Comm 151: Exam #2 (Suggested Questions)
As per Joe Keohane's article what is the twofold objective of using artificial intelligence like the Heliograph in journalism? (1pt)
1) Grow its audience. = Instead of targeting a big audience with a small number of labor-intensive human-written stories, Heliograf can target many small audiences with a huge number of automated stories about niche or local topics. 2) Make the newsroom more efficient. = By removing tasks like incessant poll coverage and real-time election results from reporters' plates, Heliograf frees them up to focus on the stories that actually require human thought. [Class 18: Keohane "What News-Writing Bots Mean for the Future of Journalism"]
Name the 5 types of communities that Mark Zuckerberg wanted to accomplish with Facebook. (1 point)
1. Supportive community 2. Safe community 3. Informed community 4. Civically Engaged community 5. Inclusive community [Class 15: Zuckerberg (2017): "Building Global Community."]
What's the most prominent tool for developing world? (1 point)
= Mobile Phones [Lecture 15: Slide 10]
Myspace was created by people in the entertainment industry, not by technology gurus. (1 pt)
= Myspace was created by people in the entertainment industry. [Class 16: Lee 2011, "How Myspace Fell Apart"]
What is an advantage and disadvantage of paid editing? (1 point)
Disadv: Threatens sustainability as free site w/ neutral knowledge. Adv: May help increase in articles both unimproved, or nonexistent (as long as they follow rules). Decrease in volunteers, but increase in new articles. [Class 14: Osman, "Paid editors on Wikipedia - should you be worried?" article, Paragraph 14.]
What is the name of the AI bot used by the Post to generate articles? (1 point)
Heliograf [Class 18: Keohane, " What news-writing bots mean for the future of journalism"]
What pressures did the lack of internet availability relieve for journalists in Egypt? (1 point)
"We didn't have to worry about what was on the internet; we just had to worry about what we were seeing. It was absolutely liberating."
According to Wright, what is the goal of moderators and what might be considered legitimate censorship? (1 point)
goal of moderators: = keep "citizen engagement focused and in consequently ensuring that such engagement adds value to services, to policy, and to citizens," legitimate censorship: = when messages are deleted "that do not meet specific, and open, rules for debate that have been discussed and agreed upon by a range of stakeholders." [Class 13: Wright]
How does Viner define "churnalism?" (1 point)
The act of rewriting other stories & press releases [Lecture 18: slide 3]
What is the significance of "The Dish" blog and why did it end? (3 points)
The blog pioneered digital news blogging and it failed because Sullivan (the creator) had health issues.
What was controversial about the Kramer et al (2014) study? (1 point)
Users could not opt out of being studied or out of having their emotional state manipulated. Allowed by FB terms of service, though a) messed with people's emotions b) no consent of participants c) no follow-up with participant [Class 16]
What is "influencer marketing" and which social media platform pioneered it? (1 point)
a) = where interest in attractive bands & creative types drove interest from normal people b) Myspace pioneered this [Lecture 16: Slide 13]
Homophily is a concept similar to what notion? (1 pt)
"Birds of a feather stick together" [Class 16: Tufekci 2017, "Twitter has Officially replaced the Town Square]
Define "wikiwashing" and provide a theoretical example of it. (1 point)
there have been some high-profile instances of professionals whitewashing Wikipedia, known as wikiwashing. = This is using a particular Wikipedia entry to further their clients' interests, which is in violation of the site's neutrality policy (among others). [Class 14: Osman 2014, "Paid editors on Wikipedia - should you be worried?"]
What website would you visit if you where seeking civil open discourse on opinions that differed from your own? Briefly explain how this website is able to foster open civil discourse (1pt)
*Reddit. Change My View subreddit.* Submitters are not supposed to look for fights on Change My View. Should come with an open mind. Moderators policed not just name-calling, rudeness, and hostility but superfluous jokes and mindless agreement. - trying to keep everyone on the main point of the discussion [Class 13: Heffernan, "Our Best Hope For Civil Discourse Online is on...Reddit"]
According to Viner, the information outlet of digital publication possesses certain characteristics that distinguish it from traditional forms of print. Name two characteristics and illustrate how those features have each revolutionized journalism for the better or worse. (3 points)
1) Digital info isn't bounded & limited... it's liquid & free-flowing, limitless, living, evolving, unfinished, relentless. - Pettitt: the web is returning us to a pre-Gutenberg state efined by oral traditions: flowing and ephemeral. Telling tales - you can continuously change and alter journalism 2) Hierarchy of news leveled. Readers as "The People Formerly Known as the Audience," with knowledge, interests, mobility. Gulf oil spill google doc; open dealing with critics; scoops from readers - argue that the hierarchy of news (ie: the different news job functions like writer, editor, publisher, etc.) has gone out the window and digital media has created a more level playing field where anyone can take on one or all the different journalism jobs [Class 18: Slide 6 & 7]
What were the Post's two main objectives for Heliograf? (1 point)
1) Grow its audience 2) make the newsroom more efficient. [Class 18: Keohane 2017]
Define and give an example of a news aggregator.
A news site that does not generate their own news, but rather compiles news from other sites and sources. An example of this would be Reddit, Google News or Facebook = they all share news or content that is not their own content but they are collecting and showing different news stories along the same topic to show to views [Lecture 18: slide 3/4]
How does a wiki work? Who have the access to edit and create articles on wikipedia? (1 point)
Anyone can create articles without needing tech skills. - [More trouble] Can change articles other people created. - Everyone can be a writer; everyone can be an editor [Lecture 14, Slide 20]
What prompted IMDB to shut down its message board?
Became too Popular with trolls (rile up Harry Potter fans; conspiracy theories; organized downvoting based on race or gender). Trigger: racist reaction to film; also migration of similar discussion to other social media sites. [Class 13: McNear 2017]
What was the name of the company that took out important details of its clients history on wikipedia and was caught when someone recorded them saying it? (1 point)
Bell Pottinger In late 2011, UK newspaper The Independent filmed senior members of PR firm Bell Pottinger boasting of using "dark arts" to "sort" Wikipedia on behalf of governments with less-than-perfect human rights records. [Class 14: Osman, "Paid editors on Wikipedia - should you be worried?" article, Paragraph 14.]
