Class Journal April, 7 2015

Laura Durkalec

Class Journal for April 7, 2015

Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky

Shirky says there is old media era and new media era.

-Old media era has to do with the “process, product and output idea.” Shirky gives the example of the television but this idea isn’t limited to just that. Talked about on page 53 of the reading.

-New media for Shirky is when media is considered the connective tissue.

- Shirky points out on page 60 how he was teaching at NYU and in just 15 to 20 years media has sufficiently changed. It no longer is a “process, product, and output” idea but now is a connective tissue.

- In old media movie reviews came from movie reviewers and news came from news reporters.  There were three ways to make message public if you were just another citizen and if you did any of this you were either rich, pathetic or a whack job. The example Shirky gives: a priest molested a guy. He could only make it public by putting it on a sign and then he was considered a whack job but it was one of the biggest scandals ever.

-New media is the means in which you can publish. Now we have the connected tissue. We only need a blogger and a publish button to make your work public.

-Mad men on AMC did not go for a mass audience. AMC needed to fill airtime with Mad Men. This is kind of an example of a relic of the old media because it doesn’t matter what they play, AMC will still get the check.  

Cognitive Surplus with Critical Mass

-If you buy a TV this amounts to one more consumer and one more producer. What this means for cognitive surplus is that this number adds to the amount of volume that will one day reach the critical mass.

-Critical mass is a concept where you need a certain number of people for anything to work. The Internet itself has a critical mass.

-Example: There was a boy band in South Korea. The website very much functioned like a forum where you could get on and talk about them. For it to work you need to have those people on the forum to chat.

-With cognitive surplus you have to get enough people together with enough motivation.

-Example: Getting Josh Groban a 21^st birthday gift. There were two organizations: one collects the funds and then the other distributes it.

-The Internet gives you a set of means to publish. Motivation is always intrinsic and altruistic. People want to connect with one another and people want to bond. It comes from a place of love.

Gutenberg Economics

-Old media model can be described as a “Gutenberg Economics” scribal culture.

-The initial capital is always resources and labor. Resources: ink, paper, machines. Labor: editors, layouts, press room mechanics.

-Gutenberg economics is one of the things that gave rise to new authorships. There was always a risk and a hope for return. Now you can make something public without asking for permission.

Some Class Discussion

-“Do you buy the claim we were once anti social but now we are more social?” 1 way path vs. 2-way path talking about old and new media.

-“Does the web enrich relationships?” Easy to move around and still keep in contact.

-“Do you know people only online and not in real life?” Through business stuff, role playing, Xbox live, home school kids will contact students in real class and act like they’re part of the class, making friends on Tumblr, poetry critiques, ok cupid, Chelsea’s “can I go to the bathroom?” story

Last points of the lecture

-When doing something in real life it can affect something online and when you do something online it can affect your real life. Shirky sees “in real life” and online as related.

-Two types of writing: public writing (stuff that was published) and private writing (journaling, address book, calendar, letters). Shirky points to the idea there is no longer a distinction between the two. Or we can write in ways that are both public and private. Private messaging isn’t really private because you can screenshot.

-Digital sharecropping like with Huffington Post. There is where you pull something from the Internet and put it on their site and they get revenue from ad views. Digital sharecropping model says you shouldn’t get paid for what you wrote because you still get views and a reputation. Shirky points to this as an online issue.

-Geocities was not really the point of having a good design it was a point to connect with people that like the same things as you do.

-Technology allows us to do stuff we want to do. Motives are innate and inside us. Motive matters more than opportunity.

Rheingold’s video

-Rheingold’s video notes that the computer is a writing and reading technology. A “many to many” model. Many people write, many people read, and many people write back. Can also be called cooperative action. No longer are my rewards monetary but intrinsic.