marklol: DIGC101

Reflection Essay: Online Public Culture - What role does social media play in the construction of professional identities in the visual effects industry?

In this document, I will explore the use of social media in the visual effects industry, highlighting the ways in which both digital artists and visual effects studios can use the same social technologies to achieve different goals, and the reasons behind these differences.

In addition to the software technology involved in the production of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and Visual Effects (VFX) such as Maya and Zbrush, CG artists use a wide variety of Web 2.0 technologies to gain exposure and convey their professional identities to a vast audience. Increasingly, artist portfolios are extending across more than simply websites displaying their work and onto social networking platforms such as blogs, YouTube and Twitter, engaging in what Mark Deuze (2006, pp65) would refer to as “participatory user generated content.”

Z. Bauman (1988), John Fiske (1993) and D.M Levin (1997) (in Greg Elmer, 2003, pp233), argue that contemporary media technologies “are more aptly defined by a synoptic relationship where the many now watch the few,” as opposed to Foucault’s panoptic idea of the one watching the many. (2003, pp233) This notion can be applied to CG artists’ interaction with the combination of both their colleagues and their audience.

Sze Jones is a character artist working at Blur Studios. She has created the characters (which in themselves are representations of identity) for cinematics in games such as Tomb Raider: Underworld (shown below), Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and Æon Flux. On her website and gallery pages she has a collection of digital and traditional works, and links on her CG Society gallery page allow users to comment on her work (assuming she has made a thread for the item) or share her creations with others. Her blog is mainly used to inform readers of events she is involved with, giving them an opportunity to learn something from her experience. In some cases job vacancies at Blur are advertised.

In addition to maintaining online galleries, websites and blogs like Sze Jones, artists Magdalena Dadela and Ryan Kingslien have also found their way onto Twitter. I feel that the use of Twitter in generating a professional identity in the CGI industry is essentially a flawed practice. Images and videos cannot be previewed with thumbnails, meaning that if the audience is presented with a visually underwhelming experience. However Akshay Java (et.al., 2007, pp2) argue that this “microblogging fulfils a need for an even faster mode of communication,” that regular blog updates are unable to satisfy. (Java et.al., pp2) For this reason, Twitter definitely has its benefits in providing the artist with another outlet of exposure, or (in the case of Ryan Kingslien) letting people know if they are running a workshop.

Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin (1999, in Deuze, 2006, pp68) argue that the concept of remediation is present in new media. They suggest “that every new medium diverges from yet reproduces older media, whereas old media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media.”(1999, in Deuze, 2006, pp68) A phenomenon following this paradigm has emerged within the Zbrush Central forums, with the idea of a digital sketchbook. An artist creates a thread and periodically posts up new work at various levels of completion within the one thread. The other members of the community can then give star ratings and leave comments. ‘Thread Gallery’ viewing mode, which essentially takes all of the images in the thread and puts them on a page full of thumbnails so you can find what you are looking for, or simply what looks interesting.

E.J. Westlake suggests that Erving Goffman’s (1959) model for analysing the performance of self can be applied to digital social media. (2008, pp27)  They argue that “users, socialized in face-to-face interaction, are often conscious of applying the rules of such interaction to the cyber world.” (2008, pp27) This idea can be applied to the critiquing process that CG artists engage in online, a process which renders social media as invaluable to the CGI community. Having thousands of trained eyes look over an artist’s work in a community such as CG Society means that any flaws or weaknesses in their work that they were unable to notice are brought to light, giving the artist a new chance to learn from their mistakes and improve their art-making practice; essentially improving their own value as a potential employee for a job. Artists are very aware of this panoptic quality in the displaying of work and harness it to their advantage.

Twitter seems to be more effective for companies, as opposed to individual artists, who simply want to get their work seen. Not only does Twitter give companies a chance to fulfil the need of keeping their followers updated with the latest news, it allows them to convey brief, and less structured messages, that helps to chip away at the rigid, impersonal identity a company may have.