2. According to Staff (2017), how did stars originally become famous on Youtube, and how do the two stars mentioned in Staff's article feel about the website currently in comparison to the original? (3 Points)
Buckley: starred as the snarky host of his own program, What the Buck? Burned out for a couple years; felt peaceful. "I used to see my whole world as YT. Now I just see YT as one piece of the puzzle." The content of quality had been swapped. "Now it's high quality content but not as great interactions." Society has become nicer; ppl cringe at old trolling culture. YT still changed his life: bought his home, traveled, meet ppl, change ppl with a video. Olga Kay: Taught herself editing, observed tips and tricks, spent a lot of her time working on videos, go to networking events. Burnout: have to be creative, a writer, a performer, an editor, a director, a marketer. Took over daily life (e.g. can I film at this party?). She feels eternally grateful despite any dark times because everything she's doing today came from YT. [Class 16: Staff 2017]
What is collective action? Explain how the phenomenon of binary crossing ties into collective action. (1 pt.)
Collective action: actions taken by two or more people in pursuit of the same collective good Collective action was reconceptualized as a phenomenon of boundary crossing. Individuals have a realm of private interests and actions. When they make these known to others, the boundary is crossed between private and public realm. When that boundary is crossed by 2 or more people in conjunction with public good, collective action occurs. [Class 12: Bimber, "Reconceptualizing collective action in the contemporary media environment"]
According to Olson, why can't large groups of individuals act in the group's best interests? (1 point)
Concludes that "in the absence of special arrangements or circumstances", large groups of individuals will NOT act in the group's best interest Mainly because in large groups, tempted to free ride and individual efforts are: a) Too small to noticeably affect outcome b) Too small to effectively monitor and punish/reward (related to above) c) Too small to think about (opportunity cost) d) Too costly to coordinate, or achieve consensus among group for course of action [Lecture 12, Slide 11]
Detail how data was collected in the study described in the Dunbar article. What was the difference between Sample 1 and Sample 2? What were subjects in both samples asked to state? (3 points)
Data was collected from OnePoll's large in-house panel. Each sample was a nationally structured random sample of adults aged 18-65 distributed proportionally to age, sex, and regional population across the UK. Sample 1: = included 2000 adults (mean age 39 years; 45.2% male), focused on people's use of, and satisfaction with, online social media, with adults who 'made regular use of social media' as the sampling criterion. Sample 2: = included 1375 adults (mean age = 37.4 years; 39.1% male) and sampled professional adults who worked full time at 9.00 to 17.00 weekday jobs and had attended business meetings on behalf of their employer. In this sample, respondents were not necessarily social media users, and Sample 2 thus might be seen as being more representative of the general population. Subjects were asked to state, on a 14-point (Sample 1) or 16-point (Sample 2) categorical scale ranging from 0 to 1000+, how many friends they had on Facebook (electronic supplementary material, tables S1 and S8). Respondents in Sample 1 were also asked to state: a) how many of these individuals they considered to be close friends (on a 12-point categorical scale ranging from 0 to 100+) b) how many individuals they would 'consider going to for advice or sympathy in times of great emotional or other distress' (on a 7-point categorical scale ranging between 0 and 16+). [Class 15: Dunbar, "Do online social media cut through the constraints that limit the size of offline social networks?"]
Friendships naturally begin to decay as contact deceases; social media functions as a way to slow down this rate of decay. However, the study done by Robin Dunbar of the Royal Society of Open Science found that friendships will still probably die, regardless of social media connections, if they are not also supplemented by what type of interaction? (1 pt)
Face-to-face (FtF) [Class 15: Dunbar, Robin. 2016. "Do online social media cut through the constraints that limit the size of offline social networks?" (pg 7)]
Why does Liao argue that our 8 second attention span is adaptive? (1 point)
Over the past decade or so with the advent of social media, our minds seem to have evolved to adapt to the information flood from the synergy between news media and social media. We had to figure out how to deal with the constant bombardment of information, so we shortened our attention span from 12 to 8 seconds to help us multi-task, prioritize, and consume quickly and efficiently. [Class 18: Liao]
Discuss the pros and cons of the Huffington Post's approach to online journalism. Why is the site said to have an "identity crisis?" (3 points)
Pros: Daily video stream of news clips, political commentary, and celebrity interviews. Identity crisis: One of its initial core innovations—using content from elsewhere—has become so dominant as to nearly choke the site. [Of course, The Huffington Post features plenty of original content, including a never-ending procession of (unpaid) opinion pieces as well as vigorous coverage of trade, lobbying, civil liberties, labor, and media.] Con: In return for a huge pot of cash, it came under relentless pressure to turn a profit. The only way to do that was by increasing ad revenues, which in turn meant drawing more readers. That explains the site's perpetual motion, nonstop expansion, and proliferation of sections. [Class 18: Massing 2015]
What does Viner mean when he says that now, "Hierarchy of News [are] Leveled" ? (1 point)
Readers as "The People Formerly Known as the Audience," with knowledge, interests, mobility - argue that the hierarchy of news (ie: the different news job functions like writer, editor, publisher, etc.) has gone out the window and digital media has created a more level playing field where anyone can take on one or all the different journalism jobs [Lecture 18, slide 6]
What are "rival" goods and why are huge pools of goods not "rival"? (1 point)
Rival goods are limited collective goods that someone's usage can prevent others from enjoying them (more people eating the pice means there is less for you). Huge pools of goods are not rival because your use doesn't affect others such as enjoying a website or creating online content to give it away for free. [Lecture 12]
In Wright's article "The Role of the Moderator: Problems and Possibilities for Government-Run Online Discussion Forums", he tested 2 models that take account of the different roles which moderators perform in government-run online discussion forums. What are these two case studies he presents, and what are the positives and negatives of these models? (3 Points)
1) Content Moderation: The Downing Street Website = it is a human-based large-scale moderated discussion forum.The moderators are necessary for rude language, but may abuse this power and censor messages that legitimately criticize the government. 2) Interactive Moderation: The E-democracy Forum = It is a smaller, policy-linked forum, where the communication is two-way and the moderator is far more interventionist. It brings in new citizens and political institutions. However, the results for this model are ambiguous. It is not possible to conclude if this is effective. [Class 13: Wright]
What did Viner point out as difficulties for papers? (1 pt.)
