What was missing from Digital Culture?

Throughout this unit, I've felt a constant absence of an explanation of how most of the themes and topics covered are relevant to journalism, and therefore me. As I said previously, I understand how things such as the digital mind and body are important and it's good to have a general knowledge, but I feel there could have been other things covered which would be a lot more relevant and useful. This could be anything from discussing the history of newspaper phone apps and what they've done for the news industries, or perhaps about pay walls and the future of interactive news.

I also received minimal if any feedback on my work, which honestly made me feel like it wasn't that important which made me more inclined to be lazy and sloppy, specifically within the first term. I feel it would have been extremely useful and motivating to have a one to one session in the workshops, even just 5 minutes alone with the lecturer for them to look at my work and tell me what to do and what not to do, even just for some reassurance that what I was doing was right, which I wasn't sure about.

I honestly enjoyed writing some of the posts, particularly those where I felt I could be a bit more informal and didn't have to keep using scientific and technical jargon which I quite honestly didn't, and still don't understand. I think the method of blogging is useful where you can videos and pictures to explain your ideas, as it makes it much more enjoyable as you don't feel you're writing as much as you are!

I found it a lot easier toward the end of the course where I was much more comfortable with what I was doing and the topics got more relevant and interesting to write about (such as the digital democracy post). These included more of the themes and topics that I enjoy and want to be part of in my journalistic career. (Hopefully!)

Looking back...

Now I'm at the end of my time looking at the effects of Digital Culture on society, I can reflect back on what I've learnt and compare and contrast to the start of the term. At the start of the course, I was optimistic however didn't really know what to expect. I was relieved when I discovered we weren't going to have to write any long essays as all the other modules on the course use essay writing as their core examination method. I was grateful for this as I knew it'd be a relief at the end of the year when we had lots of deadlines, that we had already done the work throughout the year.

When I discovered it was a weekly blog I was relieved as I have my own blog anyway which I really enjoy doing and I was quite excited to have something else to write about besides my own ramblings. I understood that as a Journalism student, a lot of the media is produced through blogging and it's a valuable skill to have. While I still agree that blogging is a very good, relevant and useful method to use, my main concern with the course was the content and the relevance to my own course.

I understand that as a journalist we need to understand the background of the internet and the development in technology and things that would concern us in our career with the internet, for example the digital democracy and WikiLeaks part, which are directed at journalists. I can also understand how Augmented Reality and phone apps can affect us as they can transform the way news is delivered and received by our audience. However I really don't understand how learning things about 'the digital body' is relevant to a journalism course. I understand how it is valuable to know anyway, but I honestly don't believe it's correctly suited to the course.

Personally I found it quite difficult to find the motivation to actually write the blogs as we never saw a template or example work at the start of the year. I struggled to find a good balance between being too informal and being too technical. I also had to do quite a lot of extra research in order to understand some terms which weren't explained.

For future years, I think the module 'Digital Culture' needs some adapting to suit the needs of journalists more, as from personal experience the majority of people taking the module are journalism and media students, but more about that in the next post!

WikiLeaks

It wasn't until I read this page on WikiLeaks that I fully understood what it was, which is quite embarrassing for a journalism student. My first impression after reading that their main goal is "to bring important news and information to the public... One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth.'' This sounds like a good and honest proposal, however it's easy to see where the problems would lie.

The media have regulations and ethics for a reason. Issues such as privacy, personal and national come into matter here. WikiLeaks has faced high criticism and a lot of controversy for what it has published, even getting as serious as life sentences in prison. They wanted to be able to freely publish information without any journalists or writers coming under legal battles, however was this necessarily the right thing to do?

For example, U.S army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning is accused of leaking confidential information and even footage of the U.S army, specifically of an Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007.  One charge 'aiding the enemy' can be worth the death sentence, which shows the severity of the case. When asked why he submitted the footage and information, he simply replied he believed the American people had the right to know the 'true cost of war'. The footage delivered is thought to show the killing of 2 Reuters workers and children. While we should have the right to know what goes on in our own armies and institutions, and know where our tax money goes, do we really need to know everything? This caused the U.S government huge embarrassment and could have been a massive risk in that footage and information leaked can be seen by anyone, including the enemy. 




WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been accused multiple crimes including the most serious of rape. It is unclear and still undecided whether he is guilty or not. This timeline of his accusations leads up to recently where he has spent the last 6 months as an asylum seeker in Ecuador, despite not being charged with a single crime in any country. His official accusation name is 'sexual misconduct' in Sweden. Mr Assange has made many powerful enemies over time, so it's honestly no surprise that this has been blown way out of proportion. Not to say that sexual crime isn't something to take seriously, but extradition is nearly unheard of for a crime of that degree. 

OK so I'm not technical in any way shape or form, but what I've grasped from all the big fancy technical words, Wikileaks is accused of hacking into certain computers to find their information, however they protest they are just a 'platform' for other writers. Mark Stephens, WikiLeaks's London attorney, called the claim "completely false in every regard." Phone hacking has caused a massive uproar recently with the whole News of the World fiasco. 

Hackers, or stereotypically labelled 'geeks' are usually perceived to be highly anti-social and fixated with computers and the digital world. There are different types of hackers, but inevitably they all access websites they're not supposed to have access too and cause havoc. These self labelled 'hacktivists' use their cyber skills to 'fight the powers-that-be when they overstep the lines'. One hacker stated:

"I'm not under the illusion that we're going to change the 

world, but if we can make a big enough noise for people to 

notice there's a problem and scream loud enough, 

someone's going to take notice.'' 


In a way, hackers and WikiLeaks are similar, in that they both want to give a voice to people without there being any consequences. How effective this is debatable, looking at the examples of the amount of people imprisoned because of their actions for Wikileaks, and also looking at how people can be physically arrested and prosecuted for hacking. 


References/Read more:

Bradley Manning: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/30/wikileaks-cables-bradley-manning and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11874276 and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/28/bradley-manning-trial-plea-statement
Aiding the enemy: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/punitivearticles/a/mcm104.htm
Julian Assange accusations: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9343503/Julian-Assange-rape-accusations-timeline.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8579045/Wikileaks-Julian-Assange-records-video-blog-of-his-house-arrest.html
Is WikiLeaks hacking? http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_07/b4215046290051.htm
News of the World hacking: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14045952
What are hackers? http://www.howstuffworks.com/hacker2.htm
Hacktivism: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20446048