Westlake argues that regulation in social media occurs through a self-policing in the users themselves. (2008 , pp35) They consider personal profiles on social networking services as “performances” that users present to others, exemplifying “the officially accredited values of the society, more so, in fact, than does [their] behaviour as a whole.” (Westlake, 2008, pp35) The way in which artists will typically present a very professional persona to others online reflects this notion of performance. The (what I would consider ideal) result is that the artist is first known for the work that they produce, and secondly by their character.

Westlake’s (2008) ideas of affirmation or denial of performance can effectively be applied to the context of a professional construction of identity. Feedback on forums like CG Society is deeper than the commenting and ‘liking’ common on personal Facebook pages. Although responders may indeed comment and like items on an artist’s portfolio, they also have the capacity (like YouTube) to give a star rating on the image (or video), and administrators of the CGSociety forums can present artists with awards; move their work into the ‘CG Choice Award Gallery’; or feature their work along the bar of thumbnail images along the top of the forum interface. These several actions have the capacity to, as Westlake suggests, either strongly affirm or deny the professional performance put on by the artist. (2008, pp36) Westlake argues that this interaction functions as a more effective version of Foucault’s Panopticon is “because individuals are punished directly by others,” (2008, pp36) through this positive and negative reinforcement of behaviour.

In addition to the functionality of social media itself, comes the (what I would call) extra-media action that members of the professional community can perform. It is not unusual for an artist who has their work seen by thousands upon thousands of people in the VFX industry to find themselves job offers or commission opportunities solely from the exposure they receive from a forum alone.

Fiske’s (1993) (in Elmer, 2003, pp233) notion of the ‘reverse panopticon’, “wherein the power to individuate, segment, and control gives way to fan power, knowledge, and pleasure,” could be likened to a VFX studio’s position on and use of social media. (Elmer, 2003, pp233)

Increasingly, corporations are using social networking services; however, their use of social media is fundamentally very different to the way in which an artist makes use of it. In an examination of digital cultures Mark Deuze points out that “[not] all individuals located within [a] culture behave or act in similar ways.” (2006, pp66) The same can be said when comparing artists with companies in a culture of professionally oriented social media.

From what I have discovered, artists tend to use social media to get both their name and work known; and also to cultivate a professional identity through their online presence. A combination of their portfolio, graphic design elements of their websites, language use and presence in communities such as CG Society help to structure an idea of the projected identity.

I found artists’ presence on Twitter to be relatively light-hearted, like most users, just keeping people updated with what they are up to at that point in time, such as in the following examples:

“done with the HMC - yeesssss… time to move on to something different heheh3:04 PM Nov 1st from Echofon” – Intervain (Magdalena Dadela)

“Doing 3D is like driving in LA traffic. Everything is close by but it still takes a half hour to get there.”1:31 PM Sep 3rd from TweetDeck – ryankingslien (Ryan Kingslien)

Contrary to the way artists approach social media, corporations seem to employ their use instead with a variety of more complex motivations. Although Disney’s Pixar and Weta Digital are two companies that produce CGI for feature films, their use of social media is quite different.

Although Disney’s Pixar is a company, it has been rather straightforward for them to generate an identity for themself. Not only are they instantly associated with the popular children’s cartoons created by Disney in the past, they have the advantage of working on their own projects, compared to companies like Weta, who instead produce things for clients. Pixar films tend to have a sort of flair about them; the visual style they employ is very distinct. Although they have this freedom, their identity is predominantly defined by the work they produce.  Social media gives a company in Pixar’s position the chance to break down the disparity between the company and the audience, and enrich the personality of their identity.

I would argue that Pixar has done this effectively. They maintain a blog, Upcoming Pixar, which has information regarding upcoming movies, updates to various websites, and is tied to a Twitter account of the same name. Their forum, Pixar Planet, has over 100 000 posts from fans on it. Their main Twitter page is what struck me as most interesting.  Rather than simply detailing releases or updates to their content, the content of their posts consists more of humorous and interesting things relating to their films, such as a link to a parody of the Pixar logo, shown below. This collaboration of various online presences allows Pixar to effectively shatter the faceless corporation image, and instead convey a jovial identity, that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Weta Digital has a more esoteric identity. Not everyone is going to think of Weta when they go and watch movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy; I, Robot; or District 9; regardless of the fact that they are the VFX house responsible for the special effects and digital stars such as Gollum (in addition to actors like Andy Serkis that is). Although not limited to social media, Weta’s online presence essentially gives the studio a chance to claim ownership of the work they have done on various films and incites the audience into being more aware of their role in the film making process.

