Task Three: "Essay-in-lieu-of-examination"

'The term communication can be defined in a wide sense and a strict sense. The wide sense is: a process by which a system is changed by another system'

(Vilém Flusser, Writings, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, p. 8)

Distribution has arguably always been about communication systems that bring other systems into contact. Which systems are today being brought into contact? Which systems are changing other systems? What has changed, in comparison to the past?

Aggregation and Distribution

in

Communication Systems

'The term communication can be defined in a wide sense and a strict sense. The wide sense is: a process by which a system is changed by another system.'

- Vilém Flusser, Writings, University of Minnesota Press, p. 8

                                               

Aggregation is combining things and distribution is dispersing the produced compound. I say aggregation and distribution because things must first be aggregated for there to be something to distribute. This blog post will explore aggregation and distribution in terms of communication systems that bring other systems into contact.

Aggregation and Distribution and The Actor-Network Theory

It is useful to apply principles in Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to clarify the structure of aggregation and distribution I will be using. ANT states all human and non-human actants or factors have relatively equal influence on the assemblage they are part of (Banks, 2011).

ANT's actants are the initial systems brought together in aggregation. These initial systems are combined to form ANT assemblages or what we'll call produced systems. These produced systems are then distributed and affect their governing communication system. The difference is while ANT focuses on the relationships between actants that form assemblages, this essay will be exploring how these assemblages or produced systems affect the larger systems they are part of.

Aggregation and Distribution in Newspapers

Newspapers are literally communication systems, being the primary news source before internet became commonplace. They are also communication systems because they aggregate news stories, opinions from community members who have written to columns, company agendas, political agendas, and ideas.

Multiple layers of produced systems and distribution occur:

Produced System 1 – Selected Works: The first aspect of production is the articles, opinions, and ideas that have been selected and edited for publication.

Distribution 1 - Structure: This distribution concerns how these articles and opinions are positioned in the newspaper layout. This leads to the second produced systems aspect.

Produced System 2 – Archived Content: Articles are created anew when collated alongside each other and placed in a different context to how they were initially produced. This concept is supported by Jacques Derrida's archive theory (1995). Archive theory states that the form of archive dictates what content can be included and how (Derrida 1995, p. 17). Therefore logging data in specific archives creates the content while it records it (Derrida 1995, p. 17). This alters context of the content based on what is included and excluded, and how this is presented, therefore changing the value of things. When applied to newspapers as archives, they can only contain news articles, opinions, image, and advertisements. Absent are news articles that don't satisfy agendas, opinions that are disinteresting, blurry images, novels, video, sound, etc. What is included and excluded changes context and meaning of everything in the newspaper, therefore creating this content anew.

Produced System 3 – Published Newspaper: This concerns the physical newspaper that encompasses all agendas and ideas the company wants to see published.

Distribution 2 – Circulation: Physical newspapers are distributed among the community. However what are really distributed are all the articles, opinions, agendas, and ideas which change all the systems that come into contact with this newspaper.

Changed System 1 – People:  Systems of people are changed as articles influence what they discuss, fear, support, and learn. Published individuals ascend in the community hierarchy being admired but also scrutinised. Published journalists see more career opportunities. Aspiring journalists apply to work for the company. Relationships among all these people are fostered, broken, changed, or maintained as they read, think, discuss, or don't discuss content in the newspaper.

Changed System 2 – Companies: Newspaper stockists sell more successful newspapers and potentially other products. Stores get more business due to success of their advertisement, or less if their competitors placed an advertisement. The newspaper company receives greater or less revenue depending on how well that particular issue achieves all of the above.

Changed System 3 – External: The success of the newspaper changes systems of the logging industry that sees increased orders for paper, and systems of environment are changed as more trees are cut down. The technology industry receives demand for newer products, and competitors in the news industry pressure their journalists to produce more exclusive content.

Aggregation and Distribution in Facebook

Facebook is more accurately a communication platform because it allows ordinary people to connect across it.

As a communication system that brings other systems into contact, Facebook aggregates people as networks. It aggregates relationships, degrees of separation, emotions, ideas, opinions, and all things on the internet that people want to share, discuss, and use to bond with each other, be it scientific articles or cat videos.

Derrida's archive theory is applicable here because Facebook is also an archive. It is more open and flexible than newspapers to include profiles, relationships, unfiltered opinion, internet content, emotions, etc. However its form prevents such things as business communication, trust of authenticity, and restricts what profiles can express - for example multiple romantic relationships. Therefore Facebook as an archive dictates what can be produced.

