Te Aro Pa – Space/Place

Digital Story: https://arcg.is/vTHiG

The space/place I chose for this project was the Te Aro Park, also known as the Pigeon Park, located at the intersection of Taranaki St, Manners St and Dixon St in Wellington, New Zealand. I chose this particular space/place as it is one Wellington’s most misrepresented and misinterpreted locations due to its current image that it portrays. Te Aro Park is particularly interesting to me as it is an everyday feature of my life as it lies within my route to and from University. I often hear stories about the abundance of homelessness and poverty displayed in the park, criminal activities and general unappealing aesthetics but, to me, the park is much more than that and I want to make the park’s true meaning and significance known to other Wellingtonians who hold a negative view.

Shona Rapira Davies designed this park as a waka to reflect the Maori whanau of Ngati Ruanui and Taranaki Iwi who occupied the Te Aro Pa and were the first to thrive in the land of the Wellington Region. The representation of the rich history of Te Aro Pa was Davies’ primary intention; however, over time the park became a focal point for the homeless and poverty stricken. It became a location of criminal behaviour resulting in the portrayal of a strong negative view amongst the Wellington public. To many Wellingtonians, this is all they know and understand about the park. They hold a negative view of the park breaking the link between today’s society and the deep history it’s intended to represent. In a Dominion Post article, written by Andrea O’Neil, the park is described as “embarrassing” and a “both up” which gained support from Wellingtonians as an anonymous writer explains “it does a terrible job of marking Te Atiwawa’s former occupation of the site” and another writer claiming, “the whole thing should be demolished.” It is clear that the intended representation was pure and thoughtful, however, the intended representation has not been upheld by those who occupy the location and it is important that Wellingtonians understand that although it may not be represented in the way it deserves, the preservation of its history, through knowledge and understanding, is vital in keeping that history alive. This links into Goggin et al’s idea of the physical elements of a place provides meaning and opens the door to interpretation (Goggin et al 44) and ties into a level of surveillance and behavioural norms.

Like social surveillance, explained by Alice Marwick as “the use of Web 2.0 sites like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare to see what friends, family, and acquaintances are up to” (Marwick 378), we can see a correlation in the real word when looking at Te Aro Park. As a passer-by, Te Aro Park is observed just like a family member or friend passing by your Facebook page. The passer-by is taking in all the content that is in front of them and that, in turn, creates a negative view of Te Aro Park. Not only do the physical elements of Te Aro Park create a negative view through surveillance, it also develops negative behavioural norms that turn people away and create, once again, a negative view of the park. The general people that occupy the park have created such negative and, sometimes, criminal behavioural norms that most Wellingtonians would feel out of place and, in this case, unsafe. So, through the physical elements affecting the misrepresentation of this park, Wellingtonians develop a negative view through the surveillance and behavioural norms that have been created.

The story I want to convey to people (Wellingtonians especially) is that everything we see around us as Wellingtonians, from buildings, parks and roads, are linked back to this location. The Te Aro Park. It is here that Wellington was born. When the Maori people of Ngati Ruanui and Taranaki Iwi began to thrive in this location, the value of the land increased drastically. European settlers, who were rapidly expanding, quickly took notice of this fact and purchased the land from the Ngati Ruanui and Taranaki Iwi for two horses and carts, two steel mills and allocated the Maori people a 526-acre block of land in 1847 by Governor George Grey. It is from that moment in 1847 that Maori and Europeans lived and worked together to build the city that we live in today. This somewhat ties into Thomas Gieryn’s idea that space is detached from interpretation which emphasises the fact that the park itself is open to interpretation but the land and “abstract geometries” that the park sits on does not allow for interpretation (Gieryn 465). Every time we think of, look at or visit the Te Aro Park, that is the story we should remember, not the embarrassing botch up that Wellingtonians think should be destroyed altogether. If Wellingtonians continue to hold a negative view of this location, our city’s deep history will be forgotten which is why my story is so important.