After examining Weta Digital’s use of social media, I have discovered that not only is their corporate identity is constructed through the projects that they work on, but through the use of social media, Weta has projected a more human and personal identity to fans of their work. A striking example is the video below, from their YouTube channel, where the Weta crew sings Happy Birthday for theonering.net, a fan page for J.R.R Tolkien’s work.

The participatory culture of fandom also plays a large role in the manipulation of corporate identity. José Van Dijck and David Nieborg (2009, pp869) argue that long before “the arrival of social media and digital platforms, there was already a rich subculture of fans who actively engaged with their favourite authors” through activities such as rewriting the endings of books. Jenkins (2006, in Van Dijck and Nieborg, 2009, pp869) argues that “this kind of engagement is finally fulfilled by the current generation of internet tools,” (2006, in Van Dijck and Nieborg, 2009, pp869) such as the social networking services that are currently popular. By joining the Pixar page on Facebook, by following them on Twitter, or subscribing to them on YouTube, a fan is effectively extending their own identity through what the company they admire has created. They feel as though they are a part of it, and perhaps only a sentimental sense, it becomes theirs as well.

This essay, like my class project, was exploratory in nature. In this document, I have examined the way in which both digital artists and visual effects studios use social media to their benefit, and the difference in motivation between the two types of professional users. Through this exploration I have discovered that artists typically use social networking services to both gain exposure and market themselves; whereas companies take advantage of social media to manipulate the exposure that they already have from their projects.

References

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Bolter, Jay David, and Grusin, Richard 1999, Remediation: Understanding New Media, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

CG Society 2009, CGTalk – Work in Progress and Critique, accessed 2/11/2009, http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=120.

CG Society 2009, CGTalk – CG Choice Award Gallery, accessed 2/11/2009, http://forums.cgsociety.org/forumdisplay.php?f=138.

CollegeHumor Staff 2009, ‘Pixar Intro Parody – CollegeHumor Video’, CollegeHumor, accessed 2/11/2009, http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1921845.

Crystal Dynamics 2008, Tomb Raider: Underworld, published by Eidos Interactive.

Dadela, Magdalena 2009, CGPortfolio – Magdalena Dadela: Gallery, accessed 2/11/2009, http://intervain.cgsociety.org/gallery/.

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Dadela, Magdalena 2009, ‘Magdalena (Intervain) on Twitter’, Twitter, accessed 2/11/2009, http://twitter.com/intervain.

Dadela, Magdalena 2009, ‘ZbrushCentral – Intervain’s Sketchbook’, ZbrushCentral, accessed 2/11/2009, http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=72010.

Deuze, Mark 2006, ‘Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture’, The Information Society: An International Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 63-75, accessed 2/11/2009, http://www.andredeak.com.br/pdf/Digital+Culture+06.pdf.

Disney 2009, ‘Welcome to Disney Australia & NZ: the official home page for all things Disney!’, accessed 3/11/2009, http://home.disney.com.au/.

District 9 2009, film, TriStar Pictures.

Elmer, Greg 2003, ‘A Diagram of Panoptic Surveillance’, New Media & Society, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 231-247, accessed 2/11/2009, http://nms.sagepub.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/cgi/content/abstract/5/2/231.

Fiske, J 1993, Power Plays, Power Works, London: Verso.

Goffman, Erving 1959, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Garden City: Doubleday.

I, Robot 2004, film, Twentieth Century-Fox film Corporation.