1) paywalls (make content excludable again): = might work for specialized content, but cut out audience from open web. 2) linking to sources (don't want to sent traffic to competitors) but important for openness, diversity, connectivity. 3) readers' conversations = no type of discussion function where readers can discuss the content of the news 4) how to handle data (pursuing clicks, informing instinct) [Lecture 18: slide 7]
During the Project Day Discussion in lecture 16, we reviewed three project topics and listened to student's findings of each project's topic. Describe the general findings of "Social Media Star". (1 Point)
a) Preferred to analyze Instagram; heavy on Kardashians. b) Many don't like Instagram's new feed algorithm. c) Snippets to present one's "best" life on Instagram. [Lecture 16]
What are 4 main duties of a moderator as discussed by Wright 2009? (1 point)
1) welcomer/greeter: bringing in new participants/making people feel welcome 2) conflict resolver/problem solver: mediating conflicts towards collective agreements 3) conversation stimulator/supporter: posing new questions and topics, playing devil's advocate in existing conversations 4) open censor/covert censor/cleaner: deleting messages deemed inappropriate, normally against predefined rules and criteria. Feedback is gen to explain why, and an opportunity to rewrite is provided [Class 13: Wright (2009) "The Role of the Moderator/ Problems and Possibilities for Government-Run Online Discussion Forums]
During the Project Day Discussion in lecture 16, we reviewed three project topics and listened to student's findings of each project's topic. Describe the general findings of "SnapDay" (1 Point)
a) Most attentive viewers were your close friends (some didn't watch the full story). b) Validation when you received comments on your snaps or an unexpectedly high number of views. c) Also felt social pressure not to be too negative. [Snapchat update noted as confusing] d) Generated some "fake" content to be more interesting; surprised that friends didn't pick up on odd behavior more. f) Friends didn't notice difference; more accurate (boring) impression. g) Concern from friends that you were confused. Brother's second-hand embarrassment. "Snapchat addicts" as first responders. [Lecture 16]
How is the new clickbait nature of journalism and headlines changing the actual content of articles? (1 point)
*Clickbait titles used pejoratively to describe headlines which are sensationalized, turn out to be adverts or are simply misleading. Opponents argue it means journalists will dumb down stories in order to get more clicks in order to earn a living.* = Concerned that competition for clicks now drive news content Concern is that lower-quality news (or fake news) might grab more attention (and be rewarded more), *therefore this clickbait nature could negatively affect the quality of news* [Class 18: Frampton 2015]
What characteristic about world leaders does Twitter describe as their reason for not blocking or removing the leaders' controversial tweets? How might this relate to Youtube's justification for allowing "newsworthy" but graphic content? Based on discussions in class, do you believe that the moderators of The Guardian would agree with the moderators of Youtube and Twitter? What about The New York Times? Why or why not? (3 points)
*Twitter is here to serve and help advance the global, public conversation. Elected world leaders play a critical role in that conversation because of their outsized impact on our society. Relates bc the video of the young woman dying fueled important conversations about free speech and human rights on a global scale and was quickly turning into a viral symbol of the movement. It had tremendous political power.* Twitter does not block or remove world leaders controversial tweets because: = it would hide important information people should be able to see and debate, and it would hamper necessary discussion around the leaders' words and actions [Class 16: Twitter Inc. (for the Twitter justification, 2nd paragraph) AND] This relates to Youtube's justification for allowing "newsworthy" but graphic content because these moderators decided to keep a graphic video up of a young woman dying by a single bullet to the chest during demonstrations against pro-government forces. They believed the video had political significance and would fuel important conversations about free speech and human rights on a global scale. [Class 13: Buni & Chemaly (refer to paragraph 3 of the discussion regarding Iranian protests)] The moderators of The Guardian and The New York would
Identify one of Wikipedia's problems. (1 point)
- Decline in Editors. - Imbalance of editorial power to paid editors. - Biased point of view from editors. [Lecture 15 Slides]
What did Kramer find in the 2014 study on facebook? How did they manipulate users? (3 points)
1) People who had positive content experimentally reduced on their Facebook news feed, for one week, used more negative words in their status updates," 2) "When news feed negativity was reduced, the opposite pattern occurred: Significantly more positive words were used in peoples' status updates." - Find significant evidence of contagion (see fig 1) from both treatments. Small effects sizes, but argue large when mapped onto massive FB activity. Test whether emotional states can be transmitted through online networks of communication without their awareness (massive experiment: N = 689,003). Two experiments: reduce probability that 1) positive or 2) negative posts by friends were shown in feed (not wall or timeline). - Both had randomly-omitted friend posts as control group. [Note that positive words were more common] [Lecture 16: slide 11]
From the Liao reading, our attention spans have decreased due to large amounts of information being presented to us, describe three ways in which this will have an effect on journalism. (3 points)
1) Shorter and more interactive formats: = mobile drives more traffic than web → optimize small screens. - Decrease in average number of words. - Increase in investments and experiments with new interactive formats (ex: SnapChat Discover) 2) Premium long-form: = we still engage in long-form despite attention span only if the quality is interesting. - Middle-length disappears. - majority of articles in a given news publication will likely become bite-sized (point #1), the remaining articles would become extremely high-quality, long-form articles (point #2). 3) Sensationalism: = we scan only headlines 60% of time. Flood of info to digest causes us ppl to rely on attention-seeking headlines. - Since these headlines are sensationalist, they will have a slant. If there's a slant, we will expect one, causing a decrease in neutral information. - Virality factor: journalists pressured bc of social media to post more sensational/viral content. [Class 18: Liao, "Our 8 second attention span and the future of news media."]
