Carl J. Couch Research Award

I'm very flattered that a chapter of my master's thesis, "Your World, Your Imagination?: Representation and Social Expectations in Virtual Memorials" received the Carl J. Couch Research Award this past week. As a result, I'm trying to make my way to Copenhagen in October for the Association of Internet Researchers conference. If you've got a rich uncle looking to sponsor a rogue academic, give a girl a hollar.

You can read the chapter by downloading my thesis.

If you're interested in learning more about Carl Couch's symbolic interactionist approach to technology, I highly recommend his book Information Technologies and Social Orders which is a great read for those who like the works of Marshall Mcluhan or Walter Ong. Rather than merely making sweeping assertions such as Mcluhan's "media extend ourselves," Couch places these ideas within a social context and describes technology as a object which is continually being reconstructed through use and social orders. One might already see the connection to Second Life!

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research (www.cccsir.org) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Carl J. Couch Internet Research Award. The Couch Award is presented annually and recognizes excellent student-authored papers.
Richie Neil Hao, a doctoral student in Department of Speech Communication, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is the First Place winner for his paper, "Virtually Tsinoy: Performing and Negotiating Diasporic Hybridity Online."
Angela Adkins, doctoral degree candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio is the Second Place winner for her paper, "The Presentation of Self in Internet Forums: Face Work without Being Face-to-Face."
A tie for Third Place means that there will be two award winners in this category. They are Sara Hebert, a master's degree candidate in Digital Media Studies at the University of Denver, for her paper, "Your World, Your Imagination?: Representation and Social Expectations in Virtual Memorials;" and Vilma Lehtinen, a student in the Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland, for her paper, "Performing Diverse Social Relationships on a Social Networking Site."
The Couch Center established the Couch Award in 2002 as the centerpiece of an extensive awards program. Winning papers apply symbolic interactionist approaches to internet studies as advocated by the late Dr. Carl J. Couch, long-time professor of sociology at the University of Iowa.
Competition is open to graduate or undergraduate students of all disciplines, and winners are selected by a committee of university professors in communication studies and sociology from across the U.S.
This year's competition was rigorous, with entries received from students of all levels, from undergraduates through Ph.D. candidates, and were submitted by students from Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as North America.
Winners receive a cash award as well as the opportunity to present their papers at a national or international conference. This year's awards will be presented at the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 15-18.
The Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research is a non-profit organization established to promote the scholarship of the late Carl J. Couch and his academic associates. Couch is recognized as the founder of The New Iowa School in sociological and communication inquiry, and was a pioneer in the qualitative research of information technologies.
The Center provides networking opportunities for students and scholars who conduct social and Internet research, inspired by Couch's work.

Robinsonfilmcenter.org has launched!

I've been busy moving back across the country to Louisiana, but in the process, the brand new Robinson Film Center site launched, after much hard work and fun with Joomla! Many of you know I have a soft spot in my heart for the film center because of its ambitious media education program and brave programming in the deep south. They've been a blast to work with, and I highly recommend the popcorn salt that they use and keep at the concession stand for patrons like me.

Musings for Memorial Day

I was away in the mountains for my first time for this year's memorial day. I had a hard day reconciling going out and having fun on a day that I should have been remembering the veterans that have fallen protecting and serving our country. Many of you who know me personally, know that I am not extremely patriotic, but that my research deals with America and how we grieve. I am patriotic in the sense that I love everything the United States stands for, but I am not proud of of the current state of government (which to me, makes me even more patriotic).

On Memorial Day, one of my favorite radio shows, To The Point, dedicated their show to a critical look at how memorial day came about, what memorial day means and how that meaning is shaped due to the current war. It is a very moving, smart and fair look at what Memorial Day means for us, a public torn between political views on the Iraq war and the value of human life.

One of the commentators (from Shreveport, ironically), Michael Sledge, mentions that in America we have lost national grieving, that is public grieving. I disagree slightly, as I believe we miss regular, healthy, productive and active public grieving. As I discussed in my master's thesis, spontaneous shrines for example, are very public methods of grieving that respond to public tragedy by becoming an amalgamation of private meanings. Immediately after a tragedy, the public creates these metatexts, but often these sites and tragedies don't retain their monumentality long term. The solution I think, is to build memorials that can reflect current collective memory of tragedies and can be responsive to the public needs. Unfortunately, our typical methods of materializations don't foster healthy remembrance, much like how Memorial Day has become a day for barbeques, and in my case, escapism to the mountains.

I could probably go on and on about why dedicating days to the memory of public tragedies and public figures doesn't work, but for the sake of brevity, please listen to the Memorial Day edition of To The Point.

Japan proposes a pay once royalty structure for mp3 players

Japan is considering levying a fee on manufacturers of mp3 players and HDD recorders. Such a fee already exists for devices with hard drives or other storage methods such as mini-disc recorders, DVD recorders and other digital devices:

While digital portable music players and HDD recorders face new levies, personal computers and mobile phone handsets designed for general purposes will be exempted, even if they contain recording functions, according to the plan.

The specific rates for the royalties will be determined through deliberations between the agency, copyright management groups and the manufacturers.

They are expected to be several hundred yen for each device, totaling several billion yen a year for the makers.

At Thursday's meeting, representatives of the manufacturers are expected to voice opposition to the plan because they do not think they can pass on the additional costs to consumers.

More about the proposal. Thanks _akira_

Doesn't seem like a bad idea, although its kind of like putting a big band-aid on a larger issue. While it would frustrate me to see these devices get even more expensive, it would be glad to know that no one's going to knock on my door and try to sue me.

I has a master's thesis

I haven't been blogging much because I've been completing my master's thesis, Digital Memorialization: Collective Memory, Tragedy, and Participatory Spaces. I'm defending it next week on the 7th at 2pm in Sturm 434 at DU. I know pretty much anyone who reads this probably knows that already, but feel free to come by if you're a stranger looking for some knowledge.

Keep an eye on this space for more information. I'll also be continuing my research here.

Are you a racist?

This game was meant to test reaction times to suspects who might be carrying a gun. I apparently am a racist accord to the test, as my reaction time to white people holding guns was longer than my reaction time to black people holding guns. I'd like to note that "black" also appeared to include Latinos and possibly other "dark skinned" minorities. I could be wrong because I was too busy trying to tell if these guys were holding guns or not. The other thing was it wasn't really controlled at all, there were many backgrounds used in the game, and I don't know if the researcher is collecting information on this, but on some backgrounds it was harder to see a gun than others. Oddly enough, there's lots of images from Denver, so I was also a bit distracted by that. Anyway, my armed reaction times reverse it: I spent a longer time checking to see if Blacks were unarmed rather than whites. Pretty interesting study! I wish I could compare myself to other people. Feel free to post your scores in the comments.

Try it out here: http://backhand.uchicago.edu/Center/ShooterEffect/

Via Poplicks

Hurricane Katrina video tribute - with Anime!

While doing some research on a YouTube user that commented on one of the videos I'm examining in my thesis, I came across this video posted by a user that makes anime music videos. The producer created this as a tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This one uses images from Naruto, which I haven't seen so I'm not sure if there's some meta-textual story telling going on. Anyone familiar with the series?




Compare it to the one I'm looking at that uses the same song by U2 and Green Day:


They both use methods of production that are hot topics among scholars studying fan-created media - but they're both dedicated to the memory of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and not about extending the fan-object's narrative.

(ps. Just a side note, but I'll be anxious to be done with this chapter and listening to music that I don't associate with Katrina. I treat myself to other tunes when I can right now, but man, I'm anxious to listen to a wider range! I think I could recite the lyrics to nearly every song in the videos I'm examining.)