Java, Akshay., Finin, Tim., Song, Xiaodan., and Tseng, Belle 2007, ‘Why We Twitter: Understanding Microblogging Usage and Communities’, Proceedings of the 9^th WebKDD and 1^st SNA-KDD 2007 workshop on Web mining and social network analysis, pp. 56-65, accessed 2/11/2009, http://www.andredeak.com.br/pdf/porque_twitter.pdf.

Jenkins, H 2006, Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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Kimmel, Rebecca 2007, ‘Blur Studio Looking for a Character Modeler’, CG Society,accessed 3/11/2009, http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=177&t=454495&highlight=sze+jones.

Kingslien, Ryan 2009, CGPortfolio – Ryan Kingslien: Gallery, accessed 2/11/2009, http://ryankingslien.cgsociety.org/gallery/.

Kingslien, Ryan 2009, Ryan Kingslien – Archive – Artist’s Corner , accessed 2/11/2009, http://www.ryankingslien.com/?cat=42.

Kingslien, Ryan 2009, ‘ryankingslien (ryankingslien) on Twitter’, Twitter, accessed 2/11/2009, http://twitter.com/ryankingslien.

Kingslien, Ryan 2009, ‘YouTube – rkingslien’s Channel’, YouTube, accessed 2/11/2009, http://www.youtube.com/user/rkingslien.

Levin, D.M 1997, ‘Keeping Foucault and Derrida in Sight: Panopticism and the Politics of Subversion’, in D.M. Levin (ed.),  Sites of Vision: The Discursive Construction of Site in the History of Philosophy, pp. 397–465. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Li, Jeushi 2009, ‘CG Talk – Victoria Beckham, Jueshi Li (3D)’, CG Society, accessed 2/11/2009, http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=132&t=769180&highlight=ubisoft+shanghai.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2001, film, New Line Cinema.

Mythic Entertainment 2008, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, published by Electronic Arts.

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‘sahal00’ 2006, ‘Gollum’, accessed 2/11/2009, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLvIFRNbqOs.

Terminal Reality 2005, Æon Flux, published by Majesco Games.

Van Dijck, José and Nieborg, David 2009, ‘Wikinomics and its discontents: a critical analysis of Web 2.0 business manifestos’, New Media Society, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 855-874.

Westlake, E.J 2008, ‘Friend me if you Facebook: Generation Y and Performative Surveillance’, TDR: The Drama Review, Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 21-40, accessed 2/11/2009, http://muse.uq.edu.au.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/journals/the_drama_review/v052/52.4.westlake.pdf.

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Weta 2009, ‘YouTube – wetanz’s Channel’, YouTube, accessed 2/11/2009, http://www.youtube.com/user/wetanz.

final post

My project originally started as a more corporate exploration of identity. Initially I wanted to convey marketable identities of individuals with talent (specifically dancers and DJs) to those who could offer them opportunities, helping the two parties make a connection.

However, a few weeks into the project I realised that there were so many variables that were out of my control it was becoming problematic:

-          When are they available to film?

-          Are they injured?

-          Are they fatigued?

-          Is there a gig on that I can attend?

-          Can I bring a camera inside?

-          Are they performing in front of judges for So You Think You Can Dance and more than likely going to go straight through to the top 100 after my project is due?

It crushed me a bit but I picked up and moved onto a project where there were much fewer variables, just me and a computer.

I decided to explore the generation of an avatar, or a digital representation of identity in the form of a character. My digital sculpts worked as the kind of identity represented through avatars, and also as a professional (yet simultaneously personal) identity of myself as the creative who generated the avatars.

Rather than just focusing all my time on one character, I decided that each week I would try to create a new identity. The avatars I ended up making ranged from male to female, from human to animal; and some things I have absolutely no idea how to categorise.

Although constantly starting over meant I generally did not bring the characters to a final polished identity, it did work in my favour. After changing the direction of my project more than half way through the session, there is no way I could finish a character and be completely satisfied with it, also it did allow me to explore various ideas regarding identity.