What are the 3 ways News Media has adapted to shorter attention spans? (3 points)
1) Shorter and more interactive formats: News media are adapting to our scarce attention (and rise of small-screen mobile traffic) w/ shorter, digested news. 2) Premium long-form: ALSO adapting by producing more engaging, analytical longform pieces (1k+ words). 3) Sensationalism: Attention-seeking headlines. If a reporter hints at a controversial slant in the headline, logically, the writer is more likely to actually include that slant in the article, too. Likely decrease in neutrality. Virality factor to run sensationalist slants. [Lecture 18: slide 10 and Class 18: Liao]
What are 2 different ways of moderating content according to Buni & Chemaly 2016? Please elaborate on how each of these ways work. (3 Points)
1) fire alarms - Most sites use consumers as fire alarms (versus reviewing all content like "police patrols") - flag content and file complaints, "shaping the norms that support a platform's brand" [but note article's deep concern with employees tasked to this job] 2) moderation army (police men) - Contrast Facebook's massive moderation army (estimated at more than 100k workers, plus many automated tools) to 4chan, where "users are instructed against violating US law but are also free to post virtually any type of content, as long as they do so on clearly defined boards" [Class 13: Buni, C. & Chemaly, S. "The Secret Rules of the Internet"]
Describe what are the purpose of bots in news journalism. Compare the Heliograph, Wibbitz, News Tracer, and Buzz bots. (3 points)
1) grow audience: = Allows targeting of large # of niche audiences (too costly to cover with humans) 2) make newsroom more efficient - Humans focused on larger stories, computers cover smaller niche stories a) Heliograf: Identifies relevant data, merges it, and pipes results across multiple formats (alerting humans if something's odd). Allows targeting of large # of niche audiences (too costly to cover w/ humans) and makes newsroom more efficient (removes grunt tasks; humans focused on larger stories). b) Wibbitz: combines news articles & pics/videos into a short video (including voice synthesis voice-overs. c) News Tracer: tracks "credibility" and "newsworthiness" of news by examining who is tweeting about it, its spread, and attacks/support for the story. d) Buzz Bot: crowdsource infrastructure for big news events (like RNC/ DNC). [Lecture 18 News Journalism]
What are the ways in which large groups can still manage to act collectively?
1) homogenous: = if group is similar and agrees on things this cuts coordination costs (but used to be hard to assemble these homogenous groups 2) selective incentives: = incentive applies selectively to individuals depending on whether they do or do not contribute toward collective good. - you get people to work toward a collective end by selectively benefiting those who actually contribute ex: PBS pledge drive tote bag; AARP discounts; Zoo stickers for car window; brick or plaque or building name at university. - Government coercion is a selective disincentive. 3) "privileged" group: = some ("Fat Cats") care so much about outcome they're willing to subsidize others - we can rely on the few who care so much about something that they make change and everyone else can then benefit ex: Hughes Las Vegas TV station; Flickr power law [Lecture 12: Slide 12]
According to Bimber et. al, what are the "two foundational assumptions" of collective action? (1 point)
1) there is a binary choice to participate or not 2) the role of formal organization [Lecture 12 Slide 18]
Name two general categories that are considered as bad behaviors in terms of online discussions. (1 point)
1. Noise: = Over-consuming bandwidth of discussion (includes attention dimension) or spreading bad information. - Wasting people's time and attention (or insulting them). - Volume is "Too loud" 2. Not contributing at all ("lurking"; asking but not answering questions, "underprovision"): Relates back to Olson. - Volume is "muted". [Class 13]
Explain what the Heliograf is and outline the two main benefits that it gives to the news organization. (3 points)
= A news-generating bot, Identifies relevant data, merges it, and pipes results across multiple formats (alerting humans if something's odd) 1) Grow the audience: the bot can create a huge number of automated stories about niche or local topics in comparison to a small number of labor-intensive human-written stories which could only cover a limited segment targeted at a big audience. 2) Make the newsroom more efficient = remove tasks like incessant poll coverage and real-time election results from reporters' plates, Heliograf frees them up to focus on the stories that actually require human thought. - Save costs [Class 18: Keohane 2017]
According to the article " How Youtube's Algorithms Hurt Independent Media", what is the Adpocalypse? (1 point)
= Ads that were appearing on YouTube that espoused extremism and hate speech. YouTube announced that it would try to make the site more palatable to advertisers by "taking a tougher stance on hateful, offensive and derogatory content." That shift, however, has also punished video makers who bear no resemblance to terrorist sympathizers and racists. YouTube's comedians, political commentators and experts on subjects from military arms to video games have reported being squeezed by the ad shake-up where they receive less ads and therefore less money because their videos covered "controversial" topics [Class 16: Hessapril 2017 "How Youtube's Algorithms Hurt Independent Media"]
What is free riding? Why is it a problem in a group setting/group work? Give an example. (3 points)
= Benefiting from a public good while avoiding the costs of contributing to it - a discrete decision by potential participants as to whether or not to contribute to the provision of a public good or just to take advantage once it is established by the actions of others. Problem: you're always better off if you DON'T pay and still get the item (instead of paying and getting the same item) assuming you aren't plagued by guilt - if everyone thinks this way then the system collapses Ex: people taking advantage of the "honor system" subway (purchase tickets and stamp them yourself on train car. No turnstiles or gate employees, so potentially faster and more efficient) - If one person chooses not to pay, it doesn't noticeably affect train system's ability to function ("I'm not really hurting anything") - If everyone thinks that way, system collapses [Lecture 12: slide 9 and Class 12: Bimber]
Why would someone be more tolerant of video ads on Youtube than Facebook? (1 point)
= People can be more annoyed on FB than on YouTube when seeing video ads before watching a video because on YouTube you chose to watch the video but on FB the video is algorithmically placed on your feed Video pre-roll more of a problem in feed like on Facebook than YouTube (scroll vs. choice). - Audio-on hated; trouble with choice video (poor incentive to provide content). Instant articles similarly shunned by publishers; might have to pay more to subsidize content creation. [Lecture: 15 & Haile 2017]
How do groups act collectively from Olson's theory on Collective Action, and how has CMC changed the presumptions of this theory (drawing on the Lupia and Sin reading). 3 points.
