait for almost six months before I know whether the thesis-committee will even approve my work. I feel kind of empty and anxious since I can no longer re-write, re-work and improve my thesis.

I loved being a PhD-student.

gossip

2007-07-16T19:27:00.001+01:00

One of my favourite fun-girls is clearly also a smart girl. Look, Cameron D reads books about globalisation on the beach: Thomas L. Friedman's The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Globalised World in the 21st Century (link to nytimes review) from 2005.

Learning to know important things such as this of course explains my daily visits to gossip site Popsugar.

a messy post starting with Lessig on Keane and ending with me

2007-07-11T14:08:00.000+01:00

Lawrence Lessig has written an inordinately clever review of Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture. I'm quite sure Keen has a few valid points, but Lessig's comments convince me more than Clay Shirky's semi-defence of Keen's main ideas.

A side-point: I find it particularly interesting to read the section entitled "The Least Important (Lessig) Fallacy", where Lessig comments on Keen's interpretations of his ideas. I do wonder how many scholars I misinterpret throughout my thesis? You know, communication and dialogues are really just continuous misinterpretations :)

Btw, I was quoted in Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet, apparently having said: "We are in the midst of a gigantic psychological experiment, which for ever will change the traditional distinction between public and private. As if I said that! Well of course, boundaries between private and public are being adjusted, partially because of individual online practices, but, "gigantic psychological experiment". Oh well, I'm learning to live with my tabloid self.

hanging out

2007-06-24T11:56:00.000+01:00

danah boyd has often argued that children and youth in the US go online to socialise because they are no longer allowed to walk the streets and meet friends in public spaces. Here is an article from the Daily Mail, claiming the same is true in UK: How children lost the right to roam in four generations.

The article addresses the situation for children. Children and youth in Norway are still allowed to get around by themselves, meeting friends and hanging out. Embarassingly, I did feel slightly uncomfortable leaving my 14-year old niese and her bestfriend alone at Friday's teen-favourite happening in Oslo, a three hour long live hit-show at Rådhusplassen. Silly me, they are 14! And, the concert-arena was heavily supervised by the police and guards.

mediate/immediate

2007-06-20T09:05:00.000+01:00

Lately, I have sometimes been using "immediate interaction" to describe face-to-face interaction, though I'm not at all sure whether it is an appropriate term. According to the Wordnet Database, immediate can be defined as "having no intervening medium", which is of course how I think of it as opposed to mediated interaction. Clearly, I am aware that communication is never immediate, but, in face-to-face situations, always mediated through the body, language, speech, non-verbal signs. I do like the online/offline distinction, but this is not always appropriate as I also discuss communication mediated through phones and even postal letters.

I can't believe I barely have six weeks left to finish my thesis. I will make it, but it feels weird. The last three years have been wonderful.

Navy Numa

2007-06-17T16:10:00.000+01:00

What can I say? Some Numa Numa versions are more fun than others. I especially love the guys who appear at about 1.23/4.11. I'm actually embarrassingly addicted to that section. Hot moves!

Superstreng

2007-05-31T11:55:00.000+01:00

I still find it utterly uncomfortable to talk on radio. But you know, I guess the practice is valuable. Or rather, I don't find it very uncomfortable to talk, but to listen to myself afterwards. A couple of weeks ago I visited Eirik Newth's "Superstreng"-show, and we were of course talking about social networking services, especially Facebook. Kind of common sense stuff. Here's the podcast. It's in Norwegian of course.

Facebook is highly profiled as vicious by the mass media these days. They apparently exploit all your personal information and intend to use your private photos in commercial campaigns. Or something. If you know Norwegian, you might want to read Ove Skåra's answers to readers of the Norwegian tabloid VG. Skåra represents the Norwegian Data Inspectorate.

I don't have the time to comment. Obviously, I have read Facebook's terms of service. My short answer is that mediated practices are experienced as so meaningful that they outweigh the perceived threats to privacy.

narrated memories

2007-05-29T13:51:00.001+01:00

It's hardly too late yet to search for books and anthologies I still need to read, or at least browse, in order to be able to finish my thesis? Don't think so. Besides, some are really short, like Annette Kuhn's Family History. Acts of Memory and Imagination.

I am of course already familiar with relevant literature. Literature, which indicates that the relatively long history of documenting experiences, interactions and thoughts through journals, photographs and letters imply that subjects appear to embrace possibilities to create traces of life and social relationships. Personal media, such as mobile phones, instant messenger and social network sites, are similarly useful machines, facilitating interaction and the active creation of narrated memories.

Some of these are essentially ephemeral, such as telephone conversations, usually not recorded for the future. Others are, at least claimed to be, for better or worse, digital traces for eternity. The increasing potentials to document all aspects of life through textual, visual and audible traces, and additionally to archive these traces in private, semi-public and public digital spaces, can clearly be seen to have consequences for our individual sense of self, both present and past. It seems so significant that I easily forget that most people in the world do not have very extensive online presences.

networks

2007-05-21T09:36:00.000+01:00

This week I aim to finish a part of my thesis concerning subjectivity in network societies, I need to have a first draft ready for a newspaper comment about ephemeral connections (working-title, who knows where I'll end up), and I need to start thinking about my presentation for a conference next week, working title "social competence in network societies". No wonder I kept waking up tonight, frantically thinking about networks.

What is a paradox?

2007-05-14T13:29:00.000+01:00

I'm sometimes puzzled by how I apply certain concepts and then realise I might be using them all wrong. For instance how I use "paradox" in a work-in-progress (which will be part of a mighty interesting Norwegian anthology to be published in the fall):

The opportunity to design personal performances through edited pieces of textual, visual and sonic elements denotes that the individual has control with her or his own presentation, but only to some degree. As such online personal practices are characterised by a control-paradox: on the one hand individuals can construct filtered yet accurate and beneficial self-presentations (both socially and professionally); and on the other hand, once published, users have little control over content and little chance of preventing abuse such as republishing without consent.

Considering actual definitions of "paradox" I am not at all sure this is the concept I should be using.

Paradox: an argument which seems to justify a self-contradictory conclusion by using valid deductions from acceptable premises.

Other definitions.

By the way, the actual article concerns digital dilemmas: briefly summarised:

Users of social network services experience that having a publicly available online presence is meaningful. However, sharing texts, photos, videos, communicative acts and visualisations of social networks with known and unknown others may contest issues of privacy. Users consequently face a dilemma with two unfavourable options: protecting one’s privacy by not using social network services, despite potentially undesirable personal and social consequences. Or, alternatively, choosing to have an online presence and hence put one’s privacy at risk.