After showing my work to some friends along the way I deduced that for an avatar to represent someone’s identity, all that the two need to have is a connection. The person might find a cartoony cute, or feel as if they can glean some form of personal characteristics from the way an avatar looks or stands. In other words, an avatar doesn’t necessarily need to even be a human for it to effectively represent one in a second life.

My process used to be that I would make the base mesh for the character in Silo, and then bring that mesh into Zbrush for high resolution sculpting and detailing. However, as time went on I got more and more sick of Silo crashing and generally having a plethora of annoying bugs that do nothing but slow your work down.

My process changed into a pretty much Zbrush only one. I would first create the underlying ‘skeleton’ out of what are called Zspheres, then once that is done I would go into sketch mode and paint a different kind of spheres over the top of the skeleton, fleshing out muscle masses and so on. Once I was happy with the shape of the character I would convert the collection of spheres into a mesh (think of it as if you are converting a vector image into a bitmapped one, except in 3D, and completely different). The mesh can then be subdivided (each polygon becomes four) as many times as I wish so that I have a good amount of mesh detail to ‘describe’ the 3d shape, as it were.

This is usually where I stopped for each of these characters, however the next step would be unwrapping the 3d object so generate texture coordinates to create various texture maps, followed by rigging the character for animation. I really wished I had chosen this topic from the start, so that I could have presented a finished and polished character ready for animating, perhaps even a short clip of movement or something. Oh well.

Below is a rigged character I made from a high resolution sculpt, after retopologising the mesh (I’ve superimposed the wireframe over the top so you can see the reduced detail level). By retopologising, I mean pretty much tracing over the mesh that has millions of polygons in a 3d application, to create a mesh that has just hundreds, yet follows the same shape as the high detail mesh. Think of it like tracing paper, but in 3D, and completely different.

A large part of what my project came to be was recording timelapse videos of my sculpts and uploading them to YouTube. Using social networking sites for exposure is nothing new to digital artists. Both 2D and 3D artists alike often upload timelapses of their work for people to both learn from and be entertained by. Below are examples of both 2D and 3D art timelapsed:

Megan Fox – Speedpainting by Nico Di Mattia:

Anatomy of the Face in Zbrush – Ryan Kingslien:

In closing, I’m not satisfied with how my project went, I know I could have done a lot better. I suppose it evolved into one of those “the journey is the reward” sort of things.

- Mark

strepsils

Been sick as a dog, but I had another attempt at a female form. Last time I tried to lay down all the muscle masses like I have done previously, and it ended up looking like a body builder. This time I tried to describe the form in as few spheres as possible, and I think the resulting mesh is a much better base to start a sculpt from.

Below is the time-lapse, used a reference image by Travis Bourbeau this time round.

I should probably start to think about what I am going to present in a couple of weeks time, maybe a simple character from start to finish? I don’t want it to be boring to watch though so probably not..

Hopefully I’ll have a final idea by the end of the weekend, then I can just power it out!

new WIP part one

Here’s the first part of a new character creation process, fleshing out muscle masses on the underlying structure that I made. It’s missing the creation of the feet part due to a crash but the rest is there.

Not fully satisfied with the structure of the face and head yet, might do another pass and change the horns. Going for a cute, yet simultaneously kind of twisted look to this character.

Who says an avatar needs to be human?

Stay tuned!

second essay idea

For my second essay, I am considering exploring the presentation of the self on social networking platforms, specifically on Facebook. I would probably break this down into three sections:

1. The way users initially present themselves through profile pictures and status updates to let people know not what they are up to, but what they want people to know they are up to.
2. The way in which users further enforce their online identity by censoring what images or other media the public, and their networks have access to, through tagging and untagging etc.
3. The way users further interact with media. Posting links and liking/commenting to strengthen the users’ bond with the status quo of the microcosm of their network of friends.

The real question is how on earth I would tie my identity project into this. I do feel that my newer idea would probably be a lot easier to incorporate nicely…

Sadface.