According to Olson's theory: = Groups don't arise easily or automatically - groups don't rise and push back as much as they are pushed a) "unless the number of individuals in a group is quite small, or unless there is coercion or some other special device to make individuals act in their common interest, rational, self- interested individuals will not act to achieve their common or group interests." b) "in the absence of special arrangements or circumstances", large groups of individuals will NOT act in the group's best interests mainly because in large groups, people are tempted to free ride and individual efforts are: 1) Too small to noticeably affect outcome 2) Too small to effectively monitor and punish/reward (related to above) 3) Too small to think about (opportunity cost) 4) Too costly to coordinate, or achieve consensus among group for course of action (Shirky's TED lecture really makes this point) CMC changed the presumptions of this theory: 1) locating group members is MUCH easier = Common or homogenous interests, regardless of geography [Especially uncommon or socially unacceptable interests (ex: pro-anorexia support group)] - a lot easier now with CMC to find connections and groups with others 2) Much easier for them to communicate and coordinate their actions - Cheaper organizational costs (lower startup costs) and higher noticeability. - Old style: Annual conventions or mass postal mailings (newsletters/ journals/etc). Institutions. Exclusionary. Slow, expensive, or both. - Shirky: Build cooperation into infrastructure; coordinate as byproduct - Replaces planning with coordination. 3) also a lot easier to observe communications between people ex: viewing people interact on social media 4) It has also decreased free-riding problems and provides selective incentives without the use of a bureaucracy - a computer does the work of a bureaucracy and rewards/punishes free-riders [Lecture 12 or Class 12: Lupia and Sin Reading]
According to Hessapril, how was the algorithm for YouTube ads changed in order to please advertisers? (1 Point)
Algorithm now changed to avoid placing ads in "depictions of violence or drug use, "sexual humor" and "controversial or sensitive subjects," including war and natural disasters." Killed ads for political commentary, humor, video games, and the military. Hope that ad systems will get more fine-tuned (apparently dead rat tasering is right out). - Worries that content will become more bland in response to advertiser skittishness [Lecture 16: Slide 14]
What is Dunbar's main argument about social media in his 2015 article?
As social contacts increase, so does social capital. Younger people, however, are poor at judging relationship quality. Adults tend to be more attuned to the nuances in different types of relationship and are less prone to signing up to 'friending' requests without considering the nature of the relationship involved. Social networks structured in distinctive series of hierarchically inclusive layers (scaling ratio approx. 3). Inevitably a limit on the size of our egocentric social networks when relationships require time investment. The fact that people do not seem to use social media to increase the size of their social circles suggests that social media may function mainly to prevent friendships decaying over time in the absence of opportunities for face-to-face contact. Given that people generally find interactions via digital media (including the phone as well as instant messaging and other text-based social media) less satisfying than face-to-face interactions, it may be that face-to-face meetings are required from time to time to prevent friendships, in particular, sliding down through the network layers and eventually slipping over the edge of the 150 layer into the category of acquaintances (the 500 layer) beyond. Friendships, in particular, have a natural decay rate in the absence of contact, and social media may well function to slow down the rate of decay. However, that alone may not be sufficient to prevent friendships eventually dying naturally if they are not occasionally reinforced by face-to-face interaction. [Class 15: Dunbar 2016]
According to Keohane why do writting bots might help news organizations to reach a larger audience? (1 point)
Because writing bots such as, Heliograf, can target many small audiences with a huge number of automated stories about niche or local topics allowing journalists to focus on more important stories. Instead of targeting a big audience with a small number of labor-intensive human-written stories, Heliograf can target many small audiences with a huge number of automated stories about niche or local topics. [Class 18: Keohane]
In 1945, the scientist Vannevar Bush described a hypothetical "memex" device. According to Lih, how does Wikipedia fulfil Bush's original vision? (1 point)
Bush's original image: device would serve as a memory and index to all of the world's information and communication. Wikipedia fulfills much of that original vision as a text reference for the world's major languages, but there is much more work to do. [Class 14: Lih 2016]
How have computers changed Olson's thoughts on maintain Social relationships? (1 point)
CMC allows for 1) easier locating of group members (common/homogenous interests, regardless of geography) 2) makes it easier to communicate and coordinate actions (cheaper organizational costs and higher noticeability). CMC has dramatically decreased the startup costs for both forming groups as well as solving collective action problems making it easier for large groups to work more efficiently. It has also decreased free-riding problems and provides selective incentives without the use of a bureaucracy - a computer does the work of a bureaucracy and rewards/punishes free-riders [Lecture 12]
According to Frampton, what is click baiting and the consequences that stem from it?
Click baiting: = it is a headline which tempts the reader to click on the link to the story. But the name is used pejoratively to describe headlines which are sensationalised, turn out to be adverts or are simply misleading. Consequences: a) "danger of shouting and tarting things up, almost across the board" b) BBC (taxpayer supported) doesn't face same commercial pressures; has less click-driven editorial policy. - Feel like they will have to take on more of the public interest journalism or subsidize content for other news organizations c) Medium-specific content (especially tailored to social media) might be shallow and incomplete. d) Especially see pressure to focus on infotainment (Again, see Comm 160); worry about impact on reputation from "fluff and sensationalism" [Lecture 18: slide 8 and 9]
What is an example of a social selective incentive online?
Computers can help organize and track relationships, and dole out status (or punishment) online. - ex: liking/commenting on someone's social media posts (reward), unfollowing or blocking someone (punishment), handing out "badges", promoting others through sharing their posts For social selective incentives to work, people have to be rewarded or punished depending on whether they've contributed toward the collective goods. Today: Computers can take place of bureaucracies (likes, upvotes) - Storing, indexing, tracking information quickly is a big strength of computers. [Class 13]
What is an example of a social incentive? Why has CMC changed the use of selective incentives? (3 points)
Example: IRS, auditors, receipts, reports, time-cards OR Facebook and other online social/discussion spaces - provides people with benefits or punishments online if they do or do not behave in socially acceptable ways Changed: Computers can take place of bureaucracies (likes, upvotes). Large communities of like-minded individuals can communicate instantly Computers can help organize and track relationships, and dole out status (or punishment) online. Facebook and other online social/discussion spaces. Still some problems when money gets involved (Huffpo sale vs. unpaid contributors). And same tech might make "going it alone" a better alternative. [Lecture 13: slide 4]
In order to increase revenue, Facebook is considering increasing the variety of placements offered to advertisers on their site. What does Facebook risk compromising by expanding the amount of ad placements offered to advertisers? (1 point)
Facebook risks their user experience by adding more ad placements into their interface. this could cost them users in the long run if they prioritize the needs of their advertisers. *Comprising user experience.* [Class 15: Haile 2017]
What are four of the seven key factors of the Instagram algorithm that help users and marketers boost the reach of their post? (1 point)
ID 7 key factors of post: 1) Engagement: = (popularity: likes, comments, video views, DM shares, saves, story views, and live video views); 2) Relevance: = (the genres of content you are interested in and have interacted with, past history with genre, via hashtag or image recognition,) 3) Relationships: = (account interaction history, who you regularly interact with, inferring close friends/family) 4) Timeliness: = how recent the posts are 5) Profile Searches = (the accounts you check out often, monitor them for you if you've searched them a lot) 6) Direct Shares = (whose posts you share) 7) Time Spent = (time spent viewing a post). [Class 16 Reading: Lua 2017]
According to Liao in "Our 8 second attention span and the future of news media" our attention span has been reduced from 12 to 8 seconds in the last years. For this reason, journalists have been forced to write either very short or very long articles. How many words should articles have in order to be effective and why? (3 points)
In order to be effective, articles should be either under 300 words or above 1000 words. Short articles-Our attention span is shorter and short articles are more effective because they are easier to read on a small screen, such as one of a cell phone or a tablet, where a large number of readers tend to navigate to access to news articles. Long articles-We are willing to actively sustain our attention span, but only if the quality is truly interesting and engaging. We more carefully pick what's worthwhile to spend many minutes reading, which means that news publications should begin to devote more resources to producing quality long-form articles. [Class 18: Liao, "Our 8 second attention span and the future of news media"]
How does Instagram's Algorithm work, and what are the 7 key factors that the Algorithm draws upon? 3 points.
