The next frontier: Reclaiming conversations

medianetworks — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 21:59:14 +0000

Sherry Turkle’s new book Alone Together has the most wonderful catchy title and many interesting viewpoints among others the idea of creating substance in the somewhat superficial and image oriented communication taking place online in social networking sites. She also claims that one of the most precious aspects of modern parenting is teaching our children the value of solitude and being alone because children will always be connected and addicted to the idea of being together through internet-based devices that they carry around with them as extensions of their body. See Sherry Turkle’s TEdX presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtLVCpZIiNs&feature=share

TED talk on Internet Freedom by Rebecca MacKinnon

medianetworks — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:24:43 +0000

TED talk by the author of the book ‘Consent of the Networked’ which is on my reading list.

Mobile Communication: Mobile Internet, Locative Media, Mobility and Place

medianetworks — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:59:03 +0000

Department of Information and Media Studies is hosting a conference on mobile communication with prominent visits from among others Noami Baron. Cannot wait to hear her present her work ‘Always on’. Come join us!

Mobile Communication Research Workshop

Cross-media presentation at First Motion Conference

medianetworks — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:05:34 +0000

Me presenting my work on Cross-media as innovation networks for established media companies at First Motion Conference (BFM Crossmedia) in Tallinn.

Crossmedia

medianetworks — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:57:53 +0000

On July 15th 2009 I handed in my PhD Thesis titled Crossmedia (pdf of full thesis in Danish). The thesis outlines crossmedia as an innovation network for traditional media organizations analyzing crossmedia as changes within business models, work processes & skills and conceptual designs.
English Summary

Media production is not only about producing newspaper articles or shows for

TV. It is about making products that bring all the different media touch points

users have into play. How should we perceive this shift from monomedia

production to production crossing media boundaries? Which patterns arise and

what conceptual changes occur through conflicts and compromises? This thesis

regards such processes as an ecological coherence termed cross media.

The thesis aims to enrich the understanding and the

conceptualization of cross media in traditional media organizations including

especially former newspaper and broadcast organizations. The main argument

is that cross media above all is to be perceived as innovation networks in an

extensive transition process – not only as patterns of reproduction and

collaboration. Cross media becomes a way of surviving new media technologies

where traditional media organizations do not hold a central position to begin

with. This innovation process involves three characteristics: gathering two or

multiple media in the same media organization, production to internet based

and/or mobile media, and design of communication to multiple media

concerning forms of interplay.

The study draws on ethnographic case studies of entertainment

concepts for young people at DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) and three

types of news at Nordjyske Medier (regional media house including newspaper

production). At the same time theoretical studies of change processes, media

and networks supplement the case studies. The study looks for common

patterns in the conceptualization of cross media in two very different cases.

The common patterns are derived from financial ground, genre and media

(industry). The conceptualization evolves as an iterative process between theory

and empirical data. The contribution is twofold.

First, a theoretical framework for understanding cross mediaproduction

is developed as a way to encompass media change processes with

innovation as the focal point. This framework is a theoretical contribution to

understand and operationalize crossmedia as innovation networks. The

theoretical framework syntesizes analytical concepts such as alliances, change

agents, translation, boundary objects and use them to develop understandings

of key notions such as innovation, culture, skills, strategies, concepts,

producers, users, and last, but not least, media.

Second, the thesis develops varied and detailed

conceptualizations and typologies of crossmedia. From a genealogical point of

view, the study shows that cross media is a network of different initiatives

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sensitive to different change agents rather than one radical innovation. In

retrospect, this innovation network points to certain patterns in the

understanding of cross media. These patterns do not replace each other but

coexist. The cross media conceptualization has three focal points in the thesis:

Changes in business models, work (processes and skills), and conceptual design.

As business models cross media is conceptualised as coexisting

forms of bundling and unbundling. The thesis refines the idea of COPE

(Create Once Play Everywhere). The term is instead divided into different

coexisting media circulation patterns with different premises of ownership,

control and openness: CAP or Create and Play (full ownership and control),

DAL or Distribute And Link (traffic ownership but not control of context),

FAD or Fetch And Distribute (no control of content neither ownership nor

context), and OAP or Open And Play (voluntary openness to free coproduction

and circulation). The thesis especially points to radical conceptual

changes around Fetch and Play-patterns, also called data piracy.

As work (processes and skills) different interests are bound in a

cross media conceptualisation that consists of multiskilled producers, project

management, network collaboration (between users and employees), and

innovation. The thesis identifies different alliances that dominate the way in

which cross media is evolving: Efficiency, career, profession, and innovation.

An essential conclusion is that tensions between these alliances result in the

breakdown of boundary objects and crossmedia-supportive initiatives such as

IT-planning systems, project leaders (media conductors and trimedial projects

leaders), coordination meetings, physical layout, and concept description

systems and routines.

As conceptual design, cross media is seen as different kinds of

flow-patterns. The thesis distinguishes between parallel and sequentiel designs

and analyses five underlying patterns of flow: Conceptual, navigational,

versioning, functional, and translative. This way it is not only content that is

being reproduced and reused, it is also to a great extent other binding elements

such as hosts, branding, and jingles.

Overall, the thesis identifies two coexisting patterns across cases,

analytical perspective, and levels of analysis. These are cross media as media

circulation and universe production. Media circulation builds primarily on

unbundling production whereas universe production operates on different

kinds of bundling strategies. The thesis points to how the career alliance

nurtures the conceptual framing of crossmedia as universe production, whereas

the efficiency-alliance nurtures media circulation within the media organisations

own control. Media circulation outside the control of the organisations (FAD)

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is nurtured only by the innovation-alliance, whereas the profession-alliance sees

media circulation as ‘bad cross media’ because it is based on showeling and

cloning. Universe production is perceived as ‘an extra work load’. In the light of

this the thesis concludes, that at the time of the study there are three main

patterns of cross media: universe production, media circulation with ownership

of traffic (CAP), and free circulation where users fetch, distribute, and coproduce

freely.

Based on the results and conclusions the thesis encourages

further and future development of medium theory in relation to media change

and media complementarity. Furthermore, it suggests how the identified

conceptualizations set new demands for media legislation. The thesis

exemplifies how the findings can be taken into account so that the legislation is

less likely to function as an obstacle for future use of cross media as innovation

netvorks.

Media Networks

The next frontier: Reclaiming conversations

TED talk on Internet Freedom by Rebecca MacKinnon

Mobile Communication: Mobile Internet, Locative Media, Mobility and Place

Cross-media presentation at First Motion Conference

Crossmedia