Hey guys, today I am going to be talking about the last media skill which is “Collective Intelligence.” Collective Intelligence is the ability to incorporate knowledge and information and compare with like-minded individuals. (Jenkins, 2009: pg 71) According to Jenkins (2009, Pg 71), individuals who are of like mind get together online and share common perspectives, opinions and enterprises. In a world like this Levy believes “everyone knows something, nobody knows everything and what any one person knows can be tapped by the group as a whole.” (Jenkins, 2009: Pg 72) Jenkins (2008) believes that some individuals are explicitly working together and creating collective knowledge sources like Wikipedia and Freebase. On the contrary, some individuals are implicitly contributing new knowledge in which they experience in their everyday lives. In my opinion collective intelligence is extremely important because by sharing your opinions and experiences with others, you are able to expand your understanding of that particular idea or product because in return you can get views of others on that particular idea or product. I feel this is extremely beneficial for students like myself who browse the Internet for research purposes. Hearing people’s perspective and finding information for certain topics help students in their assignment as well as enhance students knowledge. Examples of collective intelligence are Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, Search engines like Google and Yahoo and Encyclopedia like Wikipedia. (Garza, 2010) I believe sites like Wikipedia, which are made for the purpose of Collective Intelligence, are harmful to individuals. That is because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia where everyone and anyone can edit the information. As mentioned in the Judgment blog, students like us rely on websites where we can find information pertaining to our assignments, sites like Wikipedia in which anyone can alter the information can be damaging for us. Therefore I feel sites like Wikipedia should be banned since they are unreliable and defeat the purpose of pooling knowledge towards a common goal because it could end up being false knowledge. Example of Collective intelligence is a journal article from “Inside Higher Ed” by Scott Jaschik made on January 26, 2007. This article further reinforces the idea about why Wikipedia is harmful for students and why it is now a concern for professors. This article supports my view of banning Wikipedia because according to Jaschik (2007), Wikipedia is a “reader-produced encyclopedia” where anyone can edit and alter the information.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki

References:

·      Jenkins, H. et al (2009). “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AaI4rc
·      Jaschik, S. (2007, January 26). A Stand Against Wikipedia. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki
·      Garza, G. (2010, July 21). Looking at 4 Examples of Collective Intelligence. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://www.brighthub.com/office/collaboration/articles/78668.aspx

·      Jenkins, H. (2008, February 8). Sharing Notes about Collective Intelligence. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://henryjenkins.org/2008/02/last_week_my_travels_took.html
Hi guys, so today I am going to be talking about another interesting media literacy skill which is called “Negotiation.” Negotiation is the ability to travelling to different communities and being able to understand different perspectives and following norms other than our own. (Jenkins, 2009: pg 98) According to Jenkins (2009, Pg 98), the communication between new social environments is bringing together groups, which are very different from each other. By coming together, each individual is being exposed to different cultural communities and how those communities operate. As this communication travels and brings together cultural groups, there is also a lot of criticizing. The culture does travel but often times the individual who began that culture gets judged about it and about their perspectives in general. (Jenkins, 2009: Pg 98) It has also been significant that by having this travelling communication about different communities, students are able to acquire multiple skills in understanding various perspectives and embracing different views. This also gives them a chance to understand different social norms and to negotiate between differing opinions. (Jenkins, 2009: Pg 100) After hearing Jenkins (2009) definition of the media skill Negotiation, I think it is a very valid and beneficial media literacy skill. Through negotiation students, like myself can get exposed to other opinions and other perspectives as well as other cultures. This motivates the students to speak out their opinions as well as form their own perceptive. Negotiation is also beneficial to today’s society because it allows us to understand and appreciate other cultures that are outside our cultural norms. Today’s western world has very similar views in everything due to the western culture that has been formed in this 21st century; through negotiation we can step out of the western views and view the world as it is. This helps us understand that there is more to the world then what we have been taught by the western society. An example of Negotiation is Youtube.com. YouTube shows different perspectives of the world other than our own backyard through the use of videos. By engaging on YouTube we can enhance our opinions and learn from other opinions as well, which proves the media skill “Negotiation.”