Through interacting with my Digital Story, the users should have opened their eyes to the deeper picture. They should be able to look past the surface and understand the deep history and its importance to our beautiful city. Although the digital story does not contain thousands of words describing the rich history of Te Aro Park, it should have sparked a fire within to encourage further exploration which can be assisted through following hyperlinks scattered within the digital story. Everything needs a story so let’s make sure Te Aro Park’s true story lives on.

Works Cited:

Gieryn, Thomas. ‘A Space for Place in Sociology’, Annual review of sociology, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2000, p. 465.

Goggin, Gerard. Martin, Fiona. Dwyer, Tim. ‘Locative News: Mobile Media, Place Informatics, and Digital News’, Journalism Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2015, p. 44.

Marwick, Alice. ‘The Public Domain: Social Surveillance in Everyday Life’, Surveillance & Society, Vol. 9, No. 4, 2012, p. 378.

Online Activism

One of the most popular (and entertaining) online petitions was closed after being debated in UK parliament on 20 February 2017. This petition involved none other than President Donald Trump and an attempt to have him excluded from making a state visit to the United Kingdom. The petition reached just short of two million signatures and after a lengthy debate in UK parliament, their request was declined.

How did they make it to parliament?

This petition gained widespread popularity primarily due to President Trump’s popularity (good or bad). Through the extensively covered US President election, President Trump has become one of the most hated men on the planet. Whether or not that is fair is not up for discussion here. However, it is fair to acknowledge the strong influence it had in the popularity of this petition.

Another driving force were UK politicians like Jeremy Corbyn who, according to The Guardian, jumped on board with the petition and challenged Theresa May’s decision to invite President Trump to the UK.

Slacktivism

If this petition was directed to an individual with little to no media following, I feel as though this petition would fall under the ‘slacktivism’ category. However, that is impossible to know for certain.  The fact that President Trump has such an enormous following, it instantly propelled this petition into widespread support and by receiving such a high number of signatures as a result, UK Parliament were somewhat forced into acknowledging and debating the matter.

 

 

 

Power of Anonymity

Social media platforms see users posting, liking, commenting and sharing a wide variety of content making connections with millions of people all around the world on a daily basis. As a result of doing so, social media users create a persona, a presentation of their feelings, thoughts, ideas and beliefs which are often viewed, criticised and judged by all that see it. Said criticism and judgement play a crucial role in influencing the type of content we all share. From the posts we like, comment and share to the original content we upload, we do so with the fear of criticism and judgement in mind. However, when that fear of criticism and judgement is removed, we are given the freedom to use social media as we please. Like, comment and share content that we consider to be valuable to our own feelings, thoughts, ideas and belief. By exploring the power of anonymity, in Tumblr as a platform, we can see how it affects the uses for prosumers (affordances), the opportunity to present an unfiltered self-presentation (social surveillance/self-surveillance) and how it creates social and behavioural norms (subjectivity) Coming to the conclusion that anonymity is the key component in allowing prosumers to present an unfiltered self-presentation.

Tumblr, like many blog hosts, allows prosumers to share multimedia blogs that may or may not reflect their true persona. When operating a Tumblr account, users are given the ability to upload their own content as well as re-blog another users content under the protection of anonymity. This system of anonymous broadcasting provides a platform for users to create an honest or even fanciful persona by broadcasting their true feelings, ideas, thoughts and beliefs. Honest persona being a less edited self and fanciful persona being a more edited self. This is what is defined as Tumblr’s affordances. Ian Hutchby, in his work titled Technologies, Texts and Affordances, explains that the affordances, of a platform like Tumblr, make available different “ranges of uses, and subject those possible uses to different ranges of effects and constraints.” (Hutchby 447) Suggesting that the affordances, created by Tumblr, provide a range of uses for their prosumers, like that of fore mentioned creation of honest or fanciful personas. Tumblr’s affordances are strengthened by the technical feature of anonymity which allows prosumers to post freely without restrictions, criticism or judgement.

