Friday, September 26th, 2008
Finally was able to make our own Wordle. I took our rss feed and created this interesting tag cloud of our most commonly used terms. This is what we got.
I think it’s pretty cool because it grabs my imagination. (I have to confess that it has the word “media” so prominently in the middle is somewhat validating)
Would love to hear what you guys think!
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
My first love is mapping, as I spent a good portion of my professional life as a cartographer. I understand the power of maps – the ability to display information in a spatial manner that shows relationships, patterns, trends.
Alisa Miller from PRI did a video report on the way news is reported in the US. To say the least, it is illuminating. I encourage all of you to visit the link and watch. I know I plan on going back and rewatching it as soon as I post this.
The video can be found here.
Friday, July 11th, 2008
This is a “Wordle” cloud. Also known as a ‘cloud tag’, which is a way to label posts on a blog or pictures in a Flickr account and provide readers/viewers an easier way to navigate to content that matches their interest.
Wordle is a site that allows you to take your own blog, any website that has an RSS feed, or a bunch of text and create a cloud. The larger the word, the more instances of it in the blog/feed/text. They also have amassed a gallery of all the clouds that others have created. The one at the top of this post was created by an anonymous user on the term “media literacy”.
I’m fascinated by the use of these clouds. They deliver a message in a very interesting way, boiling down what someone says to content. It completely disregards context, dispatching with any notion of perspective or world view the author may have.
Does it present information in an important, revealing manner? It certainly presents it in an interesting and new way. To demonstrate this, the cloud on the left was generated when someone took Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race in Philadelphia and the one on the right was generated from the text of President George Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address. I think it’s interesting to compare the two. Eye-opening, no. But definitely a new way to engage someone in the discussion.
*due to technical difficulties, I was unable to create a wordle for The LAMP’s website – bummer!
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Just in case any of you still have doubts about the abilities of Photoshop, be sure to check out PD’s blog dedicated to outrageous Photoshop mistakes. It’s good for a laugh, but also a sober reminder of how easy it can be to alter images. Whether the alteration is a true mistake, or a message taken too far (such as, “This person is thin!”), it’s important to realize that all images and messages are manufactured and retouched in some manner. This collection reminds you that you’ve got to keep asking critical questions about what you see, and does it in a fun way.
Friday, June 13th, 2008
I came across a photo exhibit put together by Balakov, a photographer who posts his work on Flickr, which consists of his reimaginings of very famous images from the 20th Century…as portrayed in Lego toys.
I like this one a lot because it captures my memory of the very famous shot that i’ve seen reproduced multiple times on postcards and posters. But, there is one aspect that’s missing, which i think makes this stream of historical photos revisited brilliant. Because they are Lego toys, the dangerous feat that makes the original photo so dramatic is missing. Those men dangling their legs off the steel girder suspended in the air were tempting fate, however these toys are not in harm’s way. You don’t have quite the same reaction to the successor as you do with the predecessor.
When we take a look at another photo redux of his that focuses on a much more violent moment captured on film, we can really see the effect toys as substitutes has on the overall experience of the viewer.
On February 1st, 1968, General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executed a Captain from the Viet Cong army. Eddie Adams’ photographic capture of it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. Balakov’s reproduction does not evoke the same vivid angst and terror of the original. While the Lego figures share the same manufactured smile, it withholds the painful grimace of the Viet Cong soldier in the original image. This is an excellent exercise in how images influence our emotions, how they tell stories, and more importantly, how they define history.
I invite you to check out the rest of the series he put up, where he also has links to the originals he is paying homage to.
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
Ever wanted to create your very own font, personalizing every curl of every character in every word you type? Now you can, without having to dig too deeply into the whys and hows of typeface design, and without spending lots of money on software. Thanks to a new website called FontStruct, anyone can use building blocks to create their very own font, and then share it with the world. If you’re not interested in creating a font, you could probably spend hours browsing and freely downloading ones that other people have made.
I myself am not a particular enthusiast of typefaces and fonts, but a very smart review of FontStruct recently appeared in slate.com by Jason Fagone, who is a typeface enthusiast. The article is well worth reading, commenting as it does on the role of typography in history and the power of how letters are designed, not to mention yet another Web 2.0 community that may one day be comparable to YouTube.
And if you ever doubted the power of typeface to send a subliminal message, take a look at this–if nothing else, it’s good for a chuckle.
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Judging what is offensive and what is not can be a difficult thing. No one has the right to stop any other person from feeling uncomfortable with a comment or action, and I was reminded today of how easily it is for people to still be offended by modern television.
TVshowcomplaints.org is a portal to both submitting complaints about content on television shows, and seeing examples of complaints filed by other individuals. A few of the complaints are bound to make you chuckle, others will make you wonder how much of the general public is aware of the television rating system. In all seriousness, reading the complaints raises some good questions about the role of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC): Does the agency exist solely to “protect” us from profanity, or does it have any other purpose? Where does free speech come into play? If so many complaints are being lodged about using swear words, is the FCC doing its part to educate the public on what the rating system–or is that even the responsibility of the FCC?
Whether you’re up for a laugh, a perspective different from yours, or just a peek into incredibly poor writing and grammar skills, be sure to check out the website.
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
The Webby Awards recognize the best of the Web, including the best sites on activism, kids, social networking, news and the just plain weird. The nominees and honorees were announced today, so take a look at the list–you’re bound to find some new favorites. Plus, you can vote for your favorites in the People’s Voice category!
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Terms I like to use to describe the differences between young people and their parents when it comes to the use of digital technology are sociological/anthropological metaphors that are now used every day. The term digital “native” describes young people who have grown up learning and using digital technology. It is innate to them. Their parents, however, a generation (or two sometimes) ahead of them, are digital “immigrants” because their exposure to digital communication came later in their lives, even if they are now comfortable using many digital technologies. It is not innate to them, and some aspects are still often perplexing (like constant instant messaging, multitasking with various media, and the like).
Like all metaphors, “native” and “immigrant” in this case molds a way of thinking about how today’s very young and older generations differ from each other in the ways they communicate — which has everything to do with how they develop relationships, relate to the world and even understand who they are. The metaphors have become commonly accepted among media scholars and others who study new media and young people. The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., just announced a lecture series on “Digital Natives” which I highly recommend because of the topics and the speakers. The first lecture will explore how young people think, learn and play. The title of the talk is “The Anthropology of Digital Natives” and will be delivered by scholar and child development expert Edith Ackerman, currently a visiting scientist at MIT. This lecture will be held Monday, April 7, at 4 pm.
Since many people can’t make it to the Library of Congress, the lecture will be streamed live at www.loc.gov (which is where I’ll be tuning in). I’ll be reminding you of all lectures as they near, but for a list of all the speakers, titles, dates and times, please visit http://www.loc.gov/kluge. This is an outstanding opportunity to hear from first rate scholars studying Internet communication and young people. And stay tuned for information about our own LAMP panel discussion about the Internet and young people coming up later this spring at a location here in New York City.
-Katherine Fry
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