Produced System 1 – Your Profile: All personal details, friends, liked pages, groups, blocked people, un-friended people, make up the created virtual profile. The online self is a produced system by being virtually reproduced and created anew, and the Newsfeed is a produced system displaying content according to the personal filters set up.

Produced System 2 – Relationships: Facebook adds a digital dimension to relationships, clarifies relationships through defining people as "Facebook friends" or "real friends", creates Facebook families, creates new relationships via shared interests and potential offline relationships, and creates negative relationships through Facebook 'drama'.

Produced System 3 – Content: Emotions, new ideas, and new opinions are formed from sharing, discussing or encountering new content. New content is produced from 'selfies', discussions, desire to entertain and/or desire to make something and publish it on the internet for people to see and critique. This tendency is defined in David Gauntlett's theory of Making is Connecting. Gauntlett sees people making things as a desire to creatively contribute to the world, be a part of conversation, and be recognised for their creations (2013).

Distribution in Facebook occurs with produced systems as they work together in a feedback loop.

Distribution 1 – People and Content Distributed by Facebook: Facebook coding distributes advertising, people, and pages on Newsfeeds. The platform's algorithms decide what appears on Newsfeeds within the constraints of every account's filtering system. It distributes people to a certain extent by displaying 'people you may know' or groups you may be interested in joining based on friends or liked pages.

Distribution 2 – People and Content distributed by Ourselves: People on Facebook distribute ideas, opinions, discussions, and internet or created content. They distribute themselves into groups and social circles based on their friends and interests, and this similarly occurs offline when friends or potential friends meet.

Changed System 1 – People:  Naturally, systems of people are changed. Friends accounts are changed due to the presence of your account, relationships are changed by being on Facebook, social hierarchies are changed due to popularity on Facebook, and behaviour and opinions change depending on those of others online.

Changed System 2 – Digital Culture: Societal conventions are different with the advent of the 'selfie', the concept of 'liking' something which has changed cultural meaning of the word, sharing and liking becoming the new internet currency, acronyms such as 'LOL' which has been added to the Oxford dictionary as of 2011, and etiquette on the internet.

Changed System 3 – Organisations: Companies and celebrities have their digital systems changed when their pages receive or lose likes, and when their content is shared. Success of internet content relies on people reading, sharing, and discussing. It is online users that decide what information becomes widely known and what becomes irrelevant.

Aggregation and Distribution of Newspapers and Facebook

The Internet is where I bring these two systems of people and newspapers together. The Internet is an infinite communication system with millions of processes of aggregation and distribution occurring simultaneously.

This section will explore one aspect of how the Internet as a communication system brought newspapers and Facebook in contact.

As people became regular internet and Facebook users, newspapers were forced to be digitally accessible to avoid becoming obsolete. However digital newspapers are struggling to accumulate attention and traffic to their sites due to the combination of:

     - the booming Internet culture of sharing content,

     - Facebook making URLs accessible by giving previews and allowing videos to be played

       within the platform,

     - the Newsfeed algorithm displaying news relevant to users,

     - and most recently, a display of 'Trending' news within Facebook.

Facebook is a major player in the rise of citizen journalism by allowing users to curate their own form of a newspaper, aggregating people and news sources of their own choice instead of consuming newspapers in their entirety.

In this way, Facebook changed newspapers within the domain of the Internet system. It is interesting to note that newspapers in their prime could influence systems of people, however digital technology has now afforded people the power to change systems of news.

Relevance of Aggregation and Distribution

This post has explored three communication systems of newspapers, Facebook, and briefly the Internet, but in reality processes of aggregation, distribution, and systems are widely applicable.

It is useful in breaking processes down into comprehensive stages within a larger process and accounts for concerns of the people, things, industries, social concerns, cultures, etc. that are affected, and all relationships between these systems. As shown with Facebook and newspapers, this breakdown is useful in order to compare different systems, observe their interactions, and trace their development over time influenced by each other.

The process of aggregation and distribution can also integrate multiple theories as shown by applications of archive theory, Actor-Network Theory, and Making is Connecting. However it is less able to be included back into those theories save ANT, which is similar in its considerations. The main difference being, aggregation and distribution categorise systems according to what happens, and ANT structures actants in networks according to their relationships.