The power of anonymity, especially in the case of Tumblr, is remarkable in the way it can encourage users to express their feelings, ideas, thoughts and beliefs without the pressure of judgement or criticism. It allows users to openly express themselves on their Tumblr account and then go about their day without anyone knowing a thing. This technical feature is vital in allowing users to express themselves. In an article by Boyd Tonkin, he claims that “the power of anonymity lies in the freedom it grants.” (Tonkin) Shawn Powers, in his book The Real Cyber War, explains that users are “dependant on anonymous browsing and posting capabilities” (Powers 180) to express oppositional views free from repression, further reinforcing the power of anonymity in allowing users the freedom of expressing themselves without fear of outside judgement. However, on the hand, anonymity can prove to be troublesome in many cases. Powers highlights an important factor that “on the other hand, anonymity enables criminal behaviour online, ranging from intellectual property theft to whole-scale cyber warfare.” (Powers 180) Now, although Powers may be referring to more serious negative effects of anonymity, it is clear that it can provide and, in this case, expose users to harmful material due to this uncontrolled freedom of expression. As you explore the world of Tumblr, you will recognise a wide variety of personas. From overly positive with colours, flowers and pictures of paradise-like escapes to the overly sexual with explicit pictures, gifs and even quotes and sadly to the overly depressed with dark, sorrowful scenes of death and destruction. This goes to show Tumblr’s affordances, through the power of anonymity, broadcasting a less edited, unfiltered self. This allows for a particular level of social surveillance where the idea of a less edited self can be seen.

Before making the connection between social surveillance and Tumblr’s technical feature, anonymity, it is important to understand what social surveillance is. Alice E. Marwick, in her work titled Surveillance & Society, explains social surveillance, in its simplest form, as “the use of Web 2.0 sites like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare to see what friends, family, and acquaintances are up to.” (Marwick 378) Suggesting that we, as prosumers, have the ability to view what people broadcast and draw, from it, their online persona. It also provides the ability for a level of self-surveillance where we view and analyse our own broadcasted material and define our own online persona. This highlights the idea of subjectivity, meaning how we view ourselves and how we think we should act. According to Jason Read, subjectivity is both “produced and productive…” (Read 159) suggesting that platform’s classification systems produce prosumer’s identity within their platform and it also manipulates prosumer behaviour and social norms by influencing how prosumers interact. Subjectivity, specific to Tumblr, is emphasised through the platform’s use of anonymity. The technical feature of anonymity allows prosumers, through social surveillance, to view unfiltered personas of other prosumers and, through subjectivity, encourages prosumers to present their own, unfiltered, persona influenced by behavioural norms set out by anonymity. Daniel Trottier writes, in his work titled A Research Agenda for Social Media Surveillance, “The potential of being watched by others contextualizes their own surveillance.” (Trottier) By saying this, Trottier is emphasising the role of criticism in shaping social norms and self-presentations and in Tumblr’s case we can begin making the connection between anonymity shaping the social norms.

The subjectivity of Tumblr, through the technical feature of anonymity, creates a social norm or social standard of presenting an unfiltered or less edited self-presentation as prosumers are encouraged to express themselves without the fear of being watched or judged. A good example that displays the power of anonymity, in regard to subjectivity, is through the work of Michel Foucault, titled Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, where he explains a situation where inmates were given the illusion that they were constantly being watched through the use of one-way mirrors. Although the inmates were not being watched, they behaved as if they were and maintained a level of discipline in the way they presented themselves. (Foucault 195-210) The same goes for Tumblr, however, in the opposite way. When Tumblr removes the fear of being watched, criticised and judged, the prosumers have the opportunity to present a less edited self to the world, due to the freedom that lies within anonymity. Just like the inmates would have done if they knew no one was monitoring them. Tumblr acts somewhat as an outlet, a platform where prosumers can express feelings, thoughts and beliefs that other, in their social circle, may view them as weird, or strange. There is no doubt that Tumblr’s technical feature of anonymity is a wildly powerful tool in regard to affordances, social surveillance and subjectivity.