Oh and these two were my favourite academic integrity videos. One can’t help but respect and fear the ducks of UOW and I thought the reversed footage of the second video was quite clever:

updates + new junk

Over the mid-session recess I realised several weaknesses in my choice of project, most of them stemming from a struggle to juggle several different factors in order to be able to film, most of which are largely out of my control. Somewhere in all of this stress I thought of an alternative idea, one that is probably both too weak, and too delayed to implement, but here it is anyway:

In relation to both the Online Worlds component of the course and the idea of generating an identity, I thought it might have been an interesting idea to make an avatar from scratch in 3d, and quite literally create an identity.

Below is a time-lapse video of a character I’ve been working on in my spare time, I’ll most likely post some more time-lapse videos of other things over the weekend when I have time to play around a bit more:

To be honest I just want to smash the subject, but I’m struggling to get my head around a lot of the nuances of it, which frustrates me, because I know I can do a lot better.

Anyway.

Just to update in regards to my current project, the first two So You Think You Can Dance auditions Cole went to were just for the producers to see if the dancers will bring an audience, not in front of the judges. Apparently the producers think that he will indeed bring an audience, and so he is through to the audition in front of the judges, which is on at the start of November. This is both awesome that he’s through and that I can get some awesome footage of it, and bad because this occurs after my final project is due.

Anyway, best of luck to him (he’s hooking me up with free tickets when he goes all the way!)!

Also, I managed to get some footage recorded of Kid Koma at Macquarie University’s Conception Day. Here’s a clip from that:

It’s probably worth mentioning that before his set began, the entire room was empty. Less than a minute into his VERY FIRST SONG, the entire room was filled with people. That man knows how to fill a dance floor.

Oh and:

Frendfaktory.

web project update

- Thought up a name for the ’company’, gotta make a logo for it now, perhaps this elusive identity will be revealed.

- Got a VIP pass to an event last week and filmed a DJ’s set from the decks, hopefully get a snippet of that footage up on YouTube tonight and do a more substantial post about it.

- Need to see if i can get some more footage of Cole, he’s trying out for So You Think You Can Dance, maybe I can get some footage from that.

- Starting to think i should just focus on one video project and make it awesome, instead of pumping out a bunch of videos that are mediocre.

Here’s a repost of the Cole raw footage, this time on YouTube for more compatibility:

week 9 classwork

My first little gallery on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42792991@N03/galleries/72157622435879686/

Flickr describes ‘interestingness’ as:

There are lots of elements that make something ‘interesting’ (or not) on Flickr. Where the clickthroughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing. Interestingness changes over time, as more and more fantastic content and stories are added to Flickr.

(italics added)

However, a more precise description of how the system operates (and how Flickr owns the word) can be found on the web page detailing the patent of the word by Yahoo! Inc.:

‘Interestingness’ Patent

day 1 footage + braindead

Some thoughts on non-diegetic music of whatever form of video I end up making: Hip-Hop culture is meant to be an expression of the self, not the expression of a preset idea or image. The music will need to be something the dancer shown really enjoys, not something they are told they should associate the motions with. People shouldn’t be told they need to fill a mould to be considered an acceptable part of the culture. Do what you enjoy, and you will convey yourself through music and motion with no effort.

cole raw footage from mark lol on Vimeo.

Here’s some raw footage from filming Cole today, but before I do anything with it I really need to fix up the direction my project is going in. I am confident in my knowledge of the subject matter I am capturing; the real challenge is associating it all with the task at hand, whilst simultaneously making it relevant to the course . A documentary would be a lot easier to convey identity, and I suppose I could kill two birds with one stone by having professional contacts of the people shown in the video. It’s definitely a lot harder to explain what things are and how the culture works in a short film though. Lots of information would need to be conveyed to a largely uneducated audience in regards to Hip-Hop culture. Whereas showing someone doing visually impressive motions require very little explanation. o:

Reflective Essay: Using and Experiencing the Web as a Communication Form

The web is opening doors for users, and making effective communication substantially easier on the whole. This is motivating individuals to become much more vocal about causes they believe in, conveying their thoughts and feelings across this new platform. However, as communication becomes easier and more power is afforded to the user, they must adopt a substantial and often implicit responsibility for using the platform.

boyd and  Ellison define one of the key aspects of social networking sites to be that these web-based services allow users to “construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system,” (2007) systems that are designed to be widely accessible and easy to use by the masses. (boyd & Ellison, 2007) An individual does not need to be proficient in the field of web design to create a MySpace or Facebook page, they can simply create an account, fill out their details, and their profile is ready.