Regarding media it has been found that concerns of aggregation are more important and distribution is often a bi-product. In 2002 Mohr and Thomas believed content aggregation to be the second most important function after content production (p. 10). However by 2013, similar writings by Friedrichsen and Mühl-Benninghaus found aggregation is the most important function in media systems in order to justify distribution (p. 219). This is evidenced in the success of media aggregation giants, Google, Amazon, iTunes, Facebook, etc. that are worth millions but have low-cost concepts. Newspapers are aggregators of journalism and advertisements, and Facebook is an aggregator of networked people. Newspapers' function of distribution was to get readers and maintain attention however in present day Facebook stays in the one place. In the rise of the Internet, people are distributing themselves as they flock to media aggregators, a similar concept to citizen journalism where users are curating their own content and creating it where they find lacking.

Drawbacks of aggregation and distribution in communication systems include:

     - Breaking systems down becomes complicated especially when dealing
       with produced systems and distribution.

     - Aggregation and distribution is all encompassing and therefore broad. The
       above discussions attempted to be quite thorough however it is unlikely all aspects
       were accounted for. They were also broken down according to stages that seemed
       suitable however there is no official scaffold.

Suggestions for improvement:

     - Drawing visuals of aggregation and distribution are useful in considering the multiple
       factors at play.

     - Aggregation and distribution worked well with principles of ANT. Accounting for
       relationships of production between human and non-human systems helped structure
       the analysis of aggregation and distribution within communication systems.

All images are self-produced. Credit: Yijun Jiang 2014

References

Banks, D. 2011, A brief summary of Actor Network Theory, The Society Pages - Cyborgology, W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., Accessed 5 November 2014,
<< http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/12/02/a-brief-summary-of-actor-network-theory/ >>.

Derrida, J. 1995, 'Archive fever: A Freudian impression', Diacritics, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 9 – 63.

Flusser, V. 2002, Writings, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

Friedrichsen, M. & Mühl-Benninghaus, W. 2013, Handbook of social media management: Value chain and business models in changing media markets, Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin.

Gauntlett, D. 2013, David Gauntlett on making at Maker Faire Rome, October 2013, online video, Accessed 5 November 2014,
<< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjU_ZbpzLAo >>.

Mohr, N. & Thomas, G. P. 2002, Interactive broadband media: A guide for a successful take-off, Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin.

Wikipedia. 2014, LOL, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Accessed 5 November 2014,
<< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOL >>.

Week 12: Publishing Example - Infographics

Role of data in society:

Representation of information or data to present complex information quickly and clearly

Background:

The earliest examples are cave paintings. Information graphics have roots in diagrams and statistical graphs and charts. In the 20th Century, Edward Tufte helped establish data visualisation as a concept and newspapers increasingly used visuals to help information be more comprehensible. In the 21st Century, there is now increasing emphasis on design and value of it for a successful infographic. Software programs are available for the easier creation of infographics as the importance of visual appeal is acknowledged and companies use this in their marketing strategies.

Impacts:

Inform, persuade, display patterns in, or translate heavy/difficult/complex/boring information to specific target markets or general society.

What data does it publish?

Any and all data- mostly used for the purposes of relaying data that may be difficult to process in full text form or to make data usually overlooked to be more accessible to today's visual society.

Where does this data come from?

Surveys, statistical data gathering centres, research on the internet, books, and any other publishing mediums relevant to the topic of the infographic.

How is this placed in 'infrastructural globalism'?

Infographics are limited in their global applicability. Global data is difficult to collate and certain demographics may be misrepresented or under-represented if infographics don't ask the right questions due to the influence of multiple factors such as race, culture, values, age, beliefs, etc. In order for infographics to fulfil their purpose of informing audiences about important topics, persuading audiences of certain viewpoints, and to remain relevant to their audiences, they may need to be local and not global in their information. However, infographics have a place in infrastructural globalism as insights into what different countries and societies value through what they choose to portray.

How do you get from local to global and back when it comes to data, forms of content and expression, archives involved, and distribution?

Global data can be very difficult to gather as well as represent and therefore local data is better suited to studies of people, for example coffee drinking which may be culture specific, financial spending which may be country or neighbourhood specific. In order to make data uniform and applicable it also needs to be translated from different localities in order to be collated into one set of information, and then the entire set translated in order to be relayed back to the different localities. Translating does not merely refer to language, all other country specific factors must also be translated in order to make information uniform. One example is currency which must also be adjusted for inflation as well as its value in that country ie, how much it can buy.

Archives involved may be any published material depending on the research topic.

Distribution of such global data would need to be in studies of international affairs, and/or on the internet as a novelty of comparing between different localities.

What kinds of data friction is involved?