Through the exploration of the power of anonymity in regard to Tumblr as a social media platform, the three areas of affordances, social surveillance and subjectivity were found to be heavily influenced by the technical feature of anonymity. Tumblr’s affordances, explained by Ian Hutchby to be what platforms enable users to do, allows their prosumers the ability to present an unfiltered presentation of their feelings, thoughts, ideas and beliefs without the fear of rejection, criticism or judgement. It allows them the freedom to express their true self, their less edited self. This is primarily due to Tumblr’s technical feature of anonymity. Anonymity and its influence was demonstrated through the works of Boyd Tonkin and Shawn Powers who explain that freedom of expression is the key to anonymity and also that prosumers are dependent on anonymity to not only express their true self, but to challenge ideas without repression. Without anonymity, Tumblr’s users would be forced to interact within the boundaries of Tumblr’s social norms, enforced by the idea of social surveillance. Social surveillance plays a key role in creating a standard of social and behavioural norms within the Tumblr community. By viewing and analysing the broadcasted content of our friends, family and acquaintances, users are able to obtain an online image that represents that user’s feelings, thoughts, ideas and beliefs. When we pair this idea of social surveillance with the effect of anonymity, users are surveying a more honest and unfiltered representation of one’s self. The same applies for a user’s surveillance of their own online persona. The effect of anonymity allows for a more honest reflection and representation of their own feelings, thoughts, ideas and beliefs. This level of social surveillance transitions into the idea of subjectivity which sets out a social standard of behavioural norms of which all Tumblr prosumers stand by. The act of viewing and analysing other user’s unfiltered self-representations, it encourages the same participation which forms a community of users that express themselves freely without any fear of rejection, criticism or judgement. Through all of this, the power of anonymity is clear. It is the key component to Tumblr allowing their prosumers to express themselves without judgement, creating an honest and true self-presentation.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Foucault, Michel. ‘Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison’, https://monoskop.org/images/4/43/Foucault_Michel_Discipline_and_Punish_The_Birth_of_the_Prison_1977_1995.pdf accessed on 23 September 2017.

Hutchby, Ian. ‘Technologies, Texts and Affordances’, Sociology, Vol. 35, No. 2, p. 447.

Jablonski, Michael. Powers, Shawn. ‘The Real Cyber War: The Political Economy of Internet Freedom 1^st’ (Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2015), p. 180. Print.

Marwick, Alice. ‘The Public Domain: Social Surveillance in Everyday Life’, Surveillance & Society, Vol. 9, No. 4, 2012, p. 378.

Read, Jason. ‘The Micro-Politics of Capital: Marx and the Prehistory of the Present’, http://lust-for-life.org/Lust-For-Life/TheMicroPoliticsOfCapitalMarxAndThePrehistoryOfThePresent/TheMicroPoliticsOfCapitalMarxAndThePrehistoryOfThePresent.pdf accessed on 23 September 2017.

Tonkin, Boyd. ‘The Power of Anonymity Lies in the Freedom it Grants’, Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-power-of-anonymity-lies-in-the-freedom-it-grants-9700345.html accessed on 20 September 2017.

Trottier, Daniel. ‘A Research Agenda for Social Media Surveillance’, Fast Capitalism, https://www.uta.edu/huma/agger/fastcapitalism/8_1/trottier8_1.html accessed on 20 September 2017.

 

 

 

Facebook Privacy

How private is your Facebook?… What is there to hide?… Who are you hiding from?

Privacy among social media platforms are a constantly debated topic. These debates range from how much a stranger can see of your page to how much a large corporation or even the government can see of your page.

Take the Privacy Challenge!

Although it is nearly impossible to discover how much access major corporations and the government can see, we can however, discover how much a stranger can uncover if they search our fabulous name. To partake in this challenge, simply think about your privacy settings. Don’t look… Don’t do it. Then log out of your Facebook and attempt to view your page. What can you see?

Before logging out I thought I was relatively private. Only displaying personal information and photos to my friends ONLY. However, once logged out I was badly mistaken. Apparently I must have dreamed that I had changed my privacy settings. My Facebook page is wide OPEN to anyone that wants to have a nosey. Do you want my age, location and my partner’s name? Sure have at it!