This ease of use is not without drawbacks. I feel that the first thing social networking sites sacrifice to make the experience as simple as possible for the masses is creative freedom. After experimenting a bit with MySpace in class, I rapidly came to the conclusion that due to this lack of creative freedom, I would definitely steer clear of it if I wanted to create a professional feeling online profile page.

In addition to the lack of creative versatility is the fact that inept graphic design is so commonplace on MySpace. Take for example, the following four MySpace layouts (which could be copy pasted directly to a profile page, if one were so inclined):

Example One

Example Two

Example Three

Example Four

Teenagers began signing up to MySpace en masse in 2004 (boyd & Ellison, 2007) since that point, they have become one of three distinct groups found on the social networking service, teens being one, the other two being musicians or artists and the post-college urban social crowd. (boyd & Ellison, 2007) I find it unfortunate that a large number of MySpace layouts not only seem to cater to this visual representation of teen angst, but MySpace in general also seems to favour this sort of copy and paste culture, where there is no reason to be creative. I feel these aspects of MySpace draw away from the potential of MySpace to deliver a professional presentation of an individual or group.  

I don’t think that this is all bad though. Social networking services have enabled people, groups and businesses to communicate with their fans and followers as peers and friends through the medium of Facebook, Twitter and so on. When fans learn mundane bits of information about a band (for example) on a platform that fans are using in a similar fashion, it quite possibly helps increase the notion of knowing someone, rather than simply knowing their music, strengthening the bond between the band as a money making entity, and their source of revenue.

 

With social networking services on the web 2.0 becoming so user-friendly, users are realising that not only do they now wield a voice that can be heard by a phenomenally larger audience, that voice can be heard with very little effort on their part. After all, it is a lot quicker and easier to sign up to a Facebook group, rant on Twitter, submit a vote online, or even send an email than it is to resort to the old media alternatives.

The variation of subject matter in the world of online petitioning through social networking services such as Facebook is incredible. You can type almost anything into the Facebook search and be presented with a number of groups reflecting your interests. A search of “New Media” yielded roughly 17,000 results; whereas “car keys” returned about 1,600 results, dealing with the various situations car keys can find themselves in, be it ‘lost’, ‘found’ or even locked in a running car.

But the web has not simply introduced a light-hearted pastime of creating silly groups; the ease of use the web provides has enabled it to become the preferred platform for petitioning for a cause. Increasingly it is not simply remaining a matter of an easier method of petitioning, but one that is also effective, a method that companies are finding hard to ignore.

Earlier on this year Cadbury cut costs by not only reducing the size of their chocolate blocks by 50 grams (Fitzsimmons, 2009a), but also lowering the amount of cocoa butter and replacing it with palm oil (Fitzsimmons, 2009b). This made the chocolate-loving public angry, and in addition to a large, already existing Facebook group comprised of people against the use of palm oil in all products, several Facebook groups, a Twitter account and a website were created to petition against the change. (Fitzsimmons, 2009b)

The online petitioning worked, and in August, Cadbury succumbed to the pressure from the public, stating that they would phase palm oil out and return to their original recipe using the ingredient of cocoa butter (Glaetzer, 2009) citing “passionate comments [made] via social media environments” as one of the reasons behind the return. (Fitzsimmons, 2009b)

Charlie Pickering of The 7pm Project was inspired by the events surrounding the Cadbury recipes and the power of the public to change products, and has started to (light-heartedly) campaign against the inclusion of the Orange Slice in the biscuit barrel of Arnott’s Assorted Creams. As part of his campaign, a poll was added to The 7pm Project website, and the following video was produced:

 

 

 

[Above: “With great power, comes great responsibility.”]