I think it would be interesting to create a site with limited information so that it is easy to trace the transitions of the information.
The website would consist of the 5 top news articles of that week all based on different sorts of topics Politics, Fashion, Celebrities, World News, Sports. Then connect these articles to a network of people with profiles so that we can see who they are and possibly better determine why they might be interested in the information they are selecting.
The point of the site would be to gossip, to pass the information on to other people who they think would be interested in knowing these particular bits of information. One precurser would be that, in order to pass the information the sender has to comment on it adding their opinions and thoughts on the situation. This way you can trace how and idea about information becomes influenced as it passes through social networks.
Does the reaction to the information grow into something?
What cultural indications are apparent in looking at reactions to information and how it is processed?
Because you are letting the information move randomly based on human interest you will be able to see initial reactions to information and the same information as it is passed on. Hopefully the same people who are on the receiving end of information will also participate and initiate the passing of information. In which case you can see how a specific person reacts and takes in information while also seeing how they pass on information.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
this is great -- you seem, with this tool, to be able to track both 1) the production of social relationships and 2) the production of "public identity" or "social identity."
At the same time, you are tracking something about overarching social/cultural production process. There is a semi-traditional ethnographic method some have called "ethnogossip" -- additionally, every field researcher has experienced the force of this overarching sociocultural production process when his/her identity morphed in ways that were sometimes detrimental to the field project, or even dangerous to the field researcher.
Post a Comment