Instagram's new Algorithm benefits those who create engaging, relevant, and timely content, where it will now help to surface ones great content to more of ones followers than when posts were arranged reverse-chronologically = brands are encouraged to post only their best content, and the quality of their content will determine their reach, brands with the best content overall will stand out more easily now than without the algorithm ID 7 key factors of post: 1) Engagement: = (popularity: likes, comments, video views, DM shares, saves, story views, and live video views); - post w/ more engagement likely going to rank higher on feed 2) Relevance: = (the genres of content you are interested in and have interacted with, past history with genre, via hashtag or image recognition,) - content relevant to interest will rank higher 3) Relationships: = (account interaction history, who you regularly interact with, inferring close friends/family) - content from "best friends" likely ranks higher (ppl whose content you like, ppl you DM, ppl you search for, ppl you know IRL) 4) Timeliness: = how recent the posts are - recent posts likely rank higher 5) Profile Searches = (the accounts you check out often, monitor them for you if you've searched them a lot) - may rank higher in feed so you don't have to search 6) Direct Shares = (whose posts you share) - sharings shows you are interested in posts from account 7) Time Spent = (time spent viewing a post). - IG will surface posts similar to that IG post higher in feed [Class 16: Lua 2017 or Lecture 17: slide 9]
According to Ars Technica (2017), what was the paradox for early viral video stars on YouTube and what was the solution? (1 Point)
Lots of work for no pay (gradually figured out monetization and marketing). - More financially lucrative as internet speed increased & platform became viable for advertising and fame. [Lecture 16: Slide 5]
Review the article "Cultivating Social Resources on Social Network Sites: Facebook Relationship Maintenance Behaviors and Tier Role in Social Capital Processes." With the exponential growth of social networking (since 2014), and the specific sample distribution (All from one midwestern University, non-academic staff N=614, exclusively Facebook™), do you think the results discussed in the article is still relevant in 2018? (1 point)
No, the internet is not restricted to one demographic and social media is not just Facebook in 2018. Personally would have edited this out of the syllabus if assigned for project, but it offers good perspective on the progress of social media and our understanding in ~ 4 years. Room for opinions, primitive social media experiment using biased statistics. Edit: Perhaps this article can be argued as a manifestation of institutions (online journalism/research) pushing for high volume contributions from employees. [Class 15: Ellison et al. 2014 "Cultivating Social Resources on Social Networking Sites"]
For the "Bot or Not" project, did the majority of people think computers would take over journalism? If yes or no, why? (1 point)
No... Most believed that computers wouldn't take over journalism, as humans have more ability to conduct investigative pieces and infuse genuine emotion (but noted the positive element of computers being able to quickly generate articles) [Lecture 18: slide 8]
In regards to "paid editing", is it Wikipedia who pays the editors? If not, who does? (1 pt).
Not Wikipedia. 3rd parties, such as an employer or client, pay the editors. [Class 14: Osman, Kim. 2014. "Paid Editors on Wikipedia - Should You Be Worried?"]
According Lupia and Sin what is the key factor which distinguishes privileged, intermediate, and latent groups? How do evolving technologies affect its importance in small number groups? Does that solve the problem of free-riding, why or why not? (3pt)
Noticeability.The Internet, for example, reduces to near zero the marginal costs of sending messages to large numbers of people. It is also one of many technologies that reduce distance-related marginal costs (e.g., it costs many people no more to send an e-mail to Tokyo or Timbuktu than it does to send an e-mail to a person 10 feet away). Moreover, merging these technologies with database software allows people to record growing ranges of activities at shrinking costs, thus countering the potential for information overload. Each of these advances weakens the dependence of noticeability on small numbers. We contend, moreover, that evolving technologies can be more important than size in determining a group's effectiveness. Compare, for example, the abilities of a small group with bad communicative capacity to that of a large group whose technology and individual communicative incentives yield effective tracking of large populations. The small group fails Olson's criteria of noticeability. In the large group, members' actions are noticeable. For them, evolving technologies allow electronically transmitted symbols to substitute for advantages in facilitating collective goods provision that Olson attributed to small numbers. When evolving technologies convert venues where individual actions are effectively anonymous into settings where people can hold each other accountable for their actions, they can change whether or not groups are latent. But such technologies are not sufficient to prevent free riding. Preventing free riding requires that increased observational powers be coupled with the ability to reward or punish individual actions that are critical to collective success. Therefore, if evolving technologies are to break the dependence of collective effectiveness on group size, coordination with a system of selective incentives -discussed below - is necessary. *The key factor, according to Lupia and Sin, is noticeability. They argue that evolving technologies diminishes the important of noticeability in small number groups. They do not believe that evolving technologies solve the problem of free-riding because alongside these technologies, there needs to be a measure in place to either reward or punish those who are considered important to the success of the collective.