Chilean 33´s rescue coverage: Professional or Amateur?

On October 12, 2010, all the news around the world where focused on Chile, for the rescuing of the 33 miners trapped for 68 days at 700 meters of depth.

This news set records for TV and online audience. Fox News had an audience of 7.1 million - about twice their normal, and CNN had 2.7 million. More than 6.8 million people tuned into BBC's 24-hour news channel, The Guardian newspaper reported. The mainstream media gave extensive coverage online, in the case of CNN and BBC they had 5 and 8 million hits.

Social networks were also very active. Social media buzz peaked at about the same time as T.V. viewership; approximately 104,000 messages per hour were sent via Twitter. The word “Chile” was mentioned over 670.000 times, and in you tube, 16.000 videos were tagged as “Chile” and “miners”.

The verdict: a draw between professional media and amateurs

Professional and amateur media played an important role in the spread and impact of news, reports, networking, giving different points of view. There was a feedback loop never seen before, given the outstanding features of the event. This tragedy is similar to a classic script, with a dramatic beginning, an emotional peak (after the miracle of finding people alive at 700 m depth), and an spectacular ending with the rescue.

Newspapers and their websites, as well as social network users, had some intense days publishing content traffic. I guess that after this event, many media will take seriously the need of multimedia design and real-time reports generation in visual notes and computer graphics. Meanwhile, amateur users will keep realizing the innumerable and valuable information tools they have in their hands to contribute in communications.

Statistic source: http://mashable.com/2010/10/18/chilean-miners-rescue-news-numbers/

“RL is just one more window”, he repeats, “and it it´s not usually my best one” (1)

The creation of online identities is an issue that has been debated since the beginning of the network and the mass access to the Internet. Today, using a computer and connect to the network is easier than ever. To interact with others, you must create a user profile on the website of your choice. Online games, social networking, blogs, among others, require that the person chooses certain features that allow others to identify her. When you are online you get a“virtual identity”.

Experts such as S. Trukle, claim that this process involves the creation of different identities according to the site you visit. This is similar to real life, where people adopt certain attitudes and play a role according to the group to which they relate. The issue is that, in the online world, there is less control of identities and they can become something totally different from what they are on real life.

That is the risk involved, when a user feels that his online life is better than his real one. “RL is just one more window”, he repeats, “and it it´s not usually my best one” .

This can even lead to a diseases level, where the person chooses to turn into her online identity over her real life one. This can be seen at the Tv seriel “The Big Bang Theory”, on the third chapter of the second season, named The Barbarian Sublimation, where Sheldon introduces Penny in massives multiplayer online games. Penny becomes addicted and lose consciousness of her life in some way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUB7o2oT74c&p=D58AB19AFD19577C&playnext=1&index=47


(1) Turkle, S. (1995) “Life on the Screen; identity in the age of the Internet. New York; Simon and Schuster. (Introduction: Identity in the age of Internet” pp. 9-26.

About disability

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), disability is an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Impairments are problems that affect a structure or body function, activity limitations refers to the difficulty to execute actions or tasks, and participation restrictions are problems to participate in life situations. Thus, disability is a complex phenomenon that reflects an interaction between the characteristics of the human body and the characteristics of the society in which it lives. Murphy and Potts (2003) in the text "Culture and technology" state that "we are all disabled in the sense perhaps that we rely on technological assistance in different ways”.

But, do we?

If we look at developed countries, there is a heavy reliance on technology. It is undoubtedly an economic engine of development and also an indicator of welfare in different levels.

Citizens need of technology in everyday life..We use it for work, for connecting with others, collaborate, entertain ourselves, solve problems. Governments invest in innovation and implement programs to encourage the development of new technologies for social progress: health, education, and work, among others.

We can say that, without technology, we are like handicapped, because an important part of our lives depend of it.

The washing machine

We are closely linked to technology in everyday life. Since we wake up in the morning with the alarm ringing from our cell phone or alarm clock, we are "connected" to microcomputers which will be present during our day. The microwave to heat breakfast, the morning news on TV, your GPS in the car, the ticket validating machine, a security camera screen in the bus, among others. We are surrounded!

We could say that life gets easier, but sometimes less human.

My husband does car pool to go to the office with a coworker. She is a woman who lived over 10 years in Afghanistan, helping people. Among the things she has taken(no entiendo... “entre las cosas que ella ha sacado”), is getting used to life with machines. She feels that, with technology, there is a huge loss in relationships with others. For example, before she met with other women at an Afghanistan river to wash their clothes. It was a social institution. All they did, besides of washing, was to talk about their problems or just share moments of happiness, sadness or privacy. Today, here, this institution has turned into pressing the power button of herwashing machine. Just that, a mechanical fact with no further rewards tan getting the clothes clean.

