Observing New Media Practice

Prof. Marc Davis & Prof. Peter Lyman UC Berkeley SIMS Tuesday and Thursday 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Spring 2005 Observing New Media Practice IS146: Foundations of New Media

Lecture Overview • Review of Last Time • Restatement of Semiotics of Myth • Discussion Questions Addressed • Today • Ethnography and Design • Preview of Next Time • Computation: History and Ideas

Barthes: Two Orders of Signification • The sign of language (first order of signification) becomes the signifier of myth (second order of signification)

Myth as Second-Order Semiological System

Barthes: Two Orders of Signification • First Order • Denotation • Sign (i.e., the image of a car as a machine for transportation) • Second Order • Connotation • Cultural meanings (i.e., connotations of freedom, virility, security, etc.) • Myth • System of cultural meanings (i.e., symbol of military-industrial consumer culture, the War on Terror, etc.)

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Ella Vivirito on Stuart Hall • Stuart Hall discusses different ways of describing how meaning is formed through language and their connection to culture. Saussure takes a scientific approach, mapping the interactions between langue (the language system) and parole (the acts of speech, writing). The semiotic approach 'reads' meaning communicated within language. Barthes looks at particular texts, reading cultural meaning from visual representations such as artwork and ads. • Who or what are the most proactive agents of meaning production (words, combinations of words, advertisements/ pop culture, nationalisms, humans, etc.)? (i.e. Who produces 'truth'?) • Is language itself neutral? Is it merely a tool to be used by particular people in power?

Ella Vivirito on Stuart Hall • Foucault takes a historical approach, contextualizing how language has been used as a tool by particular, powerful people at particular times; he describes this as discursive formation. How is discursive formation different from power?

Ella Vivirito on Stuart Hall • Foucault also discusses how the issue of the subject-- that what is being talked about must "submit to the dispositions of power/knowledge." Yet what representation may be about "is as much constructed around what you can't see as what you can." • In this perspective, how much agency does the subject have? • What, then, does knowledge tell us?

Nick Reid on Stuart Hall • While I was reading the section about Foucault and “discourse”, I found my self asking one question, “what is discourse?” and then I found my self qualifying the hell out of it. • What counts as discourse? • In verbal communication? Talking? Disabled Parties? • In literary communication? Newspapers? Blogs? • In visual communication? Paintings? Photographs? Movies? • One situation that I thought of that I am still debating about is, if two people are video conferencing with one another, and neither say or do anything, except they both observe each other, is this “discourse”?

Nick Reid on Stuart Hall • How much does the medium in which communication is taking place affect the social codes, and the language used in that medium? • I am especially interested in written languages where one does not have any context than the communicative signal (written word (not being able to smile over the telephone)).

Sociology of Innovation • Invention is the technical creation of new systems, innovation is the social process by which inventions are adopted by users • Diffusion of innovation: • Innovators are the first users of new inventions, but often have no social influence • Early adopters are the early influential users, people whose early adoption influences others to imitate and change their patterns • Users change the use of new technical inventions in unexpected ways—policy, cultural views, settings • Users are the key designers in the long run

Design and Ethnography • Ethnography is now used to bring together these technical and user processes, like: • Focus groups • Participant observation • Interviewing • Human-computer interface (HCI) and Computer Systems and Collaborative Work (CSCW) • Today: participant observation & interviewing

Observation • The art of observing how people interact with artifacts and other people, taking notes • Goal is indigenous knowledge = how do the people you’re observing interpret the artifact they’re using and their interactions with other people? • Returning to our hypothesis about identity, it isn’t just individual interpretation, it’s often how a group shares a culture • So our goal is to observe how the artifact influences individual and group communication, or group identity, style, culture

Participant-Observation • But people usually don’t often like to be stared at by strangers who are writing down notes about them • How can we solve this problem? • Participate by participating in their day to day affairs, so you move from being “stranger” to “member” • Informed consent = normally you tell people who you are, what you’re doing, and why

Listening • Establishing a “good interviewing partnership” (Weiss) • Your role is to enable the other person to tell their story • Including parts of their story they might be nervous about • Or things they might think are unimportant • Things they need to think through

Observing at the Market Line • Emerson’s students at UCLA trying to figure out how people stand in line at markets: • Version 1. Spatial lines, what people look like, organizing groceries • Version 2. Time sequence, moment by moment • Version 3. How people chat with each others • Note there’s no one true story, there are multiple truths, descriptions • You need to hang around for a while to identify the key patterns of behavior, and the cultural commonalities • But what’s missing from these pictures?

Bruno Latour, Aramis or The Love of Technology • “Samuel Butler tells the story of a stronger passing through the land of Erewhon who is thrown into class because he owns a watch…Butler’s world is not a utopia. It is our own intellectual universe, from which we have in effect eradicated all technology. In this universe, people who are interested in the souls of machines are severely punished by being isolated in their own separate world, the world of engineers, technicians and technocrats.”

Why Don’t People See Artifacts? • Ethnographies usually describe people as if artifacts are just background, not that tools change how people interact with others, shape identity, change their culture: • How does the cash register change the process? • Check out counter • How does the bag (paper or plastic)? • The shopping cart • Car parking lot? • How might the grocery store checkout be redesigned by introducing new artifacts?

