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Introducing your daily gatekeeper: Search Engines

Gatekeeping processes are a consistent factor in mass media - and this is a good thing. We cannot get all the news out there every day, gatekeeping is a good instrument to reduce complexity.

Problems just evolve, if the distribution of information is going asymmetrical. Journalists and the big news agencies are confronted with gatekeeping criticism since decades, but the problem of our generation is a new one: online gatekeeping, that is far more individual and centred, caused by search engines like Google and Yahoo.

You might argue that algorithms are good for finding what you're looking for, but do they allow you to experience new things? That you would have never thought of? You might doubt that.

Here's an interesting talk about this issue on TED. Eli Pariser says: Beware of "filter-bubbles"!

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Gatekeeping is not only back-door decisions, like George Clooney shows here - but it comes to mind sometimes!

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Money isn't everything when it comes to Social Media. Bourdieu's social, cultural and financial forms of capital transferred to Social Media in 2013.

http://Pixton.com/de/:io2scnop

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Digital Divide is still an issue. Have a look!

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Talking about Public Sphere: Digital Divide is ONE problem.

Jürgen Habermas is a smart guy. Yes, he is fortunately still alive, and people are still talking about his concept of the public sphere. In some ways, it is more apparent than decades ago: with the emergence of global media platforms and social networks, we can argue about a possible global and/or digital public sphere. Whit this online sphere, there is not only the question of a heterogenous public or the issue of “well-informed” citizens, that Habermas described -

One of the key problems to an ideal digital public sphere is a still happening digital divide. It is not only a financial issue that people don’t have access to a computer or mobile device, but also a question of skills. Older people (though there are a lot “silver surfers” on the web) may have no skills to participate in an online discourse, though their opinions and philosophies of life are as important as ours.

So if you say there is a public sphere on social media, it is not ideal, still lacking. But if you say there will never be a digital public sphere (with us getting older some day!), you will probably fail, too.

Have a great week everyone! The weather in Germany is grandiose.  ;)

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This is so DELICIOUS. Can you solve it? ;)

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Finding Wisdom: Jelly Beans are the solution!

Talking about Habermas and his concept of Public Sphere isn't easy. While going through his ideas, the ideal perspective of a "well-informed" citizen comes to mind. These people (if they really exist) should be overrepresented on social media as well, because only the well-informed should talk about sensitive issues of society.

But come on, what means "well-informed" people? Are you an expert for interdisciplinary social sciences if you're a usual student of politics, or do you neeeed to be a Professor of Sociology? Should you be allowed to talk about gender issues, even if you're not an activist at a political party or working for an LGBT group? Well, of course you should be allowed to.

A great example for the importance of collective ideas is the concept of "Crowd Wisdom", discussed and published by James Surowiecki.

Specifically talking about statistical issues, the crowd is the most accurate when it comes to guessing games. See this BBC version of Jelly Beans, a fat cow and the Wisdom of the Crowd. Enjoy! ;)

######    http://bit.ly/11P4eaP

And don't forget: Your ideas matter. Even if there are people who say you're not an expert!

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I'm an emergent service worker.

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BBC and Bourdieu: Don't put me in a box please!

Taking part in BBC Lab UK's "Great British Class Survey" is fast and relatively easy. After you've done the test, you get put in a box with other people that meet the same criteria than you do.

Questions are asked like this: Do you go to museums or galleries? Do you listen to rap music? Do you know "socially" nurses or university lecturers? (whatever "socially" really means)

Critics may say that this test, which is based on five questions, seems a little superficial. I don't go to museums or galleries twice a week, but listen to poetry slams at least four to five times a month, which is pure modern art. Where to put that?

I don't listen to rap music or jazz, but a good friend of mine is highly into the dubstep movement, which seems to be completely unknown to people at the BBC. This kind of contemporary music is way beyond TOP40, but not highlighted in the questionnaire. Where to put that?

I am not going to operas, but a very close friend of mine just recently published his fourth book. Have a look at it here: http://tinyurl.com/b9fa5b2 (pls don't mind the title, it's funny :)). Another good friend is into writing at Hildesheim University, I visit her at least once a month and by that, getting to know people who are into writing and producing literature events, can be quite as much seen as cultural experience. Where to put that?

Well, to my disgrace I must say BBC was still right to put me into the "emergent service worker" - box ...