Infographics can gather data from any and all sources depending on their topic as outlined in "Where does this data come from?" and then organised into databases or some sort of system to be further processed to produce the final infogrpahic. However in order for research to be extensive this is very difficult. While processing infographics it is important to remember to take into account biases in survey samples, statistical data sources used, or research sources.

How open is all this to manipulation or variation?

Very. Infographics are visual and have limited explanation therefore are open to interpretation by the audience. The audience may also only retain certain facts from the infographic which therefore alters their perception of what was visualised. Infographic sources themselves are also often not extensive, the creator of the infographic may only select parts of information in order to persuade audiences, and all information is subject to become less applicable over time as more information arises or situations change.

Visualisation Group Presentation Documentation

Discussion:

What we visualised:

- weekly box office revenue for the three highest grossing movies of all time- not adjusted for inflation

- number of words spoken by significant characters in each movie

How are we 'creating' it by making it visible?

- creating a niche category to focus on spoken dialogue in movies

- potential patterns in this spoken dialogue and proportions that may inform success of movies or bias for certain characters

Difference between publishing this and general written commentary:

- more effective to look at and therefore more engaging

- easier comparison between films because there is a uniform design

- able to visualise what may be boring or difficult to write about, in this case the amount of words said by a character is not article worthy but may be worthy to publish in a visualisation

Impact on publics:

- Film critics can use this information to inform their research and also support or refute their opinions

- General public can use this information in order to make decisions about what movies to watch

- Film studies can have another dimension of statistics and logistical details added to it as opposed to studying classical plot structures and camera shots etc

- Film creators can therefore use this information to help them make decisions about films

References:

Box Office Revenue:

IMDb.com, Inc. (2014) Avatar (2009), USA

Accessed: 28 September, 2014

<< http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=avatar.htm >>

IMDb.com, Inc. (2014) Titanic (1997), USA

Accessed: 28 September, 2014

<< http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=titanic.htm >>

IMDb.com, Inc. (2014) Marvel’s The Avengers (2012), USA

Accessed: 28 September, 2014

<< http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=avengers11.htm >>

Word Count (manually collated from scripts):

IMSDb.com. Avatar (2009), USA

Accessed: 6 October, 2014

<< http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Avatar.html >>

IMSDb.com. Titanic (1997), USA

Accessed: 7 October, 2014

<< http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Titanic.html >>

Scribd Inc. (2014) Avengers Script (2012), USA

Accessed: 5 Octover, 2014

<< https://www.scribd.com/doc/100239869/Avengers-Script >>

Font:

BASIC TITLE FONT

PRZEMYSLAW HOFFER

<< http://www.dafont.com/basic-title-font.font >>

Blogger doesn't seem to have an option to upload files onto blog posts therefore this is the PowerPoint Presentation file used in the presentation posted by another group member onto their wordpress blog:

<< http://lifesbeautifulencounters.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=30 >>

Week 9: Comparing Visualisation

Visualisation in Scientific Research

Visualisation in scientific research is mostly dominated by graphs and 3D animation renderings. The purposes of graphs are to provide a uniform method of communication that can easily be rescaled to compare to other research in forming connections and new theories. 3D models are helpful in realistic visualisation and can often visualise what scientists study but are difficult to see, for example microscopic subjects. A lot of scientific visualisations are merely appendages to extensive sets of data, research, discussion, and conclusions, and often not the main feature but are necessary for summaries and to collate information.

Visualisation in Communication of Science to the "Public Sphere"

Visualisation of science to the public often only features easy to understand infographics- which are the most effective in my opinion. Infographics are short, to the point, and don't include excessive details that the public may not understand, or may not care to understand. Often visualisation is much more focused on appearance and attractiveness of design, because that is what draws people who may not have enough interest in the information being presented to go searching for it and sifting through mounds of data that they have to interpret themselves. It's difficult to get the public interested in science because often they cannot see how it relates to them, do not understand it, generally do not care for it, and/or they don't know what to look for and what to care about because there is so much information- and research is often not general audience friendly to read or understand.
While I'm sure infographics and articles both have biases, I personally prefer infographics because it at least seems more like it's attempting to lay out the facts as opposed to using wording to manipulate a point of view.

Interactive Visualisation in VJing

Visualisation in VJ is often very abstract, which is probably the point. The visualisations are based on the creator's feelings and how they imagine what they're trying to communicate or what they feel things should look like. Digital media visualisations are good because they are a part of art, and therefore open to interpretation but also interesting insights to how someone else visualises a concept. In VJ especially it translates music which is something not visible and has no physical appearance. Therefore there are endless possibilities and interpretations.

