Surveillance and Privacy in Social Networking

Hello and welcome to week two of my blog!!!

Today I will be talking about the surveillance and privacy involved in sports VIA social networking and other technologies such as phones.

 “At home, families sit together, texting and reading e-mail. At work executives text during board meetings. We text (and shop and go on Facebook) during classes and when we’re on dates Turkle, S (2012).” Technology has brought in a new way of communicating and processing things that we would never have been able to do 10 years ago. In sports reporters are using social networking and phone applications to communicate, “breaking new” about player, and teams.

A great way for people to allow others to know this type of news is Social Networking. There are many different types of social networks on the internet/phones, which includes Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, etc. Boyd, D. and Ellison, N. (2008) explains to their readers “what makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks.” For example Twitter is a great social network site, which allows people to connect with each other by following one another and being able to communicate with all different types of people by using a simple hashtag (#). Although social networks may be a great way to socialize with others it could also be very negative.

“Online social networking can have a touch of private communication to it due to its situational and mundane character, but mediated publics are obviously not private. This dilemma is, of course, a central part of the discussion concerning surveillance and privacy issues, and it is especially evident in connection with secondary uses of available information at social networking sites Albrechtslund, A (2008).” These sites allow people all over to see messages that have been sent to others. Often sports reporters want to be the first to have news about players being signed or traded. When reporters initially write something on twitter or other social networking sites and they are reporting false information about a player or coach it could ruin a players reputation, or make them feel unwanted on the team they are playing for. For example in the past 2 years in the NBA there have been rumors that Dwight Howard would be traded to Brooklyn Nets but eventually he ended up getting traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. As a fan you love to hear these rumors but in the long run you want to hear the right rumor because it can affect a whole team and every player that is so called “involved”. 

References

Albrechtslund, A. (2008, March 3). Online Social Networking at Participatory Surveillance. Http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2142/1949#p3. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2142/1949#p3

Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2008). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x

Turkle, S. (2012, April 21). The Flight From Conversation. The New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Picture courtesy from:

http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&sa=N&hl=en&biw=2539&bih=1211&tbm=isch&tbnid=Po1RrXZnzIDUxM:&imgrefurl=http://kevin.lexblog.com/2012/02/15/twitter-retains-your-contacts-for-18-months-ethical-dilemma-for-attorneys/&docid=rsh61sVCfjluZM&imgurl=http://kevin.lexblog.com/uploads/image/twitter-privacy-scan-contacts.jpg&w=597&h=300&ei=x3CXUfGGL4jtqwG1h4CgDA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:2,s:0,i:87&iact=rc&dur=381&page=1&tbnh=159&tbnw=317&start=0&ndsp=55&tx=214&ty=85