"This class group is financially insecure, scoring low for savings and house value, but high for social and cultural factors. According to the Great British Class Survey results, lots of people in this group:

Are young

Enjoy a cultured social life

Rent their home - almost 90%"

Okay, that all fits. :D

I just like to criticise the way they ask questions. Maybe because I just don't like to be put in a box. I'm more than a stereotype!

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Just in time for Mothers Day, we went around New York City asking real people on the street to say thank you to their mothers. So many terrific responses, some&

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People!

for tonight it's a short post. I was spontaneously surprising my mom for Mother's Day, six hours on the train today for just four hours at home - but it was all worth it ... Hug your moms tonight, they deserve it! :D

Even on Mother's Day, with all those happy faces on the train station and flowers all over womens' heads: social media is the place to be.

My friends @MBBald and @BobAsAlways were recently talking about Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga to be the most influential individuals on social media. Even though they may seem to be right with that thought, I just don't like the idea of it. Do YOU want Justin Bieber to be the first one to talk to when it comes to human rights, doing the perfect cupcake, or asking what the girl next door is thinking about your new haircut?

Sorry for the ironic approach, I maybe just don't like the caption or term of 'opinion-leaders' ... it just sounds too narrow-minded for me.

For further inspiration, please check Forbe's magazines "The world's 100 most powerful women", a certain Angela Merkel was no.1 in 2012.

Roufus's advice: Be your own opinion leader. Ask your friends what to do next, but keep it as a good advice rather than trust everyone around you more than yourself. If you listen to your belly and heart, you will do better.

Maybe I'm just too emotional right now. I will be a sceptical social media analyst for tomorrow again - just hug your moms today ! :)

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Guess who needs a shave.

“I’m studying to get a PhD in Neuroscience, but in my free time I like to perform in burlesque shows.”

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Gosh I love her!

“I started a skipping club, and today is our first meeting!”

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Take a good look on HONY's: "Humans of Theran"!

Common Eye

(Tehran, Iran)

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Cultural Imperialism, even on Social Media? Nooot Possible!

The old-fashioned debate about cultural imperialism is a neverending story. Wether you believe that western media, specifically the US networks, overrun local traditions and cultural goods or not: it is a question of perspective.

People nowadays tend to say that globalisation, as well as cultural domination, is not irreversible or going just one direction. Concepts that refer to "glocalization" tendencies, hyperlocal journalism, media networks acting solely in "world regions" such as Europe or Asia, all those statements describe a fact that there cannot be a new global village-like "Ronald McDonald-World" in the near future.

Nevertheless, there is of course that feeling that the US has a severe impact on local media, I mean we HAVE a thousand TV-shows from the US on prime time every evening in our living rooms.

A good example for a social media connection to cultural imperialism is HONY. Never heard of him? Shame on you, you're getting kinda slow there!

"Humans of New York" = HONY, is a street photographer in NYC. He started HONY as a project to build up a "census" of NYC's citizens, collecting faces and impressions that display the diversity of the city.

By that, he first thought of 10.000 people in NYC to photograph out on the streets. With some months going by, the story took its own path, evolved to an unbelievably close and emotional approach to human beings from all over the world.

Showing their cultural backgrounds, their poverty, happiness, political stories, refugee experiences, naive daydreams --- all those people living in one city.

The special thing about HONY is that most of his success is caused by social media. He is posting at least one or two photos a day, only and exclusively on his Facebook and Tumblr. The project started in 2010, by now he has somewhat around one million followers on FB and Tumblr every day. (!!) 

Now there we get back to our cultural imperialism thing again!

Those followers aren't only people from New York or the US anymore. It is of course an American project - AGAIN - but the amount of people from all over the world participating and leaving comments on this case is enormous. HONY shows people from India in the streets of New York, next to a banker eating his lunch. He shows the lung, the kidneys and the hearts of NYC.

With his enormous success, he is now expanding his work and tries to capture the feeling of people's daily lives. During the Boston Marathon catastrophy, he was photographing Boston's citizens, to get people on social media emotionally connected during their grief. Tender, not paparazzi-like.

His last, and very brave step, was to visit IRAN for a few weeks and do "Humans of Tehran". Cultural Imperialism related to media, okay. But this step was a great embrace to show all those thousands of western followers an unbiased, clear view of the people living in Tehran. Those comments on FB for these photos were going nuts, people from all over the world - West AND East - were talking about these photos. HONY did what a lot of campaigns and organizations desperately try to realize: get different people from different cultures together (on social media!) and embrace that we are all human beings, we're all good.

Look at those pictures - they're fantastic!