* Many people presume that free riding - attempts to reap the benefits of a non-exclusive collective good without contributing to it - becomes easier as group size grows. We find that evolving technologies weaken this correspondence. The three categories Olson used to organize and condense many theoretical insights. Consider his definitions of the categories: privileged: 1) A 'privileged' group is a group such that each of its members, or at least one of them, has an incentive to see that the collective good is provided, even if he has to bear the whole burden of providing it himself. 2) intermediate: An 'intermediate' group is a group in which no single member gets a share of the benefit sufficient to give him an incentive to provide the good himself, but which does not have so many members that no one member will notice whether any other member is or is not helping to provide the collective good. 3) latent groups: [The latent group] is distinguished by the fact that if one member does or does not help provide the collective good, no other one member will be significantly affected and therefore none has any reason to act. Thus an individual in a "latent" group, by definition, cannot make a noticeable contribution to any group effort, and since no one in the group will react if he makes no contribution, he has no incentive to contribute. "that evolving technologies can be more important than size in determining a group's effectiveness. Compare, for example, the abilities of a small group with the bad communicative capacity to that of a large group whose technology and individual communicative incentives yield effective tracking of large populations. The small group fails Olson's criteria of noticeability. In the large group, members' actions are noticeable. For them, evolving technologies allow electronically transmitted symbols to substitute for advantages in facilitating collective goods provision that Olson attributed to small numbers." Group size, however, is not really sufficient to distinguish latent groups from others. Instead, the definition's key distinction is noticeability - members' ability to notice each other's actions (or inactions). In the definitions of intermediate and privileged groups, individual actions are noticed; in latent groups, they are not. Noticeability matters because without it individual actions are not seen, which facilitates free riding. [Class 12: Lupia and Sin reading: Which public goods are endangered?: How evolving communication technologies affect The logic of collective action]
Compare and contrast Olsen's theory with the pluralistic theory. (1 point)
Pluralist theory: = viewed groups as emerging through common interest whereas Olsen believed groups formed as a result of incentives offered to members. [Lecture 12]
Massing (2015) describes one pioneer of news that has evolved, what is this pioneer he is talking about? And how was this pioneer of news able to evolve? (1 pt)
Politico: = offers thorough day-to-day coverage of lobbying, campaign finance, and legislative affairs. "We are pouring millions into adding deep-dive, original reporting to the arsenal,""We not only want to be the dominant publication covering politics and policy in Washington—we want to be the dominant media player in this space nationally AND globally." This year, Politico is introducing or expanding state operations in New York, New Jersey, and Florida—part of a "cascading series" aimed at finding "a template for saving coverage of state government." Scored a coup on Congressman Aaron Schock. Recently, Politico formed a new money-and-politics investigative team. [Class 18: Krotoski, "Digital Journalism: How Good is it"]
In Clay Shirky's Ted Talk: Institutions vs Collaboration: how does the classic institutional model differ from the cooperative infrastructure model in dealing with contributors like "psycho milt" (low contribution volume, equal platform within institution (Flickr)? What might be a problem with online cooperative infrastructure giving a platform to smaller, more organized groups? Discuss. (3 points)
Shirky suggests "Classic Institutional Frameworks" prioritize self preservation (revenue) over the nominal goal when it comes to the "psycho milt" question of online collaborative efforts (80/20 distribution). Classic institutions are often obstacles instead of enablers that judge the cost of coordination relative to contribution volume. The cooperative infrastructure model focuses on the quality of contribution instead of employee value. The "psycho milts" of the world are a byproduct of cooperative systems and unobtainable using traditional institutional methods. Ex) Most of the early Linux patches were the result of of low volume contributors like "psycho milt" who only contributed because of the cooperative infrastructure (open sourcing the code of Linux). Smaller groups can organize under a "negative" banner and spread influence. Example in video = pro-anorexia group. [Class 12: Shirky TED Talk]
What is social capital? Social capital can be divided into which two parts? What are their differences? How social media relates to and increase social capital? Use a personal experience to explain their relationships. (3 points)
Social capital: = "a form of capital that describes resources embedded in social relationships and interactions within a network." *Bridging and bonding* 1) "bridging" social capital (more diverse "weak ties" might foster novel information and broadened worldviews) vs. 2) "bonding" social capital (stronger, more developed ties of trust, support, and intimacy). FB might increase Social Capital: commenting on a friend's post/liking as an "investment" in relationship. Enables people to trust & help one another. Social investment with expectation of future reciprocity. [Lecture 16]
Briefly describe the relationship between social comparison and body image on social media. (1 point)
Social comparison is when people evaluate themselves by judging others that are similar to them and identify favorable and unfavorable discrepancies. - This is often driven by pressures from peers and the media to adhere to society's beauty ideals. *Facebook consumption, for example, triggers worse mood and body dissatisfaction.* [Class 15: Fox et al (2016): "Selective Self-Presentation and Social Comparison Trough Photographs on Social Networking Sites."]