References:


·      Jenkins, H. et al (2009). “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AaI4rc
Hey guys, so I feel the most important skill for media is “Judgment.” Judgment is the ability to evaluate and check for reliable and credible information sources. (Jenkins, 2009: pg 79) According to Jenkins (2009, Pg 79), Misinformation is emerging in this day and age and it is important to be careful of the information you retain. It is important when retaining knowledge to make sure we determine how trustworthy the place is which provides you with the information. As we mentioned in the Networking blog, there are various search engines that give you the perspectives and information from others, but at the same time selected of that sites may be harmful. According to me Judgment is a very important and valid skill because I feel Judgment is a skill which is not only compulsory for media but for every aspect in life. Deciding whether something or someone is harmful or beneficial for you is very important because one wrong decision can cost you a lot. According to Jay (2015), there are four steps to make sure information on the web is reliable and accurate. The first step is to consider the source. The credibility of the database determines if the information provided is accurate and suitable for us. The second step would be to check the offline sources. In that you can see if there is a real person to contact through email or telephone. Additional to that see if their information is backed up by references and if they stated those references. The third step would be to avoid websites that are user-created. These types of websites are very easy to edit and makes them unreliable, so if that website is user-created, it’s a bad choice. The final step to check if the website is reliable is to examine the level of professionalism on the website. In order to check the professionalism, make sure the website does not consists of any grammar or spelling mistakes. This will imply that the website is organized and accurate. (Jay, 2015) Judgment is not only important to avoid getting wrong information, but if that information is used for an assignment for example, it could cost you a failing grade. An example of Judgment is the picture, which is attached below. This picture is an example of phishing scam, which is sent by email by a Visa company. This picture highlights the unprofessionalism in this picture and shows how we can identify it as a scam.



References:

·      Jenkins, H. et al (2009). “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AaI4rc

·      Jay, C. (2015). How to Make Sure Information on the Web Is Accurate. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-sure-information-accurate-29521.html
Hi guys, so today I am going to be talking about another interesting media skill which is “Networking.”  Networking is the ability to search for, blend, and spread information.(Jenkins, 2009: Pg 91) According to Jenkins (2009, Pg 91), A resourceful student is no long resourceful if he/she personally possesses a wide range of resources from which to choose, rather a student is resourceful when a student can productively navigate through a frequently changing world of information. Students achieve this by visiting various socially based search engines such as google.com, amazon.com, and yahoo.com. Jenkins (2009, Pg 93) also believes that students should smartly identify which social group is most reliable, relevant and appropriate in order to get the best results and get them in a safe way. Examples of identifications could be similar tastes, similar viewpoints, similar goals, trusted, unbiased, and popularity. (Jenkins, 2009: Pg 93) Networking is not only about seeking resources, rather it is also a process of synthesis where seeking multiple resources helps you produce new and fresh knowledge (Jenkins, 2009: Pg 94) After reading all that information about Networking from Jenkins, I think networking is a valid point. As Jenkins (2009, Pg 93) said, “Networking involves the ability to navigate across different social communities” I believe that is very valid and very important. I feel these websites are very important to the youths of today because they not only are easily accessible but in fact they are very beneficial. Networking broadens student’s exposure to different perspectives so that they are exposed to reality and the different views of others. This could help students expand their knowledge and could help them amend their perspectives of certain aspects in life. Networking is not only done for knowledge, there is also something known as “Social Networking.” Social Networking is the exercise of expanding individual’s social contacts by making connections with others through certain social platforms. (Rouse, 2015) Depending on the certain social platform, individuals can register themselves as a member and contact any other member on the platform. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. (Rouse, 2015) An example of Networking is a search engine called google.com. Graduate students of Stanford University’s Larry Page and Sergei Brin found Google.com in 1998. Since then it has become the #1 search engine in the world and does at least 1.1 Trillion searches per year (Sullivan, 2015) Google.com provides information from all over the world and proves the “Networking skill.”



References:

·      Jenkins, H. et al (2009). “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century”. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. http://bit.ly/1AaI4rc
·      Sullivan, D. (2015, January 16). Google Still Doing At Least 1 Trillion Searches Per Year. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://searchengineland.com/google-1-trillion-searches-per-year-212940

·      Rouse, M. (2015, July 1). What is Social Networking? Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-networking

About Me

My name is Anusha Gulzar and I am a 3rd Year Business Student at Brock University. This blog will identify ten different types of Media Skills and Literacies. Hope this is informative and enjoyable.