Digital Media Essay Notes Presentation of Self PDF

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Essay Notes discussing the Presentation of Self online...

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Digital Media Essay Notes What do you consider the most important idea from the reading and discussion during these weeks? Write an essay (1500 words) which explores ONE of these topics in some depth in relation to aspecific example in digital media culture. Your essay should make an argument and take a position, and apply the concept to an example. Your aim is to produce a coherent, concise and wellsupported response to the brief, which demonstrates your engagement with this module.

Presentation of self     

How social media technologies help mobilise our identities, the ways that we communicate with each other, and how we present ourselves to the world Do our actual (real-life) identities align with our online identities, or are things a little more complicated than at first glance? Representation: profiles, images, data trails, consumptions patterns etc. all (to an extent, and in various ways) represent us as individuals Realism: – Our representations and online narratives may be accurate, realistic, authentic – Alternatively, they may inaccurate, unrealistic, inauthentic Anonymity: Roleplaying; democratization of experience; freedom of expression; disinhibition; disclosure; stalking; cyberbullying

Profile pics   

And yet an awful lot of people seem to spend an inordinate amount of time getting the “right” profile pic – an “authentic” representation of themselves • It does, however, express something of the values and conventions which the profile owner wishes to convey to the world, to say something about themselves In other words, to some extent people model themselves on what they see portrayed in the media. However, what is portrayed in the media is built from the social values, attitudes and beliefs that are manifest in our culture [...].’ (Van Koten, 2009: 93)

• How and why do we select, both consciously and unconsciously, what other people see of us online? • Online presentation = • An expression of identity... • BUT also a careful management process to modify the impression that other people have about our personalities through visual representation in e.g. social media photo galleries The same individual could “put on” different personas in order to deal with the various relationships in his/her life e.g. ‘If photos are taken for the purpose of being displayed and tagged [online], does this render the experiences and the social relationships presented more real?’ (2011: 251-252) Snapchat

Missing persons 

Different media designs stimulate different potential in human nature.

A Networked Self : Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites Collective Narcissism             

People are able to post only that information which presents a desired image 252 Highly selective version of themselves People use SNS to present aspects of themselves to their network. These expressions can simultaneously express uniqueness and connection to others. 253 Relationships are also key aspects of personal photography, demonstrating important bonds between family and friends. 254 Providing proof of experiences and relationships for ourselves and others (Barthes, 1981) Barthes, R. (1981). Camera lucida: Reflections on photography. New York, NY: Hill and Wang Recording an event has become part of that event – and perhaps the most important part “ Holland 1991 Relationships are the dominant subject matter in all the photographs 259 Less somber yet embarrassing or “bad” photos remained 262 Many students generally have developed clear ways of posing for photographs by the end of their high school years 263 Proof of the closeness of one’s peer group in confirmed by both the quantity and nature of pictures displayed 268 They provide visual evidence of social networks. 270...