Interviewing: Listening First • Participation-observation involves conversation (Patton calls it “informal conversational interview”): • After observing, write down your field notes the same day • Put fieldnotes in software (Atlas, Ethnograph, etc) and code it so you can over time figure out the key concepts • Formulate hypotheses about what’s going on • Then the next day, ask your key questions to test your formulating ideas

Helping Respondents Develop Information (Weiss) • The interviewer and respondent will work together to produce information useful to the research project • The interviewer will define the areas for exploration and will monitor the quality of the information • The interviewer will not ask questions out of idle curiosity • The interviewer will respect the respondent’s integrity • The interviewer will ensure that the respondent will not be damaged or disadvantaged [278]

Weiss’s Transcript • What do you see? • First, establish partnership, answer questions, anticipate nervousness [277] • Second, [279 divorced father] help them move from emotional reactions to concrete descriptions • Third, then filling in detail by encouraging respondent to give accurate description of what happened, in what order, in detail, etc. • Unless you listen and respond to the respondents’ problems with storytelling, you don’t get the real story

Asking Good Questions • Patton = a lot of questions don’t produce real information in answers: • Open ended questions = but let them to take whatever direction and words they want to use to express their ideas • Dichotomy questions = questions that can be answered ‘yes or no’. “Did you say anything” [253] • Singular question = one idea in each question, not multiple topics • Usually compose script, pretest, rewrite, etc.

Design Ethnographic Research • Topics you might have in mind when observing how people are using artifacts • Gendered? • Is the design of the artifact gendered (M/F)? • Could you redesign to change gender identity? • Examples: mobile phone? Car? Games? • Demographics? • Are users mainly in one age group? One social class? Men or women? Neighborhoods?

More Things to Observe? • Identity or style? • What indigenous culture tells us about how using the artifacts expresses their sense of identity? • How is the artifact a “marker” of identity? • Social status? • How does the artifact give us a sense of membership in a group? Who is in group/out group? • What kind of prestige does the artifact give?

More • Utility • How does the indigenous culture use the artifact? • How do they learn how to use the artifact? Who teaches them about new uses?

Nisha Rajesh Shah on Patton • When Patton is discussing the different types of questions that can be asked he makes a point that “Opinions and feelings are often confused. It is critical that interviewers understand the distinction between the two in order to know when they have the kind of answer they want to the question they are asking…This confusion sometimes occurs because interviewers give the wrong cues when asking questions.” • How exactly are you supposed to pose a ‘feeling’ question and know that your interviewee will answer with the response you are looking for?

Nisha Rajesh Shah on Patton • Is it always the interviewer who is at fault for not getting a ‘emotional’ response? What about the way interviewees are answering questions and understanding questions? • Based on Patton’s views of prioritizing questions, making them clear and getting what you want out of them… • How do you think it would apply to an interview that we might conduct when we go out and research our products, what kinds of things will we look for (priority)?

Julia Unger on Plowman • In his article, Plowman discusses “the relation between products and human happiness,” indicating that there is a strong connection between “human well being” and “the presence or absence of particular products.” Has society become too dependent on technology? Does this imply that we have let technology replace genuine human interaction?

Julia Unger on Plowman • Plowman describes ethnography’s immersion technique: the researcher must “gain the trust and respect” of the individuals he is observing by engaging in their activities and interacting with them. Does this really provide deeper insights into the individuals’ behavior?

Julia Unger on Plowman • Plowman concludes by stating that there is more to producing better products than just ethnographic research. What other work must be done to truly create better products?

Claire Mittleman on Weiss • Weiss emphasizes the first impression of an interviewer on his respondent. For Weiss, what is the goal of the first impression, and what should and an interviewer do or avoid doing in order to accomplish this goal?

Claire Mittleman on Weiss • Interviews are conducted for a variety of reasons. Weiss’ article seems to focus on studies about peoples behavior and experience in certain situations. How do interviews conducted to gain information about technology differ (if at all) from those discussed in Weiss’ article? What are some features of Weiss’ methods that would be important to an interview focused on technology?

Margarette Innocent on Emerson • Research involves choice. The ethnographer must choose in what ways to immerse him or herself into the culture of the people under study, which responses to record and which to ignore, and what tools to use when recording observations. There is also choice on the part of the participant, with regard to how much they are willing to divulge to the ethnographer. Due to what Emerson calls this “context-sensitive” nature of participant-observation, what advantages and disadvantages can “new media” bring to ethnographic research? Will “new media” provide a means for studying culture without traditional ethnographers? How can “new media” damage our relationship with other cultures?

Margarette Innocent on Emerson • What makes commercial culture (that is, culture designed for mass audiences) different than other cultures? What makes the artifacts of commercial culture unappealing to those who identify themselves with “high” culture? Is commercial culture worth a formal, ethnographic study? In what ways could commercial culture be examined?

Recommended Special Event TOMORROW • SIMS Distinguished Lecture Series (http://sims.berkeley.edu/events/dls/) • Wednesday, February 2 • 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm • 202 South Hall • Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life • Mimi Ito, University of Southern California

Readings for Next Time • W. Daniel Hillis. The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work, New York: Perseus Books, 1999, p. VII-38. • Discussion Questions • Hector Jimenez • Seymour Papert. Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980, p. 1-54. • Discussion Questions • Devin Blong

Reading Questions • Hillis • What is computation? What does it enable us to do? • What is the difference between computation and a computer? • What are the differences between digital and analog representations? • What are the various levels of a modern computing machine? • What are some of the “simple ideas that make computers work”? • How might these ideas affect your understanding of language, computation, and New Media?

Reading Questions • Papert • What is computation? What does it enable us to do? • What assumptions have you had about computing and mathematics that Papert is challenging? • How do you use computing today to enhance your learning at Berkeley? • How could you use computing differently than you do today to enhance your learning at Berkeley? • Why is programming not taught in the English department? Should it be? If it were, how would your understanding of language, computation, and New Media change?

Observing New Media Practice