The experience of living in a country affected by war and less developed than Australia, marked her deeply. Things like washing clothes may be meaningless for us, but for others, they can be an important part of their daily life.

Debate about the significance of computing

During this week, The Economist Online launched a debate whether the development of computers is the most significant technological advance of the 20th century.
The question is difficult to answer. Specially since technology has become commoditized in all scientific fields and has enabled many advances in different forms.

For example, in the development of vaccines, nuclear weapons, the elimination food´s pests and also in our everyday communication. All of them involve the use of computers in some part of their processes. In my opinion, computers are a form of technology created by men and therefore an extension of our human faculties, of our hands, of our brains. They are the result of intelligence and human creativity to solve problems and evolve. And also to destroy.

Anyways, all technological advances influence each other and would be hard to say which is the most significant.
To see the statements and comments about this post, please click here: http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/186

Debate about significance of computing

This week, The Economist Online launched a debate on the question whether the development of computers is the most significant technological advances of the 20th century.

The question is difficult to answer. Especially since technology has become commoditized in all scientific fields and has enabled many advances in different forms. For example, in the development of vaccines, nuclear weapons, elimination of pests of food and also in our everyday lives. All of them involve the use of computers in some part of the process. In my opinion, computers are a form of technology created by man and therefore an extension of our human faculties, of our hands, our brain. Are the result of intelligence and human creativity to solve problems and evolve. And also to destroy.

It is a chicken and egg, or many chickens and eggs, all technological advances influence each other and would be hard to say which is the most significant.

To see the statements and comments, please click here: http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/186

Google Street View

A Google Street View car in action - this one in the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Photograph: Toussaint Kluiters/EPA

Last week, authorities of the German Government start a discussion about technologies that identify the location of individuals and their property. This was the answer to Google´s announcement of Street View service, made in August. With the implementation of this service, at the end of the year, Germany´s 20 largest cities maps and pictures could be online. Google agreed to add pixels to pictures when the owners requested it.

While Google defends as a service and that users want it, it is transforming to a problem for governments and data protection, and investigations are being made about the collection of them through wifi networks.

Is this a new form of Panopticom form the private sector? Can government protect citizen private data? What happen if you are renting a home... do you have the right to demand it too?

You can read more about this new here;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11370647

Keep in touch by technology

How living 14,000 miles away from home does not feel like that much thanks to the screen.

About 10 years ago my relationship with computers was quite basic. Since we lived in the countryside, in southern Chile, there was only one computer and had no internet access. In my school, had just opened the computer room and we made some introductory classes. I had no mail or knew what it was Messenger (which would be the first social network that would have access below). The teachers also were learning to use them. All the notes, grades, list of students, annotations were in one book. Teachers sent communications to parents in writing in the notebook. That's when I started student exchange to Germany. Beyond the reality was not very different. There was no computer at home where I lived. The school had a computer lab, but could never access it. Communication with my family in Chile was on the phone once a week. We could speak five minutes, with prepaid cards. The rest, by letter. So I wrote to friends in Germany, USA and the family in Chile to stay in contact. Information took more than 2 weeks to be delivered. Only once I sent an email from a youth hostel in Berlin, to the only mail that I knew. He was a cousin two years younger. A whole technological adventure.
Almost three months ago I'm living outside of Chile again. But things have changed radically. Today it is more difficult to disconnect that connect. Not only can talk and see family and friends, but in real time. It is more difficult to make the break and live fully the new experience. Because relations have two parts. Not enough to take the decision of wanting to be a little off. You have people you love and requiring your physical presence to tell him to lunch.
It's weird. Produces mixed feelings. I'm missing something, being so aware of what happens far away?
I think the answer is YES. I miss the present, the here and now. But for those who are on the other hand, the answer is different. They may wonder less and feel closer. But they do not realize that it is a necessary step which must be separated a little bonding.
Internet helps you stay more connected. To communicate despite the distance and time has passed between two people. But this has a cost that has to be assumed.
You could say that 10 years ago, the means to communicate remotely with others were more rare, expensive and most appreciated. Today we are accustomed to a wide variety of communication channels, social networks, instant messaging. We use them daily and are part of our lives. How McLuhan predicted 30 years ago, media have become extensions of our bodies allow us to see in real time to people who are physically distant, talking to them, sharing special moments and everyday life. Each time the means we are more familiar and easy to use, as other previous mimic and enhance communication between people. And we cannot ignore, that since the beginning of mankind we have developed tools to be more connected. Prior to joining physically different places and make the transfer and the flow of information. Today, to come together virtually over the global network.

