Gender in IM

Naomi S. Baron (in the book Always On 2008) has researched gender differences in the language use in instant messaging and presented the following findings: Females were more talkative, had the longest transmissions, had longer conversations and it took them longer to say goodbye. The use of emoticons were more obvious if you were a female person (Baron 2008:67). The more extensive use of emoticons in IM would mean that IM is interpreted more like spoken language which includes the rhythm and proximity. So females would in that sense see IM more as spoken language than males do.

The overall conclusion made by Naomi S. Baro,n with some exceptions (as the use of emoticons) was that: "...male IM conversations have a great deal in common with descriptions of face-to-fae speech, female IM conversations more closely approximate conventional writing patterns" (2008:69). These differences could enlighten how men or women interpret utterances in IM. I would like to find out how emotions are transmitted through written vs. spoken language online in comparison with the body language of avatars for example. Maybe you could compare this by seeing how different areas of the brain are activated?

Finally, is IM spoken or written language? Naomi S. Baron puts it like this:

"Some of both, but not as much speech as we've tended to assume. What's more, gender matters" (2008:70)

Baron, Naomi S. (2008): Always on: Language in an Online and Mobile World. Oxford University Press:New York

Seminar:The power of visual journalism

I am just listening to the presentation of Peppar (Sofia Holmlund as a presenter) that is a website which combines news with social media or in other words creates synergies between community building and news "distribution". People register at peppar and by that those "behind" the site will get more information about the different emerging "tribes" and their information retrieval behaviour and interests. This information is important for the advertisers and enables customized solutions. The idea is to catch a young target group (Swedish-speakers in Finland) in order to attract advertisers' interest (money makes the media go round)

Senior researcher Anssi Männistö from the University of Tampere presented "New forms of photojournalism : utilizing the web creatively". Today the internet connections, the multimedia phones and the YouTube revolution enhance the easy production of visual material and sharing it with others. Anssi showed two examples of how videos could be presented on a newspaper website. Please go and have a look and decide which one you prefer: satakunnankansa.fi and nytimes.com. In print these two newspapers look really much the same but on the web there is a huge difference. Photojournalism on the web needs new decisions: choice of tools, what kind of editing, who does the editing, which genres (stills+audio, stills+video+text...), design and brand managing of the website, metadata and contextual information, who trains the staff" (Comment:Don't you have to make decisions about this also in the traditional media?). Contemporary photojournalism could be a video-slideshow, wide audio-slideshow (includes effects), multimedia slideshow,multimedia feature (see: L.A.Times:Marlboro Marine By Luis Sinco) and interactive videos.

Anders Enström from Nordström & Frank editorial development elaborated around the theme Alternative Story Forms. He emphasized that you should optimize the readers' time (note: average reading time is 30 minutes in spite of the size of the paper, 45 percent of the time is dedicated to scanning and 55 percent of the time to reading and the average reading speed is 5-6 stories with 2500 characters). With alternative story forms you can meet the need for optimizing the reader's reading time.

Anders Enström also presented some results from a knowledge test (see Poynter) which showed that readers remembered best the contents of a print-page which was divided in multiple parts and not perhaps the most visually attractive one, but the content was well-labeled. There are two theories about this: Alternative Story Forms (different parts) are read with less cognitive effort and variation stimulates the brain and makes you curious. To strive for reading with less cognitive effort and delivering variation you should create a palette of different stories. The palette could consist of timelines, facts, pro & cons, guiding panels and different polls (the voice of the ordinary people).


The seminar was closed by a panel discussion where Petri Krook, videographer; Jenni Lieto, executive editor; Sofia Holmlund, executive editor; Jesper Vuori, AD and Saku Heinänen, MC discussed around the following themes:

Jenni: Not putting the printed media on the web but instead creating something new for this media and understanding that the web is working 24/7 is important
Jenni: Content vs coding. Why are media putting so much effort in coding instead of in creation of the content.
Jesper: Does anyone really understand new media (my comment: is new media really new anymore?)
Sofia: Readers like stories that are at most 2000 characters long
Jesper: The newspapers offer analysis and that is the only way they will survive
Saku: What about the education of graphic designers when people are pretty talented and self-learned already?
Jesper: Important within graphic design education is to know how web-design works
Jenni:Learning can happen by doing and on-the-job
Jenni: Educate the advertisers to be more knowledgeable about whom they are targeting


Thank you for an interesting seminar!

Capturing beauty

Next Saturday I will take part in a seminar where different experts are discussing beauty and the way to find it. We are trying to capture beauty in other words. I was invited to be a "co-thinker" or commentator as I emphasize that "beauty has no age-limits". It was a thought I launched in my doctoral thesis. I elaborated around different sayings as "age before beauty" which in my opinion means that both characteristics cannot describe the same person. This could be discussed but as I searched for expressions that combined older age and beauty they were hard to find. You could say that combining older age and beauty is not typical and could even be considered radical. Especially as beauty often is equivalent to youth. So why aren't older people beautiful? We know that beauty is subtle and a result of interpretation so why is old age ruled out?

There are theories emphasizing that beauty is about proportionality, symmetry and the harmony of details (according to Platon) or beauty as radiance (Faidros in Eco 2005). But these theories are not age-related or are they? According to Gilleard, who has researched the understanding of age in the ancient Greece, youth was described with the words cute, beautiful and heroic but old age with the words ugly, evil or tragic. Our task is to change this view if it still is prevalent.

Skipping the definition of beauty as being only about proportions I want to discuss beauty as something that is socially constructed and interpreted (beauty is in the eyes of the beholder). We learn what the ideal beauty is throughout life and as we inherently have the urge to strive for beauty, we must be aware of what forces make us believe that we are not beautiful enough or too old to be beautiful or forces that give power only to those who match the ideal beauty. Looking critically on especially advertisements and their truthfulness, make us aware of how beauty is constructed today and what ideologies are prevalent.

I asked myself at which moment I am only seeing beauty in everything. My short answer is: You see beauty when you are embraced by love and you are yourself part of the mystery of love. I will take that as my starting point for next Saturday's seminar.