In conclusion, there are many infinite ways to visualise things and visualisation can be applied in almost anything, whether to summarise data, communicate data to a new audience, visualise an intangible concept, or translate feelings, emotion, or imagination. Different forms of visualisation come from what they are trying to convey, and who they are trying to convey to.

Week 8: Visualisation

Some examples of visualisation that I found appealing/interesting:


Food Under the Microscope: Scanning Electron Micrographs of Foodstuffs

Electron micrographs are fascinating to me and although they are not compositions of extracts of data, they are amazing visualisations of the structure of things and also provide insight to explanation of properties and behaviour, the simplest example being organic or processed things. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinkpicturegalleries/9862970/Food-under-the-microscope-scanning-electron-micrographs-of-foodstuffs.html?frame=2477370

Food under the microscope: Scanning electron micrographs of foodstuffs (2012), The Telegraph United Kingdom, Telegraph Media Group Limited, Accessed: 16 September, 2014


BevShots Microscope Images

Similar to electron micrographs, BevShots is a company producing photographs of different kinds of alcohol as seen under a microscope. They are mesmerising and every alcohol is different. The images are a fascinating visualisation of the alcohol, their taste, and potential effects.

http://www.bevshots.com/

Davidson, M. W. (1995-2011), Florida State University Research Foundation, BevShots MicroArt, LLC, Onyx Group, Accessed: 16 September, 2014

Daily Infographic

In Googling "infographic", I found dailyinfographic.com and it is awesome. As the name suggests, the site shares a new infographic everyday, a collation of information to teach about a random topic.

Daily Infographic (2014), Daily Infographic, Accessed: 16 September, 2014 (further referencing material not found)

iTunes Visualiser

It's like the Windows Media Player visualiser except with a more complex algorithm and therefore better visuals and greater options. The iTunes visualiser is an option within the music platform which shows abstract images to compliment the music being played and of which the theme can be changed if so desired via keystrokes.

(Personal Images that were screenshotted while iTunes was running)

Week 6: Attention

List of things I noticed about what my attention liked or disliked when reading the readings:

- spaces between paragraphs
- shorter paragraphs
- giant blocks of text put me off, some sites seemed to have a design initiative with regards to white areas or lack of them however when not synonymous with the content of the text it just made the site boring and clunky
- clearly defined paragraphs also helps skimming articles so I can read the first few lines of paragraphs to gauge their importance to understanding the overall point
- INTEREST: if it's directly relevant to my life, it automatically is placed of higher importance and more attention is reserved for it
- as a visual society, if the site does not look appealing, the words have to be really really really really really engaging to retain attention
- more conversational language, i.e. not articles speaking to no one and not articles talking about what the author thought
- getting to the point
- outdated or non-universal references that have no meaning to me makes the entire article seem irrelevant
- it's easier to read when I know how much I have left, this is easier to calculate with pages of text and more difficult when pulling the scroll bar on the side of the window up and down

Thoughts about attention and memory:

- Facebook messaging pops up as a small window within the larger window of the site so you can still scroll while private messaging someone, this reiterates the idea of multitasking
- Multitasking has possibly emerged because some tasks do not require full attention e.g. chatting to a friend online. Wiser multitaskers know what to multitask and what not to. It can be more productive to multitask within categories and fulfil goals specific to those categories e.g. chatting to friends while listening to music means you maintain friendships with those people and catch up on the latest song from your favourite artist and overall take less time so you can go back to studying
- Interactive things receive longer spans of attention because they promote the concept of exploration and "seeking" of the next thrill
- I approach activities with a standard level of attention reserved depending on the activity (reading, watching, chatting) which is then reconfigured depending on the title (what affects attention rates?, cat plays beethoven, _friend_) which is then reconfigured depending on how interesting the first few paragraphs, seconds, or topic of conversation seems

Increased exposure to the same things embeds those things into our memory. Even exposure to something for two seconds that doesn't register into our consciousness can be embedded into our memory if that exposure continues regularly. As discussed with archives, these prostheses extend our brains and means we don't have to remember and store absolutely all information. We access information we need and when we don't need it, it remains within archives, often readily available.
While having a good attention span and good memory are excellent, admired, and useful skills, such a skill is no longer immediately necessary in our daily lives.
The technology we blame for stunting our memories and attention spans also supplements these drawbacks.

Week 5: Archives