Estamos bien en el refugio los 33 / The 33 of us are ok in the refuge

The news of the collapse that left 33 miners Chileans to 700 meters underground in the Atacama Desert toured the world. The anguish of the families and the government's efforts to establish whether they had survived lasted 17 long days.
Finally, a piece of paper came to the surface, with a phrase in red ink that read "We are well on the refuge's 33" Shouts of joy, tears and hugs were reproduced from the collapse site to the rest of the country.
The news was hailed as an event and beyond the borders. International media also gave wide coverage to what happened: The Economist, Washingtong Post, The Guardian, The Sydney Herald, CNN, among others. And specially, newspapers and television channels in Australia have given extensive coverage to this fact. This is explained by the degree of closeness to the tragedy, since this country experienced a similar event. On Sunday, Channel 9 devoted a 60-minute interview in prime time for what happened. Even the Australian experts traveled to Chile to help with the rescue. They were the only ones NASA is also providing its expertise to the next stage, the rescue. It is estimated that just in December may be saved and come to the surface. Meanwhile, they receive food, family and love from a small hole.
It is amazing how a story that affects a small group of people, located on the corner of the planet is able to capture all the attention. In the immediate environment, becomes the sole focus. The rest of the news takes a back seat. For the rest of the facts, the media seems numb. Only a few claim to know what else is happening. But the story remains one: whether they are alive, know about what caused the tragedy, blame, find the human stories of the miners, their families ... become a little voyeurism, sometimes ...
The media wear their best clothes and cover zoom it unfolds, not only in terms of human resources: the star drivers are set. News reporters travel to the scene of the tragedy. Cameramen and photographers risk their lives for the better images. Hypermedia reaches its peak: great graphics production, computer graphics, 2D and 3D animations, among others, compete to better understand what, how, where and who to readers, viewers, listeners. Social networks boil. If the word Chile miners or trending topics on Twitter, is seen as an achievement.
Foreign media play progress, but do not fall into excesses because they have their own pattern.
The peak, in which everyone has to tell the news is when you know they are alive. All 33.
For more than a month, the country revolves around a theme and is united against an adverse fate. Like six months ago, the earthquake that struck the central region.

Upload photos!

One of the things I have asked the last time is photos. Anything I do or wherever I go.
Family and friends want to see pictures of what your eyes can not show them to be more than 15,000 kilometers away, and photographs taken by the protagonist (me in this case) are worth more to them than a thousand words or videos.

Why not using videos or Skype? Why not searching in the Web to find images of Sydney or watching documentaries on television?

For me, it reflects the effect of the picture to keep family and friend ties alive because it shows the history. We could criticize its authenticity, attributing it suffers from some manipulation, or short of quality, but is still an invention that has transcended centuries fixing what we see with our eyes. The story continues. Time passes. But the image is fixed.
In the words of Geoffrey Batchen, in "Epitaph" (1997), the history of photography is full of images that have been manipulated in one way or another. That really trying to spend 3 to 2 dimensions, and is an alteration. Beyond the possibilities of technology, photography requires the presence of two persons at least; photographer and viewer. This gives a subjective sense.
The context and quality of the pictures may vary and the image could be appreciated, rejected or being indifferent by the viewing public. The instant captured by the lens will produce one or other effect on them. But they still want to see photos.
As I mentioned in the title of this post, the requirement is not only take pictures, but "uploading." The real image is set through the picture and then reproduced in a digital environment. The "moment" captured in a particular space and time is available to be seen by my entire contact network.
10 years ago would have had to print them, put them in an envelope and mail them to custom recipients and addresses. Today, just mail them or upload to a website like Facebook or Flicker. The recipients, choosing to see them, they become joint owners of the images can comment, lower, print, forward ... many possibilities.
Photography is a communication media, whitin we share experiences. In more than a century, no one media appears to replace it. Until then, long life to photography!

The screens are inevitable.

We used to be surrounded by them at our leisure and work or study. We love them because they make our lives easier: they are able to approach so far, either immediately or with some delay, and give us what we want: information and connection with others.

Through these flat rectangular surfaces, as Lev Manovich call them in his paper “The Screen and the User” we have increasing control of time and space. We have to talk to a particular person to get information, meet with our executive bank to withdraw money, move to a place to do a procedure, travel to another country to see our family. The solution is a few clicks ... or touch, if you prefer.

Show us what our eyes cannot see in reality, such as scans. For expectant parents, the first visual contact they have with their children is from 7 weeks of pregnancy, with the first ultrasound. A black and white display is capable of displaying a small living in the womb and even can hear the heartbeat. Live life.

Allow us to enter worlds of fiction. We can choose between watching a movie on a traditional film or 3D image and feeling that surrounds us in different degrees. We can go further and experiment with virtual reality.
The display disappears and the physical reality and immerse ourselves in the reality created.
In both cases, the screen plays on the body. The reference is always to in the real world and not vice versa. In my opinion, our lives can be surrounded by screens, but it will not be determined by the technologies. We have a long road ahead and is likely that the screens become increasingly invisible, either because we used to it, by its appearance or size, but we, as humans, are not going to change.