What About Others?

Although I don’t share much of my life on social media, when I brought this topic up with colleagues of mine, some stories were shocking. From teachers finding personal emails and social media accounts (with good intentions) to make contact, all the way to blocked people popping up in their emails and direct messaging systems on other social media platforms (with not so good intentions).

If there is any lesson here to be learned, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS!

Self-Branding

Self-Branding, as Alice Marwick puts it, is a “promotional culture” where everyone is striving to promote and broadcast their personal brand to become, what Marwick calls, “micro-celebrities” of the top dogs. Essentially becoming a smaller, baby version of our dreams. You’ve got to start somewhere right?

My Experience with Self-Branding

I have experienced this drive to become a “micro-celebrity” myself. About six years ago I created a Youtube channel aimed to provide jazzy edits of the popular video game Call of Duty. I had dreams of becoming Youtube famous like Pewdiepie and WoodysGamertag. 

To get my name out there, I created as many social media platforms as I could to ensure my content was being broadcasted to the maximum audience. I linked my Facebook and Twitter accounts to my Youtube account so that whenever I uploaded a video, liked a video or even commented on a video, my viewers would see my name pop up on their screens. The system was simple, the more active I was, the more I was seen.

This active web of interaction between my content and my viewers, saw my subscriber and view counts skyrocketing (in my mind haha) I reached an “amazing” one hundred subscribers and peaked at 500 views. However, as work and school commitments increased, my ability to continue being active on social media diminished creating a stall in my self-branding. This sudden drop in activity resulted in my upward trending brand falling level and beginning to drop.

Key to Self-Branding

Like Marwick presents, through Tom Peters’ work, we’re all striving to establish our own micro equivalent of top dogs like the Nike swoosh and we all have the chance to stand out and be recognised thanks to the power of social media. Through my own experience, I had found that the key to continued success in “self-branding” is simply to remain as active as possible to ensure your best foot is always forward and your content is on as many screens as possible.

Social Media Marketing

With over 2 billion monthly users, Facebook has become a major player in the world of marketing. Digital marketing power ‘Zephoria’ claim that “one in five page views,” in America alone, “occurs via Facebook” but to achieve this remarkable statistic, the right advertisements need to reach the right people and to ensure that happens, algorithms and in depth surveillance is required.

Algorithms and Surveillance

Tarleton Gillespie published his blog Algorithms, clickworkers, and the befuddled fury around Facebook Trends where he explains various ways in which Facebook manipulates the content we see every time we open our Facebook app.

Gillespie claims that Facebook has created a somewhat bias algorithm determine what is trending and broadcast it to the masses. This requires a great level of surveillance and technical algorithms, tracking every like, share, and comment of every user on the planet. But without it, the power of social media marketing may not be so powerful.

What Facebook Pushes to My Screen

After tracking and analysing my own personal activity on my Facebook account, Facebook pushes what (they think) most suits my lifestyle and interests.

Touching on my personal interests, Facebook pushes a kind reminder of my unhealthy eating habits through a McDonald’s advertisement. Soon followed by an enticing possibility of a sunny holiday in Shanghai for only $459 one way!

 

Then touching on current trends and keeping my age in mind, Facebook pushes a relatable NZ politics advertisement to my screen. This was soon followed by another trending topic of acknowledging trans-gender athletes by pushing a moving story of a trans-gender athlete climbing the Volleyball ranks.

These examples of social media marketing highlight Gillespie’s claim that Facebook has an overwhelming control over what is broadcasted to the masses based on technical algorithms and deep surveillance of ever one of their 2 billion monthly users. Pair this with the marketing team’s of large companies, their domination of the marketing world is clear.

Living Through a Messenger

Have you ever heard your parents tell you that wouldn’t be able to live without your phone? I have… many times. Have you ever given any thought about it? I haven’t… until now. I asked myself the question of how important is this 14cmx7cm device in my everyday life? Could I live without? So over the last three days, I decided to limit my methods of communication to the Facebook Messenger app only in the hopes that I would finally have an answer to my nagging parent’s claims.