What is Objectification Theory according to Fox and Vendemia's "Selective Self-Presentation and Social Comparison Rough Photographs on Social Networking Sites"? (1 Point)
States that women are socialized to take an outsider's perspective of themselves and critically evaluate their worth based on societal standards, such as prioritizing one's appearance. As women are socialized in an objectifying culture by interpersonal ties and media, they begin to self-objectify, internalizing this perspective and learning to value themselves based on appearance. Self-objectification has been tied to several detrimental outcomes, including depression, body shame, and disordered eating. [Class 15: Fox and Vendemia 2016]
Compare and Contrast between bridging social capital and bonding social capital on social networking sites. (3 points)
These categories describe resources embedded in different types of relationships. Bridging: Ties that connect different clusters within a network. It helps propagate novel information across those groups. Weaker ties (such as a friend of a friend) are more likely to be bridging ties and thus provide access to novel information and diverse perspectives (associated with bridging social capital). Bonding: Stronger ties, on the other hand, are characterized by multiple iterative interactions and higher levels of trust, support, and intimacy; these ties typically provide access to the more substantive forms of capital conversion associated with bonding social capital (e.g., a financial loan). [Class 15: Ellison et al. 2014 "Cultivating Social Resources on Social Networking Sites"]
What was the solution to Wikipedia's problem of low-quality edits that are made in bad faith? Explain how the solution works. (3 points)
Using machine learning software (ORES system) to judge whether an edit is made in good faith, offsetting editor decline and making it easier for editors to see and undo damaging changes. The software was trained on examples of past edits and allows better training for new contributors. [Lecture 15 Slides and Class 15: Simonite (2015) Wiki AI]
According to Tufekci, what is the shift on how we connect with others from before digital technology to after? (1 point)
We connect with people based on similar interests and motivations. Before we connected with people based on ascribed characteristics that are acquired from birth (race, social class, family). [Class 16: Tufekci "Twitter has officially replaced the town square"]
What is a troll and what is a troll's intentions? How does a troll "win"? (3 points)
a) = Provocative posting intended to produce frivolous responses. Baiting. b) Intend to get attention, disrupt discussions, or generally increase noise - Seek sense that they can control actions of others. - Often seek approval of peers or third parties. ("if you don't fall for the joke, you're in on it") - want to get people to change the topic, get distracted, and disrupt the discussion c) "When you fight with a troll, he wins. When you reason with a troll, he wins. Any time that you give a troll attention, he gets exactly what he wants. The best way to deal with trolls is to ignore them." - a troll "wins" when you participate and fall for their bait and get your discussions sidetracked due to their comment [Lecture 13: Slides 17 + 27]
Name a bot used for journalism covered in class. Briefly explain the bot's specific function and a problem it solves. (1 point)
a) Heliograf: Identifies relevant data, merges it, and pipes results across multiple formats (alerting humans if something's odd). Allows targeting of large # of niche audiences (too costly to cover w/ humans) and makes newsroom more efficient (removes grunt tasks; humans focused on larger stories). b) Wibbitz: combines news articles & pics/videos into a short video (including voice synthesis voice-overs. c) News Tracer: tracks "credibility" and "newsworthiness" of news by examining who is tweeting about it, its spread, and attacks/support for the story. d) Buzz Bot: crowdsource infrastructure for big news events (like RNC/ DNC). [Class 18: Slide 13 & 14]
During the Project Day Discussion in lecture 16, we reviewed three project topics and listened to student's findings of each project's topic. Describe the general findings of "How many friends do you have?". (1 Point)
a) Several felt dread at having to message Facebook "friends" that were in actuality closer to acquaintances and "friends" that they had not contacted in a long time. b) Direct messages had a higher response rate and greater degree of substantive communication than simple reactions or comments on others' posts (latter are too "cheap" and drowned out by other reactions or comments). c) General pattern (from most to least meaningful interactions): 1. good friends that students interact with mostly online > 2. friends that students had not contacted in a long time > 3. friends that students see almost every day > 4. friends that students aren't really close to but that share a group affiliation. *In general, Facebook no longer plays an integral role in your social lives. [Lecture 16]
In what ways was Myspace lacking that it led to their collapse and gave way for Facebook to surpass it? (3 points)
a) Tried to do too many things at once ("massive spaghetti-ball mess" "junk heap"). Poor execution. b) Didn't let third parties create apps on site (unlike FB). c) Focus on monetization/page views and ad revenue early instead of growth and user experience (unlike FB). - FB monetized later, after it had accomplished and established a good network d) Didn't restrict salacious content (FB curated more) [Class 16: Lee 2011 and Lecture 16: slide 13]
What are three reasons why Myspace could no longer keep up with Facebook?
a) Tried to do too many things at once ("massive spaghetti-ball mess" "junk heap"). Poor execution. b) Didn't let third parties create apps on site (unlike FB). c) prioritized ads over user experience. Focus on monetization/page views and ad revenue early instead of growth and user experience (unlike FB). - FB monetized later, after it had accomplished and established a good network [Lecture 16: slide 3 and Class 16: Lee reading "Myspace Collapse"]
Noam Cohen in "Wikipedia vs. the Small Screen" describes that smartphones and tablets are designed for "consumer behavior" over "creative behavior." Describe the implications of "consumer behavior" on Wikipedia's future and collective action. How does this impact contributors to the site? How does this impact its content? (3 points)
a) smartphones and tables are designed for "consumer behavior" which means that mobile users are much more likely to read a Wikipedia article than improve it (mobile phones are not great input devices) - this means that Wikipedia could have potential to have less and less editors contributing to their various articles b) "consumer behavior" impacts contributors to this site because smartphones are inferior writing tools, mobile phones not a great input device for writing long articles with footnotes - the pipeline of editors could dry up if new mobile users do not realize that they can edit the articles, or have difficulty doing so c) it could eliminate the diversity and amount of editing/updating done on the site and create fewer and fewer and maybe less quality articles [Class 14: Cohen 2014]
In Clay Shirky's TED talk, what is the collaboration problem/coordination costs? What does Shirky suggest as a solution to this problem and briefly discuss 3 of the 4 issues that Shirky suggests may come along with that solution? (3 points)
collaboration problem/coordination costs = All of the financial or institutional difficulties in arranging group output Solution to this problem: = form an institution or build cooperation into infrastructure; coordinate as a byproduct. 4 issues that come along with that solution: 1) Management problem: hire employees to manage those employees; enforce goals of institution 2) Bring structure into place: economic, legal, physical; creates additional costs 3) Forming institution is inherently exclusionary: can't hire everyone 4) As result of (3), end up with professional class: (e.g. from ppl to photographers whose goal is to go out and photograph mermaid parade) [Class 12: Shirky TED Talk]
What was discussed in lecture about world leaders in regard to using Twitter and how might it affect people that use the social media platform?
goal: "serve and help advance the global, public conversation" Leaders are disproportionately influential in that discussion Blocking leaders would "hide important information people should be able to see and debate" (without silencing leader) Do "review Tweets by leaders within the political context that defines them, and enforce our rules accordingly" and try to remain unbiased. [Class 16: slides]
What is one of the problems associated with Facebook's new policy allowing for users to rank the credibility of news organizations they see on their news feeds? (1 point)
people are most likely to rank news sources that are skewed towards the partisanship of their preferred party higher, thus the ranking system will make it seem like the most credible sources are ones with heavy partisan preferences. *The new system favors publishers who are partisan and less objective because users may rank sites that align with their personal beliefs higher.* [Class 13: Frenkel & Maheshwari 2018]
What is the main critique of new YouTube stars? (1 point)
that they are doing it because they want to be famous and not because they love making videos - high-quality content replacing high-quality interactions/relationships [Lecture: 17 Slide 13]