Cons

Over the last three days, I have encountered countless situations where face-to-face communication or verbal communication over the phone would be the practical and most suitable method of communication and so many complications surfaced due to my inability  to use such methods. The most common issues that I encountered were:

• Delay in communication.
• Misinterpretation of content.

Communicating with family and friends of a similar age range was relatively simple. There were very little delays in communication because they regularly checked their social media accounts. However, I experienced a great deal of communication delay with family and friends of an older age range as they’re not as active on their social media accounts, despite all having social media accounts. This meant getting hold of an older family member took quite some time.

Because I wasn’t communicating face-to-face, I often encountered problems with misinterpretations of both communication lines. Because there was no way to interpret facial expression and tone of voice, messages were often read in a variety of ways, causing complications and, in some cases, further delays in communication.

Through these experiences only, my chances of surviving in this world with nothing but this 14cmx7cm device seems very unlikely.

Pros

Despite experiencing various complications in the delay and misinterpretation of communication, I found, in one case, that an acquaintance of mine (that is VERY shy) had communicated more openly and freely due to the lack of face-to-face contact. This is where I find this little device to be so essential in our everyday life.

Whether we use Facebook Messenger, Twitter Direct Message, Instagram Direct Message or simply our phone’s SMS, the ability to reach out to people that we wouldn’t usually have to courage to do so is essential to expanding our social life.

Alice Marwick, in her work titled “The Public Domain: Social Surveillance in Everyday Life,” describes her idea of ‘Social Surveillance” where our social media accounts may broadcast a different version of ourselves. Marwick’s idea of ‘Social Surveillance’ translates to my experience with a drastic change in personality between a social media platform and real life.

Conclusion

I hate to say this but… My parents were right! I feel as though communicating only through a social media platform is way to complicated and, to get your genuine message across, verbal or visual contact must be present.

However, I don’t believe that communication via a social media platform isn’t useful at all. The ability to reach out and expand outside of our comfort zone with little to no risk of embarrassment is essential in expanding our social circle and bettering our social life.

So I guess what I should say is… Mum, Dad… you were kind of right.

 

President Trump’s Media

Over the last 18 months Donald J. Trump has caused quite a stir among people all around the world. His, somewhat, radical views and ideas are broadcasted worldwide through his Twitter and Instagram accounts. Despite being operated by the same person, the broadcasted message is quite different.

Twitter 

Donald Trump’s twitter account has received a lot of criticism due to his somewhat radical ideas. In a tweet (pictured below) directed toward the hosts of Morning Joe, Trump attacked the hosts by calling, Morning Joe host, Mika Brzezinski a “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and, Morning Joe host, Joe Scarborough a “psycho” and claims she was “bleeding badly from a facelift” on New Years Eve.

Donald Trump’s remarks toward Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough are broadcasted to the world generating widespread criticism from the bullying nature of his tweets. Trump’s fellow republicans, Senator Ben Sasse and Senator Linsey Graham, tweeted “Please just stop. This isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office.” and “Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office…” despite President Trump’s twitter account receiving widespread criticism, his Instagram account, however, generates a different response.

Instagram

President Trump’s Instagram account, being primarily visual, seems to limit Trump’s ability to present his thoughts and ideas directly. The account is saturated with patriotic images reinforcing Trump’s moto of making “America Great Again.” These images produce a generally positive response from the public.

However, when President Trump attempts to merge the two platforms by posting a picture of a tweet he made, the negative criticism is generated once again.

Affordances

The difference in responses between the two platforms demonstrate James J. Gibson’s idea of “affordances.” Each social media platforms present their own possibilities of interpretation. President Trump’s twitter allows for a more direct communication to the viewers while his Instagram account allows for viewers to attribute their own interpretations without the force of Trump’s direct words guiding them. These interpretations therefore lead to various protest actions and support actions depending on what platform is viewed.